Russia 5 Years After Stalin-8

...Another crash program, initiated in 1954 by Khrushchev and apparently opposed by Georgi Malenkov, called for a large extension of grain acreage in the semiarid zone beyond the Volga and the Urals...

...Kremlin policy toward the private sector since then has zigzagged—now restrictive, now relaxing...

...the program would have made for higher and more stable yields of crops, and would have obviated the need for plowing up large areas of marginal land...

...He knew the country and agriculture only from films...

...the collectives, presumably, will buy only the machinery they actualyy need...

...Unlike the United States, which has been grappling with surpluses, the Soviet Union has suffered from chronic agricultural underproduction...

...Its expansion springs from the need to bolster the lagging supply of fodder...

...Nevertheless, most of the increase in cash receipts by collectives was distributed to the peasants, according to recent statistics given by Khrushchev...

...This would seem to bar any mass transformation of collectives into state farms in the near future...

...But there is no doubt that the Kremlin's ultimate objective is to end the dichotomy between dwarfism and giantism in Soviet agriculture by eliminating the former...

...Initially, true, the attitude of the post-Stalin administration toward the private sector—the small "acre and a cow" holdings of collective-farm peasants, which are particularly important in animal husbandry—has been more favorable than during the late Stalin era...

...Skilled workers in MTS received n.,( only higher wages (paid mostly by collectives) than other farm workers, but were also entitled to guaranteed minimum payment, which is retained under the new system...

...The present Soviet rulers have been groping for ways to streamline the collective-farm system, but some of the expedients adopted in the name of greater efficiency, such as the wholesale merger and enlargement of collectives, have in many cases worked in the opposite direction...

...Within the collective framework, however, there has been a significant shift of emphasis toward economic incentives, which had been grossly neglected in the late Stalin era...

...On the other hand, the management of the collectives tended to rely too much on the MTS and often to make unreasonable demands...

...Regimentation of collective farms has not diminished, despite some decentralization of agricultural planning, because the rural Party apparatus has been considerably reinforced and its control of agriculture tightened since 1953...

...Unofficial estimates also point to an improvement in grain production, which is basic in the Soviet economy...

...The Soviet leaders have tried various organizational experiments, including conversion of collectives and MTS into state farms...

...Not the least of the advantages which Soviet agriculture has gained from the passing of Lysenkoism is the resumption of scientific contacts and exchanges with the West...

...More promising may be the reorganization of the state machine-tractor stations (MTS) now in process...

...Future articles in this series will deal with education, industry, labor and the army...

...It is reported that 43 per cent of the gainfully employed population was engaged in agriculture and forestry in 1955 and 1956, as compared with 56 per cent in 1937...

...Evidently, Stalin thought that it was actually so...

...In addition to mergers, more recently a number of collective farms were converted into or absorbed by state farms...

...After September 1930, however, the cooperative MTS were taken over by the state, and collectives have had no voice in running them...

...There has been nothing remotely comparable in Russia to the retreat from collectivization in Poland and Yugoslavia...

...A little more than 100 million metric tons of all grains was produced in 1955 and about 100 million tons or a little less in 1957, when a serious drought reduced yields in a number of regions...

...Barring sizeable imports, this shortage could be overcome only by increased production of grains, potatoes and other forage crops...

...In August 1957 a Central Committee Secretary, Leonid Belyaev, called for plowing of 30 to 37 million acres of additional land in the next two to three years, mainly in sections of Siberia less subject to drought...

...Yes, we told him, but he did not support us...

...This should make it easier to pinpoint managerial responsibility in collectives...

...Farm Income: Apart from the recent reorganization of machine-tractor stations (about which more below) and the enlarged role of state farms, the basic structure of Soviet agrarian collectivism has remained intact...

...Under the MTS system of payment and work planning, some operations (such as plowing) were more profitable to the MTS than others, although the latter were equally or even more useful to the collectives...

...5, 1958), explicitly favors the coexistence of collective and state farms...

...In the course of the last four vears, about 90 million acres of virgin or long uncultivated land were plowed and planted, principally to spring wheat...

