The Virgin and Idle Lands Program Reappraised
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8377346 |
|---|---|
| Authors | W A Douglas Jackson (University of Washington, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1962 |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 69-79 |
| Publication date | 1962-03-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Annals of the Association of American Geographers (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0004-5608 • E-ISSN: 1467-8306 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-8306.1962.tb00396.x |
| OpenAlex | W2161612352 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 2 |
IT is quite clear that the virgin and idle lands program of 1954-1956 was not a novel approach to the perennial Russian grain problem.' That problem had been intensified during the years of Soviet power, in part because of the revolutionary break-up of the estates of the old nobility, but principally as a result of the collectivization of agriculture, which had robbed the peasantry of initiative and had left the farm sector of the economy depressed and backward. Despite repeated efforts, since the beginning of the industrialization drive in 19281929, to raise the output per man per acre, the Soviet regime had achieved little success. Consequently, it had been compelled to resort to an expansion of the cultivated area in an attempt to ensure a larger farm output. This expansion involved mainly an increase in wheat acreage, the basic grain crop. During the First Five Year Plan period (1928-1932), as directed by the regime, up to 37 million acres were added to the sown area of the steppe regions, in order to obtain more wheat.2 The Third Five Year Plan (1938-1942) also urged that more land be ploughed in the steppe-up to 20 million acres-but the outbreak of the war prevented the full realization of the objective.3 The 1954-1956 program, therefore, was in effect the last of a series of comparable programs designed to produce more wheat by ploughing more land. Indeed, viewed, in perspective, one might regard the Soviet into the steppe-and especially the eastern steppe-as little more than a continuation of the historic advance of the Muscovite frontier. At any rate, the latest pro
Acre · Agricultural economics · Agriculture · Agroforestry · Archaeology · Economics · Geography · Industrialisation · Market economy · Political science · Steppe · Environmental Science · Russia and Soviet political economy · Soviet and Russian History
| Citations per year | 0.12 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1983 - 2018 (36) |
| Highly cited | No |