Abstract
For several years, agriculture has served an unparalleled role in Russia’s economy and has significantly shaped the course of its history. This chapter traces the history of agriculture in Russia from a statistical perspective to shed some light on this vital industry. We present extensive agricultural statistics during the period, from the latter half of the nineteenth century to the present time, and provide pertinent explanations on the Russian agriculture scenarios in each of the following three ages: Imperial, Soviet, and present-day Russia. The topics discussed here include an estimation of the agricultural production index for Imperial Russia, assessment of the reliability of the official Soviet agricultural statistics, and the problems of the contemporary Russian agriculture.
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Notes
- 1.
As for agricultural statistics for Imperial Russia, there also exist, other than data accumulated by the Central Statistical Committee mentioned in the text, statistics compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture and the so-called zemstvo statistics. However, both of the latter cover relatively small areas; hence, the Central Statistical Committee statistics are commonly used as the most comprehensive sources (Wheatcroft 1974, p. 158).
- 2.
This is the translation used here of the Russian “boby.” Considering Soviet-era statistics, the term likely refers to produce such as green beans and broad beans. Peas and lentils, though separately mentioned, are also grains, but in this case the term refers to types of grain beans that are neither peas nor lentils.
- 3.
The conversion rates are as follows. Wheat, 1 chetvert’ (same below) = 9.40 pud; rye, 8.72 pud; oats, 5.65 pud; barley, 7.83 pud; emmer, 6.57 pud; buckwheat, 6.69 pud; corn, 9.58 pud; peas, 9.77 pud; millet, 9.44 pud; and potatoes, 9.25 pud.
- 4.
It is thought, as mentioned above, that statistics of the Central Statistical Committee contains a tendency of underestimation regarding yield quantities. However, Paul Gregory (1982, p. 224) states that “there is some consensus (among researchers) that they (Central Statistical Committee figures) capture intertemporal trends reasonably well.”
- 5.
For example, prices for the four main grains can be obtained for each year from 1881 to 1913 with Liashchenko (1915, p. 11).
- 6.
Regression results are as follows (t-values are shown in parentheses):
[Case of wheat] (Adjusted R2 = 0.856).
\( \ln \Big( \)(NPR/(1 − NPR)) = −3.601 + 0.0197 × t + 1.048 × ln(Harvest Level)
(−7.564) (6.846) (10.050)
[Case of rye] (Adjusted R2 = 0.731)
\( \ln \Big( \)(NPR/(1 − NPR)) = −3.977 + 0.0135 × t + 1.131 × ln(Harvest Level)
(−5.392) (5.480) (7.084)
[Case of barley] (Adjusted R2 = 0.850)
\( \ln \Big( \)(NPR/(1 − NPR)) = −4.344 + 0.0204 × t +1.225 × ln(Harvest Level)
(−6.958) (7.427) (8.966)
[Case of the three main grains] (Adjusted R2 = 0.883)
\( \ln \Big( \)(NPR/(1 − NPR)) = −4.337 + 0.0170 × t + 1.210 × ln(Harvest Level)
(−8.637) (9.006) (11.091)
[Case of potatoes] (Adjusted R2 = 0.542)
\( \ln \Big( \)(NPR/(1 − NPR)) = −1.952 + 0.0082 × t + 0.692 × ln(Harvest Level).
(−2.293) (3.820) (3.723)
All t-values for coefficients except for the y-intercepts for potatoes are significant at the 1% level.
- 7.
These average annual growth rates are calculated using log-linear regressions.
- 8.
- 9.
Meanwhile, against expectations, no serious drop may be seen in crop farming. The negative image we have of collectivization may stem mainly from livestock farming.
- 10.
Note that the actual increase in area sown during the campaign from 1954 through 1956 was about two thirds of 55 million hectares mentioned in the text. The remaining one third took place after 1960, which can be regarded as a year when the campaign had come to an end. The increase in area sown in the 1960s was due to the exploitation policy of land lying fallow by Khrushchev, who was in too much of a hurry to get results. For such defects in agricultural administration by Khrushchev, see Nobe (1990).
- 11.
Note that in the 1960–1965 editions of the Statistical Yearbook, the following statement is made about the first portion of the base-year changeovers mentioned above: “determined using 1951 prices from 1940 to 1956” (e.g. TsSU RSFSR 1966, p. 586). This was revised in later editions into the manner featured in the main text. Meanwhile, for the entire USSR, the 1959–1963 editions of the Statistical Yearbook (e.g. TsSU SSSR 1963, p. 672) state that gross agricultural output and the index thereof were determined using “1926/27 prices until 1932, and 1951 prices from 1932 to 1956 […]”; while editions from 1964 onward state that “1951 prices were used for determining 1940 until 1956” (e.g. TsSU SSSR 1965, p. 812). Later still, the method comes to be the same as that used for Russian Republic calculations as featured in the text. This ambiguity in records can be considered one factor which kindles external distrust of Soviet official statistics, making it unclear what manner of calculation methods were actually used.
- 12.
Workforce in state-run organizations was called “workers and employees” in the Soviet Union. For this, see discussions in Sect. 5.4.4.
- 13.
Strictly speaking, statistically total workforce was classified into “family members of workers and employees engaged in personal subsidiary agricultural operations” and “other inhabitants (independent peasant farmers, and kustar’ artisans, among others),” as well as “workers and employees” and “kolkhozniki.”
- 14.
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Appendix
Appendix
Appendix Tables 5.1–5.17 are available in http://www.ier.hit-u.ac.jp/histatdb/projects/view/2.
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Suhara, M. (2019). Agriculture. In: Kuboniwa, M., Nakamura, Y., Kumo, K., Shida, Y. (eds) Russian Economic Development over Three Centuries. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8429-5_5
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