A Survey Of Soviet Russian Agriculture

Soviet Agriculture in Perspective (1969) examines the framework within which Soviet agriculture had to operate from the start: the dilemma of a revolutionary regime in a backward peasant country, the straightjacket of a bureaucratic system inherited from Tsarism, made even more rigid by the internal tensions of the new society, and the imperative needs of economic development. In analysing Soviet agricultural policy, it looks at the appropriate volume of agricultural output, the need for massive capital investment, the level of prices and costs, and the optimum size of a farm.

This book examines the Soviet agricultural crisis of 1931-1933 which culminated in the major famine of 1933. It is the first volume in English to make extensive use of Russian and Ukrainian central and local archives to assess the extent and causes of the famine. It reaches new conclusions on how far the famine was 'organized' or 'artificial', and compares it with other Russian and Soviet famines and with major twentieth century famines elsewhere. Against this background, it discusses the emergence of collective farming as an economic and social system.

Historical study of political aspects of the land tenure system in the USSR and intergroup relations between rural worker societies (communes) and political party organisations (rural soviets) leading to the onset of the collective economy in agriculture. Bibliography pp. 239 to 247, references and statistical tables.