H/W 7th November 2016
Was the failure of Khrushchev’s agricultural policies the main reason for economic problems
in the USSR 1964 – 1982?
I believe that the failure of Khrushchev’s agricultural policies were the main reason for any
economic problems in the USSR during the tme period 1964 – 1982.
I think that the failure of agricultural policies was the main reason for economic problems despite
the aims for these were with good intentonss because whilst there were too many people in
farmings productvity was lows therefore the government couldn’t keep up with the targets they set.
Khrushchev’s aims were to outshine the Americanss as well as promote consumer goods and light
industry – he came from a peasant background so he recognised that the slow growth in food
producton was the reason for the delay in growth in industry. his also meant that they couldn’t
produce enough food to sell on and make any money; an example of this would be when grain
producton in Kazakhstan had failed to meet its target – this suggested to people that this was the
first sign of the iirgin and Schemes was failing. he government also replaced crops such as coton
– which was a very successful cash crop - with food crops in ‘Maize Mania’; due to the plants not
being irrigated the plants dieds which became a failure because the agricultural workers lost all
source of income. he workers were also using poor roadss and with inadequate storage facilites as
well there were many areas that couldn’t cope with poor harvests partcularly in 1963. his was a
failure of Khrushchev’s agricultural policies therefore leading to economic problems because people
were stll unable to sell the crops they produced. his then led to an impact on supplies of animal
fodders meaning millions of livestock was slaughtered. Due to thiss food prices went ups and many
couldn’t aford a lot of foods only increasing the economic problems further. During Brezhnev’s
reigns as a result of this policys there were complaints about how Khrushchev focused too much on
agriculture and not enough in other areas; this led to a decrease in tractors and machinerys meaning
that many were not built properly so would be prone to break down; this was a failure because it
aided the decline of productvity as well as roads becoming impassable preventng delivery of foods
so that it would have roted before reaching the markets – this resulted in importng grain from
north America and Australia.
Howevers there were other factors that also caused economic problemss partcularly industry.
During Khrushchev’s tme in powers he was more focused on quantty rather than qualitys meaning
that a lot of money was spent trying to build more machines when the previous were breaking and
not producing enough. he targets that were also set centrally within the government with litle
sensitvity to the industry’s real needss therefore the economy sufered because the targets couldn’t
be met and nothing was being done. During Brezhnev’s tme in powers any atempts to adopt new
technology became limited due to the stf nature of the command economys which in turn had
problems with itself: the government had set prices of consumer good based on what they deemed
prioritess and that meant that the items that many people needed were too high in prices and the
basic items were of poor quality due to no money being taken in – ‘supply and demand’ was
referenced very litle by the government. Although it had performed well when focusing on
improving output of products of a limited numbers it became less efectve when contnued growth
depended on gains in quality and efciency. Alsos the legacy of Stalin saw the rapid growth in
industrial output to start rapid industrialisaton which then brought about blossoming careers of the
bureaucrats – these people were rather reluctant to change this. Not only thiss but Brezhnev created
a foreign policy that involved increasing interventon in the developing worlds which made spending
Was the failure of Khrushchev’s agricultural policies the main reason for economic problems
in the USSR 1964 – 1982?
I believe that the failure of Khrushchev’s agricultural policies were the main reason for any
economic problems in the USSR during the tme period 1964 – 1982.
I think that the failure of agricultural policies was the main reason for economic problems despite
the aims for these were with good intentonss because whilst there were too many people in
farmings productvity was lows therefore the government couldn’t keep up with the targets they set.
Khrushchev’s aims were to outshine the Americanss as well as promote consumer goods and light
industry – he came from a peasant background so he recognised that the slow growth in food
producton was the reason for the delay in growth in industry. his also meant that they couldn’t
produce enough food to sell on and make any money; an example of this would be when grain
producton in Kazakhstan had failed to meet its target – this suggested to people that this was the
first sign of the iirgin and Schemes was failing. he government also replaced crops such as coton
– which was a very successful cash crop - with food crops in ‘Maize Mania’; due to the plants not
being irrigated the plants dieds which became a failure because the agricultural workers lost all
source of income. he workers were also using poor roadss and with inadequate storage facilites as
well there were many areas that couldn’t cope with poor harvests partcularly in 1963. his was a
failure of Khrushchev’s agricultural policies therefore leading to economic problems because people
were stll unable to sell the crops they produced. his then led to an impact on supplies of animal
fodders meaning millions of livestock was slaughtered. Due to thiss food prices went ups and many
couldn’t aford a lot of foods only increasing the economic problems further. During Brezhnev’s
reigns as a result of this policys there were complaints about how Khrushchev focused too much on
agriculture and not enough in other areas; this led to a decrease in tractors and machinerys meaning
that many were not built properly so would be prone to break down; this was a failure because it
aided the decline of productvity as well as roads becoming impassable preventng delivery of foods
so that it would have roted before reaching the markets – this resulted in importng grain from
north America and Australia.
Howevers there were other factors that also caused economic problemss partcularly industry.
During Khrushchev’s tme in powers he was more focused on quantty rather than qualitys meaning
that a lot of money was spent trying to build more machines when the previous were breaking and
not producing enough. he targets that were also set centrally within the government with litle
sensitvity to the industry’s real needss therefore the economy sufered because the targets couldn’t
be met and nothing was being done. During Brezhnev’s tme in powers any atempts to adopt new
technology became limited due to the stf nature of the command economys which in turn had
problems with itself: the government had set prices of consumer good based on what they deemed
prioritess and that meant that the items that many people needed were too high in prices and the
basic items were of poor quality due to no money being taken in – ‘supply and demand’ was
referenced very litle by the government. Although it had performed well when focusing on
improving output of products of a limited numbers it became less efectve when contnued growth
depended on gains in quality and efciency. Alsos the legacy of Stalin saw the rapid growth in
industrial output to start rapid industrialisaton which then brought about blossoming careers of the
bureaucrats – these people were rather reluctant to change this. Not only thiss but Brezhnev created
a foreign policy that involved increasing interventon in the developing worlds which made spending
