The development of virgin lands is a set of measures to eliminate the backlog of agriculture and increase grain production in the USSR in 1954-1960, by introducing into circulation extensive land resources in Kazakhstan, the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia, the Far East.
Story
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.
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 preliminary preparation, with total absence 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, gentle methods of soil cultivation and varieties adapted to this type of climate were not developed.
cereals.
The development of virgin lands has turned into another campaign, supposedly capable of solving all food problems overnight. Hand-to-hand and assault flourished: here and there confusion arose and different kind discrepancies. The course towards the development of virgin and fallow lands preserved the extensive path of development of agriculture.
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 a while summer holidays, sent mechanics on seasonal business trips.
The development of virgin lands proceeded at an accelerated pace: if in two years it was supposed to plow 13 million hectares, then in reality 33 million hectares were plowed. 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.
Through an extraordinary focus of funds and people, and 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. However, 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 soil erosion in 1962-1963. Dust storms have become a real disaster. Development of virgin lands
entered the stage of crisis, the efficiency of its cultivation fell by 65%.
From 1954 to 1955, 18 million hectares of land were raised in Kazakhstan. V huge quantities agricultural machinery, machinery and equipment were brought to the republic; local enterprises for the production of spare parts also rose. The communication network of Kazakhstan was also improving; housing construction proceeded at a rapid pace, new buildings were quickly erected, entire cities appeared almost in the bare steppe. Agriculture in 1953 - 1958 grew at a gigantic rate: the sown area expanded from 9.7 to 28.7
million hectares, the gross grain harvest from 332 million to 1,343 million poods. The ranks of the virgin lands were replenished with more and more new settlers: in March 1954, 250 thousand young Komsomol members arrived in Kazakhstan, as well as 23 thousand people from the ranks of the former soldiers of the Soviet Army.
Such grandiose project how 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 of the greatest importance: as positive as it was negative. Firstly, thanks to the pulling of all the forces of the country into the republic, new factories and plants appeared in Kazakhstan. New universities and colleges specialized in agriculture were opened. across the republic
railway lines, automobile lines were stretched, a communication system was being established. But at the same time, the widespread plowing of areas for agricultural land has caused irreversible unforeseen consequences. Perhaps the biggest negative point, which crosses out with a bold cross all the advantages of the new policy and all the ingenious merits of economists of that period, is erosion. Huge crop areas were literally swept away by winds quite typical for
Northern Kazakhstan. In a short time most the fertile layer was blown away by the wind. All work on the development of virgin lands was lost. The original nomadic economy of the Kazakhs, which had developed over the centuries, was also violated - large territories suitable for pastures disappeared. Nature has been irreparably damaged.
Results
In total, over the years of developing virgin lands in Kazakhstan, more than 597.5 million tons of grain were produced.
After the end of the campaign, about six million Russians and Ukrainians from the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR remained in the Kazakh SSR. However, their number began to decrease after the collapse of the USSR and the acquisition of statehood by Kazakhstan - hundreds of thousands of Slavs rushed back to their homeland. In 2000, 100 thousand people emigrated from Kazakhstan to Russia, in 2001 - 80 thousand, in 2002 - 70 thousand, in 2003 - 62 thousand, in 2004 - 64 thousand people.
The virgin epic changed the appearance of a number of territories of the RSFSR bordering with Kazakhstan. In particular, in 1963 the Ust-Uisky district of the Kurgan region was renamed Tselinny, and the village. Novo-Kocherdyk in the village. Virgin. During the development of virgin lands, more than 1.5 thousand young people from Kurgan, Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, and Moscow regions arrived in the Ust-Uysky district.
About 4,000 virgin lands were awarded orders and medals, among them 5 Heroes of Socialist Labor.
The decision to develop virgin and fallow lands - causes and approaches
The decision on the course for the development of virgin and fallow lands was one of the first made by N. S. Khrushchev, which was caused by serious economic problems, and first of all, the aggravation of the food situation in the country.
