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The Making of Modern Russia, 1855–1991

Reform, innovation and productivity, 1861–1991

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 3

Overview

Recall questions on the backwardness of peasant farming, the effect of railways, Stolypin's success, Lysenkoism, the Virgin Lands scheme, and why output stayed low.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Evaluation

What was 'maize mania'?

Key term

Why was nineteenth-century peasant agriculture backward?

Who and when

Did Soviet agriculture meet the country's food needs by the 1980s?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Why was nineteenth-century peasant agriculture backward?

    Model answer

    Strip farming in communes, primitive tools such as wooden ploughs, little machinery and consequently low yields.

  2. 2

    How did the spread of railways affect farming before 1914?

    Model answer

    It let large gentry and noble estates transport and export grain, boosting commercial agriculture.

  3. 3

    What was Khrushchev's Virgin Lands scheme?

    Model answer

    From 1954, ploughing up vast previously uncultivated lands in Kazakhstan and Siberia to grow grain; early gains gave way to soil erosion and poor harvests.

  4. 4

    What was 'maize mania'?

    Model answer

    Khrushchev's campaign to grow maize (corn) widely across the USSR, often in unsuitable climates, which largely failed.

  5. 5

    How did Stalin try to modernise agriculture?

    Model answer

    Through collectivisation and mechanisation, using Machine Tractor Stations to supply equipment and extract grain for industrialisation.

  6. 6

    Did Soviet agriculture meet the country's food needs by the 1980s?

    Model answer

    No — chronic shortages and reliance on imports persisted despite heavy investment under Brezhnev and Gorbachev.

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