Climate Dependence and Food Problems in Russia, 1900-1990: The Interaction of Climate and Agricultural Policy and Their Effect on Food Problems

Chapter 4: The post-revolutionary period (1917–1928)

CHAPTER 4 The post-revolutionary period (1917–1928) This period includes three very different historical events: the socialist revolution of 1917, the civil war between 1918 and 1921, and the New Economic Policy (NEP) of 1922 to 1928. The first two events brought the country to economic destruction, while the third was a frantic attempt by Lenin to find a way out of the desperate economic situation. Indeed, the NEP did produce considerable growth in the Soviet economy, including both industry and agriculture. It is likely that by the end of the NEP period the country was approaching the pre-war level. However , the NEP was only a temporary respite period for the Bolsheviks, and in 1928–1929 the market mechanism was forcibly demolished by Stalin. 4.1. Major developments in agriculture One notable feature of this period was the continual and severe reduction in crop area. During the five years from 1917 to 1922, crop areas fell by 32 percent (more than 12 million hectares) in European Russia alone. In the most productive regions the decline reached 30 to 40 percent , but in several other regions the reduction was as much as 50 to 60 percent (Table 4.1.). The area sown was a major factor in the level of agricultural production. The decline in crop area resulted in the collapse of agricultural production in the country. There was also a decline in average yield in the country, which was a knock-on effect of the economic and social crisis, although a major part of the losses in potential grain production could be attributed to the decrease in the sown area. Various factors were responsible for this unprecedented decline in area during the post-war period. A decline can be observed even before 1917. In 1914, the crop area reached its highest point since the beginning of the century. The area under cereal cultivation increased by 1.3 Climate Dependence and Food Problems in Russia, 1900–1990 percent between 1913 and 1914. The first stage in crop area decline was associated with the mass forced mobilization of Russian peasants into the army. The mobilization started in the autumn of 1914, taking the peasants away when they were sowing their winter crops. The impact of the resulting labor shortage manifested itself in the following year, 1915. According to most sources, the crop area in Russia decreased by between 7 and 9 percent between 1914 and 1916 (Oganovsky, 1927). This decline was more serious in the southern and southeastern regions of European Russia, as these regions traditionally hired large numbers of peasants from the overpopulated central regions of the country. Before the war about 1.5 million people arrived there to look for seasonal work. The Central and Northwestern regions of the non-productive zone also faced labor shortages because many employable peasants moved to the two chief Russian cities, St. Petersburg and Moscow. They were looking for jobs at military enterprises that would give them the legal right to avoid mobilization. It is well known that at that time the urban population increased sharply in Russia. Because of this migration the crop area decreased by 11 percent. Before the war, the regions had imported large amounts of bread and at that time dependence on bread imports had increased. With the decline in grain production in the productive regions of the European part of the country, Siberia started to play the role of supplier of grain to the center. Siberia and Central Asia were the only regions where a growth in crop area (of over 7 percent) was observed. 70 Table 4.1. Changes in cereal crop area from 1920 to 1924, as a percentage of the crop area in 1916 Regions 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 European Russia 84 78 68 77 84 North 61 81 84 89 99 Northwest 62 70 78 90 94 Central 94 106 119 104 112 Black Earth 80 74 80 89 90 Volga-Vyatka 73 66 49 80 84 Middle and Low Volga 82 69 52 67 69 Urals 80 65 40 55 87 Southeast 61 57 42 62 64 Source: Statisticheskii ezhegodnik: 1918–1920, 1921; Sbornik statisticheskix svedenii po Souzy SSR: 1918–1923, 1924. The post-revolutionary period (1917–1928) Another key factor in crop area decline was that the world grain market became inaccessible to Russian peasants. Before the war Russian peasants needed only to transport their grain to a...