In which we are talking about experiments on the village, carried out in the Khrushchev period. These include measures aimed at the elimination of "unpromising" villages, as well as the development of virgin and fallow lands in such regions of the USSR as the Volga region, South Siberia, Kazakhstan and the Far East. The author believes that the idea itself was correct, but it had to be implemented in stages, without unjustified race. In our opinion, the matter is even different. In the early 1950s, when the first concessions were made to Agriculture began to improve production indicators APK. Consequently, attention had to be paid to the development of the existing agricultural base. However, the implementation of projects for the development of virgin lands diverted a lot of human, financial and material resources from the functioning agro-industrial complex and slowed down its development.
Further, the author recalls how in 1954 the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU adopted a resolution "On a further increase in grain production in the country and on the development of virgin and fallow lands." In turn, the State Planning Committee of the USSR planned "to plow in Kazakhstan, Siberia, the Volga region, the Urals and other regions of the country at least 43 million hectares of virgin and fallow lands." It is emphasized how the second secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan Zh. Shayakhmetov recalled the discussions on the choice of ways for the development of the agricultural sector: to follow the path of intensive or extensive development. Moreover, the arguments in favor of intensification "were much more convincing, however, the leadership of the country of the Soviets, represented by N. S. Khrushchev, preferred an extensive path of agricultural development."
The article lists the problems that began to grow as a result of the accelerated development of virgin lands. But at the beginning it is stated that the implementation this project began in the absence of infrastructure - "roads, granaries, qualified personnel, not to mention housing and a repair base for equipment." Natural conditions were not taken into account: “sand storms and dry winds were not taken into account, sparing methods of soil cultivation and varieties of grain adapted to this type of climate were not developed.” It is not for nothing that the development of virgin lands has turned into a campaign supposedly capable of solving food problems in an instant.
The author notes that in 1954-1961 virgin lands "absorbed 20% of all USSR investments in agriculture." For this reason, "the agrarian development of the traditional Russian areas of agriculture remained unchanged or even began to degrade." In addition, a thousand specialists and volunteers were sent to solve the task, and colossal deliveries of equipment were made. Teachers, doctors, agronomists were also sent there. Thus, as people actively moved from traditional Russian regions to the territory of virgin lands, the central regions of Russia were desolated.
In the long run, this event did not bring benefits. Huge areas of the developed territory began to turn into desert and salt marshes, which, in turn, gave rise to environmental problems. As a result, a huge amount of financial resources and effort had to be devoted to "carrying out rescue activities like planting forests."
A very accurate assessment of the Khrushchev initiative for the development of virgin lands was given by V.M. Molotov. Years later he wrote the following: “Virgin lands began to be explored prematurely. It was, of course, nonsense. In this size - an adventure. From the very beginning, I was a supporter of the development of virgin lands on a limited scale, and not on such a huge scale that we were forced to invest huge amounts of money, incur colossal expenses, instead of raising what was already ready in the inhabited areas. But it is impossible otherwise. Here you have a million rubles, no more, so give them to virgin lands or already settled areas where there are opportunities? I proposed to invest this money in our Non-Black Earth region, and gradually raise the virgin lands. They scattered the funds - a little bit of this, and that, but there is nowhere to store the bread, it rots, there are no roads, it is impossible to take it out. But Khrushchev found an idea and rushes like a savras without a bridle! This idea does not definitely solve anything, it can help, but to a limited extent. Be able to calculate, estimate, consult what people will say. No - come on, come on! He began to swing, bit off almost forty or forty-five million hectares of virgin land, but this is unbearable, absurd and unnecessary, and if there were fifteen or seventeen, it would probably be more useful. More sense."
Of course, this campaign gave a short-term effect. So, by the end of the 1950s, there was an increase in agricultural production. For example, in 1954, 85.5 million tons of grain were harvested in the USSR, and in 1960 - 125 million tons. "Due to the extraordinary concentration of funds, people and equipment, as well as natural factors, the new lands in the early years gave super-high yields, and from the mid-1950s - from half to a third of all grain produced in the USSR." However, stability was not achieved: “in lean years, even the seed fund could not be collected in the virgin lands.” Dust storms have become a consequence of the violation of the ecological balance, as well as wind and chemical soil erosion. So, in 1956-1958, "10 million hectares of arable land" were "blown away" from the virgin lands. The development of virgin lands has entered a period of crisis, the efficiency of their cultivation has decreased by 65%. This was not the end of the matter. By 1959, the sown area under grain and industrial crops in the Non-Black Earth Region, the Central Black Earth Region of the RSFSR and the Middle Volga region had almost halved compared to 1953.
Further, the article notes that even at the turn of the 1940s - 1950s, when the USSR was overcoming the consequences of the post-war devastation, a number of scientists (future associates of N.S. Khrushchev) repeatedly applied to the interdepartmental commission for the development of a long-term agrarian policy, led by Academicians T. D. Lysenko and V. S. Nemchinov with a proposal to begin the rapid "development of new lands by the old agrotechnical methods and through the massive use of chemical fertilizers and, accordingly, the redistribution of sown areas." After that, the interdepartmental commission carried out extensive work and sent to the Central Committee of the CPSU, to the Council of Ministers of the USSR, as well as I.V. Stalin received seven reports and recommendations in which they pointed out the counterproductiveness of extensive methods of agricultural development. So, they directly wrote that
“The plowing of about 40 million hectares of virgin fallow lands for wheat, which are radically different in their properties and required methods of cultivation from agricultural lands in other regions of the USSR, will lead to chronic degradation of these lands, to negative changes in the environmental situation in a vast region of the country and, accordingly, to permanent an increase in the cost of maintaining the fertility of virgin soils. They also stressed that the increase in productivity can occur only in the short term. In the future, "with the help of chemical means and an increase in the volume of artificial irrigation, it will be possible to achieve only the maintenance of the level of productivity, but not its further increase." Scientists also warned that due to soil and climatic features in the virgin areas, the yield in those places “will be two to three times lower than the yield in traditional agricultural regions of Russia (Ukraine, Moldova, the North Caucasus, the Central Black Earth region, some regions of the Volga region).” And the result of an artificial increase in productivity through chemicalization and irrigation will be fatal pollution, salinization and acid soil disease, and consequently, the rapid spread of erosion, “including on natural water bodies in the region with virgin lands.” All this will lead to the virtual elimination of animal husbandry from the Volga to the Altai.
