Virgin Lands Campaign (1 janv. 1954 – 1 mars 1963)

Description:

An attempt to raise grain production by convert large areas of Kazakhstan and Siberia into farming land.

1954: The first Virgin Land harvest exceeded expectations. The total output of grain for Virgin Land regions in 1954 was 14,793,000 tons greater and 65% higher than the average grain yield for the period of 1949-1953

1955: The 1955 Virgin Lands crop fell far below expectations due to a severe drought in the virgin land regions, especially Kazakhstan, which received only one-tenth of its normal rainfall. Even though the total sown area in 1955 was almost double that of 1954, the grain harvest went down by 35% from 1954 in Kazakhstan.

1956: Khrushchev discouraged the use of crop cycle and fallow land for quick results, and had failed to provide the farms with fertilisers. The fertility of the land gradually disappeared and in the 1960 half of the farm land was ruined. Many volunteers lost their enthusiasm and left the campaign. And the climate in Kazakhstan and Siberia were not made for farming.

1957: The 1957 harvest was a failure. Virgin Land’s grain output decreased 40% from 1956, and 18% for the total Soviet Union grain output

1958: The 1958 harvest was a particularly good one, reaching 58,385,000 tons of grain

1959: Growing season was extremely rainy, causing many difficulties. Harvest was 6% lower than the previous year. After Khrushchev’s trip to the US, he decided that Russia too would produce a lot of corn, as he had seen the cornfields of Iowa. The rich fields of Ukraine were turned into maize fields. However, this was a serious failure as maize was grown on 37 million hectares of land, but could only be harvested on 7 of these. This plan failed due to the weather in Urkraine being unfit to grow (too damp). MTS stations were abolished on the countryside.

1960: One of the worst years for agriculture during the program

1961-63: Productivity of the Virgin Lands underwent a steady decrease following the harvest of 1958. In 1963 Khrushchev began an initiative to widely expand fertilizer production and availability, and ordered 60 new fertilizer factories to be built.

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