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Droughts and famines in Russia and the Soviet Union

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ThroughoutRussian historyfamines,droughtsand crop failures occurred on the territory ofRussia,theRussian Empireand theUSSRon more or less regular basis. From the beginning of the 11th to the end of the 16th century, on the territory of Russia for every century there were 8 crop failures, which were repeated every 13 years, sometimes causing prolonged famine in a significant territory. The causes of the famine were different, from natural (droughts, crop failures, low rainfall in a certain year) and economic and political crises; for example, theGreat Famine of 1931–1933,colloquially called theHolodomor,the cause of which was, among other factors, thecollectivization policy in the USSR,which affected the territory of theVolga regionin Russia,UkraineandKazakhstan.[1]

An American charity postcard showing the scale of the deadlyRussian famine of 1921–1922

Pre-1900 droughts and famines

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In the 17th century, Russia experienced thefamine of 1601–1603,as a proportion of the population, believed to be its worst as it may have killed 2 million people (1/3 of the population). Other major famines include theGreat Famine of 1315–17,which affected much of Europe including part of Russia[2][3]as well as the Baltic states.[4]The Nikonian chronicle, written between 1127 and 1303, recorded no less than eleven famine years during that period.[5]One of the most serious crises before 1900 was thefamine of 1891–1892,which killed between 375,000 and 500,000 people, mainly due to famine-related diseases. Causes included a large autumn drought resulting in crop failures. Attempts by the government to alleviate the situation generally failed which may have contributed to a lack of faith in the Tsarist government and later political instability.[5][6]In 1899, the Volga area, especially Samara, suffered starvation, typhus and scurvy, which depleted Red Cross aid.[7]

List of post-1900 droughts and famines

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The Golubev and Dronin report gives the following table of the major droughts in Russia between 1900 and 2000.[1]: 16 Mass famines were reported in years of drought in the 1920s and 1930s, and the last one occurred in 1984.[1]: 23 

  • Central: 1920, 1924, 1936, 1946, 1984.
  • Southern: 1901, 1906, 1921, 1939, 1948, 1995.
  • Eastern: 1911, 1931.

1900s

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Tsarist Russia experienced a famine in 1901–1902 (affecting 49governorates,orguberniyas), and again between 1906 and 1908 (affecting 19 to 29 governorates).[8]

1910s

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During theRussian Revolutionof 1917 and subsequentRussian Civil War,there was a dramatic decline in total agricultural output. Measured in millions of tons, the 1920 grain harvest was only 46.1, compared to 80.1 in 1913. By 1926, it had almost returned to pre-revolutionary levels reaching 76.8.[9]

1920s

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Starving boy, c. 1921
Three children who are dead from starvation, 1921
Starving children in 1922

The early 1920s saw a series of famines. The deadlyRussian famine of 1921–1922happened as a result of the ongoing civil war and garnered wide international attention, the most affected area being the Southeastern areas ofEuropean Russia(includingVolga region,especially national republics ofIdel-Ural,see1921–22 famine in Tatarstan) andin Ukraine[uk].An estimated 16 million people may have been affected.[10]Fridtjof Nansenwas honored with the 1922Nobel Peace Prize,in part for his work as High Commissioner for Relief In Russia.[11]Other organizations that helped to combat the Soviet famine wereInternational Save the Children Unionand theInternational Committee of the Red Cross.[12]

