Traditional form animal husbandry, which has developed in the Kazakh steppes since ancient times, will be fully preserved in the coming years. The forcible imposition of non-traditional activities such as farming and grain production can subsequently turn these lands into deserts. In these steppes, serious farming is difficult for two types of reasons - natural and economic. Severe winters and dry summers in a number of regions will lead to the death of crops, and all labor will be in vain. It would be one thing if the lands in Kazakhstan were rich in black soil. But this is not the case, and the impression of fertility that arises is deeply deceptive. In addition, water resources to ensure abundant harvests in Kazakhstan are insufficient.
Mambetali Serdalin-Shubetov, in a report before the Senate Commission on the Development of Trade in the Russian Empire, March 8, 1890
The development of virgin and fallow lands in 1954 began mainly with the creation of state farms. The development of virgin lands began without any preliminary preparation, with a complete lack of infrastructure - roads, granaries, qualified personnel, not to mention housing and a repair base for equipment. natural conditions steppes were not taken into account: sandstorms and dry winds were not taken into account, sparing methods of soil cultivation and varieties of grain adapted to this type of climate were not developed.
The development of virgin lands has turned into another campaign, supposedly capable of solving all food problems overnight. Hand-to-hand and assault flourished: here and there confusion and all sorts of inconsistencies arose. The course towards the development of virgin and fallow lands preserved the extensive path of development of agriculture.
Enormous resources were focused on the implementation of this project: for - years. virgin lands absorbed 20% of all Soviet investments in agriculture. Because of this, the agrarian development of traditional Russian farming areas remained unchanged and stalled. All tractors and combines produced in the country were sent to the virgin lands, students were mobilized for a while summer holidays, sent mechanics on seasonal business trips.
The development of virgin lands proceeded at an accelerated pace: if in two years it was supposed to plow 13 million hectares, then in reality 33 million hectares were plowed. For - gg. 41.8 million hectares of virgin lands and deposits were raised. In the virgin lands, only in the first two years, 425 grain state farms were created, agricultural giants were created later.
Thanks to the extraordinary concentration of funds and people, as well as natural factors, the new lands in the early years gave super-high yields, and from the mid-1950s - from half to a third of all grain produced in the USSR. However, the desired stability, despite the efforts, was not achieved: in lean years, even the seed fund could not be collected on the virgin lands, as a result of the violation of the ecological balance and soil erosion in - years. dust storms have become a real disaster. The development of virgin lands has entered the stage of crisis, the efficiency of its cultivation has fallen by 65%.
When we have already opened a large number of hectares of virgin land, terrible dust storms occurred in Kazakhstan. Clouds of earth rose into the air, the soil was weathered. If the economy in the steppe conditions is carried out culturally, then long-known means of erosion control, tested in practice, are used, including the planting of protective strips from tree plantations: a difficult and expensive business, but justified. There are also certain agricultural practices. People have to deal with natural processes and adapt to them, opposing your fiction to wild nature. But, no matter what happened there and despite all the difficulties, virgin bread remained the cheapest.
Results
In total, over the years of developing virgin lands in Kazakhstan, more than 597.5 million tons of grain were produced.
After the end of the campaign, about six million Russians and Ukrainians from the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR remained in the Kazakh SSR. However, their number began to decrease after the collapse of the USSR and the acquisition of statehood by Kazakhstan - hundreds of thousands of Slavs rushed back to their homeland. In 2000, 100 thousand people emigrated from Kazakhstan to Russia, in 2001 - 80 thousand, in 2002 - 70 thousand, in 2003 - 62 thousand, in 2004 - 64 thousand people.
The virgin epic changed the appearance of a number of territories of the RSFSR bordering Kazakhstan. In particular, in 1963 the Ust-Uysky district of the Kurgan region was renamed Tselinny, and with. Novo-Kocherdyk in the village. Virgin. During the development of virgin lands, more than 1.5 thousand young people from the Kurgan, Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, Moscow regions arrived in the Ust-Uysk region.
About 4,000 virgin lands were awarded orders and medals, among them 5 Heroes of Socialist Labor.
Criticism
Virgin land began to develop prematurely. It was, of course, nonsense. In this size - a gamble. From the very beginning, I was a supporter of the development of virgin lands on a limited scale, and not on such a huge scale that we were forced to invest huge amounts of money, incur colossal expenses, instead of raising what was already ready in the inhabited areas. But it is impossible otherwise. Here you have a million rubles, no more, so give them to virgin lands or already settled areas where there are opportunities? I offered to invest this money in our Non-Black Earth region, and gradually raise the virgin lands. They scattered the funds - a little bit of this, and that, but there is nowhere to store the bread, it rots, there are no roads, it is impossible to take it out. But Khrushchev found an idea and rushes like a savras without a bridle! This idea does not definitely solve anything, it can help, but to a limited extent. Be able to calculate, estimate, consult what people will say. No - come on, come on! He began to swing, bit off almost forty or forty-five million hectares of virgin land, but this is unbearable, absurd and unnecessary, and if there were fifteen or seventeen, it would probably be more useful. More sense.
