Soviet Agriculture

Abstract

As late as 1959 nearly one-third of the employed persons in the Soviet Union were engaged in some sort of farming; even twenty years later, over a fifth of the labour force still remained in this sector. Agriculture has been the cinderella of the Soviet economy, and the inability to solve in acceptable ideological terms some of its most crucial problems remains a serious constraint on development in other sectors. Despite its importance to an economy that has sought for so long to be as self-contained as possible, agriculture has been for many Soviet people a symbol of the past, with the position of farming and farmers adversely influenced by social attitudes moulded by Marxist-Leninist dogmata based essentially on an urban-industrial philosophy. Not only was the countryside starved of necessary investment, but it was expected to feed the whole population and at the same time provide labour for the new industries and inhabitants for the new towns. In the prevailing atmosphere the most able and progressive country people sought their fortunes in the new urban-industrial milieu. As the urban population grew and demanded better living standards, the task of the farmers became more difficult, with agricultural produce sorely needed at home frequently sold abroad to finance purchases not of farm machinery but of specialised industrial equipment.