Representatives of the Soviet scientific circles wrote that “for the artificial irrigation of new agricultural lands, many kilometers of diversions from the Volga, Urals, Irtysh, Ob and, possibly, from the Aral and Caspian seas (with mandatory desalination of the water of these arteries) may be needed.” In turn, the implementation of this experiment may result in chronic changes "in the water management balance of many regions of the country" and lead to a sharp deterioration in the supply of water resources to agriculture in most of the territory of the Soviet Union. “A decrease in the level of the Volga, the Urals and other water arteries and reservoirs will adversely affect all sectors of the economy of the regions adjacent to virgin lands, especially forestry, fisheries, shipping and the electric power industry, and the environmental situation will worsen there.”
“If we continue the policy of increasing grain yields on virgin lands in the conditions of degradation of virgin soils and growing water shortages, then, along with a constant increase in soil chemicalization, we will first have to completely reorient the lower and, in part, the middle reaches of the Irtysh, Volga, Ural, Amu Darya, Syr Darya and Ob to northern Kazakhstan and adjacent areas. As a result, over time, the channels and course of these rivers will have to be completely changed. These and related measures will lead to a constant increase in the cost of agricultural production, which will deal a blow to the entire economy and finances of the USSR.
The Commission was not against the idea of developing virgin and fallow lands in our country. But the implementation of this project required the use of new agrobiological and technical methods. In particular, it was supposed to be about the development of breeding work, about taking into account “the specifics of the natural and climatic conditions of specific regions”, the features of “the impact of chemical fertilizers on certain types of agricultural plants in specific regions of the USSR”. Not in vain V.M. Molotov believed that virgin lands should be developed on a limited scale.
However, the conclusions of this commission during the era of the "thaw" remained under the headings "Secret" or "For official use" and "were not available to the general public." And only when the relations of the USSR with China and Albania reached the maximum degree of tension, these materials came to Beijing and Tirana, where they became public.
Thus, the scientists of the USSR, even under I.V. Stalin fully predicted the negative consequences of Khrushchev's idea for the forced development of virgin lands.
Everything that was said in the forecasts of representatives of the scientific community (about the growth of destructive processes in the agricultural industry) came true over time.
The author believes that on the basis of the foregoing, it can be argued that the development of virgin lands dealt a strong blow to the Russian village and agriculture. In short, the result of this experiment was the following: “Food abundance did not take place; the agricultural sector began to turn into a "black hole"; Russia-USSR began to sit down on food imports; there was a sharp outflow of the able-bodied, skilled and young population from the Russian countryside and a forced redistribution of material and technical resources in favor of new agricultural regions, which became one of the leading factors, along with the course towards the elimination of "unpromising" villages, which led to the degradation of agriculture in the central and the northern part of Russia (in the indigenous Russian lands).
At the end of the article, it is written that after the collapse of the USSR, millions of Russian-speaking people actually "became hostages of Khrushchev's policy, having lost their great homeland." Many of them were forced to leave the cities and developed lands founded by their ancestors, "for fear of the nationalist policy of local authorities."
Thus, the material presented in the article proves once again that the problems faced by the agriculture of the USSR in the Khrushchev-Brezhnev period were not connected with the existence of the collective-farm system, but with the experiments of the 1950s. It was they who crossed out all the positive trends in the agricultural industry that developed during the Stalinist period. However, since the time of "perestroika" they have been trying to transfer all arrows precisely to socialist forms of management. It is quite understandable that nothing else could be expected from those who were concerned about the destruction of socialism (and even the destruction of our state). But the results of the large-scale decollectivization of the countryside, carried out in the 1990s, are now obvious to everyone. What can I say, if in the mid-1980s the share of food imports was 26%, and in 2008 - 46% (and this was in a period of relative "stabilization", and in the 90s it was much worse). That is, the loss of food security is evident. The opposite approach was chosen by the President of Belarus A.G. Lukashenka, who improved the collective farm-state farm system, made it more flexible, allowed the functioning of individual farms only as an addition to the socialist forms of farming in the countryside. The success of this policy is also known.
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In the 1950s, in the USSR, the shortage of bread began to grow. In 1953, 31 million tons of grain were harvested in the USSR, 32 million tons were used up - this indicated that the collective farms and state farms were not coping with their main function - providing society with food. Therefore, in 1954, the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU adopted a resolution "On a further increase in grain production in the country and on the development of virgin and fallow lands." The State Planning Committee of the USSR planned to plow in Kazakhstan, Siberia, the Volga region, the Urals and other regions of the country at least 43 million hectares of virgin and fallow lands.
A nationwide movement for the rapid development of agriculture was launched in the country. The development of virgin lands received universal recognition and caused a powerful labor upsurge.
The development of virgin and fallow lands in 1954 began mainly with the creation of state farms. The development of virgin lands began without any pre-training, with a complete lack of infrastructure - roads, granaries, qualified personnel, not to mention housing and a repair base for equipment. The natural conditions of the steppes were not taken into account: sandstorms and dry winds were not taken into account, sparing methods of soil cultivation and varieties of grain adapted to this type of climate were not developed.
Nevertheless, by August 1954, the task of raising the virgin lands in the country was completed: 13.4 million hectares of new land were plowed (103.2% of the plan), including more than 6.5 million hectares in Kazakhstan. In August, another resolution was adopted - "On the further development of virgin lands to increase grain production." It already set the task of bringing in 1956 the area under grain crops on virgin lands to 28-30 million hectares. Scientific recommendations of scientists that such development of new lands may be completely unjustified were not taken into account. On the contrary, everything was done in a hurry. In 1955, 9.4 million hectares were plowed up on the virgin lands, with a plan of 7.5 million hectares.
The working people of the republic were given a grandiose task - to expand the sowing of grain crops through the development of 6.3 million hectares of virgin and fallow lands. On the general meetings under the pressure of higher party committees, increased obligations were taken, which were by no means always fulfilled and put into practice. As a result, in 1954 alone, an additional 636 thousand hectares of virgin and fallow lands were plowed up. In total, during that year, collective farms and machine and tractor stations of the republic mastered 4847 thousand hectares, and state farms - 3684 thousand hectares of new land. Thus, the state plan for the recovery of virgin and fallow lands, designed for 2 years, was completed in one year with a significant excess. Roads were massively built in the republic, new settlements were erected.