Reflection in art
In the spring and summer of 1954, a group of artists consisting of T. Salakhov, D. Mochalsky, L. Rabinovich, V. I. Basov, M. I. Tkachev, V. E. Tsigal and others went to the virgin lands to study sketches. The artists who visited there in the first days and months of the development of virgin lands plunged into the very thick of a difficult life. They endured the same hardships as the virgin lands themselves and lived in the same tents and wagons. The result of the artists' trip was "an exhibition of works by Moscow artists made on trips to virgin and fallow lands" held in Moscow in 1954.
In philately
see also
- The dusty pot is a similar environmental disaster in the United States in the 1930s.
Links
- d/f How it was: Tselinny Construction Team 1967 (video)
Notes
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .
- Michurin, Ivan Vladimirovich
- Rodrigues Island
See what "Virgin Land Development" is in other dictionaries:
Development of virgin lands (Pavlodar region)- In 1954, the development of virgin lands began. Echelons from all over the USSR went to Kazakhstan from building materials, prefabricated panel houses, agricultural machinery, mobile power plants, trucks. To virgin lands with machine operators ... Wikipedia
Development of virgin lands
Development of virgin and fallow lands- Development of virgin lands a set of measures to eliminate the backlog Agriculture and an increase in grain production in the USSR in 1954 1960 by introducing vast land resources into circulation in Kazakhstan, the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia, the Far East. ... ... Wikipedia
virgin lands- , s, f. Previously uncultivated, never plowed lands In Kazakhstan, Siberia, the Urals and the Volga region, which were developed in 1954-1960. Hundreds of thousands go to the virgin lands. Youth, 1955, No. 1, 80. Have you heard about virgin lands? Which… … Dictionary the language of the Soviets
THE USSR. The era of socialism- The Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917. The formation of the Soviet socialist state February bourgeois democratic revolution served as a prologue October revolution. Only the socialist revolution... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Pavlodar- This term has other meanings, see Pavlodar (meanings). The city of Pavlodar Flag Coat of arms ... Wikipedia
Urensky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region- Urensky district Country Russia Status municipal area Included in the Nizhny Novgorod Region Administrative Center ... Wikipedia
The course towards the elimination of "unpromising" villages took place against the backdrop of investing huge funds and efforts for the development of virgin and fallow lands of the Volga region, South Siberia, Kazakhstan and Far East. The idea was correct, but the matter had to be carried out reasonably, gradually, without constant race and rush. The program was supposed to be long-term. However, everything was done in a hurry, everything turned into another campaign.
In 1954, the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU adopted a resolution "On a further increase in grain production in the country and on the development of virgin and fallow lands." The State Planning Committee of the USSR planned to plow in Kazakhstan, Siberia, the Volga region, the Urals and other regions of the country at least 43 million hectares of virgin and fallow lands. As the second secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan Zh. Shayakhmetov recalled: “There was a discussion: to develop agriculture in an intensive or extensive way. The arguments for intensification were much more convincing, but the leadership of the country of the Soviets, represented by N. S. Khrushchev, preferred an extensive path of agricultural development.
Khrushchev and his like-minded people put forward the idea to quickly plow up the virgin fallow lands at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU in June 1953, but then they received a rebuff from both the party leadership and many agricultural scientists, especially T. D. Lysenko. However, in 1954, the Khrushchevites were able to take over.
The accelerated development of virgin lands gave rise to several troubles at once. On the one hand, the development of virgin lands began without any preliminary preparation, with a complete lack of infrastructure - roads, granaries, qualified personnel, not to mention housing and a repair base for equipment. The natural conditions of the steppes were not taken into account: sandstorms and dry winds were not taken into account, sparing methods of soil cultivation and varieties of grain adapted to this type of climate were not developed. Therefore, the development of virgin lands has turned into another campaign, supposedly capable of solving all food problems overnight. Hand-to-hand and assault flourished, confusion.
Huge amounts of money, resources and efforts were invested in this hasty and ill-conceived project. So, for 1954-1961. virgin lands absorbed 20% of all Soviet investments in agriculture. Because of this, the agrarian development of traditional Russian farming areas remained unchanged or even began to degrade. This money could have been put to better use. Thousands of specialists, volunteers and equipment were thrown to the "virgin front". According to Komsomol orders, young people were driven to the Kazakh steppes, technical specialists were sent, and entire graduates of teachers, doctors and agronomists were sent. They also sent young collective farmers from "unpromising" places. In fact, it was a mass deportation of Russians from their native lands, which at that time were deserted.
On the other hand, huge areas of developed land in a few years began to turn into a desert and salt marshes. arose ecological problem. Again, a lot of money and effort had to be invested, now for rescue activities like forest plantations.