In the early 50s. in the country there was a tense situation with bread. The average grain yield did not exceed 9 centners per hectare. In 1953 a little more than 31 million tons of grain were harvested, and 32.4 million tons were spent on food and other needs. Party and government bodies were forced to pay attention to the situation in agriculture, associated with a whole range of reasons. The September (1953) Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU pointed to the neglect of agriculture and outlined measures to improve lagging industries. These areas included increasing the yield of grain crops, comprehensive mechanization of agricultural production, etc. The decisions of the Plenum did not contain a direct call for the beginning of the mass development of virgin lands, but the implementation of the tasks set at it logically led to this.
“In the state farms of Kazakhstan, the Trans-Volga region, the Urals, Siberia, there are large tracts of fertile virgin lands that must be developed for sowing grain and, above all, for sowing wheat,” Pravda wrote on January 7, 1954. in the advanced "In every possible way to improve the work of state farms." On January 15, this topic was raised again in an editorial. Then there are constantly publications devoted to meetings of agricultural workers, at which these problems are actively discussed.
On February 11, 1954, the appeal of the Central Committee of the CPSU to voters was published in connection with the upcoming elections in The Supreme Council THE USSR. This was the first document of the Central Committee of the CPSU, which proclaimed a course for the mass development of virgin lands to solve the problems of agricultural production. The first secretary of the Altai Regional Committee of the CPSU, N. Belyaev, wrote at the same time: “A comprehensive study of land use has shown that in Altai it is possible in the next two years to increase the area under spring wheat and other crops without large capital expenditures.” The February-March (1954) 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" and put forward the task of selecting and delimiting land plots. First of all, lands from the most fertile fallow and virgin lands, unproductive hayfields and pastures located inside settlements to expand the sowing of grain crops no later than June 14, 1954. This attitude can be traced, for example, in an article by P. Lobanov, Minister of Agriculture of the RSFSR, published on March 16, 1954 in the newspaper Altaiskaya Pravda.
Thus, the state leadership chose an extensive path of agricultural development, which was associated with the desire to solve the food problem at minimal cost. “There was a discussion: to develop agriculture in an intensive or extensive way. The arguments for 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 ... ".
Contrary to the established thesis about the dominance of one point of view in the Soviet state apparatus, Khrushchev's decision provoked discussions. In the press there was a struggle with those who did not believe in the expediency of plowing virgin lands. Among them were agricultural specialists and employees of scientific agricultural institutions. Significant doubts about the profitability of development were expressed by scientists and specialists directly on the ground - in districts, collective farms, MTS and state farms. Opponents of the development of virgin lands were also discussed at the session of the Altai Regional Council of Deputies (February 1954).
The opponents of the virgin lands were also in the center, among them - V. M. Molotov, which was noted by the December (1958) Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, which summed up the results of the first years of development. Speaking against this measure, a number of major leaders of the party and the state tried to prove the economic inefficiency of the development of virgin lands.
The fight against dissidents was decisive and sometimes took extreme measures. Experienced agronomists tried to defend the center of future soil erosion from plow plowing, and they could be accused of anti-virgin sentiments. But at the same time, they tried to prove not only the expediency of developing new lands, but also gave a number of practical tips on the agricultural technology of their cultivation.
But after 1954 there were still individual specialists and scientists in the region who, not wanting further plowing, up to hayfields and pastures, took it upon themselves to slow down the search for new land resources.
The learning process: successes and challenges
For the selection of land in the spring of 1954, land management expeditions were formed. In the Altai Territory, for example, for this purpose, special commissions were created from specialists, collective farmers, and state farm workers. A team of specialist scientists from the USSR Academy of Sciences took an active part in the selection of virgin lands in Altai. The team visited 13 districts of the region, different in soil and climatic conditions, its specialists held consultations, a meeting at which a single work plan for development was drawn up. The first results of this work were summed up in May 1954. special commission. They were not entirely satisfactory. As of May 31, 19,095 thousand hectares were selected from the land selection plan for the region in 2 million hectares. Subsequently, part of these lands was rejected by soil scientists. Failure to fulfill the plan for the selection of virgin lands was also noted in the Ministry of State Farms of the RSFSR as a whole. This is primarily due to lack of time.