Those who worked in the virgin lands were financially stimulated, supported with benefits, bonuses for those who fulfilled production plans, and bonuses for long service. The virgin lands were provided with free travel with property, a one-time cash allowance in the amount of 500 - 1000 rubles. and 150 - 200 rubles. for each family member. Loan for the construction of a house in the amount of 10,000 rubles. for 10 years (of which 35% of the amount was assumed by the state), 1500 - 2000 rubles. a loan for the purchase of livestock, a food loan in the amount of 150 kg of grain or flour, exemption from agricultural tax for 2-5 years. During 1954-1959, 20 billion rubles were invested in the development of virgin lands in Kazakhstan.
Tens of thousands of specialists and organizers of agricultural production left for the development of virgin lands. Back in the first half of 1954, more than 20 thousand people arrived in the Akmola region alone to raise virgin soil. Moreover, organizations industrial enterprises 1386 specialists and machine operators were sent to work in agriculture, for the development of virgin and fallow lands. So, for example, 300 people left the regional committee of the trade union of agriculture and procurement of the Akmola region, 121 people left the Kazakhselmash plant, among them 5 certified engineers.
In 1954-1955, 4.5 thousand specialists were sent to state farms, and in 1959 they employed about 15 thousand specialists with higher and secondary education. In total, in 1953-1958, 266.6 thousand mechanical personnel were sent to agriculture.
The 20th Congress of the CPSU set the Kazakh SSR the task of increasing by 1960, compared with 1955, grain production by about 5 times. The Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan (April 1956) oriented the working people of the republic to the implementation of the five-year plan for the production of grain already in 1956. The field workers warmly responded to the call of the party and in the same 1956 grew the first large virgin crop.
The 1956 harvest was particularly difficult. Never in the republic has it been necessary to harvest from such huge arrays. The whole country came to the aid of Kazakh grain growers. State farms and MTS received tens of thousands of additional harvesting machines from industry. More than 2 million people worked on the fields of the republic during the harvest of 1956. The cleaning included 64 thousand combines, more than 100 thousand cars ...
Huge resources were focused on the implementation of this project: for 1954-1961. virgin lands absorbed 20% of all Soviet investments in agriculture. Because of this, the agrarian development of traditional Russian farming areas remained unchanged and stalled. All tractors and combines produced in the country were sent to the virgin lands, students were mobilized for the summer holidays, and machine operators were sent on seasonal business trips.
Thanks to the extraordinary concentration of funds and people, as well as natural factors, the new lands in the early years gave super-high yields, and from the mid-1950s - from half to a third of all bread produced in the USSR.
However, the violation of the ecological balance and wind erosion already in the late 50s. years have become a serious problem. By 1960, in Northern Kazakhstan, due to the irrational development of virgin lands, more than 9 million hectares were taken out of economic circulation. soils. The efficiency of virgin soils fell annually, and if in 1954-58. the average yield was 7.3 q/ha (in 1961-65 it was 6.14 q/ha.
The plowing of gigantic areas of virgin lands led to a sharp reduction in hay and pasture lands in Kazakhstan and the beginning of a long crisis in the traditional branch of agriculture of the republic - animal husbandry; In 1955, a special resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU had to be adopted and oblige 47 steppe regions and 225 state farms to breed beef cattle. Work began on irrigating the land and expanding the forage base. As a result, with great difficulty, it was possible to raise the total number of livestock in the republic to 37.4 million heads by 1960 (in 1928 - 29.7 million heads). However, population growth led to certain difficulties in providing food, which forced the authorities in 1962 for the first time to increase the price of meat by 30% and butter by 25%. The planned increase in meat production by three times did not work out.
With the resignation of Khrushchev, in 1964, the virgin lands epic completely died out. But such a grandiose project as the development of several million hectares of wild land could not disappear without a trace in history. The echoes of those years still influence our lives. For Kazakhstan, it was and still is of great importance: both positive and negative.
In the annals of each country there are events that have an epochal character. For Kazakhstan and other independent states of the former Union, such an event was the development of virgin lands. When this, even by modern standards, grandiose project began, no one could have imagined that such a superpower as the USSR, in the name of which everything was done, would not survive the cataclysms that had befallen it and would fall apart. main price everything was paid for by people who selflessly worked for this idea and the country, firmly believing in its bright future, overcoming difficulties and hardships. Not so long ago, it was customary to reshape the history of the virgin lands, to adjust it to the next party leader. Even Marx and Engels repeatedly expressed the idea that on the globe there are huge reserves of unused land lying idle capital. In no other country was the question of the economic use of fertile lands as acute as in the Soviet Union.
On the eve of the development of virgin lands
The Soviet people, under the leadership of the Communist Party, fought for the development of agriculture. By 1953, the sown area in the country had increased by 10 million hectares since 1950, but the pace of agricultural development was still low.
The level of agricultural production in Kazakhstan also did not meet the requirements of the Soviet state. Low procurement prices for many agricultural products did not stimulate their production and did not cover the costs of collective farms. Grain yields remained low. Even in the most favorable years in terms of weather conditions, the republic produced only 100-150 million poods (approximately 1.6-2.4 million tons) of marketable bread. A had huge tracts of arable fertile land in the northern and northwestern regions, which were almost never used.
A vital task arose - to meet the needs of the population in food products, industry - in agricultural raw materials in the shortest possible time. The September (1953) Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU determined the program for the development of agriculture, which was ardently supported by the working people of Kazakhstan.
The labor activity of collective farmers and workers of state farms has increased. Many townspeople returned to the village. By the end of 1953, 2,536 machine operators - tractor and combine operators, 4,905 specialists - agronomists, engineers, livestock specialists, veterinarians, etc. moved from industry and other areas of the national economy to work in the MTS and MZHS of the republic. Hundreds of engineers and thousands of workers arrived from the RSFSR in Kazakhstan.
Industrial enterprises expanded the production of agricultural machinery, and by the end of 1953 they had supplied agriculture with 42,000 tractors, 11,000 grain combiners, 22,000 seeders, and thousands of hay mowers...
Mass development of virgin lands
In March 1954, at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, a decision was made "On the further increase in grain production in the country and the development of virgin and fallow lands." Specific tasks for Kazakhstan, Siberia, the Urals, the Volga region, the North Caucasus: to expand the sowing of grain crops in 1954-1955 through the development of virgin and fallow lands by at least 13 million hectares and to receive in 1955 from these lands 1100-1200 million poods of grain, including 800-900 million poods of commercial grain. A nationwide movement for the rapid development of agriculture was launched in the country. The development of virgin lands received universal recognition and caused a powerful labor upsurge.