As V. Molotov later wrote: “Virgin lands began to be explored prematurely. It was, of course, nonsense. In this size - an adventure. From the very beginning, I was a supporter of the development of virgin lands on a limited scale, and not on such a huge scale that we were forced to invest huge amounts of money, incur colossal expenses, instead of raising what was already ready in the inhabited areas. But it is impossible otherwise. Here you have a million rubles, no more, so give them to virgin lands or already settled areas where there are opportunities? I proposed to invest this money in our Non-Black Earth region, and gradually raise the virgin lands. They scattered the funds - a little bit of this, and that, but there is nowhere to store the bread, it rots, there are no roads, it is impossible to take it out. But Khrushchev found an idea and rushes like a savras without a bridle! This idea does not definitely solve anything, it can help, but to a limited extent. Be able to calculate, estimate, consult what people will say. No - come on, come on! He began to swing, bit off almost forty or forty-five million hectares of virgin land, but this is unbearable, absurd and unnecessary, and if there were fifteen or seventeen, it would probably be more useful. More sense."
The virgin lands were raised in just four years. This was stated in 1959 by Khrushchev, the main initiator and inspirer of the virgin fallow campaign. Khrushchev himself at the 21st Congress of the CPSU in 1959 stated that "thanks to the successful development of virgin lands, it became possible not only to significantly improve the food supply of cities and industrial centers, but also to set the task of surpassing the United States in terms of agricultural development." In total for 1954-1960. 41.8 million hectares of virgin lands and deposits were raised. In the virgin lands, only in the first two years, 425 grain state farms were created, agricultural giants were created later.
The first result of the development of virgin lands was a sharp increase in agricultural production: in 1954, the USSR collected 85.5 million tons of grain (including 27.1 million tons on virgin lands), and in 1960 already 125 million tons (including virgin soil - 58.7 million tons Due to the extraordinary concentration of funds, people and equipment, as well as natural factors, new lands in the early years gave super-high yields, and from the mid-1950s - from half to a third of all grain produced in the USSR. However, the desired stability, despite efforts, was not achieved: in lean years, even the seed fund could not be collected on the virgin lands. As a result of the violation of the ecological balance and wind and chemical soil erosion, dust storms became a real disaster. Only in 1956-1958 from the virgin lands was " blown away "10 million hectares of arable land, in other words, the territory of Hungary or Portugal. The development of virgin lands has entered the stage of crisis, the efficiency of its cultivation has fallen by 65%.
In addition, by 1959, the sown area under grain and industrial crops in the Russian Non-Chernozem region, in the Central Black Earth region of the RSFSR and in the Middle Volga region was, on the whole, reduced by about half compared to 1953, including the sowing of traditional flax there - almost three times.
It should be noted that the problems of developing agriculture and ensuring food security countries have always occupied an important place in the policy of the Soviet leadership and have become one of the main ones in economic policy in post-war years. This was due to the severe consequences of the war. The damage caused by Hitler's hordes to agriculture Soviet Union, amounted to tens of billions of rubles. On the territory of the USSR occupied by the Nazis in previous years, it was produced (on a national scale): 55-60% of grain, including up to 75% of corn, almost 90% of sugar beet, 65% of sunflower, 45% of potatoes, 40% of meat products, 35% - dairy products. The Nazis destroyed or removed almost 200,000 tractors and combines, which amounted to about a third of the country's agricultural machinery fleet in 1940. The country has lost more than 25 million heads of livestock, as well as 40% of enterprises for the processing of agricultural products.
The situation was aggravated by the drought of 1946-1947. In addition, Moscow has refused enslaving foreign loans and imports of agricultural products for foreign currency, so as not to become dependent on the West. However, by refusing this channel of possible support for the economy, Moscow has complicated the restoration of agriculture. It is also worth considering that, despite internal problems, in 1945-1953. The USSR provided gratuitous food aid East Germany, Austria, as well as China, Mongolia, North Korea and Vietnam.
In 1946, the Soviet leadership instructed agricultural and research organizations to develop proposals for ensuring a long-term reliable supply of agricultural products, increasing crop yields and livestock productivity, as well as material incentives for increasing labor productivity in agriculture in the USSR. An interdepartmental commission was established under the leadership of Academicians T. D. Lysenko and V. S. Nemchinov: it received the task of developing a long-term state agricultural policy. The commission lasted until 1954. According to the decisions of the March plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, her work was declared unsatisfactory. Apparently, because of the negative attitude towards the initiative of Khrushchev and the Khrushchevites for the speedy development of fallow and virgin lands.
An attempt to start a virgin campaign was made under Stalin. Some scientists - Khrushchev's future advisers - in 1949-1952. literally "bombarded" with letters not only Lysenko and Nemchinov, but also many members of the Politburo, lobbying for the extensive development of the country's agriculture. They proposed the rapid development of new lands by the old agrotechnical methods and through the massive use of chemical fertilizers and, accordingly, the redistribution of sown areas. That is, what was later carried out under Khrushchev. However, the interdepartmental commission led by academicians Lysenko and Nemchinov did a great job and submitted seven reports and recommendations to the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers, as well as personally to I.V. Stalin, which denied the extensive path of development of the agricultural sector.
