Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2019 number

The article highlights the attempt of the transition to grass-fallow rotation system undertaken in the second half of the 1930s in Siberia. The analysis is carried out in the context of the Soviet state agrarian policy and ideological-theoretical struggle in the agronomic science. The author states that forced collectivization caused a deep crisis of agriculture. Refusal of crop rotations was one of the factors that led to decline of soil fertility and low yields. In 1932, the country’s leadership indicated the need to implement crop rotations in collective and state farms. Defining an optimal farming system for the country as a whole and its individual regions was the subject of a discussion between the supporters of fallow and grassfield farming systems. In 1933, the decision was made in favor of grass-fallow rotation system. Ineffectiveness of grass-fallow rotation with minimum fertilizers changed the viewpoint of the country’s leadership. The task to introduce grass-fallow rotation system was put on the agenda. The choice was based on the lack of mineral fertilizers, as well as the need to strengthen the husbandry fodder base. In late 1936, the government authorized the transition to grass-fallow rotation system in southern part of West Siberia. In June 1937, the Central Committee plenum of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) approved the transition to the grass-fallow rotation system at national level. At the same time, it was necessary to prevent reducing grain crops area. The grain loss caused by the widespread introduction of the grass rotation system was intended to be compensated by expanding the arable land area due to the virgin and fallow land development in the country’s eastern regions including South-West Siberia. In 1940, mass plowing of virgin and fallow lands began in the region. The rate of introducing grassland crop rotation was slow. In fact, the regional predominant farming system was a fallow crop three-field system in the early 1940s.