At the beginning of the development of virgin lands, the party organization of the republic was headed by L. I. Brezhnev. The working people of Kazakhstan actively joined the struggle for the development of virgin lands. “The vast majority of Kazakhs,” L. I. Brezhnev wrote in his book “Tselina”, “greeted the party’s decision to plow up the feather grass steppes with great enthusiasm and approval. The rise of virgin lands for the Kazakhs was not an easy task, because for many centuries the Kazakh people were associated with cattle breeding, and here many had to break the whole old way of life in the steppes, become grain growers ... But the local residents had the courage and wisdom to take the most active, heroic part in the rise of the virgin. The Kazakh people were at the height of history.”
By August 1954, the task of raising the virgin lands in the country was completed: 13.4 million hectares of new land were plowed (103.2% of the plan), including more than 6.5 million hectares in Kazakhstan.
These first successes spoke of the huge reserves of the collective farms, MTS, and state farms for the further development of agriculture. The task was set to bring in 1956 the area under crops of grain crops on virgin lands to 28-30 million hectares, which was provided by a powerful material and technical base, high consciousness and activity of the entire Soviet people.
The main part of the fertile virgin lands in Kazakhstan was located in remote and sparsely populated areas. There were not enough human resources to recruit virgin farms; personnel were attracted from other regions of the country.
Those who worked in the virgin lands were financially stimulated, supported with benefits, bonuses for those who fulfilled production plans, and bonuses for long service. Tselinniks were provided with free travel with property, a one-time cash allowance in the amount of 500-1000 rubles. and 150 - 200 rubles. for each family member. Loan for the construction of a house in the amount of 10,000 rubles. for 10 years (of which 35% of the amount was assumed by the state), 1500 - 2000 rubles. a loan for the purchase of livestock, a food loan in the amount of 150 kg of grain or flour, exemption from agricultural tax for 2-5 years. During 1954-1959, 20 billion rubles were invested in the development of virgin lands in Kazakhstan.
All-People's Cause
The party's decision found wide support among the working people. Komsomol committees selected volunteers and sent them to state farms and MTS. The youth of the country warmly responded to the call. Already in March 1954, 14,240 Komsomol members and youth arrived in the virgin lands of Kazakhstan from the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and other union republics. The patriotic movement for the development of virgin lands also embraced the youth of Kazakhstan.
Demobilized soldiers from the Soviet Army went to the virgin lands of Kazakhstan. They created state farms in Kokchetav, North Kazakhstan, Karaganda and other regions.
The Party sent 2,088 workers with higher and secondary education to the new state farms of the Republic as directors, chief agronomists, engineers, accountants, and construction engineers. In October 1954, 5,500 communists arrived in the virgin regions of Kazakhstan to strengthen the district and rural party, Soviet organizations.
In total, over 640,000 people arrived in the republic in 1954-1956, including: 391,500 agricultural machine operators, 50,000 builders, about 3,000 medical workers, 1,500 teachers, more than 1,000 trade workers ... In addition, more than 66 700 graduates of mechanization schools from the fraternal republics and over 19,800 from schools in Kazakhstan.
In the grandiose struggle for the development of virgin lands, the Soviet people showed mass heroism and selflessness. In difficult conditions, in the uninhabited steppes, new lands had to be developed.
I had to start life in tents, trailers, dugouts. Over impassable roads and deep snows, they delivered machinery, seeds, construction and many other materials, equipment to new state farms 250-300 km from railway stations and sidings.
The role of state farms and collective farms
In solving the problem of raising agriculture, the main part was assigned to state farms, which could rationally use the means of production and produce high-quality, cheap agricultural products. Since the spring of 1954, the organization of an extensive network of large grain state farms began in Kazakhstan. Within two years, the expeditions of scientists examined 93 million hectares of arable virgin land.
From March 1954 to March 1955, on the virgin lands of the republic (in Akmola, Kokchetav, Kustanai, Pavlodar, North Kazakhstan regions), 337 new grain state farms were formed with a land area of over 17 million hectares, including arable - more than 10 million hectares. State farms were created as large highly mechanized enterprises for the production of grain from 25-30 thousand hectares of sown area. By the end of 1955, 631 state farms operated in Kazakhstan.
Collective farms did not remain out of sight either. By the end of 1955, there were 2702 of them in the republic. They were served by 464 machine and tractor stations. The level of mechanization of sowing grain crops on collective farms has risen to 99%, and the level of harvesting - up to 98%.
In the spring of 1954, work began on the plowing of virgin lands. Tractor-field-breeding brigades were created and staffed, which competed and overfulfilled planned targets with shock work.
Thanks to the mass labor heroism of the Soviet people in 1954-1955, 29.7 million hectares of virgin lands were plowed up in the country. In Kazakhstan in 1954-1955, 18 million hectares of virgin lands were raised, or 60.6% of the total plowing in the country as a whole. Large areas of new land prepared in 1954 made it possible in 1955 to sharply expand the area under crops and to substantially increase the delivery of grain to the state.
The first successes of the virgin lands
The 20th Congress of the CPSU set the Kazakh SSR the task of increasing by 1960, compared with 1955, grain production by about 5 times. The Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan (April 1956) oriented the working people of the republic to the implementation of the five-year plan for the production of grain already in 1956. The field workers warmly responded to the call of the party and in the same 1956 grew the first large virgin crop.
The 1956 harvest was particularly difficult. Never in the republic has it been necessary to harvest from such huge arrays. The whole country came to the aid of Kazakh grain growers. State farms and MTS received tens of thousands of additional harvesting machines from industry. More than 2 million people worked on the fields of the republic during the harvest of 1956. The cleaning included 64 thousand combines, more than 100 thousand cars ...
The Communists were at the forefront of the great battle for bread. By personal example, they led the collectives of state farms, MTS, and collective farmers. As a result of separate harvesting of wheat, the harvest was accelerated by 3-4 days, loss of bread from shedding was prevented. Drivers of motor vehicles in difficult conditions ensured the export of grain to the procurement points.
The Communist Party and the Soviet state supported the enthusiasm of the people and encouraged them for their successes. Honorary titles for machine operators and a medal were introduced "For the development of virgin lands."