Scientists: “The plowing of about 40 million hectares of virgin fallow lands for wheat, which are radically different in their properties and required methods of cultivation from agricultural lands in other regions of the USSR, will lead to chronic degradation of these lands, to negative changes environmental situation in a vast region of the country and, accordingly, to a constant increase in the cost of maintaining the fertility of virgin soils.
They also noted that in the short term, 2-3 years, there will be a sharp increase in productivity. However, then, with the help of chemical means and an increase in the volume of artificial irrigation, it will be possible to achieve only the maintenance of the level of productivity, but not its further increase. Due to the peculiarities of the soil and climate in the virgin areas, the yield there will be two to three times lower than the yield in the traditional agricultural regions of Russia (Ukraine, Moldova, North Caucasus, Central Black Earth region, some areas of the Volga region). Artificial increase in productivity through chemicalization and irrigation will lead to irreparable pollution, salinization and acid waterlogging of soils, and, therefore, to the rapid spread of erosion, including on natural water bodies in the region with virgin lands. This trend will cause, in particular, the elimination of animal husbandry as an agricultural sector in the region from the Volga to Altai inclusive. In the first 5-6 years, the reserves of the fertile soil layer - humus - on virgin lands will decrease by 10-15%, and in the future this figure will be 25-35% compared to the "pre-virgin" period.
Soviet scientists wrote that for the artificial irrigation of new agricultural lands, many kilometers of diversions from the Volga, Urals, Irtysh, Ob and, possibly, from the Aral and Caspian seas (with the obligatory desalination of the water of these arteries) may be needed. Obviously, this can lead to negative, and moreover, chronic changes in the water management balance of many regions of the country and will drastically worsen the supply of water resources agriculture, especially animal husbandry, in most of the territory of the USSR. A decrease in the level of the Volga, the Urals and other water arteries and reservoirs will adversely affect all sectors of the economy of the regions adjacent to virgin lands, especially forestry, fisheries, shipping and the electric power industry, and the environmental situation will worsen there.
If we continue the policy of increasing the grain yield on virgin lands in the conditions of degradation of virgin soils and growing water shortages, then, along with a constant increase in soil chemicalization, we will first have to completely reorient the lower and, in part, the middle reaches of the Irtysh, Volga, and Ural rivers. , Amu Darya, Syr Darya and Ob to northern Kazakhstan and adjacent areas. As a result, over time, the channels and course of these rivers will have to be completely changed. These and related measures will lead to a constant increase in the cost of agricultural production, which will deal a blow to the entire economy and finances of the USSR.
It is worth saying that the commission did not reject in principle the idea of developing the virgin and fallow lands of the USSR. But this required fundamentally new agrobiological and technical methods, including the development of breeding work, taking into account the specifics of the natural and climatic conditions of specific regions, and the specifics of the impact of chemical fertilizers on certain types of agricultural plants in specific regions of the USSR. No wonder Molotov noted the need to develop virgin lands on a limited scale.
The conclusions of the commission during the Khrushchev period remained in the USSR classified as "Secret" or "For official use" and were not available to the general public. Only during the confrontation of the USSR with China and Albania (entirely Khrushchev's fault) did they end up in Beijing and Tirana, where they were given a move.
Thus, even in Stalin period Soviet scientists fully predicted negative factors the virgin epic of Khrushchev.
As predicted by the commission, in the first few years in the virgin lands and, therefore, in the country, the grain harvest increased significantly. But it was not the yield that increased, but the area under crops: the share of virgin lands in the sown areas of wheat in the USSR by 1958 amounted to 65%, and the share of these lands in the gross wheat harvest in the country almost reached 70%. At the same time, in the six years after 1953, the consumption of chemical fertilizers by agriculture, according to official data, more than doubled: virgin lands demanded a growing amount of "chemistry", which subsequently infects soils, grain, and water bodies, causing damage to animal husbandry.
In addition, under Khrushchev, the grass-field system of agriculture was first criticized and then even banned. Moreover, the authorities instructed to continue not to take care of the forest protection belts created under Stalin in 1948-1953. and made it possible to prevent desertification, salinization of soils, and a decrease in their natural fertility in many regions (for example, in Little Russia).
At the same time, investment in agriculture also increased. It was from the time of Khrushchev's rule that the agriculture of the USSR began to turn into a "black" hole, sucking in more and more funds. And the larger their volume, the faster their efficiency decreased.
Thus, the virgin epic was another strong blow to the Russian countryside and agriculture. Food abundance did not take place; the agricultural sector began to turn into " black hole»; Russia-USSR began to sit down on food imports; there was a sharp outflow of the able-bodied, skilled and young population from the Russian countryside and a forced redistribution of material and technical resources in favor of new agricultural regions, which became one of the leading factors, along with the course towards the elimination of "unpromising" villages, which led to the degradation of agriculture in the central and the northern part of Russia (in the indigenous Russian lands).
