The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931-1933

by R. Davies, S. Wheatcroft

Overview

This book examines the Soviet agricultural crisis of 1931-1933 which culminated in the major famine of 1933. It is the first volume in English to make extensive use of Russian and Ukrainian central and local archives to assess the extent and causes of the famine. It reaches new conclusions on how far the famine was 'organized' or 'artificial', and compares it with other Russian and Soviet famines and with major twentieth century famines elsewhere. Against this background, it discusses the emergence of collective farming as an economic and social system.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230238558
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	12/23/2003
Series:	Industrialisation of Soviet Russia , #5
Edition description:	2004
Pages:	555
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

R. W. DAVIES is Emeritus Professor of Soviet Economic Studies in the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham, UK, of which he was the foundation director. He has published many books and articles on Soviet history, including Soviet History in the Gorbachev Revolution, Soviet History in the Yeltsin Era, Soviet Economic Development from Lenin to Khrushchev, and four previous volumes in the series The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia. He collaborated with E. H. Carr on vols. 9 and 10 of The History of Soviet Russia. He is an honorary life member of the British Association of Slavonic and East European Studies.

STEPHEN G. WHEATCROFT is Professor in Russian and Soviet History at the University of Melbourne, Australia, where he was the First Director of the Centre for Russian and Euroasian Studies. He has written many articles on agriculture and population in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.

Table of Contents

List of Tables ix

Preface to Revised Edition xiii

Preface to 2004 Edition xxi

1 The Second Collectivisation Drive, 1931 1

2 The Second Phase of Dekulakisation, 1931 20

3 The 1931 Grain Harvest 48

(A) The Autumn Sowing, 1930 48

(B) The Spring Sowing 53

(C) The Harvest 65

4 Grain Collections from the 1931 Harvest 79

(A) The Collection Plan 79

(B) The Campaign 91

5 The 1932 Grain Harvest 105

(A) The Autumn Sowing, 1931 105

(B) The Spring Sowing, 1932 107

(C) The Harvest 123

6 Grain Collections from the 1932 Harvest 137

(A) The Grain Collection Plan for 1932/33 137

(B) First Stage of the Campaign, July-November 1932 142

(i) Resistance 144

(ii) Enforcement 162

(iii) Relaxation 181

(C) The Desperate Battle for Grain, December 1932-February 1933 185

(i) The revised grain distribution plan, December 9, 1932 185

(ii) The December collections 187

(iii) The January 1933 collections 197

(iv) The grain collections and the January plenum 201

(D) Grain in the Time of Famine, February-July 1933 204

(i) Famine 204

(ii) The First All-Union Congress of Kolkhoz Shock Workers 207

(iii) The grain collections 209

(iv) Relaxation and repression 211

(v) The grain budget 224

7 The 1933 Grain Harvest 231

(A) The Autumn Sowing, 1932 231

(B) The Spring Sowing, 1933 233

(C) The Harvest 239

(D) Measuring the Harvest 243

8 Grain Collections from the 1933 Harvest 250

(A) The Law on Compulsory Deliveries 250

(B) The Grain Plan 259

(C) The Collections 262

9 Crops Other than Grain 268

(A) Food Crops 269

(i) Sugar beet 269

(ii) Potatoes and vegetables 274

(iii) Vegetable oils 283

A note on 'decentralised collections' of food 288

(B) Industrial Crops 291

(i) Cotton 291

(ii) Flax 298

10 The Livestock Disaster 301

(A) The Drive for Socialisation, Autumn 1930 to December 1931 301

(B) The Retreat from Socialisation, 1932/33 309

(C) The Kazakh Catastrophe 321

(D) The Outcome 326

11 The Sovkhozy 332

12 The Kolkhozy 348

(A) State Control of the Kolkhoz 351

(B) The Structure of the Kolkhoz 364

(C) The Kolkhoz Brigade 370

(D) The Income of the Collective Farmer 375

(i) Remuneration from the kolkhoz: the problem of the labour day 375

(ii) Remuneration from the kolkhoz: payment in money 382

(iii) Remuneration from the kolkhoz: payment in kind 384

(iv) The household plot 389

(v) Earnings from otkhodnichestvo 392

(E) Money Income as a Whole 397

13 The Famine in Perspective 400

(A) Famines before 1930 402

(i) 1891/92 402

(ii) The double famine of 1918-22 403

(B) The Urban Food Crisis of 1928-33 406

(C) The Famine in Kazakhstan 408

(D) The Rural Famine of 1932-33 409

(i) Areas affected by the famine 409

(ii) Deaths from the famine 412

(iii) Excess deaths by region 415

(iv) Excess deaths by social group 417

(v) Use of food substitutes 421

(vi) Cannibalism 421

(vii) Food assistance 424

(viii) Movement control 426

(ix) Disease 429

(E) Causes of the Famine 431

(i) Background 431

(ii) Why did agricultural production decline so precipitately? 434

(iii) Coping with the famine crisis 440

Appendix: A Note on the Grain Harvests 442

Tables 448

Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations used in Text 514

Abbreviations of Titles of Books and Periodical Publications, etc., used in Footnote 521

Bibliography 522

Name Index 533

Subject Index 538

Editorial Reviews

'A truly remarkable contribution to research into this important field.' - Robert Conquest, Hoover Institution

Reviews of The Soviet Economy in Turmoil, 1929-1930 (volume 3 of the Industrialisation of Soviet Russia)

'Like the first two volumes in this series, this volume is a model of vigorous scholarship. Davies' research is impeccable, and simply unsurpassed in Western Sovietology. The writing is clear and often gripping.' - Lynne Viola, Russian History

'If the purpose of understanding the past is to better understand the present, then this book will be important reading for all interested in the Soviet industrialisation process and both its short-term and long-term outcomes. This book is a worthy fourth volume to the Industrialisation of Soviet Russia series. It is surely destined to become the standard work on its subject.' - Robert C. Stuart, American Historical Review

'This volume enormously enhances our understanding of Stalin's great breakthrough. Surely this is required reading for all concerned with the Stalin years.' - Hirokai Kuromiya, Russian Review

Reviews of Crisis and Progress in the Soviet Economy, 1931-1933 (volume 4 of the Industrialisation of Soviet Russia)

'Davies thus manages to convey not only the substance but also the passion of policymaking, not only the (generally) failing living standards of most soviet citizens but also their strategies for coping when they could cope; and not only the amplitudes of production but also the texture of the time. The complimentary volume on agriculture is eagerly awaited.' - Lewis Siegelbaum, The Russian Review

'With his usual calm approach, free of politicising, the author, firmly grounded in his subject, describes in detail all the main aspects of the economic history of the three years in which Soviet society survived another crisis and the foundations were laid for future economic growth.' - Svobodnaya mysl (Moscow)

'Robert Davies is unquestionably among the most prolific and distinguished scholars in the field of history and the leading authority on Soviet industrialisation. His multi-volume history of the Soviet economy during the 1930s is not only a mammoth undertaking, but one of great importance to our understanding of Stalinism and Soviet history more generally.' - David L. Hoffmann

'...Davies has made another enormous contribution to our understanding of Soviet industrialisation. We eagerly look forward to future volumes in this series.' - David L. Hoffmann, Slavic Review

'... anyone who wants to follow in detail the economic and demographic history of the rural transformation of Soviet Russia can do no better than consult this magisterial volume.' - Peter Gatrell, Business History

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