In 1956, Kazakhstan delivered the first billion poods of grain. During 1956-1968, another 4.8 million hectares of new lands were raised in the republic. The sown area in Kazakhstan increased in 1958 to 28.6 million hectares, including the grain area - 23.2 million hectares. The production of cotton, sugar beet, sunflower, tobacco, fruits and vegetables and fodder crops has also expanded in the republic.
By the end of the 50s, the material and technical base of agriculture in Kazakhstan was strengthened. State farms and collective farms received 169,000 tractors, 98,000 combines, 73,000 trucks and other agricultural equipment.
Gross grain production in Kazakhstan during the development of virgin lands (1954-1960) amounted to almost 106 million tons, the average annual grain production in these years exceeded the figures for 1949-1953 by more than 3.8 times. Kazakhstan has handed over to the state for these years more than 63.4 million tons of bread. In a short time, the Kazakh SSR turned into one of the largest breadbaskets Soviet Union.
The consequences of the development of virgin lands
Such a grandiose project as the development of several million hectares of wild land could not disappear without a trace in history. For Kazakhstan, it was of the greatest importance: as positive as it was negative.
In the works and publications of the 50-80s on the development of virgin lands, miscalculations, distortions and excesses were not reflected. Virgin lands as a massive and not very prepared event attracted not only specialists and genuine enthusiasts, but also random people who came for a long ruble. For example, out of 650,000 people who came to Northern Kazakhstan in the first 2 years, according to researchers, there were only 130,000 people who really needed the virgin lands. Among the newcomers, there was a high turnover of personnel.
Under the conditions of extensive farming, the goals were narrowed, not achieved due to worn-out equipment, adjustment of indicators ... In the pursuit of indicators, large territories were plowed up. Violation of the ecological balance led to severe results. Soil erosion developed, fertile humus was weathered.
A rational system of farming for virgin lands was created only two decades after its mass development. The plowing of millions of hectares of land for crops has led to a reduction in hayfields and pastures. Thousands of hectares of land were seized for development settlements. As a result, irreparable damage was done to the traditional livestock industry. This led to a shortage of meat and dairy products.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the still fragile economy of the collective farms was undermined by the enslaving conditions of the reorganization of the MTS. This led to a sharp drop in the rate of agricultural production in the country. Instead of the 70% increase planned for the seven-year period (1959-1965), the real gross output increased by only 15%.
In addition, the development of virgin lands contributed to the influx of people from other republics, which led to a decrease in the role of national customs and traditions, to a sharp reduction in the number of schools that taught in the Kazakh language, and the publication of national literature and periodicals decreased. Language and demographic problems have become more acute in the northern regions.
The material was prepared according to the research of A. Popov
The course towards the elimination of "unpromising" villages took place against the backdrop of investing huge amounts of money and efforts to develop the virgin and fallow lands of the Volga region, Southern Siberia, Kazakhstan and the Far East. The idea was correct, but the matter had to be carried out reasonably, gradually, without constant race and rush. The program was supposed to be long-term. However, everything was done in a hurry, everything turned into another campaign.
In 1954, the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU adopted a resolution "On a further increase in grain production in the country and on the development of virgin and fallow lands." The State Planning Committee of the USSR planned to plow in Kazakhstan, Siberia, the Volga region, the Urals and other regions of the country at least 43 million hectares of virgin and fallow lands. As the second secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan Zh. Shayakhmetov recalled: “There was a discussion: to develop agriculture in an intensive or extensive way. The arguments for intensification were much more convincing, but the leadership of the country of the Soviets, represented by N. S. Khrushchev, preferred an extensive path of agricultural development.
Khrushchev and his like-minded people put forward the idea to quickly plow up the virgin fallow lands at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU in June 1953, but then they received a rebuff from both the party leadership and many agricultural scientists, especially T. D. Lysenko. However, in 1954, the Khrushchevites were able to take over.
The accelerated development of virgin lands gave rise to several troubles at once. On the one hand, the development of virgin lands began without any preliminary preparation, with a complete lack of infrastructure - roads, granaries, qualified personnel, not to mention housing and a repair base for equipment. The natural conditions of the steppes were not taken into account: sandstorms and dry winds were not taken into account, sparing methods of soil cultivation and varieties of grain adapted to this type of climate were not developed. Therefore, the development of virgin lands turned into another campaign, supposedly capable of solving all food problems overnight. Hand-to-hand and assault flourished, confusion.
Huge amounts of money, resources and efforts were invested in this hasty and ill-conceived project. So, for 1954-1961. virgin lands absorbed 20% of all Soviet investments in agriculture. Because of this, the agrarian development of traditional Russian farming areas remained unchanged or even began to degrade. This money could have been put to better use. Thousands of specialists, volunteers and equipment were thrown to the "virgin front". According to Komsomol orders, young people were driven to the Kazakh steppes, technical specialists were sent, and entire graduates of teachers, doctors and agronomists were sent. They also sent young collective farmers from "unpromising" places. In fact, it was a mass deportation of Russians from their native lands, which were deserted at that time.
On the other hand, huge areas of developed land in a few years began to turn into a desert and salt marshes. An environmental problem has arisen. Again, a lot of money and effort had to be invested, now for rescue activities like forest plantations.
As V. Molotov later wrote: “Virgin lands began to be explored prematurely. It was, of course, nonsense. In this size - an adventure. From the very beginning, I was a supporter of the development of virgin lands on a limited scale, and not on such a huge scale that we were forced to invest huge amounts of money, incur colossal expenses, instead of raising what was already ready in the inhabited areas. But it is impossible otherwise. Here you have a million rubles, no more, so give them to virgin lands or already settled areas where there are opportunities? I proposed to invest this money in our Non-Black Earth region, and gradually raise the virgin lands. They scattered the funds - a little bit of this, and that, but there is nowhere to store the bread, it rots, there are no roads, it is impossible to take it out. But Khrushchev found an idea and rushes like a savras without a bridle! This idea does not definitely solve anything, it can help, but to a limited extent. Be able to calculate, estimate, consult what people will say. No - come on, come on! He began to swing, bit off almost forty or forty-five million hectares of virgin land, but this is unbearable, absurd and unnecessary, and if there were fifteen or seventeen, it would probably be more useful. More sense."
