Secondly, there was drive in agriculture to increase food production. The Virgin Lands Scheme, Khrushchev’s special brainchild, started in 1954, involving the cultivation for the first time of huge areas of land in Siberia and Kazakhstan. Peasants or collective farms were permitted to keep or sell crops produced on their private slots, and the government increased its payments for crops from the collectives, thus providing incentives to produce more. Not surprisingly, total farm output had increased by 56 per cent by 1958. In between 1953 and 1962, grain production rose from 82 million tons to 147 million tons. But then the Russian’s good fortunes left them: the 1963 output dropped to 110 million tons, mostly because of the Virgin Lands Scheme’s failure. The problem was that a lot of the land wasn’t of good quality, too few fertilizers were used, and the soil was blown away in dust storms. There was always too much interference in agriculture from local party official, and it was the least efficient sector of the economy. The Russians had no choice but to rely on grain imports, mostly from the USA, which was something they could not stomach.
Khrushchev also introduced changes in the political aspects of his government, such as the return to party control, instead of Stalin’s personality cult. A reduction in secret police activities (deposed politicians and officials retired into obscurity, instead of being tortured or executed). There was more freedom for ordinary Russians, more tourism and a slight relaxation of press censorship.
The Russian people benefited enormously during Khrushchev’s time: the working class was wealthier, thanks to the profit incentives and wage differentials, and they lived better, thanks to all the new consumer goods Russia was producing. They now had the possibility of owning refrigerators, washing machines, television sets or radios, which had previously been unavailable to them, due to their cost. They gained more liberty for themselves, a big change after over thirty years under Stalin’s government.
Brezhnev came out of the political struggle between himself and Kosygin in 1977 triumphant and would remain leader of the USSR until his death, in November 1982. In general, his policies were quite similar to those of the Khrushchev period.
He kept the economic policies of wage differentials and profit incentives of the Khrushchev period, and some growth occurred, but the rate was quite slow. The system was kept strongly centralized, and Brezhnev was reluctant to take any major initiatives, for fear of annoying the conservative members of the party. Thus, by 1982, a lot of Russian industry was old-fashioned and outdated, and was in need of new production and processing technology. There was concern about the failure of the coal and oil industries to increase output and the building industry was known for its slowness and poor quality results. Agriculture continued to be a major and pressing problem, the yields were low and not once in the period of 1980-84 did grain production come even close to the targets set. The 1981 harvest was disastrous, and the 1982 was only very slightly better, throwing Russian into an uncomfortable dependence on importing grain from the USA. It was calculated that in the USA in 1980, a single agricultural worker produced enough to feed over 75 people, while his counterpart in Russia managed only enough to feed little over 10 people.
Brezhnev’s record on human rights was not distinguished. Though he may have claimed to be in favor of the Helsinki Agreement of 1975, and appeared to make important concessions about human rights in the USSR, he made, in fact, very little progress. Groups were set up to check whether the terms of the agreement were being kept, but the authorities put them under a lot of pressure. Many of their members were arrested, imprisoned, exiled or deported, and finally the groups dissolved altogether in September 1982.
The Russian people under Brezhnev’s rule benefited much less: although there were still slight economic growths, and more people had more consumer goods in their homes, they themselves lost rights. Though it may have seemed like they were gaining important rights, they were losing others, such as the dissolving of the groups that had been set up to check whether the terms of the Helsinki Agreement were being kept. Secret police activities increased under Brezhnev again, which caused fear to spread again, after Stalin’s oppressions.
