RESIDENTS OF KOSTROMA REGION ON UNBROKEN VIRGIN SOIL IN 1954–1964

Abstract

The virgin land campaign of 1954–1964 became a bright page in the national history and an example of the labor heroism of Soviet citizens. Its results were contradictory. On the one hand, in the difficult post-war years, the state managed to temporarily relieve food tension; on the other hand, plowing of large land plots in the east of the country resulted in an environmental disaster, which subsequently caused a new food crisis in the USSR, which led to grain purchases abroad. The lessons of the virgin epic are relevant today. In today’s rapidly changing world, the state must provide its citizens with food security, besides, Russia has a great agricultural potential. One of the main tasks of the Soviet state at the time of the new lands development was the task of providing qualified workers to the developed areas in order to get crops in a short time. Many regions of the country, under the draft of the Communist Party, were to send volunteers to empty lands. Residents of Kostroma region and other regions of the Soviet Union took an active part in the virgin land campaign and contributed to the development of the country’s agricultural sector. The study of archival materials, memoirs of campaign participants, periodicals makes it possible to establish what role the residents of Kostroma region played in implementing the virgin land campaign. The article contains excerpts from the participants’ memoirs about the course of the campaign, the working process and examines the results of the work carried out by Kostroma people on the virgin land. This information throws new light on the problem under study and gives us an opportunity to look at the events of the past years from another aspect.