In addition, after the collapse of the USSR, millions of Russians became hostages of Khrushchev's policies, having lost their great homeland. Many were forced to leave the cities and developed lands founded by their ancestors, fearing the nationalist policy of local authorities.
The author of the article published today, Valentin Karpovich Month devoted many years of his life to the development of the village in the Soviet country. His first position in this field was the chief agronomist of the machine and tractor station in the Moscow region, and in the prime of life - for ten years the Minister of Agriculture of the USSR. And in the party work, including as the second secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan and the first secretary of the Moscow regional committee of the CPSU, he focused on revealing all the possibilities of the land and its workers to improve life in his native country.
On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the development of virgin and fallow lands in the Soviet Union, he wrote an article that we offer to readers.
HOW FAST time flies! March 2014 - the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the rise of virgin and fallow lands in the country ...
In old dictionaries there is no word "virgin lands". It was born in the 50s, just like the word "kolkhoznik" during the period of collectivization. Tselinnik - a historical figure, determines the heroic time. And the very word "virgin lands" has already lost its agricultural meaning, it has become a social term.
Much has been written about the heroes of virgin lands. People raised virgin soil, virgin soil raised people. In 1953-1954, the government of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party called on the people to develop virgin and fallow lands untouched for centuries in the regions, territories and republics of Russia and Kazakhstan. More than a million people responded to this call. Families traveled to new lands, envoys from all republics. There were young people who had grown up and matured after the Great Patriotic War. There were not only grain growers, tractor drivers, combine operators, but also builders, engineers, electricians, teachers, doctors, signalmen ...
On the untouched steppe, state farms and collective farms began to appear, animal husbandry developed. The virgin lands lived in tents, without any household amenities. Over 500,000 young men and women arrived on the basis of Komsomol vouchers and the call of their hearts to develop virgin and fallow lands. Behind huge contribution in the development of virgin lands, the Lenin Komsomol was awarded the highest award of the Motherland - the Order of Lenin. But the point is not only the reward, but the main thing is that the virgin lands gave these young men and women the opportunity to go through a school of labor and physical hardening.
Many, many young people - our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren - today ask the question why the country needed virgin lands, could it be possible to do without it ... The very posing of the question for us, virgin lands veterans, people of the older generation, is insulting. It turns out that we could not sensibly explain to them the significance of the virgin epic for our country, we could not convey the memory of its achievements.
The thing is that in the post-war years there was a catastrophic lack of grain to provide the people with bread. I'll give you just a few numbers. In 1949-1953, the average annual grain harvest was 4942 million poods (with an average yield of 7.7 centners per hectare) against 4380 million poods (with an average yield of 7 centners per hectare) in 1910-1914.
Here are some more numbers. In 1953, 31.1 million tons of grain were harvested, and 32.4 million tons were spent on the food supply of the population, animal husbandry and other state needs. I had to partially use state reserves. To overcome the difficulties, cardinal and urgent measures were needed. Under these conditions, the state, without reducing its attention to increasing the yield of all agricultural crops, has put in the forefront the task of a significant and rapid expansion of sown areas.
THE FIRST virgin years abruptly turned the fate of hundreds of thousands of people. All those who left their habitable places, gave up city amenities, parted with relatives and friends in order to force the land, which had never known a plow, to give birth to bread. And these people decided the success of the case. Large state funds were directed to virgin and fallow lands. All agricultural machinery produced in the country in those years was delivered by echelons from factories to Kazakhstan and the virgin regions of Russia.
During the years of my work in Kazakhstan, I often visited virgin regions. For example, in Kustanai, the largest plowed land in terms of area and annually handing over millions of pounds of high-quality grain to the state. If Kustanai gives such bread, then Kazakhstan reports to the state that the country will receive one billion two hundred million poods of virgin bread. The marketability of grain for the delivery of bread in Kazakhstan has always been 58-60 percent of the harvested crop. In the Tselinograd region, East Kazakhstan, Kokchetav, Turgai, Semipalatinsk, Aktobe - in these main virgin regions, in which a large Kazakh loaf was produced in the best years.
At meetings with district leaders and directors of virgin state farms and chairmen of collective farms, I always heard from them about the great concern that the state shows for their work, for their affairs and, if necessary, provides them with the necessary economic assistance. They always spoke with pride about the first uninhabited places, where then their farms were built very quickly by measures taken. Moreover, the construction was carried out in a complex manner. Housing was built with all living conditions, water supply, gasification, trees were planted, schools, kindergartens and nurseries, hospitals appeared next to the houses ... In all the farms where I had to visit, I saw that the central estates were equipped with good asphalt roads. This approach made it possible to gain a foothold in the economy for the necessary personnel, who solved the tasks assigned to us.
I remember well my trip to the Tselinograd region, where the Research Institute of Grain Economy was located, headed by Academician Alexander Ivanovich Baraev. I wanted to get better acquainted with the breeding work of the Institute for the development of new drought-resistant varieties of grain crops for the virgin regions of the republic. I was also interested research institute for combating wind erosion of soils - weathering of the fertile layer.
In terms of breeding varieties, the breeders had a decent start, and the new varieties of grain crops they created were in the test. But in his report, Barayev did not cover the issue of combating wind erosion quite confidently: “We are carrying out work, but so far there are no good results.” I asked him: “Alexander Ivanovich, how do you feel about non-moldboard tillage, which has been used on your collective farm in the Kurgan region for several years by the honorary academician of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, twice Hero of Socialist Labor Terenty Semenovich Maltsev? His results are good. The harvest of grain crops has increased, there is no wind erosion. When I worked at the Ministry of Agriculture of the RSFSR, I got acquainted with his collective farm, traveled through the fields, which were plowed with a flat cutter developed by him. He does not recognize the cultivation of the soil by plows and proposes to quickly switch to non-moldboard tillage in the virgin regions of the country. His report, you probably attended, was heard at the session of VASKhNIL and received approval and support. And why is your institute poorly researching this direction?”
Therefore, continuing the line on the rise of virgin and fallow lands, on the initiative of the secretary of the Aktobe Regional Party Committee Vasily Andreyevich Liventsov, we decided to develop another 1,100 thousand hectares in this area, while applying Baraev's experience in strip placement and flat-cut tillage. As a result, the Aktobe region - traditionally industrial - began to produce 100 million poods of bread. V.A. Liventsov was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
Alexander Baraev up to the end defended moldboard tillage, believing that when using flat cutters, the fields would quickly become overgrown with weeds. But when the Tselinogradselmash plant was built in Tselinograd, a special design bureau for anti-erosion equipment was created under it. The plant began to produce several types of flat cutters, which immediately found application in the virgin regions not only of Kazakhstan, but also in other regions of the USSR, where virgin and fallow lands rose. Then Baraev changed his attitude to new tillage tools and became a real promoter of the introduction of flat cutters and other anti-erosion machines, opposed moldboard tillage with seam turnover.
This attention to the problem of wind erosion of soils is not accidental. Its destructive effect during the development of virgin and fallow lands was well known to everyone, up to the heads of the highest authorities. Some of them knew about this phenomenon firsthand.
I remember a trip in 1973 with Kosygin to the Pavlodar region. I accompanied him to the Ekibastuz coal basin, where he learned in detail about open pit coal mining. Then we visited a tractor factory, and he asked me to show him one of the virgin state farms. When we arrived at the collective farm. Lenin and began to inspect the fields, suddenly a real storm began, which raised the top layer of fertile soil, just sown with grain crops, and carried it in a whirlwind over the surface of the earth. Nothing was seen for 20 minutes.
Kosygin asked: “Why is this happening? Probably, when virgin lands were developed, our scientists did not fully think through what needed to be done, what lands to plow, and hence the large funds invested in virgin and fallow lands do not always give the proper return. I answered: “In 1972, the most productive year for Kazakhstan, we sold 1.2 billion poods of high-quality durum wheat to the state.” “I know about this,” Alexey Nikolayevich remarked, “but you had poor harvests for many years.”
Of course, there are many in the country who had a negative attitude towards the development of virgin and fallow lands. I do not include Kosygin among them, but many in newspapers and magazines openly spoke out: they say, a lot of money has been invested in these lands, but they have not received a proper return on them. At the same time, without any calculation, they unreasonably criticized the country's leadership.
All of them were well and convincingly answered in his report at a solemn meeting in Alma-Ata, dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the development of virgin and fallow lands, in March 1974, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev. He said that the development of these lands in Kazakhstan, Altai, Krasnoyarsk territories, Novosibirsk and Omsk regions, in the Volga region and in the Urals, the Far East, and other regions of the country is one of the brightest pages in the annals of the creative labor of the Soviet people.
In 1954-1960, 41.8 million hectares of virgin and fallow lands were plowed, including 16.3 million hectares in the RSFSR and 25.5 million hectares in Kazakhstan. The development of virgin and fallow lands required an investment of 37.4 billion rubles in 1954-1959. However, already in 1961, the state (due to additionally received products) not only compensated for the funds spent, but also had over 3.3 billion rubles. net income.
Virgin farms have become major suppliers of cheap grain. As a result of the increased culture of farming, the introduction of new varieties of grain into the crops, the gross grain harvest for 1954-1974 in Kazakhstan increased 6.2 times, in the RSFSR - 2.5 times. 500 million tons of grain were received from the developed lands.
