ВИНОГРАДАРСТВО ЧЕЧЕНСКОЙ РЕСПУБЛИКИ В СОВЕТСКОЕ ВРЕМЯ (1954−1991), УСПЕХИ И ПРОБЛЕМЫ

Abstract

The article discusses issues related to the unsuccessful introduction of viticulture in the administrative regions of the Chechen Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, where grapevine culture was new or non-traditional. These regions are Malgobeksky, Kurchaloevsky, Shalinsky, Grozny-Selsky districts. It has been established that the main reason for the spread of viticulture was the state’s desire to employ unemployed population and the high profitability of the industry. For this purpose, collective and state farms, which previously specialized in the cultivation of grain crops, feed production and livestock breeding, were restructured. The state allocated sufficient funds and material resources for the formation and functioning of a new sub-sector of the agro-industrial complex of the republic in these areas. However, hopes were not justified. The reasons that contributed to attempts to accelerate the introduction of grapevine culture in the “new” regions of the republic, as well as the failure of work in this direction, have been identified. An analysis of the activities of farms involved in the development of viticulture in these areas was carried out. Excesses of higher authorities have been established in planning for wine state farms the volume of new plantings of vineyards, achieving the planned yield and gross grape harvest, as well as planned targets for financial and economic indicators, and in the absence of proper consideration of soil and climatic factors and their compliance with the economic and biological characteristics of the grape culture. As a result, it was revealed that this crop was not adaptable to local conditions, which was reflected in the low survival rate of plantings, the high sparsity of plantings and their unprofitability for further exploitation. All wine farms were unprofitable. The factor of psychological incompatibility of the local population to this culture also had a certain influence. At the same time, all these undesirable phenomena intensified due to the fact that they coincided with the time of the weakening of the foundations of the state under the slogans of perestroika, the fight against alcoholism and drunkenness, and later − with the tragic events of the collapse of the USSR and their negative consequences. It is concluded that the widespread involvement of “new” regions in the development of viticulture was not a fully thought-out campaign. This led, in particular, to disastrous results: the vineyards were written off before they reached productive age. In the future, introducing grapevine culture here is not economically feasible.