Andreenkov Sergey N.,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Qualitative Characteristics of Grain Resources of the RSFSR in the Second Half of 1950s (Notes of the Minister of Grain Products of the RSFSR to the Central Committee of CPSU)
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2020-3-18
The two notes of the Minister of Grain Products of RSFSR N.E. Proshunin sent to the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1957 and 1958 are introduced into scientific use. They provide information on the status of grain resources of republic, reflecting extremely difficult situation in this area. Extremely low quality of grain coming to the state was a result of harmful flora and fauna spreading in the fields, lack of a sufficient number of grain warehouses and elevators equipped with modern machines for drying, cleaning, sorting and storing grain, and large crop losses during its transportation. Documents indicate that the normal supply of the population with bread products was in danger. The most difficult situation with providing the urban population with grain products was in Western Siberia with the start of large-scale development of virgin and fallow lands. On the verge of disruption was the grain collection to the state reserve, seed reserves and export lots. Proposed by N.E. Proshunin measures to overcome the grain deficit consisted in lowering the requirements for its quality and using low-quality flour in production of bread. But the most effective way to fill the shortage of high-quality grain was to obtain its missing volumes from the state’s strategic grain reserves. Information on the extremely low quality of grain received by the state make it possible to correct the established views on the history of development of virgin lands in the eastern regions of the USSR. The author concludes that this campaign, organized for the sake of quick and permanent solution of the food problem, did not fulfill its task. Provision of the population with grain products certainly increased, but the supply disruptions nonetheless persisted. Moreover, they took place even in the most productive years.
Publishing: 29/06/2020
How to cite: Andreenkov S.N. Qualitative Characteristics of Grain Resources of the RSFSR in the Second Half of 1950s (Notes of the Minister of Grain Products of the RSFSR to the Central Committee of CPSU) // Historical Courier, 2020, No. 3 (11), pp. 188–197. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2020/ISTKURIER-2020-3-18.pdf
Links: Issue 3 2020
Keywords: food deficit; virgin land campaign; grain production; grain quality; Ministry of Bread Products; grain resources