After the outbreak of the Russian famine of 1921–1923, the European director of theAmerican Relief Administration,Walter Lyman Brown,began negotiations with Soviet deputyPeople's Commissarfor Foreign Affairs,Maxim Litvinov,inRiga,Latvia.An agreement was reached on August 21, 1921, and an additional implementation agreement was signed by Brown and People's Commissar for Foreign TradeLeonid Krasinon December 30, 1921. The U.S. Congress appropriated $20,000,000 for relief under theRussian Famine Relief Actof late 1921.[13]At its peak, the ARA employed 300 Americans, more than 120,000 Russians and fed 10.5 million people daily. Its Russian operations were headed by Col.William N. Haskell.The Medical Division of the ARA functioned from November 1921 to June 1923 and helped overcome thetyphusepidemic then ravagingSoviet Russia.The ARA's famine relief operations ran in parallel with much smallerMennonite,Jewish andQuakerfamine relief operations in Russia.[14][15]The ARA's operations in Russia were shut down on June 15, 1923, after it was discovered that theSoviet Unionclandestinely renewed the export of grain to Europe.[16]

While the Moscow government recognized the famine in Russia, Soviet authorities paid little attention to the1921–1923 famine in Ukraine.Moreover,Vladimir Leninordered to move trains full of grain from Ukraine to the Volga region,Moscow,andPetrograd,to combat starvation there; 1,127 trains were sent between fall 1921 and August 1922.[17]

Soviet famine of 1932–1933

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Main article:Soviet famine of 1932–33
Areas of most disastrous Soviet famine of 1932–1933 marked with black

The second major Soviet famine happened during the initialpush for collectivizationduring the 30s. Majorcausesinclude the 1932–33 confiscations ofgrainand other food by theSovietauthorities[1]which contributed to the famine and affected more than forty million people, especially in the south on theDonandKubanareas and inUkraine,where by various estimates millions starved to death or died due to famine related illness (the event known asHolodomor).[18]The famine was perhaps most severe in Kazakhstan where the semi-nomadic pastoralists' traditional way of life was most disturbed by Soviet agricultural ambitions.[19]

Demographic impact

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Main article:1932–1933 famine's death toll

One demographic retrojection suggests a figure of 2.5 million famine deaths for Soviet Ukraine and Kuban region. This is too close to the recorded figure of excess deaths, which is about 2.4 million. The latter figure must be substantially low, since many deaths were not recorded. Another demographic calculation, carried out on behalf of the authorities of independent Ukraine, provides the figure of 3.9 million dead. The truth is probably in between these numbers, where most of the estimates of respectable scholars can be found. It seems reasonable to propose a figure of approximately 3.3 million deaths by starvation and hunger-related disease in Soviet Ukraine in 1932–1933.

The demographic impact of the famine of 1932–1933 was multifold. In addition to direct and indirect deaths associated with the famine, there were significant internal migrations of Soviet citizens, often fleeing famine-ridden regions. A sudden decline in birthrates permanently "scarred" the long-term population growth of the Soviet Union in a way similar to that of World War II.

Estimates of Soviet deaths attributable to the 1932–1933 famine vary wildly, but are typically given in the range of millions.[21][22][23]Vallin et al. estimated that the disasters of the decade culminated in a dramatic fall in fertility and a rise in mortality. Their estimates suggest that total losses can be put at about 4.6 million, 0.9 million of which was due to forced migration, 1 million to a deficit in births, and 2.6 million to exceptional mortality.[24]The long-term demographic consequences of collectivization and the Second World War meant that the Soviet Union's 1989 population was 288 million rather than 315 million, 9% lower than it otherwise would have been.[25]In addition to the deaths, the famine resulted in massive population movements, as about 300,000Kazakhnomadsfled toChina,Iran,MongoliaandAfghanistanduring the famine.[26][27]A 2020Journal of Genocide Researcharticle by Oleh Wolowyna estimated 8.7 million deaths across the entire Soviet Union including 3.9 million in Ukraine, 3.3 million in Russia, and 1.3 million in Kazakhstan, plus a lower number of dead in other republics.[28]

Although famines were taking place in various parts of the USSR in 1932–1933, for examplein Kazakhstan,[29]parts ofRussiaand theVolga German Republic,[30]the nameHolodomoris specifically applied to the events that took place in territories populated by Ukrainians and also North Caucasian Kazakhs.

Legacy

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Main article:Holodomor in modern politics

The legacy of Holodomor remains a sensitive and controversial issue in contemporary Ukraine where it isregarded as an act of genocideby the government and is generally remembered as one of the greatest tragedies in the nation's history.[31][32][33]The issue of Holodomor being an intentional act of genocide or not has often been a subject of dispute between the Russian Federation and Ukrainian government. The modern Russian government has generally attempted to disassociate and downplay any links between itself and the famine.[34][35][36]

There is still debate over whether or not Holodomor was a massive failure of policy or a deliberate act of genocide.[37]Robert Conquestheld the view that the famine was not intentionally inflicted by Stalin,[38]while Michael Ellman's analysis of the famine concludes that there were several factors, primarily focusing on the leadership's culpability in continuing to prioritize collectivization and industrialization[19]due to their Leninist stance of regarding starvation "as a necessary cost of the progressive policies of industrialisation and the building of socialism", and thus did not "perceive the famine as a humanitarian catastrophe requiring a major effort to relieve distress and hence made only limited relief efforts."[39]

1940s

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During theSiege of Leningradin Russia during theGreat Patriotic War,as many as one million people died, while many more went hungry or starved but survived.

TheGermanstried to starve out Leningrad in order to break its resistance. Starvation was one of the primary causes of death as the food supply was cut off and strict rationing was enforced. Animals in the city were slaughtered and eaten, and instances ofcannibalismwere reported.[40][41]

Thelast major faminein the USSR happened mainly in 1947 as a cumulative effect of consequences of collectivization, war damage, the severedroughtin 1946 in over 50 percent of the grain-productive zone of the country and government social policy and mismanagement of grain reserves. The regions primarily affected wereMoldovaandSouth Eastern Ukraine[uk].[42][43][44]In Ukraine, between 100,000 and one million people may have perished.[45]In Moldova, according to Soviet officials, the famine claimed the lives of more than 150,000 people, while historians estimate that this figure reaches at least 250,000–300,000 people.[44][46]

1947–1991

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After 1947 there were no known famines. The drought of 1963 caused panicslaughtering of livestock,but there was no risk of famine. After that year the Soviet Union started importingfeedgrainsfor its livestock in increasing amounts.[47]

Post-Soviet Russia

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Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there have been more frequent issues with hunger and food insecurity in Russia.[48]Both Russia and Ukraine were subject to a series of severe droughts from July 2010 to 2015.[49]The 2010 drought saw wheat production fall by 20% in Russia and subsequently resulted in a temporary ban on grain exports.[50]

