From the Fall of Malenkov to the Fall of Khrushchev, 1955–64

Abstract

The role of the agricultural administration from the mid-1980s until the death of Stalin was often difficult to fulfil but was relatively easy to grasp. Its main task was to exercise close control over the countryside in order to guarantee supplies of food and raw materials vital to the success of the industrialisation drive. Production sometimes suffered, but control was the order of the day. The MTS, the large agricultural bureaucracy, the complicated procurement system, the extreme centralisation of agricultural planning and procurement and the often arbitrary nature of administrative intervention were all geared towards one goal — control.