The virgin lands were raised in just four years. This was stated in 1959 by Khrushchev, the main initiator and inspirer of the virgin fallow campaign. Khrushchev himself at the 21st Congress of the CPSU in 1959 stated that "thanks to the successful development of virgin lands, it became possible not only to significantly improve the food supply of cities and industrial centers, but also to set the task of surpassing the United States in terms of agricultural development." In total for 1954-1960. 41.8 million hectares of virgin lands and deposits were raised. In the virgin lands, only in the first two years, 425 grain state farms were created, agricultural giants were created later.
The first result of the development of virgin lands was a sharp increase in agricultural production: in 1954, the USSR collected 85.5 million tons of grain (including 27.1 million tons on virgin lands), and in 1960 already 125 million tons (including virgin lands - 58.7 million tons Due to the extraordinary concentration of funds, people and equipment, as well as natural factors, new lands in the early years gave super-high yields, and from the mid-1950s - from half to a third of all grain produced in the USSR. the desired stability, despite efforts, was not achieved: in lean years, even the seed fund could not be collected on the virgin lands. As a result of the violation of the ecological balance and wind and chemical soil erosion, dust storms became a real disaster. Only in 1956-1958 from the virgin lands was " blown away "10 million hectares of arable land, in other words, the territory of Hungary or Portugal. The development of virgin lands has entered the stage of crisis, the efficiency of its cultivation has fallen by 65%.
In addition, by 1959, the sown area under grain and industrial crops in the Russian Non-Chernozem region, in the Central Black Earth region of the RSFSR and in the Middle Volga region was, on the whole, reduced by about half compared to 1953, including the sowing of traditional flax there - almost three times.
It should be noted that the problems of developing agriculture and ensuring the country's food security have always occupied an important place in the policy of the Soviet leadership and have become one of the main ones in economic policy in the postwar years. This was due to the severe consequences of the war. The damage that Hitler's hordes inflicted on the agriculture of the Soviet Union amounted to tens of billions of rubles. On the territory of the USSR occupied by the Nazis in previous years, it was produced (on a national scale): 55-60% of grain, including up to 75% of corn, almost 90% of sugar beet, 65% of sunflower, 45% of potatoes, 40% of meat products, 35% - dairy products. The Nazis destroyed or removed almost 200,000 tractors and combines, which amounted to about a third of the country's agricultural machinery fleet in 1940. The country has lost more than 25 million heads of livestock, as well as 40% of enterprises for the processing of agricultural products.
The situation was aggravated by the drought of 1946-1947. In addition, Moscow has refused enslaving foreign loans and imports of agricultural products for foreign currency, so as not to become dependent on the West. However, by refusing this channel of possible support for the economy, Moscow has complicated the restoration of agriculture. It is also worth considering that, despite internal problems, in 1945-1953. The USSR provided free food aid to East Germany, Austria, as well as China, Mongolia, North Korea and Vietnam.
In 1946, the Soviet leadership instructed agricultural and research organizations to develop proposals for ensuring a long-term reliable supply of agricultural products, increasing crop yields and livestock productivity, as well as material incentives for increasing labor productivity in agriculture in the USSR. An interdepartmental commission was established under the leadership of Academicians T. D. Lysenko and V. S. Nemchinov: it received the task of developing a long-term state agricultural policy. The commission lasted until 1954. According to the decisions of the March plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, her work was declared unsatisfactory. Apparently, because of the negative attitude towards the initiative of Khrushchev and the Khrushchevites for the speedy development of fallow and virgin lands.
An attempt to start a virgin campaign was made under Stalin. Some scientists - Khrushchev's future advisers - in 1949-1952. literally "bombarded" with letters not only Lysenko and Nemchinov, but also many members of the Politburo, lobbying for the extensive development of the country's agriculture. They proposed the rapid development of new lands by the old agrotechnical methods and through the massive use of chemical fertilizers and, accordingly, the redistribution of sown areas. That is, what was later carried out under Khrushchev. However, an interdepartmental commission led by Academicians Lysenko and Nemchinov held great job and submitted to the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers, as well as personally to I.V. Stalin, seven reports and recommendations that denied the extensive path of development of the agricultural sector.
Scientists: “The plowing of about 40 million hectares of virgin fallow lands for wheat, which are radically different in their properties and required methods of cultivation from agricultural lands in other regions of the USSR, will lead to chronic degradation of these lands, to negative changes in the environmental situation in a vast region of the country and, accordingly, to a constant increase in the cost of maintaining the fertility of virgin soils.
They also noted that in the short term, 2-3 years, there will be a sharp increase in productivity. However, then, with the help of chemical means and an increase in the volume of artificial irrigation, it will be possible to achieve only the maintenance of the level of productivity, but not its further increase. Due to the characteristics of the soil and climate in the virgin areas, the yield there will be two to three times lower than the yield in the traditional agricultural regions of Russia (Ukraine, Moldova, the North Caucasus, the Central Black Earth region, some regions of the Volga region). Artificial increase in productivity due to chemicalization and irrigation will lead to irremovable pollution, salinization and acid waterlogging of soils, and, therefore, to the rapid spread of erosion, including on natural water bodies in the region with virgin lands. This trend will cause, in particular, the elimination of animal husbandry as an agricultural sector in the region from the Volga to Altai inclusive. In the first 5-6 years, the reserves of the fertile soil layer - humus - on virgin lands will decrease by 10-15%, and in the future this figure will be 25-35% compared to the "pre-virgin" period.
Soviet scientists wrote that for the artificial irrigation of new agricultural lands, many kilometers of diversions from the Volga, Urals, Irtysh, Ob and, possibly, from the Aral and Caspian seas (with the obligatory desalination of the water of these arteries) may be needed. It is obvious that this can lead to negative, and moreover, chronic changes in the water management balance of many regions of the country and will sharply worsen the supply of water resources to agriculture, especially animal husbandry, in most of the territory of the USSR. A decrease in the level of the Volga, the Urals and other water arteries and reservoirs will adversely affect all sectors of the economy of the regions adjacent to the virgin lands, especially forestry, fisheries, shipping and the electric power industry, and the environmental situation will worsen there.
If we continue the policy of increasing the yield of grain on virgin lands in the conditions of degradation of virgin soils and growing water shortages, then, along with a constant increase in soil chemicalization, we will first have to completely reorient the lower and, in part, the middle reaches of the Irtysh, Volga, and Ural rivers. , Amu Darya, Syr Darya and Ob to northern Kazakhstan and adjacent areas. As a result, over time, the channels and course of these rivers will have to be completely changed. These and related measures will lead to a constant increase in the cost of agricultural production, which will deal a blow to the entire economy and finances of the USSR.