...Many films so pictured kolkhoz life that the tables were bending from the weight of turkeys and geese...

...There are now less than 80,000 collectives—or less than a third of the number eight years ago...

...Post-Stalin agricultural policy has also attempted to discourage migration to industry by skilled agricultural workers (tractor drivers, combine operators, etc...

...Acutely aware of the decades of Bolshevik promises to improve low living standards and conscious that the public expected them to begin fulfilling those promises, Stalin's successors faced the obstacle of inadequate farm production...

...This is the area in which the Stalin regime experienced considerable difficulty in the early 1930s with the rapid expansion of the so-called "grain factories," or large state mechanized farms...

...Average crop yields per acre are bound to be low, especially if the land is not fallowed to restore the fertility of the soil...

...The collectives, moreover, are considered "ripe" for the purchase of MTS machinery because of the increased income (resulting from higher prices for farm products) which can be channeled for such purposes...

...That Soviet capital outlays for agriculture are far more limited than for heavy industry is also demonstrated by the abandonment of Stalin's large, costly program of irrigation development in semi-arid European sections of the USSR...

...A record crop, between 115 and 120 million metric tons, was harvested in 1956...

...Hence, the MTS frequently concentrated on these "profitable" operations to the disadvantage of the collectives it served—sometimes even to the detriment of crop yields...

...Much new land would have to be brought under cultivation to maintain that total...

...Pooling of farm equipment, with a view to maximizing its use, was originally at the root of the establishment of MTS in the first stages of collectivization...

...Corn used to be a relatively minor crop in Russia, except in a few southern districts...

...The present position of the Kremlin, as expounded by Khrushchev in his speech before the Supreme Soviet (Pravda and Izvestia, March 28, 1958) and in Kommunist by Glotov (No...

...A more economical distribution of farm machinery is also expected, since the MTS had to accept whatever implements were allotted, needed or not, with consequent wasteful accumulation of inventory...

...No adequate figures are available, however, on the more important component of peasants' incomes—payments in kind, which are mostly in grain...

...The state farm sector also increased because of the expansion on the virgin lands beyond the Volga and the Urals...

...Lazar Volin is an expert with the Foreign Agricultural Service of the U.S...

...Moreover, in the cases when production data were published, as for milk and meat lin connection with Khrushchev's bizarre campaign to catch up with the U.S...

...The series began in our issue of March 24 with a discussion of foreign policy by David J. Dallin...

...But Khrushchev made it plain in September 1953 that the stress on the private sector in livestock production was merely temporary...

...But good harvests in 1955 and 1956 should not be overlooked, and the increased cash receipts took place against a ridiculously low base...

...But this past experience proved no deterrent...

...Until recently, the MTS owned most of the tractors and other modern machinery and operated it for the collectives with payments in farm produce...

...Because Stalin never traveled anywhere, did not meet city and kolkhoz workers...

...Self-government in the collectives has become even more of a fiction, and the gulf between the management and the rank and file increased, with the enlargement of the collectives...

...he did not know the actual situation in the provinces...

...in per capita production of these commodities), the figures appear to be too high...

...It is, of course, impossible for the outside world to know whether the shrewd Stalin was actually taken in, as Khrushchev asserted, by the screen glamor of kolkhoz life...

...Finally, the absorption of the MTS by collectives revives speculation: Is the reformed kolkhoz to remain the predominant Soviet farm unit...

...In subsequent issues, Boris I. Nicolaevsky discussed the Communist party, Gleb Struve literature, Richard Pipes nationalities, Simon Wolin the secret police, Vladimir Gsovski law, and Myron Rush the economic managers...

...Actually, most of the Soviet Union is climatically unsuitable for growing corn as grain (as in the U.S...

...In this connection, Khrushchev has warned against the other extreme— economy-minded kolkhoz managers trying to reduce their equipment requirements too much...

...Influenced by American experience of high yields, Khrushchev, who has long been a corn enthusiast, initiated a crash program in 1955 to increase corn acreage from some 11 million acres to about 70 million...

