The Livestock Disaster

Abstract

In spite of the decline in the number of animals between 1928 and 1930, the Soviet authorities approached the livestock problem with an air of great confidence. In the autumn of 1930 they used the methods of the grain campaign to enforce the livestock collections. In December, Mikoyan presented a report to the plenum of the central committee ‘On the Supply of Meat and Vegetables’, which attributed the decline in livestock to a kulak campaign to persuade peasants to kill their animals, and again emphasised the need to solve the meat problem by the methods used in the grain campaign: ‘It is clear [Mikoyan insisted] that in the sphere of meat we lagged about 2 years behind grain in all respects.’ The report called for the rapid expansion of livestock production. Animals could be made heavier by the intensive use of grain and artificial fodder in 1931, and this could be accompanied by the development of specialised livestock kolkhozy and MTS. But the main emphasis in the report was its call for the more efficient collection of animals by the state, which would enable the meat problem to be solved by 1932.² The report soon proved to be redolent with dramatic irony.

This chapter deals primarily with animals raised for food. Horses are discussed in the chapters on the grain harvests.