The second most important task was to mobilize people for the mass development of virgin lands. It was conducted through the party, Soviet authorities, as well as through the press. The Komsomol organization, which mobilizes young people for the development of virgin lands, paid much attention and space to virgin affairs. Local Komsomol organizations took an active part in the implementation of virgin works. It should be noted the active response of society, young people, first of all, to the call. In different ways, the first virgin lands got to the places of development. A significant part of them arrived on Komsomol vouchers. By March 13, 1954 in the country as a whole, about 25,000 people went to the virgin regions on Komsomol vouchers. By the end of June, more than 75,000 people had left for the virgin state farms. For three summer period(1954 - 1956) 130 thousand people arrived in Siberia on virgin lands on Komsomol vouchers, i.e. more than a third of all virgin lands in the country. Of these, 50 thousand people were local residents. More than 51 thousand people arrived in the Altai Territory during this period of time on Komsomol vouchers (there were only 13 thousand locals).
It should be noted that people were motivated to develop virgin lands not only by enthusiasm, but also by economic interest. The benefits for virgin lands were considerable and included, for example, for specialists, one-time severance payments in the amount of a three-month salary (salary) received at the place of their previous work. They also paid the costs associated with moving to new job. All machine operators were given increased wages, an additional surcharge for crops harvested in excess of the plan, etc.
The next problem was the preparation for the reception and accommodation of new settlers. To carry out work on organizing a meeting and distribution of volunteers, distribution commissions were created, points of reception and distribution of newly arrived settlers were equipped, where Komsomol activists were on duty around the clock. An appeal to provide machine operators who came to develop new lands with good living conditions was sent to Komsomol members and youth. This initiative was reported at the XII Congress of the Komsomol. The first echelons with volunteers began to arrive in Altai at the end of February. The central newspapers widely covered in reports and correspondence the events connected with the dispatch and meeting in Altai of the first echelon from Moscow. Izvestia, Pravda, Komsomolskaya Pravda wrote about this.
In the first virgin months, new settlers were accommodated in the existing housing stock, tents and wagons. Difficulties with housing were considered temporary and newspapers reported the inconvenience experienced by the virgin lands as the heroism of people who do not pay attention to this in the name of achieving the goal before them. high purpose. But not everywhere good housing was organized for new settlers. living conditions. Articles appear in the press about serious shortcomings, problems, everyday disorder of the new settlers, their appeals indicating unacceptable living conditions. It should be noted that harsh measures were taken against the leaders who allowed such a situation, up to and including expulsion from the party and dismissal from work. The issue of the poor arrangement of new settlers in the virgin lands was considered even by the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the CPSU. The organization of public catering, the provision of other household services. There were not enough doctors, medicines and stationary medical facilities in the virgin lands. This problem was gradually solved. According to a certificate on the state of medical care for those working in the development, in the first months, the Altai Territorial Health Department allocated 10 disinfection cameras, 50 doctors, city organizations took patronage over 14 rural areas. On the initiative medical workers A hospital was created in the Moscow region in the Romanovsky district.
Another problem that needs to be addressed is the training of personnel. Many of the first virgin lands did not have sufficient skills to work on the land. They needed to be trained in rural trades. That is why from the first days of development in many state farms, cities and districts, special courses were created for teaching mass professions. Annually for the summer period in many cities, commissions were created to select volunteers to participate in the harvest. At individual enterprises, in large educational institutions, virgin staffs functioned all year round. At a number of factories and universities, training courses for machine operators worked in the winter. But in general, the training of machine operators was slow, for which all the responsible bodies were repeatedly criticized on the pages of both the central and regional press. development of virgin land soviet
The patronage of industrial and construction organizations over collective farms, MTS and state farms assumed a wide scope. For example, all industrial enterprises and construction projects of Barnaul assumed obligations to provide patronage assistance to MTS and state farms: 23 industrial enterprises and construction sites of the city were patrons of 18 collective farms in the Barnaul rural, Pavlovsky and Kalman regions, 24 enterprises provided patronage assistance to 30 MTS of the region.
Another area of activity during the development of virgin lands is the reorganization of forms of ownership in agriculture. Following the thesis about the temporary, transient nature of collective-farm-cooperative property, the country's leadership considered the construction of new state farms the main way to develop virgin lands, and also began to pursue a policy of mass transformation of collective farms into state farms, turning collective farm peasants into agricultural workers. For 1954-1955. 425 large grain state farms were created in the virgin regions of the country. But in Siberia, the rise of virgin lands fell mainly on the share of collective farms. Of all the land developed in Siberia, state farms accounted for only 17 percent, for collective farms - 83. A large number of them were created on the basis of multi-land collective farms. In July 1954 at the III Plenum of the Regional Committee of the CPSU, it was reported that by this time 10 new grain state farms had been organized in the region.
The first months of development was a very acute problem of providing the virgin lands with the necessary machines and mechanisms. By the spring of 1954. 50,000 tractors (in terms of 15 horsepower), 6,300 trucks, and other equipment and materials were brought to virgin areas. Only MTS Altai Territory received this year 14,674 general purpose tractors, 7,748 grain harvesters. Only the Altai Tractor Plant in 1954 gave the agriculture of the region more than 6 thousand DT-54 tractors. And yet, in the first months, there was not enough equipment on the virgin lands. The quality of the tractors, plows, and seeders made by the “assault method” was also not the best - they often break down, and there are not enough spare parts for them. Chief Engineer appealed to the heads of enterprises manufacturing agricultural machinery, their teams with a request to strengthen control over the quality of manufactured machines. The shortage of machinery and its low quality were especially clearly felt during such a responsible agricultural campaign as harvesting. An acute shortage of vehicles is felt in many farms. The problem of fully meeting the needs of the region in agricultural machinery has not lost its relevance in the coming years.
The development of virgin and fallow lands was complicated by a number of difficulties: the deep nature of most areas, their low population, a sparse network of highways and railways, the lack of a sufficient number of repair bases, fuel depots, grain receiving points, etc. One of the main problems in the region were roads, or rather their almost complete absence in the virgin areas. Due to the autumn-winter impassability, even with a sufficient number of cars, grain was not exported in time from the largest virgin regions of the region in terms of yield, which led to huge losses of already harvested grain.
The construction of the necessary infrastructure was the key to the success of the development of virgin lands. In the first virgin year, great efforts and funds were planned to be invested in the construction of elevators and grain warehouses, the mechanization of grain cleaning, etc. In February 1955 The Ministry of Urban and Rural Construction of the USSR was entrusted with the construction of 215 new state farms and 193 MTS, as well as grain warehouses with a total capacity of 1560 thousand tons and to complete what had been started in 1954. construction of 95 state farms. From the cities of the RSFSR to the virgin regions, 70 construction trains were sent, numbering more than 14 thousand workers and specialists. In connection with the wide scope of industrial and housing construction in a number of virgin areas, including Altai, special trusts were organized. They carried out the bulk of the work on the construction of elevators, access roads, highways, the development of water supply and communications.
But here, too, serious shortcomings were noted - industrial construction methods were little used, grain storage projects were drawn up without taking into account local conditions, errors were made in the documentation. The quality of many facilities erected and under construction was very low, the funds allocated for construction were poorly utilized. Construction plans were thwarted. There were difficulties with the storage of grown grain. Dryers and granaries were still lacking. The removal of bread stored all winter in riots was not organized in a timely manner
Summarizing, it can be noted that the problem of providing the virgin lands with the necessary machines and mechanisms, the construction of the necessary buildings and structures has not been fully resolved. There were not enough machines and mechanisms, they were of poor quality, they often broke down. was very low and professional level professionals working for them. the volume of construction was so great that construction organizations could not cope with it. About half of all housing in the virgin lands was built by the new settlers themselves. Sometimes they built at night, after field work. The creation of the necessary cultural and living conditions was also relevant for the virgin lands.
