Climate Dependence and Food Problems in Russia, 1900-1990: The Interaction of Climate and Agricultural Policy and Their Effect in Food Problems

Dronin (Moscow State U.) and Bellinger (formerly U. of Manchester) examine the conditions that led to the mass famines in Russia that punctuated its history in most of the twentieth century. They find that a volatile climate and a series of ineffective or even faulty policies in essence worked together to result in agricultural disasters the scope of which the world has seldom seen. They begin by studying how climate affects agriculture in Russia, and then describe in detail the differences among various periods, including the pre- and post-revolutionary, the era of collectivization, post-war recovery, the Virgin Lands campaign, and the periods of agricultural intensification and stagnation experienced from 1965 to 1990. They find that climate had always put Russia into a "survivor" rather than "advancer" position, and that policies of various administrations did little more than reinforce the fatalistic and short-termed "survivor" mode. Distributed by Books International. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR