Tselinniki is who? Years of virgin lands development

Nikita Khrushchev in 1953 is developing a plan that dramatically increases the agricultural production of the Soviet Union in order to alleviate the food deficit, which affects the country's population. At the same time, he hopes not only to meet the necessary needs, but also tries to exceed the performance of Western countries while harvesting grain crops.

Development of a special plan for increasing production

In September of the same year, the Plenum of the Central Committee is going to participate, with the participation of two assistants, several editors of Pravda and one agronomist, in addition to Khrushchev himself, in order to determine the seriousness of the agricultural crisis. Earlier, Georgy Malenkov received a loan to carry out reforms to solve the agrarian problem in the country. It was intended to reduce taxes, as well as encourage individual agricultural plots.

Now Nikita Khrushchev proposed his plan, which relied on the development of virgin land in Kazakhstan. Thirteen million hectares of previously unprocessed land had to be plowed and cultivated. This land was located on the right bank of the Volga on the border of the North Caucasus, Western Siberia and Northern Kazakhstan.

For or against the development of new lands

The leader of the party of Kazakhstan Shayakhmetov deliberately minimized the potential for the harvest of virgin lands. He did not want the Kazakh territory to be controlled by Russia. Many leading members of the party, such as Molotov, Malenkov and Kaganovich, were against the development of the new land and made negative comments. Celina will require huge expenses, this plan did not look economical from a logical point of view.

But Khrushchev insisted that a huge number of new lands for cultivation is the only way to get a significant increase in yield in a short time. And virgin lands are people who will take the country's agriculture to a new level.

A thrilling adventure worth thirty million

Instead of allocating funds to pay for the work of the local peasantry, Khrushchev is developing a special strategy for attracting new workers for development. This advertising looked like a socialist adventure for Soviet youth. Campaigns were held in schools, among graduates, and in other educational institutions. And the first virgin lands are three hundred thousand Komsomol volunteers. In the summer of 1954 they went to develop new lands.

After the first excellent harvest Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev increased the initial goals, and now under plowing was allocated not 13 million hectares of land, and about 30. In the period from 1954 to 1958 (this is the years of virgin land), the state spent 30,700,000 rubles for cultivating new Lands.

What crop brought the country virgin land

In general, plowland farming on virgin land increased grain production and softened the food shortage in a fairly short term. Such a huge scale and the initial success of the campaign had for the state the value of historical achievement. But, nevertheless, significant fluctuations in the production of grain from year to year and a gradual decline in yields did not justify Nikita Sergeyevich's hopes of striving to surpass the American grain harvest figures by 1960.

By the beginning of 1955, 200,000 tractors were sent to the virgin land, 425 state farms were created, and a total of 30 million hectares of land were plowed, 20 of which were harvested. Thanks to this, virgin land in Kazakhstan justified the efforts expended, the total volume of grain production in the country for this year was 60 percent more than the yield of cereals for the period from 1949 to 1953.

Climatic conditions, or Surprises, which presented virgin lands. A photo

But because of the severe drought, and it was often found in the regions of Kazakhstan, the plowed lands received only one tenth of the rainfall, the next year the grain yield was reduced by 35 percent. At that time, Khrushchev was forced to recognize the validity of some of the conflicting points of view on how to develop virgin land and whether it is worthwhile to develop new lands at all. But, nevertheless, he continued to assert that, as a result, the plan will be successful and will reimburse expenses.

The most successful was the harvest of 1956. The yield of grain from virgin lands increased by 180 percent compared with the average previous indicators. Encouraged by the success of the developed and implemented plan, Nikita Khrushchev even made a tour of some virgin lands, during which he presented farmers with a variety of cash prizes, gifts, as well as relevant medals.

Main problems, or Lack of labor

The area where the virgin lands were founded, mainly consisted of rural settlements with a small population. Tselinniki - these were people who were specially attracted to develop new lands. Mostly from poor villages, orphans and komsomol enthusiasts. Bad living conditions forced many workers to already gather in the first few months and leave the unfit for living region.

As a result of constant emigration, there was a catastrophic shortage in the labor force. In addition, because young and inexperienced people arrived, they did not have the skills to work efficiently both on tractors and combines, and in another area of production. In the years of virgin lands 24 thousand different specialists were sent to the regions of Kazakhstan to develop new lands, but 14,000 of them left this job almost immediately because of poor living conditions.

Lack of equipment and spare parts

There were other problems that did not create favorable conditions for the development of production, despite Nikita Sergeyevich's efforts in supplying agricultural machinery to the virgin soil. Almost all of the newly released equipment was dispatched from Russian plants, however, the lack of equipment in the developed territories was still felt acutely. In 1959 in Kazakhstan for every 218 hectares of land there was only one tractor.

The country was not able to produce the number of machines required in connection with the sudden expansion of cultivated areas. In addition, the parts for the equipment that were needed for simple repairs, also remained deficit. As a result, many tractors were not used, and simply because there were not enough spare parts to eliminate the elementary breakdown.

Climate and soil characteristics

Tillage farming is not suitable for existence in arid areas. And the area of virgin lands received only from 200 to 350 millimeters of precipitation a year. And as a rule, they fell out in July and August, when the grain ripens, or during harvesting. A drought occurred in the spring, at a time when young immature shoots most need moisture.

In addition, the duration of the growing season was very short. Strong winds caused soil erosion, which is also characterized by a high salt content. Most likely, these reasons also influenced the gradual decline in grain productivity in virgin lands after 1959.

Extreme working conditions, or what the Soviet people are capable of

People who worked for the good of the country, developed agriculture in virtually unsuitable for this region - these are the virgin lands. The photos that have remained since that time show their happy smiles, in some pictures one can even see how they receive awards or awards. But did these workers know that many of their efforts are wasted?

After all, before the announcement of Nikita Sergeyevich about his plan for the development of land in Kazakhstan, there were very few storage facilities for grain crops. Therefore, when the first harvest was started, a considerable amount of it was left in the area of rot. In addition, the lack of storage facilities forced farmers to hurry to harvest during the appropriate weather.

This led to the fact that overripe and unripe grains often mixed, and this caused a high moisture content and, as a consequence, damage to the grain. If the crop in Kazakhstan averaged about 22 million tons, then only 10 could store storage capacity. Hence, we can draw the appropriate conclusions.

Who are the virgin land? First of all, they are people who, in almost extreme conditions, tried not only to fulfill the grain production plan set by Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, but also to overfulfill, as was customary during the Soviet era. And, as usual, the Soviet people managed to even what seemed at first sight as impossible and incredible.