Results of development of virgin and fallow lands
In December 1958, Khrushchev, summing up the results of the first five years of the development of virgin and fallow lands, spoke at the next plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU and with the results of the first five years of the development of virgin lands. He stated that the development of virgin and fallow lands was the most accessible and fastest source of increasing grain production. Already developed virgin and fallow lands gave an increase of 18 million tons of grain. Despite the huge losses of grain in almost all virgin regions, the annual gross grain harvest in the USSR doubled. And the Omsk region even exceeded the average Union figure. In 1956, its harvest reached the level of 1.76 million tons).
The first assessments of the results of the development of virgin lands were often enthusiastic. Thus, the Omskaya Pravda newspaper of July 15, 1954 noted: “The collective farms and state farms of Siberia have sowed about two million hectares of grain crops on new lands in the spring of this year. The collective farms and MTS of the Altai Territory, which fulfilled the plan by 169 percent, the Tyumen Region - by 169 percent, the Omsk Region - by 163 percent and the Novosibirsk Region - by 138 percent, were especially successful in the development of virgin and fallow lands.
The unrestrained exploitation of new lands in a matter of years undermined their resources. In the early sixties, the yield of Siberian virgin arable land fell. Soil erosion has become a scourge, catastrophically intensified due to improper plowing. Eyewitnesses talk about mountains of land near forest belts and bare fields, on which, like on asphalt, grains of sown wheat rolled. Yields fell to 3 centners per hectare or even less. It was this picture that Sergey Iosifovich Manyakin, who headed the Omsk region in August 1961, found in the village. An agronomist by education, he immediately drew attention to the fact that such a sad picture is not in all farms, began to understand and found out that good harvests in those farms where a non-moldboard plowing system is used. The introduction of this system immediately gave tangible results. The yield increased to 20 centners per hectare, and in other areas it was over 30 centners. In 1982, more than 2 million tons of bread were handed over to the state. The region took one of the first places in the country in the production of so-called "strong" wheat.
The uplift of virgin lands was carried out without careful consideration of the susceptibility of soils to wind and water erosion, using moldboard plows. Plowing was carried out on large continuous arrays. Monoculture of spring wheat for 5-8 years, annual moldboard plowing led to rapid clogging and spraying of the soil, a sharp decrease in yields over large areas. Wind erosion was added to the drought. The desire of local leaders not only to fulfill, but also to exceed the planned plowing targets, also played a negative role. In pursuit of figures, floodplain lands, flood meadows and pastures were plowed. Often the land near the village was cut off to the very outskirts.
The desire of leaders at all levels, both "at the top" and "on the ground" to immediately obtain tangible results, led to haste both in determining the timing of achieving the goals and in choosing the methods for their implementation. The appearance of unprecedented success was created, "records" and "initiatives" were born. In each region, territory, republic, “beacons” appeared - exemplary farms (collective farms, state farms, brigades, links) and individual workers (mechanic operators, livestock breeders), on which the rest should be equal. At the same time, everyone understood that special conditions were created for such farms.
The traditional form of animal husbandry, which has developed in the Kazakh steppes since ancient times, will be fully preserved in the coming years. The forcible imposition of non-traditional activities such as farming and grain production can subsequently turn these lands into deserts. In these steppes, serious farming is difficult for two types of reasons - natural and economic. Severe winters and dry summers in a number of regions will lead to the death of crops, and all labor will be in vain. It would be one thing if the lands in Kazakhstan were rich in black soil. But this is not the case, and the impression of fertility that arises is deeply deceptive. In addition, water resources to ensure bountiful harvests in Kazakhstan are insufficient.
Mambetali Serdalin-Shubetov, in a report before the Senate Commission on the Development of Trade in the Russian Empire, March 8, 1890
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 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.
The development of virgin lands has turned into another campaign, supposedly capable of solving all food problems overnight. Hand-to-hand and assault flourished: here and there confusion and all sorts of inconsistencies arose. The course towards the development of virgin and fallow lands preserved the extensive path of development of agriculture.
Enormous resources were focused on the implementation of this project: for - years. 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.
