Tauger Agrarian Studies USSR
This paper briefly presents the development of my ideas about Soviet agriculture and the famine of 1931-1933 and some of the issues that this research has raised. It omits my work on India and world agriculture, which I would be happy to discuss.
The standard view sees Soviet collectivization as a policy of exploitation, a view based on certain Marxist theories and a very selective use of evidence. The standard view also holds that the famine of the early 1930s was the result of collectivization. A related interpretation views the famine as genocide aimed against allegedly rebellious nationalists.
My research has shown that the famine resulted from drought, plant disease and pest infestations that caused two years of crop failures. I argue that this famine has to be understood in a broader context of earlier famines and Soviet agricultural sciences. I showed that the famines of the 1920s, not mentioned in previous studies, led Soviet leaders to resort to collectivization to restructure Soviet agriculture on the model of American mechanized farming, as an attempt to overcome its vulnerability to environmental disasters.
Another important context is the history of Soviet agricultural sciences. The literature is split over the ability of Trofim Lysenko to distort Soviet biological research. Some studies focus on Lysenko’s victims such as N. I. Vavilov and overstate Lysenko’s impact; others show that many scientists evaded his domination. The case of Pavel Luk’ianenko shows that there were scientists in the USSR who witnessed the famine, understood its environmental causes, and worked to improve Soviet agriculture to prevent these disasters despite Lysenko.
My research challenges the widely-held and publicized interpretation of the 1933 famine as a man-made famine that the Soviet regime allegedly imposed on Ukraine and other regions like Kazakhstan, to suppress political opposition or for other reasons. My work shows that these arguments usually misuse evidence, avoid contrary evidence, and misrepresent or ignore alternative interpretations.
the famines of the 1920s, not mentioned in previous studies, led Soviet leaders to resort to collectivization to restructure Soviet agriculture on the model of American mechanized farming, as an attempt to overcome its vulnerability to environmental disasters
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