It is worth saying that the commission did not reject in principle the idea of developing the virgin and fallow lands of the USSR. But this required fundamentally new agrobiological and technical methods, including the development of breeding work, taking into account the specifics of the natural and climatic conditions of specific regions, and the peculiarities of the impact of chemical fertilizers on certain types of agricultural plants in specific regions of the USSR. No wonder Molotov noted the need to develop virgin lands on a limited scale.
The conclusions of the commission during the Khrushchev period remained in the USSR under the headings "Secret" or "For official use" and were not available to the general public. Only during the confrontation of the USSR with China and Albania (entirely Khrushchev's fault) did they end up in Beijing and Tirana, where they were given a move.
Thus, back in the Stalinist period, Soviet scientists fully predicted negative factors the virgin epic of Khrushchev.
As predicted by the commission, in the first few years in the virgin lands and, therefore, in the country, the grain harvest increased significantly. But it was not the yield that increased, but the area under crops: the share of virgin lands in the wheat sown area in the USSR by 1958 was 65%, and the share of these lands in the country's gross wheat harvest almost reached 70%. At the same time, in the six years after 1953, the consumption of chemical fertilizers by agriculture, according to official data, more than doubled: virgin lands demanded a growing amount of “chemistry”, which subsequently infects soils, grain, and water bodies, causing damage to animal husbandry.
In addition, under Khrushchev, the grass-field system of agriculture was first criticized and then even banned. Moreover, the authorities instructed to continue not to take care of the forest protection belts created under Stalin in 1948-1953. and made it possible to prevent desertification, salinization of soils, and a decrease in their natural fertility in many regions (for example, in Little Russia).
At the same time, investment in agriculture also increased. It was from the time of Khrushchev's rule that the agriculture of the USSR began to turn into a "black" hole, sucking in more and more funds. And the larger their volume, the faster their efficiency decreased.
Thus, the virgin epic was another strong blow to the Russian countryside and agriculture. Food abundance did not take place; the agricultural sector began to turn into a "black hole"; Russia-USSR began to sit down on food imports; there was a sharp outflow of the able-bodied, skilled and young population from the Russian village and a forced redistribution of material and technical resources in favor of new agricultural regions, which became one of the leading factors, along with the course towards the elimination of "unpromising" villages, which led to the degradation of agriculture in the central and the northern part of Russia (in the indigenous Russian lands).
In addition, after the collapse of the USSR, millions of Russians became hostages of Khrushchev's policies, having lost their great homeland. Many were forced to leave the cities and developed lands founded by their ancestors, fearing the nationalist policy of local authorities.
1958 was considered the final year in the record-breaking rapid development of virgin and fallow lands - they were "raised" in just four years. This was stated in 1959 by N.S. Khrushchev, the initiator and inspirer of the virgin fallow campaign. So, almost half a century ago in Russian and Soviet economic history, an event, perhaps unprecedented in its scale, timing and consequences, was implemented.
There are many scientists and officials who assure that the development of virgin lands is a strategic undertaking of the 50s, which, they say, would have been impossible during the period of the "Stalin personality cult." And, they say, before this campaign, the government of the USSR did not undertake anything significant in agriculture, limiting itself to purely “command-administrative” measures. N.S. Khrushchev himself at the 21st Congress of the CPSU in 1959 stated that “thanks to the successful development of virgin lands, it became possible not only to significantly improve the food supply to cities and industrial centers, but also to set the task of surpassing the United States in terms of agricultural development.” L.I. Brezhnev assessed the "virgin campaign" in exactly the same way.
The problems of developing the country's food complex were among the main ones in the economic policy of the Soviet leadership in the postwar years.
The damage inflicted by the fascist invaders on agriculture amounted to tens of billions of rubles in 1945-46 prices. On the territory of the USSR occupied by the Nazis in previous years, 55-60 percent of grain was produced (on a national scale), including up to 75 percent of corn, almost 90 percent of sugar beet, 65 percent of sunflower, 45 percent of potatoes, 40 percent of meat products, 35 percent of dairy products. products. The invaders destroyed or removed almost 200,000 tractors and combines, which was about a third of the agricultural machinery fleet in 1940. The country has lost more than 25 million heads of livestock, as well as 40 percent of enterprises for the processing of agricultural products.
In addition, the drought of 1946-47 exacerbated the already difficult situation in the agriculture of the USSR, and the refusal of our country from enslaving foreign loans and imports of agricultural products for foreign currency also complicated the rapid restoration of the commodity potential of agriculture in the USSR. In addition, in 1945-1953, the USSR provided gratuitous food aid to East Germany, Austria, as well as China, Mongolia, North Korea and North Vietnam.
Already a year after the Victory, agricultural and research organizations were instructed to develop proposals for ensuring a long-term reliable supply of agricultural products, increasing crop yields and livestock productivity, as well as material incentives for increasing labor productivity in agriculture in the Soviet Union.
In the autumn of 1946, an interdepartmental commission was created, under the leadership of academicians T.D. Lysenko and V.S. Nemchinov: she was charged with the task of fulfilling the "Stalinist" instructions on all-Union agriculture and on developing a long-term state agricultural policy. The commission existed until 1954 and then, according to the decisions of the March plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, its work was declared unsatisfactory. And above all - for the negative attitude towards the initiative of N.S. Khrushchev and the “Khrushchevites” for the speedy development of fallow and virgin lands.
The commission submitted seven reports and recommendations to the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers, as well as personally to I.V. Stalin.
The "virgin question" was also carefully studied by the commission, since some scientists - Khrushchev's future advisers - in 1949-52 literally "bombed" with letters not only Lysenko and Nemchinov, but also many members of the Politburo, lobbying for the extensive development of the country's agriculture: the rapid development of new lands with the old agrotechnical methods and with the help of the massive use of chemical fertilizers and, accordingly, the redistribution of sown areas.
The documents of that commission remained in the Soviet Union under the headings "Secret" or "For Official Use". However, during the period of Moscow's confrontation with Beijing and Tirana - because of the "anti-Stalinist" decisions of the XX and XXII Congresses of the CPSU - they ended up in China and Albania, where they were given a move.