...It is possible, of course, for the Soviet Union to bring considerable areas of marginal land under cultivation so long as the objective is some increase of production above seed requirements, regardless of costs...

...There was also a reduction of peasant earnings because of the declining value of sales on the free kolkhoz market...

...If collectives really do have a freedom of choice in this matter, incidentally, it will create a novel situation for the state farm-implement industry...

...Nonetheless, a general improvement in peasant earnings has probably occurred, compared with the lean days under Stalin...

...corn acreage, instead of increasing further, declined by about 25 per cent...

...to improve their training, and to bring agricultural specialists and technicians closer to the grassroots...

...He has written for Foreign Affairs and scholarly journals...

...There is no doubt that the Soviet Union paid dearly for Lysenkoism, especially in the field of plant breeding...

...And a considerable proportion of the increased cash income of the collectives was siphoned off into increased capital and current production expenses for machinery, buildings, fertilizer, etc...

...The collectives themselves, too, have increased capital accumulation and outlays out of their higher income...

...Barring new forms of regimentation, the kolkhoz managers should now be able to make and carry out decisions more promptly—without the constant need of coordination and often bickering with the MTS...

...Better economic incentives and greater inputs of equipment, commercial fertilizer, etc., also helped...

...As a result of these higher procurement prices, the collective farms and their members reportedly received nearly 185 per cent more from the Government in 1957 than in 1952...

...A considerably larger acreage and good weather conditions in a number of regions in 1955 and 1956 were responsible...

...But such a practice, to which the Government is theoretically committed, would considerably decrease the total area under crops...

...There is little to distinguish between the two types with respect to state regimentation...

...In 1957, state farms accounted for more than 25 per cent of the total sown area as compared with around 10 per cent in 1953...

...Structural Changes: Although agricultural collectivization has proved an inefficient instrument for increasing production both in Russia and the satellite states, it has remained a cardinal principle of Khrushchev's farm program...

...In theory, a state farm represents a more thoroughgoing form of collectivization than a collective farm, and some believe that it will become the dominant Soviet farm type in the future...

...This was formalized by legislation in March and April...

...But grains—especially corn and wheat—have received special attention...

...In His "secret" report at the 20th Communist Party Congress in February 1956, Nikita Khrushchev frankly admitted the troubles in agriculture which Stalin's successors inherited: "All those who interested themselves even a little in the national situation saw the difficult situation in agriculture, but Stalin never even noted it...

...Of the four years since this program has been in operation, two, 1955 and 1957, were years of severe drought in a large part of this area...

...In fact, more rather than less collectivization has characterized the post-Stalin years...

...There was some evidence of such a trend toward state farming before the reform...

...A very short growing season, frequent devastating droughts over a large part of this area and rainy harvest periods are serious limiting factors in these "new lands...

...This trend—an alternative solution of the problem of "two bosses on the land" may continue, perhaps at a slower tempo, with respect to weak collectives which still have to rely on MTS services...

...But peasant purchasing power continues to be limited by the high prices, poor distribution and inferior quality of manufactured consumers' goods—despite some betterment and promise of more to come, the familiar "scissors" stemming from the persistent Soviet overemphasis on heavy industry to the neglect of light industry...

...Nevertheless, corn is still being energetically pushed by Khrushchev, to whom it is a "queen of the fields...

...But in 1957 a setback occurred...

...More than 40 million people are thus working in Soviet agriculture, compared with less than 10 million in the U.S., But a much larger proportion in the Soviet Union are women...

...But past experience teaches that a complete turnabout can rapidly take place in Soviet policy...

...The larger part of the Soviet corn area is, therefore, harvested for silage or green forage before the corn reaches maturity...

...because it is either too cold or too dry...

...The key practical difference is that peasants in collectives share in its income after the state obtains its share, whereas state-farm workers are paid regular wages...

...In addition, there are frequent mobilizations of the city population to help with the harvest, a practice which Khrushchev has criticized...

...Or is it merely the "next to the last step" toward mass conversion of collectives into state farms, with peasants joining the wage-earning proletariat de jure and thereby gaining the advantage of a regular wage...