The Rise of virgin soil is dictated by vital necessity. This is the idea of the people, the initiative communists. The idea helped turn the lifeless and deaf, but noble steppes of the country into a land of developed culture and economy. At that time, Khrushchev was at the helm of the state. It was he and his party comrades who managed to mobilize material and human resources to solve this problem. Khrushchev himself paid great attention to virgin lands, he often visited virgin regions, state farms, and collective farms. I personally knew almost all the first secretaries of regional committees, district committees of the party, many leaders and specialists of state farms and collective farms. High merit in the development of natural resources, the development of the culture of Kazakhstan belongs to Kunaev and Brezhnev. They went down in history as first virgin lands, under whose leadership the farms in the virgin lands worked fruitfully for many years.
The year 1956 is well remembered, when the first Kazakh billion poods of grain was formed. High crops were grown everywhere. A meeting was held in Alma-Ata. Speaking, Khrushchev confirmed the correctness agricultural policy on the development of virgin and fallow lands and gave the floor to all the first secretaries of the regional party committees. Each of them named their contribution.
Indeed, the rating was high. Kazakhstan was awarded the Order of Lenin for the first billion. Thousands of virgin lands received state awards. Among them are machine operators, combine operators, specialists, heads of district farms. Tselina is an invaluable experience in implementing a comprehensive program of social transformations. Millions of people from all over the country - the conquerors of new lands - settled here forever.
The virgin and fallow land plowed up dozens of years ago still makes it possible to solve the problem of grain production in Russia. I am sure that everything that I wrote about virgin and fallow lands will be written by other veterans of the virgin lands. It is necessary that today's youth know that their fathers and grandfathers accomplished labor feats in those years. And they need to bow in the same way as those who won the Great Patriotic War. Tselinnik is also a fighter, a person who, not sparing himself and his health, did everything to provide his country with bread and other agricultural products. A low bow to all of them and the deepest respect.
VC. MONTH, Minister of Agriculture of the USSR (1976-1985)
The day was chosen conditionally, and the figure "50 years" is also conditional. The virgin lands were still raised by the peasant settlers from Central Russia, who rushed in the second half of the 19th century to fertile, albeit harsh, spaces that did not know the sweat of forced corvée. Few people remember that the first plan for the development of virgin lands was born in 1940 (for example, in Chelyabinsk region in 1940-1942 it was planned to "raise" 544 thousand hectares), but the war prevented. Virgin lands are being raised even today: 2 million hectares, abandoned in the 1990s, for the development of which the Government spent a billion rubles this spring, is also "virgin lands turned up". And yet, the first association that pops up in my head at the word "virgin lands" is the February-March plenum of 1954, it is an impulse, confusion, romance and miscalculations. This is Virgin with a capital letter.
Today, there are no number of experts scolding or praising that "decision of the party and government." But let's get into the shoes of those who made this decision. Early 1950s. The country needs 32 million tons of food grain per year. We are preparing 31.3 million. Where to take? To squeeze more out of the earth than it gives, money and time are needed. In a state that graduated 5 years ago terrible war there was no money. In a situation where people need to be fed every day, there was no time. Unplowed hectares beckoned with simplicity - "come and take it." They came and took.
The first joy: the yield on the new lands turned out to be very high. For example, in the Urals - 22 centners per hectare against the usual 6-10. The first mistake: it turned out that bread is not easy. Statistics for Magnitogorsk: 955 people applied that they wanted to go to the virgin lands, but only 149 of them had even a superficial relation to agriculture. The rest are enthusiastic youth, who thought (and propaganda only supported these moods) that it didn’t matter what to raise: Magnitka, another hydroelectric power station or arable land.
The farm took revenge. The negative that is associated with virgin lands - and dust storms, and the death of pastures - all this is the revenge of the agrarian gods on those who entered their temple without "praying". Yes, and the state itself, having received the first virgin bread, which allowed the country's grain balance to be "plus", seemed to have lost interest in its own undertaking, had played enough. The second half of the 50s was marked by a constant decrease in the pace of work on the virgin lands and the attention of the authorities to them. If in 1954-1956 2.6 million hectares were developed in the Urals, then in 1960 - only 29 thousand hectares.
The blows came from where they were not expected. 1957: universal, in alphabetical order, the transformation of collective farms into state farms, the resettlement of villages. 1958: the liquidation of the MTS with the forced purchase of equipment by collective farms, which had nothing to pay for it. Hence - a sharp increase in agricultural debts, which from that time to the present day have become the curse of the Russian agro-industrial complex. Already in 1970 in the Urals, 32 percent of state farms were unprofitable, in 1990 almost all were unprofitable. Productivity drops sharply: the land gets tired, there is no support for it. In 1950, the yield around future virgin lands was 12 centners per hectare, in 1956 - 13.8, but already in 1958 - 7, almost like in the terrible drought of 1955. The virgin land was filled with enthusiasm. She gave everything she could give on sheer enthusiasm. She demanded money.
