The Problem of Soviet Agricultural Regionalization

Abstract

It was not surprising that after the death of Stalin, early in 1953, the new regime should take another look at the condition of Soviet agriculture. While agricultural output had probably reached prewar levels, the needs of the state had risen, too, especially since the urban population had continued to grow steadily. Responding to the problem of insufficient supply,' the regime introduced a number of projects and reforms designed, if not to solve, at least to alleviate some of its aspects. Millions of acres of little used or unused land were plowed and cultivated; there were attempts to improve the livestock feed base through the wider cultivation of corn; the Machine and Tractor Stations were abolished and the system of procurements was changed; and further efforts were made to increase yields per acre through improved methods of land utilization. Still more comprehensive in its scope was the call for a national inventory of both the natural and economic conditions of crop cultivation and livestock raising, objective was the establishment of a more scientific scheme of agricultural regionalization of the country in order to ensure more effective planning than had hitherto taken place. As Professor Saushkin pointed out in his lectures at the University of Oslo in 1956, this objective was related to the great concern being shown by the Soviet government for the development of agriculture with a view to increasing production sufficiently to satisfy the needs of the people of the country itself and to permit export.2 In this enormous endeavor the geographer was asked to make a contribution. Indeed, the nature of his work was discussed in editorials which appeared early in 1954 in the two leading Soviet geographical journals. The planning of a rational distribution of agricultural activities throughout the Soviet Union, it was emphasized, is impossible without taking into consideration the natural conditions of production. The geographer, whose main role lies in determining the natural characteristics of the various parts of the country, is able to make a significant