The development of virgin lands proceeded at an accelerated pace: if in two years it was supposed to plow 13 million hectares, then in reality 33 million hectares were plowed. For - gg. 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.
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 grain produced in the USSR. However, the desired stability, despite the 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 soil erosion in - years. dust storms have become a real disaster. The development of virgin lands has entered the stage of crisis, the efficiency of its cultivation has fallen by 65%.
When we have already opened a large number of hectares of virgin land, terrible dust storms occurred in Kazakhstan. Clouds of earth rose into the air, the soil was weathered. If the economy in the steppe conditions is carried out culturally, then long-known means of erosion control, tested in practice, are used, including planting protective stripes from tree plantations: difficult and expensive, but justified. There are also certain agricultural practices. People have to reckon with natural processes and adapt to them, opposing their fiction wild nature. But, no matter what happened there and despite all the difficulties, virgin bread remained the cheapest.
Results
In total, over the years of developing virgin lands in Kazakhstan, more than 597.5 million tons of grain were produced.
After the end of the campaign, about six million Russians and Ukrainians from the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR remained in the Kazakh SSR. However, their number began to decrease after the collapse of the USSR and the acquisition of statehood by Kazakhstan - hundreds of thousands of Slavs rushed back to their homeland. In 2000, 100 thousand people emigrated from Kazakhstan to Russia, in 2001 - 80 thousand, in 2002 - 70 thousand, in 2003 - 62 thousand, in 2004 - 64 thousand people.
The virgin epic changed the appearance of a number of territories of the RSFSR bordering Kazakhstan. In particular, in 1963 the Ust-Uysky district of the Kurgan region was renamed Tselinny, and with. Novo-Kocherdyk in the village. Virgin. During the development of virgin lands, more than 1.5 thousand young people from the Kurgan, Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, Moscow regions arrived in the Ust-Uysk region.
About 4,000 virgin lands were awarded orders and medals, among them 5 Heroes of Socialist Labor.
Criticism
Virgin land began to develop prematurely. It was, of course, nonsense. In this size - a gamble. 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 offered 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.
Reflection in art
In the spring and summer of 1954, a group of artists consisting of T. Salakhov, D. Mochalsky, L. Rabinovich, V. I. Basov, M. I. Tkachev, V. E. Tsigal and others went to the virgin lands to study sketches. The artists who visited there in the first days and months of the development of virgin lands plunged into the very thick of a difficult life. They endured the same hardships as the virgin lands themselves and lived in the same tents and wagons. The result of the artists' trip was "an exhibition of works by Moscow artists made on trips to virgin and fallow lands" held in Moscow in 1954.
In philately
see also
- The dusty pot is a similar environmental disaster in the United States in the 1930s.
Links
- d/f How it was: Tselinny Construction Team 1967 (video)
Notes
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See what "Virgin Land Development" is in other dictionaries:
In 1954, the development of virgin lands began. Echelons with building materials, prefabricated panel houses, agricultural machinery, mobile power plants, trucks. To virgin lands with machine operators ... Wikipedia
The development of virgin lands is a set of measures to eliminate the backlog of agriculture and increase grain production in the USSR in 1954 1960 by introducing vast land resources into circulation in Kazakhstan, the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia, and the Far East. ... ... Wikipedia
virgin lands- , s, f. Previously uncultivated, never plowed lands In Kazakhstan, Siberia, the Urals and the Volga region, which were developed in 1954-1960. Hundreds of thousands go to the virgin lands. Youth, 1955, No. 1, 80. Have you heard about virgin lands? Which… … Dictionary the language of the Soviets
The Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917. Formation of the Soviet Socialist State democratic revolution served as a prologue October revolution. Only the socialist revolution... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
This term has other meanings, see Pavlodar (meanings). The city of Pavlodar Flag Coat of arms ... Wikipedia
Urensky district Country Russia Status municipal area Included in the Nizhny Novgorod Region Administrative Center ... Wikipedia
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 the development of the country's food complex were among the main ones in economic policy 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 free 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: rapid development new lands with the same 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 constant increase 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, using chemicals and increasing 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, North Caucasus, Central Black Earth region, some areas 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 others water arteries and reservoirs will have a negative impact on all sectors of the economy of the regions adjacent to the virgin lands, especially on 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 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. 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 which, however, fundamentally new agrobiological and technical methods were required, including the development breeding work, which takes into account both 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.