See also

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Notable victims

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References

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Footnotes

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  1. ^abcGolubev, Genady; Nikolai Dronin (February 2004)."Geography of Droughts and Food Problems in Russia (1900–2000), Report No. A 0401"(PDF).Center for Environmental Systems Research, University of Kassel.RetrievedDecember 17,2016.
  2. ^Smitha, Frank E."Russia to 1700".fsmitha.RetrievedDecember 17,2016.
  3. ^Lucas, Henry S. "The great European famine of 1315, 1316, and 1317."Speculum5.4 (1930): 343-377.
  4. ^Jordan, William C. (1996).The Great Famine.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.ISBN1-4008-0417-5.
  5. ^ab"The Russian Famine of 1891–92".loyno.edu.Retrieved2017-01-03.
  6. ^"The History of International Humanitarian Assistance: Notes on Developments in 19th and 20th centuries".Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Archived fromthe originalon October 11, 2019.RetrievedDecember 17,2016.
  7. ^"Russian Famine; Typhus and Scurvy Result From Bad Diet".Los Angeles Herald. March 24, 1899. p. 2.Retrieved30 April2021.
  8. ^"1896 -1911. ГОЛОД и эпидемии в царской России. - Домашний архив. История в документах семьи".domarchive.ru.Retrieved2021-06-13.
  9. ^Nove, Alec (1992).An Economic History of the USSR 1917–1991.Penguin Books. pp. 88–89.Nove notes that the harvest in 1913 was during an "extremely favorable year" indicating a somewhat larger than expected crop.
  10. ^"WGBH American Experience. The Great Famine | PBS".American Experience.Retrieved2017-01-03.
  11. ^"Fridtjof Nansen – Facts".nobelprize.org.2014.Retrieved2017-01-03.
  12. ^"Famine in Russia, 1921–1922".www2.warwick.ac.uk.Retrieved2017-04-21.
  13. ^HAVEN, CYNTHIA (April 4, 2011)."How the U.S. saved a starving Soviet Russia: PBS film highlights Stanford scholar's research on the 1921–23 famine | Stanford News Release".news.stanford.edu.Retrieved2017-04-21.
  14. ^See Lance Yoder's "Historical Sketch" in the onlineMennonite Central Committee Photograph CollectionArchived2012-02-04 at theWayback Machine
  15. ^See David McFadden et al., Constructive Spirit: Quakers in Revolutionary Russia, 2004
  16. ^Charles M. Edmondson, "An Inquiry into the Termination of Soviet Famine Relief Programmes and the Renewal of Grain Export, 1922–23", Soviet Studies, Vol. 33, No. 3 (1981), pp. 370–385
  17. ^NAKAI, KAZUO (1982)."Soviet Agricultural Policies in the Ukraine and the 1921–1922 Famine".Harvard Ukrainian Studies.6(1): 43–61.ISSN0363-5570.JSTOR41035958.
  18. ^Fawkes, Helen (November 24, 2006)."Legacy of famine divides Ukraine".BBC News.Kiev.RetrievedDecember 17,2016.
  19. ^abGráda, C. Ó. (2010).Famine: a short history.Princeton University Press.
  20. ^Snyder, Timothy(2010).Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin.p. 53.
  21. ^"Ukraine – The famine of 1932–33 | history – geography".Encyclopedia Britannica.Retrieved2017-01-03.
  22. ^"The Great Famine – History Learning Site".History Learning Site.Retrieved2017-01-03.
  23. ^"The History Place – Genocide in the 20th Century: Stalin's Forced Famine 1932–33".historyplace.Retrieved2017-01-03.
  24. ^Vallin, Jacques; Meslé, France; Adamets, Serguei; Pyrozhkov, Serhii (2002). A New Estimate of Ukrainian Population Losses during the Crises of the 1930s and 1940s.
  25. ^Allen, Robert C (2003).Farm to Factory: A Reinterpretation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution.Princeton University Press. pp. 117–120.The Second World War had greater effect on the size of the population. Figure 6.5 simulates the population without the excess mortality of the war and, in addition, without the reduction in fertility during and after the war. Eliminating the wartime mortality raises the 1989 population to 329 million, and eliminating the shortfall in fertility raises it by a further 34 million to 363 million. The fertility effect (34 million) was almost as large as the mortality effect (41 million). World War II cut the Soviet population by 21 percent. Figure 6.7 shows the results of a combined simulation in which the adverse fertility and mortality effects of the war and collectivization are removed from Soviet demographic history. The simulation shows how the population would have grown if it were subject to the "normal fertility" and mortality rates. The 1989 population under this simulation would have been 394 million instead of the 288 million actually alive. The impact of collectivization and the Second World War was to reduce the 1989 population of the Soviet Union by 27%.
  26. ^Kokaisl, Petr. "Soviet collectivisation and its specific focus on central Asia."AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics5.4 (2013): 121.
  27. ^Thomas, Alun.Kazakh Nomads and the New Soviet State, 1919-1934.Diss. University of Sheffield, 2015.
  28. ^Wolowyna, Oleh (October 2020). "A Demographic Framework for the 1932–1934 Famine in the Soviet Union".Journal of Genocide Research.23(4): 501–526.doi:10.1080/14623528.2020.1834741.S2CID226316468.
  29. ^Ertz, Simon (2005)."The Kazakh Catastrophe and Stalin's Order of Priorities, 1929–1933: Evidence from the Soviet Secret Archives"(PDF).Zhe: Stanford's Student Journal of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies.1(Spring). Stanford University. Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on September 3, 2006.
  30. ^Sinner, Samuel D. (August 28, 2005)."The German-Russian Genocide: Remembrance in the 21st Century".lib.ndsu.nodak.edu. Archived fromthe originalon July 8, 2008.
  31. ^Kappeler, Andreas (2014)."Ukraine and Russia: Legacies of the imperial past and competing memories".Journal of Eurasian Studies.5(2): 107–115.doi:10.1016/j.euras.2014.05.005.S2CID144575672.
  32. ^Motyl, Alexander (2010). "Deleting the Holodomor: Ukraine unmakes itself".World Affairs.
  33. ^Kupfer, Matthew, and Thomas de Waal. "Crying Genocide: Use and Abuse of Political Rhetoric in Russia and Ukraine." (2014).
  34. ^"Ukraine clashes with Russia over 1930s famine".The Irish Times.Apr 29, 2008.Retrieved2017-04-10.
  35. ^Marson, James (2009-11-18)."Ukraine's forgotten famine".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077.Retrieved2017-04-10.
  36. ^Young, Cathy (2015-10-31)."Russia Denies Stalin's Killer Famine".The Daily Beast.Retrieved2017-04-10.
  37. ^"Genocide or" A Vast Tragedy "? | Literary Review of Canada".Literary Review of Canada.Retrieved2017-01-03.
  38. ^Davies, R. W. and S. G. Wheatcroft (2004).The Years Of Hunger.New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 441 note 145.
  39. ^Ellman, Michael (2005)."The Role of Leadership Perceptions and of Intent in the Soviet Famine of 1931 – 1934"(PDF).Europe-Asia Studies.57(6): 823–841.doi:10.1080/09668130500199392.S2CID13880089.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2009-02-27.Retrieved2019-10-22.
  40. ^"The Siege of Leningrad, 1941 – 1944".eyewitnesstohistory.2006.Retrieved2017-01-03.
  41. ^"History of St. Petersburg during World War II".saint-petersburg.Retrieved2017-01-03.
  42. ^Ellman, Michael(2000)."The 1947 Soviet famine and the entitlement approach to famines"(PDF).Cambridge Journal of Economics.24(5). Oxford University Press: 603–630.doi:10.1093/cje/24.5.603.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on March 25, 2009.RetrievedDecember 17,2016.
  43. ^"Famine of 1946–1947".Seventeen Moments in Soviet History.2015-06-19.Retrieved2017-01-03.
  44. ^abCiochină, Simion (29 July 2016)."70 de ani de la foamea din Basarabia: Canibalism provocat de regimul sovietic"[70 years since the famine in Bessarabia: Cannibalism caused by the Soviet regime].dw.
  45. ^"Famine of 1946–7".encyclope điểu fukraine.Retrieved2017-01-03.
  46. ^Ursu, Valentina (7 January 2017)."O istorie secretizată și ocultată: foametea din 1946-47 în Basarabia"[A secret and hidden history: the famine of 1946-47 in Bessarabia].Radio Europa Liberă.
  47. ^Nove, Alec (1952).An Economic History of the USSR 1917–1951.Penguin Books. pp. 373–375.
  48. ^"Food security in the Russian Federation".fao.org.Retrieved2017-01-03.
  49. ^Mungai, Christine (2015-11-03)."Drought in Russia and Ukraine threatens 30% of wheat crop—this could have unlikely political implications in Africa".MG Africa.Archived fromthe originalon 2017-02-20.Retrieved2017-01-03.
  50. ^"Drought halts Russia grain exports".Express.co.uk.2010-08-05.Retrieved2017-01-03.

Notations

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