KHRUSHCHEV’S AGRICULTURAL REFORMS

Collective farms were made larger

• 121 000 Kolkhoz became 44 000 between 1950 and 1960

Higher prices were paid for produce in order to reduce rural poverty

MTS came under the control of the Agriculture ministry

National initiatives including the Virgin Land Campaigns

Village life affected after the campaign against the Orthodox Church after 1957

THE VIRGIN LAND CAMPAIGN

One of Khrushchev’s most famous policies, it intended to transform agricultural production by cultivating unused land in Kazakhstan, Siberia, and the lower Volga regions

500 000 farmers and workers were allotted to introduce theses changes

Cultivation was boosted in the short term, but in the long term, soils could not support crops and the infrastructure could not support development.

Famine struck in 1963, further evidence of the failure of the policy.

SUCCESSES AND FAILURES

Khrushchev sympathised with the farmers and visited them regularly

Standards of living improved and the roads became better

Production rose and peasant consumption of consumer goods increased

Comparisons could be made directly with the 1920s and the period before the First World War

Khrushchev’s policies were akin to those of Stalin and his big ideas of central planning, especially in agriculture and industry

Investment was needed in transport instead of farming where it was directed

Khrushchev’s critics saw the failures in agriculture as evidence of his failures as a ruler.

A gap still existed between the rural and urban income

Benefits of pensions, social security, housing, travel, and access to cultural opportunities remained unequal between town and country