Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2015 number

On the materials of Western Siberia the article analyzes the causes, course and results of agricultural crisis of the early 1980s as well as the state bodies’ efforts to overcome its consequences. The economic slowdown in the second half of the 1970s and the crisis in the agricultural sector in the early 1980s were due to the out-of date agrarian policy of the Soviet state. Its implementation led to the economic imbalance and strengthened administrative methods of economic management. The actual bankruptcy of the majority of regional state and collective farms, growing price disparity between agricultural and industrial products, controversial procurement policy of state agencies were complemented by the growing alienation of agricultural workers from the results of their labour. The severe drought in the south of Western Siberia served as a catalyst for the agrarian crisis. The decline in food production led to the aggravation of the food situation in the country and in the region. Food Program adopted at the May Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Soviet Union in 1982 was aimed at solving the aggravated food problem. It provided implementation of complex measures to promote the farmers’ well-being, housing construction and social services development, to improve health and domestic services in rural areas. The government restructured the agricultural enterprises’ debt as well as raised purchasing prices for agricultural products. After the start of the measures implementation provided by the Food Programme, the situation in the agricultural sector stabilized. In Western Siberia the second half of the 11 ^th Five-year plan was marked by dynamic agricultural development.