...Thus, the new reform should favor increased farm efficiency and economy—provided that a new economic squeeze is not put on the collectives and their members, that regimentation from above is not increased, that the trained personnel of the MTS is properly integrated and paid"', that adequate repair facilities and supplies of new machinery, spare parts, and fuel are available at reasonable cost, and so on...

...The increase in acreage of more than 20 per cent between 1953 and 1957, coupled with favorable weather conditions in many important regions in 1955 and 1956, were mainly responsible for a brighter production picture...

...This figure may have been reduced by subsequent spoilage because of inclement harvesting weather and lack of adequate storage and drying facilities...

...But they fall far short of the goal of 180 million metric tons for 1960, specified in the now-abandoned Sixth Five Year Plan...

...Productivity: Improvement of yields per acre has been more heavily stressed in the past two years than in the earlier post-Stalin period...

...If the mighty Stalin could afford to flee reality or disregard it, his heirs were not in the same position...

...LIVESTOCK IN THE USSR1 (Million head) All Sheep Year_Cattle_(Cows)_Hogs_& Goats 1928 66.8 ( 33.2 ) 27.7 114.6 1938¦ 59.8 — 32.3 75.0 1953 56.6 (24.3) 28.5 109.9 1958 66.7 (31.4) 44.3 130.0 1 Official figures for territory within present boundaries, month of January...

...The enlargement of the size of the collectives, with a consequent reduction in the number of collectives served by the MTS, made the dichotomy of management even more incongruous...

...And the fact that more than 90 per cent of the managers of collectives are Party members, and that many are also college-educated specialists, tends in the Kremlin's eyes to diminish the need for close supervision— which had increasingly become a prime function of the MTS...

...It was also dictated by the growth of population and the Government's strong desire to stockpile food reserves for "any eventuality...

...This is the path which the post-Stalin regime has largely followed...

...This seems to be the case, even though Khrushchev recently went out of his way to praise Lysenko in public...

...Resources: The post-Stalin administration has stepped up capital investment in agriculture...

...The proportion of the total labor force engaged in Soviet agriculture, though decreasing, is still very high...

...Therefore, the possibility of a "last, decisive" drive of this kind cannot be ruled out...

...And these films had dressed up and beautified the existing situation in agriculture...

...But the increasing consciousness of cost considerations in official circles, and the fact that increasingly poorer land would probably have to be tapped, militate against large-scale further expansion on the marginal land and may even bring about a cutback...

...The term is a misnomer, since agricultural settlement of these regions began more than half a century ago...

...More recently, retention of high-school graduates as workers on farms has been a phase of the general tendency to limit the expansion of the white-collar class...

...The kolkhoz management will also have greater incentive for better care and more economic use of machinery now that it is owned and operated by the collective itself...

...Corn and Wheat: The objective of increased production and farm efficiency, at which all of the above measures aim, extends practically to the whole range of farm products, from cotton to tea...

...This was particularly true in cases where one MTS served only a single large collective...

...Whatever the effectiveness of these measures, there can be little question of the value of the apparent loosening of the Lysenkoist grip on agricultural research...

...This is evident from the continued wholesale mergers and enlargement of the collectives, a campaign which began under Khrushchev's direction in Stalin's last years...

...But quod licet Jovi Tion licet bovi—what is lawful to Jupiter is not lawful to the ox...

...In addition to state-owned MTS, there was an even larger number of units cooperatively owned by the collectives...

...A genuine expansion of agricultural production, therefore, was crucial to any improvement of living standards...

...Department of Agriculture...

...Nevertheless, how far Soviet agriculture lags behind the United States in modern equipment may be illustrated by a comparison of the numbers of tractors on farms: At the end of .1956, the Soviet Union (with roughly 480 million acres under crops) had 892,000 tractors as against 4.6 million in the United States (with an acreage of about 150 million acres less...

...No actual production data were published for most of the important farm crops (except as percentage changes of an undefined base), even though a large quantity of other statistical material has been released in the past two years by the Soviet Government...

