The food crisis in the USSR (1963): law, liquidation of agricultural enterprises, hunger and malnutrition, development of virgin lands and migration of the population

The article examines the causes and miscalculations of the food crisis in the Soviet state of 1962–1963. The issues of consolidation of collective farms, development of virgin lands, limiting the size of household plots, population migration, socio-economic protests, grain exports, corn companies, excessive chemicalization of stale lands, weather conditions are considered. It is revealed that the adoption of the resolution of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPSU for the RSFSR of August 20, 1958 “On the prohibition of keeping livestock in the personal property of citizens living in cities and working settlements” had a negative impact on the food supply of the population of the country. The withdrawal of horses and cattle from private subsidiary farms led to an increase in the state livestock, which in turn was reflected by the lack of specialized facilities for their maintenance and the general shortage of fodder crops, due to the lack of a fodder base, the productivity of the state livestock significantly decreased. The issues of introducing the rate of release of bakery products in one hand and the purchase of bread from strategic opponents have been studied. It is shown that the policy of pressure on collective and personal subsidiary farms of peasants, by the method of economic coercion, did not work. The population in the vast expanses of the state was starving. It was revealed that insufficient funding of science, the lack of necessary infrastructure, bakeries, mills, adapted warehouses, machinery and technologies, administrative positions constantly introduced on the basis of agricultural enterprises, which ate up a significant part of the budget, did not contribute to the efficiency of the industry. It is recommended, at present, when implementing state and regional programs for the development and reform of the agricultural sector, to take into account the practical experience of previous generations.