Here is what the scientists predicted: “The plowing for wheat of approximately 40 million hectares of virgin fallow lands, radically different in their properties and required methods of cultivation from agricultural lands in other regions of the USSR, will lead to chronic degradation of these lands, to negative changes in the environmental situation in a vast region of the country and , respectively, to a constant increase in the costs of maintaining the fertility of virgin soils.
The documents of the commission also noted that “the temporary effect, which will be expressed in large harvests on virgin lands, will not exceed two or three years.
Then, with the help of chemical means and an increase in the volume of artificial irrigation, it will be possible to achieve only the maintenance of the level of productivity, but not its further growth. Due to the peculiarities of the soil and climate in the virgin areas, the yield there will be two to three times lower than the yield in the traditional agricultural regions of the USSR (Ukraine, Moldova, the North Caucasus, the Central Black Earth region, some regions of the Volga region). Its artificial growth due to chemicalization and irrigation will lead to irreparable pollution, salinization and acid waterlogging of soils, and, therefore, to the rapid spread of erosion, including on natural water bodies in the "virgin" region. Such a trend will predetermine, in particular, the elimination of animal husbandry as an agricultural sector in the region from the Volga to the Altai inclusive... In the first five or six years, the reserves of the fertile soil layer - humus - on virgin lands will decrease by 10-15 percent, and in the future this figure will be 25-35 percent compared to the "pre-virgin" level. For artificial irrigation of new crops, many kilometers of diversions from the Volga, Urals, Irtysh, Ob and, possibly, from the Aral and Caspian seas (with mandatory desalination of the water of these arteries) may be required. This can lead to negative, and moreover, chronic changes in the water management balance of many regions of the country and will drastically reduce the water supply for agriculture, especially animal husbandry, in most of the territory of the USSR. A decrease in the level of the Volga, the Urals and other water arteries and reservoirs will adversely affect all sectors of the economy of the regions adjacent to the virgin lands - especially forestry, fisheries, shipping and the electric power industry, and the ecological situation will worsen there ...
If we strive for a stable increase in grain yield on virgin lands in the conditions of degradation of virgin soils and growing water shortages, then, along with a constant increase in the volume of chemicalization of the soil, we will first have to completely reorient the lower and, in part, the middle reaches of the Irtysh, Volga, and Ural rivers. , Amu Darya, Syr Darya and Ob to northern Kazakhstan and adjacent areas. Consequently, over time, it will be necessary to completely change the channels and course of the above-mentioned rivers. These and related measures will lead to a constant increase in the cost of agricultural production, which will complicate the all-Union financial and pricing policy.”
No, the commission did not reject in principle the idea of developing new agricultural lands, including virgin ones. For this, however, fundamentally new agrobiological and technical methods were required, including the development of breeding work, taking into account both the specifics of the natural and climatic conditions of specific regions, and the characteristics of the impact of chemical fertilizers on certain types of agricultural plants in specific regions of the USSR.
But the decision on the "unsatisfactory" work of the commission was "closed" and was not published in the press.
The idea to quickly plow virgin fallow lands was put forward by N.S. Khrushchev and his like-minded scientists at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU in June 1953, but they were rebuffed by both the party leadership and many agricultural scientists, especially T.D. .Lysenko. However, by the spring of 1954, Khrushchev and the Khrushchevites, as they say, took revenge ...
Contrary to the arguments of the commission, the virgin lands were plowed up in the shortest possible time for exclusively grain crops. Crops of technical and fodder cereals were eliminated here. During 1954-58, 43 million hectares of land were plowed, of which 17 million were in the Trans-Volga region, Western Siberia and the Urals, and 26 million were in the northern regions of Kazakhstan. But by 1959, the sown area under grain and industrial crops in the Russian Non-Black Earth Region, in the Central Black Earth Region of the RSFSR and in the Middle Volga region was, on the whole, reduced by about half compared to 1953, including the sowing of traditional flax there - almost three times …
As predicted by the commission, in the first five years on the virgin lands and, therefore, in the country, the harvest of wheat increased significantly. But it was not the yield that increased, but the area under crops: the share of virgin lands in the wheat sown area in the USSR by 1958 was 65 percent, and the share of these lands in the country's gross wheat harvest almost reached 70 percent. If the average annual gross harvest of wheat in 1950-53 was equal to 62 million tons, then in 1955-58 it was 71 million. But in the six years after 1953, agricultural consumption of chemical fertilizers, according to official figures, more than doubled: virgin lands demanded a growing number of "injections" that subsequently infect soils, and grain, and water bodies, and animal husbandry.
Naturally, investment in agriculture also increased.
It was from the "virgin five years" that agriculture became the main consumer of funds, but the larger their volume, the faster their efficiency decreased.
Ignoring the specifics of virgin lands, which the commission warned about, led to the onset of wind and chemical soil erosion, and frequent dusty typhoons. In 1956-58 alone, 10 million hectares of arable land were “blown away” from the virgin lands, in other words, the territory of Hungary or Portugal. Comparison of data on the gross harvest of grain and industrial crops- in million tons - 1958 and 1963. terrifying: wheat - 76.6 and 49.7; rye - 16 and 12; oats - 13.4 and 4; sugar beet - 54.4 and 44; flax - 0.44 and 0.37; potatoes - 86.5 and 71.6 (Handbook "World Economy", M., 1965).
Here is what Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Institute of the Steppe of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Chibilev told me:
After the change of leadership in the spring of 1953, the grass-field system of agriculture was first criticized and then even banned. Moreover, the authorities instructed to continue not to take care of the forest protection belts created in 1948-53 and which made it possible to prevent desertification, salinization of soils, and a decrease in their natural fertility in many regions. The country began a hasty plowing of virgin steppes and forest-steppe lands, unprecedented in the history of civilization. Such agrarian policy became fatal ...
Another interlocutor of mine, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences Sergey Bobyshev, turned out to be categorical:
The virgin lands were the third strong blow that finished off the Russian village after the victims of collectivization and the war. The sharp outflow of the able-bodied, skilled and young population from the Russian countryside and the forced redistribution of material and technical resources in favor of new agricultural regions, which were ordered to become “record holders” in terms of wheat yield at any cost, led to the degradation of agriculture in the central and northern parts of Russia.
So, food abundance did not take place. But on the virgin lands, most of the established state farms and collective farms bore the names of Nikita Sergeevich. So the name of the "founder" of the virgin lands was immortalized. Until his resignation in October 1964...
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