...He may have been fooled by the exaggerated official crop figures, based on so-called "biological yields" of unharvested crops, which did not allow for harvest losses and other distortions...

...But apparently there has been some improvement in the meat and (especially) dairy situations due to the increase in the number of livestock (see the accompanying table), and a better supply of feed...

...Did we tell Stalin about this...

...Increased farm production, with a strong emphasis on higher farm efficiency, has been a major goal of the post-Stalin administration, with Khrushchev in command from the very beginning...

...Collectivization, which reversed the historic Russian trend toward small peasant land tenure, has thus far been much more conducive to the traditional, extensive agriculture, to acreage expansion and to extraction by the state of large quantities of farm products at low cost to itself, than it has been to increased production per acre or per man...

...The number of collectives was reduced from more than 250,000 at the beginning of 1950 to less than 100,000 in March 1953...

...Where Stalin wished (according to Khrushchev) to raise taxes on collective farms to fantastic levels, his successors quickly moved to diminish state exactions—mainly by raising the prices which the Government pays to the collectives for farm products...

...With hardly any preparation, the corn area was boosted to nearly 60 million acres in two years...

...But the institutional structure of collective farming, contrary to Marxism as interpreted by Lenin and Stalin, has not generated the kind of efficiency which is essential to an improvement of yields...

...But it is necessary to point out that appraisal of Soviet agricultural production is still hampered by lack of adequate statistics...

...Earlier proposals for the sale of the MTS machinery to collectives were staunchly opposed by Stalin in his last work, The Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR, published in October 1952...

...On the other hand, Stalin may have remained deliberately indifferent to the condition of agriculture, continuing to sacrifice it on the altar of rapid and lopsided industrialization, to which it has long been contributing what he coyly defined in 1929 as "something of a tribute...

...The peasants' status is still epitomized by an old kolkhoznik in a conversation with a Soviet bureaucrat in Nikolai Zhdanov's fine short story, "A Trip to the Homeland," in the celebrated second volume of Literary Moscow: "You, then, are the bosses, we—the producers...

...These figures compare favorably with 80-85 million metric tons, the estimated average production of all grains in 1950-54...

...Finally, there should be a reduction of administrative expenses as a result of the reorganization...

...Despite the formal requirement of an annual contract, which is supposed to spell out the operations to be performed by the MTS and the mutual obligtions of the latter and the collectives, the managements of the two organizations often did not see eye to eye on where, how and when to use tractors and other implements to greatest advantage...

...The MTS system as it developed, however, resulted in considerable duplication, friction and inefficiency in farm management...

...This was particularly true of the livestock sector, where, in addition to inefficient management and heavy Government exactions, a shortage of fodder was a serious stumbling block...

...While this increases the current feed supply, it is debatable whether corn-growing under such conditions is preferable to other feed crops, better adapted to climatic conditions...

...Then, on January 22, 1958, Khrushchev, in a speech in Minsk, outlined a radical plan for gradual dissolution of the MTS and sale of their machinery to the collectives...

...This more liberal attitude was reflected in a substantial tax relief, which led by 1953 to the complete abolition of all compulsory deliveries of farm products by such private holdings...

...But the decision in favor of collectives was made on pragmatic grounds to eliminate what Khrushchev and others have epitomized as "two bosses on the land...

...Judging from the rather lengthy theoretical arguments of Khrushchev and others justifying the new reform, opposition apparently persists on the part of some Communists to whom a state MTS is a higher type of "socialism" than a kolkhoz...

...A rather frank and extremely interesting discussion of the whole relationship between the collectives and the MTS began, of all places, in the literary monthly, Oktyabr (November 1957...

...The MTS became a powerful arm for state control of collective agriculture...

...The farm labor force also increased somewhat with the mobilization of urban youth for permanent settlement in the "new lands" regions of the East...

...2 Rough unofficial estimates for annexed postwar territory added to official estimates for prewar Soviet territory...

...Perhaps Stalin believed the spectacular promises of high agricultural production "just around the corner," springing from the kind of pseudo-science (which he patronized) typified by the notorious Trofim Lysenko and much of the "great Stalin plan of reconstruction of nature...