The 1932 Grain Harvest

Abstract

In 1932 the Soviet Union experienced another poor harvest. The drive to obtain grain — even in reduced amounts — led to widespread deaths from famine in Ukraine, the North Caucasus and the Volga regions, following the crisis in Kazakhstan which began in the previous year. The famine reached its climax in the spring and early summer of 1933.¹ Its demographic, political and economic consequences haunted the Soviet system throughout the 1930s — and long after.