Yield Statistics of Grain Crops in Siberia in the 1920s

Abstract

The USSR crop yield statistics in the 1920s was based on the methods that had been used in the Russian Empire. Its monitoring was focused on the consecutive collection of information on species and biological yields, the results of the first harvests from voluntary correspondents, and was concluded in sample autumn surveys of peasant farms. The average yield in the subordinate territory was determined by regional expert commissions. The yield calculated on the basis of the processing results of the received materials was multiplied by the crop area. In the 1920s, peasants would conceal the size of their crops and cultivated areas from accounting, as they saw fiscal purposes in the actions of state statistical representatives. Statistical agencies, in order to find out the extent of undercount, carried out control measures, used the materials of budget and other surveys. Improving the methodology for determining the magnitude of the undercount led to periodic adjustments to the official data. As a result, it was impossible to plot sufficiently extended annual series of the dynamics of crop yields and gross yields of grain crops in Siberia in the 1920s. Nevertheless, the available statistical materials make it possible to determine the main trends in the grain production dynamics.