Khrushchev was trying to solve the severe shortage of grains. The Virgin Lands campaign concentrated on bringing under cultivation the semi-arid territories of unused lands in Kazakhstan. It was a huge operation that was designed to open a vast tract of steppe land. As a result, it led to pressure within the party leadership. Numerous men and women volunteered to work and settle on the steppe lands of Kazakhstan.
Khrushchev promoted the campaign as a Leninist response to the crisis of collectivized agriculture.
More than , people, primarily from Ukraine and the RSFSR, were recruited by the Komsomol to settle and cultivate the arid steppe. They would be joined by even larger contingents of students, soldiers, and truck and combine-drivers who were transported to the virgin lands on a seasonal basis.
The campaign bore the stamp of Nikita Khrushchev and his efforts to rekindle popular identification with and participation in state economic initiatives. The program saw a return to an emphasis on agriculture, something that Stalin had severely neglected. The program sought to shift grain and wheat production to other lands so that Ukraine could be used to produce more corn to increase meat and milk production.
In the first year that the program was enacted, approximately 19 million hectares or 47 million acres were plowed. Starting in the s, reliance on single-crop cultivation had damaged the fertility of the soil, and much of the soil simply blew away with the wind. The Virgin Lands Program introduced a special demographic element to society. OPDAO, f. TsKhDMO, f. Compare, for instance, M. Morgun ed. Fieldnotes, August See C. Svanberg ed. Michaela Pohl There are no affiliations available. Personalised recommendations.
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