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 in the Volga region, Western Siberia and in the Urals - 17, and in northern regions Kazakhstan - 26 million. 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, the wheat harvest increased significantly in the virgin lands and, therefore, in the country. 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 consumption agriculture chemical fertilizers, according to official figures, has more than doubled: virgin lands required a growing number of "injections", subsequently infecting 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 Money, 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 millions of 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...
Virgin lands are called lands that are covered with natural vegetation and have not been plowed up for centuries. Fallow lands are arable lands that are not cultivated long time. Virgin and fallow lands differ from old arable lands in that they contain large quantity humus - humus and elements of mineral nutrition of plants. The dense interweaving of the root system of virgin soil vegetation has formed a finely cloddy soil structure. The plowed chernozem virgin lands are fertile, well absorb water, free from weeds, while the soils of old arable lands become structureless as they are used, poorly absorb water and become clogged with weeds - companions of many cultivated plants.
In the USSR in 1954-1960. development was carried out large areas virgin lands. This was due to the fact that the country, which did not have time to heal the wounds inflicted by the Great Patriotic War experienced an acute shortage of grain and other agricultural products. At the same time, in Kazakhstan, the regions of the Volga region, the Urals, Western and Eastern Siberia, Far East there were huge tracts of undeveloped lands that accumulated their fertility for centuries. Their development would make it possible to very quickly improve the provision of the population with food, and the industry with agricultural raw materials.
An extremely important and urgent national economic task was put forward - to develop these lands as quickly as possible. In March 1954, the February-March 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." At the call of the party, hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts went to the areas of virgin lands development, of which over 500 thousand people were on Komsomol vouchers. In the bare, uninhabited steppe, the first virgin lands set up tents and set to work. I had to work in difficult conditions, regardless of the time, but people knew how important what they were doing for the country, and did not spare their efforts. Only in 1954, 425 virgin state farms were created in the northern regions of Kazakhstan and Siberia. Technique for them was given by many industrial enterprises. Orders for virgin lands were placed under the control of the state and were carried out in the first place. For 1954-1956 41.8 million hectares of virgin lands and fallows were plowed up. By 1960, the area under crops in the virgin regions had almost doubled, and grain production had almost tripled. By 1961, by 1961, the state had not only fully repaid the funds invested in the development of virgin lands (37.4 billion rubles in 1954-1959), but also had 3.3 billion rubles of net income due to the additional production received.
The share of virgin farms accounted for about 40% of the gross grain harvest in the country (their specific gravity in state purchases of grain was about 50%). They also produced and sold to the state sugar beets, sunflowers, milk, meat, wool and other agricultural products. Along with agriculture, industry developed in the virgin regions, and a network of scientific institutions was created. All this transformed the appearance of entire regions, contributed to the strengthening of the country's economy and the growth of people's well-being.
At the same time, I had to deal with many things: land management of new and expanding old farms; the choice of places for the estates of the newly created state farms; reception and accommodation of hundreds of thousands of people in a completely uninhabited steppe; the construction of dozens and then hundreds of state farm settlements; selection of many thousands of specialists; the creation of friendly, close-knit teams from a heterogeneous mass of people and, finally, the direct organization of the lifting of virgin soil and the first spring sowing. Great work has been done and important work, as a result of which “a gigantic agro-industrial complex was formed in this region, the influence of which powerfully affected the development of the entire economy of the country. And the virgin epic on this earth once again showed the whole world the noblest moral qualities Soviet people. She became a symbol of selfless service to the Motherland, a great accomplishment of the socialist era ”(L. I. Brezhnev).
Young people, members of the Komsomol, made their great contribution to this nationwide feat. For participation in the development of virgin and fallow lands of the Komsomol in 1956, he was awarded the Order of Lenin.