Production of Livestock Products in the Sverdlovsk Region in the «Glorious Decade»: Reform Testing

The relevance of the research is due to the great interest shown by the Russian society to the historical period studied in the article. The purpose of writing the work was to study the dynamics of gross production of the main types of livestock products (meat, milk and wool) by all categories of farms in the Sverdlovsk region during one of the most interesting and problematic periods in the history of the Soviet state. The novelty of the research is determined by the use of materials from three archives: the Russian State Archive of Economics (RGAE), the Center for Documentation of Public Organizations of the Sverdlovsk Region (TSDOOSO) and the Current archive of the Territorial Body of the Federal State Statistics Service for the Sverdlovsk Region (TOFSGSSO). It is emphasized that in the history of the USSR it is difficult to find such a contradictory historical period as the rule of N.S. Khrushchev. It is argued that the reforms implemented in the agricultural sector in the 1950s were insufficiently thought out and inconsistent. The authors state that N.S. Khrushchev sincerely wanted to provide food to the Soviet people, but could not find the right way for this. Attention is focused on the fact that the essence of N.S. Khrushchev's agrarian policy was the completion of the process of «defarming» and the transformation of the peasant-collective farmer into a «worker with a vegetable garden». It is proved that a number of negative phenomena, the initiation of which is reproached by the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, have not been slowed down by his successors. It is concluded that it is N.S. Khrushchev became the last sincere reformer of agriculture and the economy of the Soviet Union as a whole on the basis of fully socialized property.