There was money in the USSR. In 1961, the country begins bulk purchases of grain in the US and Canada. Then Akmolinsk was renamed Tselinograd. The virgin land finally became a monument to "the heroism and courage of the Soviet people." And our petrodollars supported the American farmer. With the first truckload of grain from Canada, the virgin soil died.
Figures and facts
The total area of new lands is 43 million hectares (of which 16.3 million are now on the territory of the Russian Federation).
3.5 billion tons of grain - the return of virgin lands in 50 years.
337 new state farms have been created in Kazakhstan alone.
21.1 billion rubles of the USSR - the approximate cost of the virgin lands development program.
250-300 thousand people received apartments in virgin new buildings.
1.7 million people - the number of people involved in the program.
An amazing thing - the great and mighty USSR ordered to live long almost a decade and a half ago, and "major economic achievements" and memorable dates associated with the main construction sites of the century are not forgotten to this day. It is understandable - although the bright communist goals are long outdated, hundreds of thousands of people who put their youth (and some of their whole lives) on the ideological altar of the Fatherland are still alive. They believed: they raised, erected, handed over ahead of schedule ...Now it is even difficult to imagine how many young people volunteered to work for the state. From whom you just do not hear the memories of and. It turns out that today's successful businessmen, high-ranking officials and pampered wives of diplomats spent their best years in the fight against the elements. But there are still poor fellows who! A photograph published in one of the capital's magazines on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the construction of the BAM is shocking with the monstrous living conditions in which the builders of the endless highway are forced to live.
But problems are problems, and a holiday is a holiday. This year marks exactly 50 years since the beginning of the development of virgin and fallow lands. Historic decision was adopted at the February-March plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1954.
Of course, we wanted to do the best. In the early 1950s, the Russian peasantry, exhausted by the war and the Stalinist regime (and at that time the collective farmers did not even have a passport in their hands and were no different from slaves), was so exhausted that any radical solution to the problem was accepted with a bang. It was then that Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev proposed to the government his famous plan for the extensive development of agriculture. It was about a significant, and most importantly, a rapid expansion of sown areas due to the plowing of the lands of Kazakhstan, the Volga region, southern Siberia, the Urals and the Far East, which are relatively suitable for agriculture. “Actually, we didn’t have a choice of how to manage the economy. We didn’t need bread tomorrow, but literally today,” Khrushchev himself later recalled.
It should not be forgotten that there was no one to send to the new front of work - after the war, the country was going through a terrible demographic crisis. There were not enough healthy men not only for women, but also for jobs. The implacable government finger pointed at the children. “Comrades, let’s make an appeal to the Soviet youth, to the Komsomol,” Nikita Sergeevich enthusiastically rallied. "Despite the difficult conditions in which our country found itself in the first years of the war, the people mobilized and managed to overcome all difficulties. And the development of virgin lands is work that will be paid, and people will also receive moral satisfaction. I am convinced that there will be enthusiasts ".
But, as you know, soon only cats will be born. Half a million gullible Komsomol members who succumbed to agitation lived in terrible conditions. The company of boys and girls was often made up of hardened criminals and recruits of the Soviet armed forces (of course, both of them - not of their own free will). The best agricultural machinery for those times was sent to the virgin lands, the most advanced technologies for growing grain crops were tested and applied here. Nevertheless, the process of developing virgin lands took more than 30 years and did not end in anything good.
The start was quite optimistic. The first harvest in 1954 was so plentiful that it exceeded the most ambitious expectations of agronomists. On that, he got burned, and in the literal sense - there were not enough elevators, and three-quarters of the wheat burned down on the currents. The rich harvest of 1956, which was a little more fortunate, shook the imagination of the starving peasants. Alas, not for long. The skinny soils of Kazakhstan were instantly depleted. At the same time, all the cattle died here, suddenly losing their usual pastures. In a matter of years, the virgin areas turned from unprofitable to unprofitable.
An exhibition with the optimistic title "We, friends, are going to distant lands", which opened in exhibition hall Federal Archives, tells both the official version of the development of virgin lands, and such stories that readers of Soviet newspapers did not even dream of. By the way, many of the documents presented in the exposition have only recently been declassified. Along with life-affirming newsreels, campaign posters and postcards, heartbreaking letters, such as: "We ask you, dear Nikita Sergeevich, to help us in our urgent needs, without which our further existence is impossible ...". Next to the portraits of leaders in indispensable hats are rollicking girls in wreaths, bawling something very popular. And, of course, pictures. A skinny young man, convulsively squeezing a piece of clay ("Earth" by V. Dikov), is adjacent to D. Mochalsky's deeply antisocial canvas "A Protracted Explanation". However, the personal problems of the Komsomol member, painfully choosing between a grubby tractor driver and a hushed intellectual, are quite understandable. Virgin lands girls were in short supply and those who managed to get away from the hands of numerous punks had an almost unlimited choice. That was life!
Exhibition Hall of the Federal Archives, admission is free. Address: Moscow, st. B. Pirogovskaya, 17.
