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How accurate is it to say that Khrushchev and Brezhnev implemented very different policies in their management of the economy in the years 1953-82$9.91
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How accurate is it to say that Khrushchev and Brezhnev implemented very different policies in their management of the economy in the years 1953-82
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Course
Unit 1E - Russia, 1917-91: from Lenin to Yeltsin
Institution
PEARSON (PEARSON)
An essay on how accurate is it to say that Khrushchev and Brezhnev implemented very different policies in their management of the economy in the years 1953-82
By Andreas Savva 5A
How accurate is it to say that Khrushchev and Brezhnev implemented very different policies in
their management of the economy in the years 1953-82?
It can be said that there were both similarities and differences in regards to the
implementation of Khrushchev’s and Brezhnev’s economic policy. Indeed, it is accurate to say
that Brezhnev’s and Khrushchev’s economic policies were different to each other, but most
very different due to the fact that there were similarities in areas such as the development of
light industry and collective farming but their course of action was very different in other major
areas such as military spending, the implementation and development of socialism and even
Brezhnev reversing key economic reforms made by Khrushchev.
Initially, the approach of Khrushchev’s economic policy to agriculture had several differences
when comparing it to Brezhnev’s. Firstly, Khrushchev’s main goals in the area of agriculture are
increasing productivity as well as ensure a better standard of living for Soviet citizens. Despite
the differences, both of these goals were also shared by Brezhnev but the method and extent
to which they were carried out differed. Adding onto that, Khrushchev used the Virgin Lands
Scheme, which was launched in 1953, in order to increase the productivity of wheat to feed the
people of the Soviet Union but to also produce more grain and food than the USA by turning
unfarmed lands in areas such as the northern Caucasus, Kazakhstan and western Siberia into
new farms and the Corn Campaign, which begun in 1958, encouraged farmers in Ukraine to
grow Maize. These policies resulted in a significant increase in the amount of land farmed from
18.2 million hectares to 97.4 from 1953-64 and contributed to a 50 per cent increase in the
production of maize by 1958. Despite this, the Virgin Lands Scheme was a failure since it
eventually became very expensive and its successes were initial and superficial since harvests in
1959-60 lower than 1958, then by 1964 agriculture was only 15% higher than in 1958, although
still historically high they were nothing compared to the targets Khrushchev had proposed in
1956 and also forced the Soviet Union to start importing grain from the West due to the
inefficiencies of the scheme which wasted resources and led to the under-production of grain.
In contrast to Khrushchev, Brezhnev did not make huge reforms to agriculture and reversed the
changes made by the Virgin Lands Scheme. Instead of wasting resources and implementing
reforms to agriculture, Brezhnev focused on making small economic changes and changing
priorities as well as changing far-reaching reforms made by Khrushchev. Furthermore, Brezhnev
abandoned the Virgin Lands Scheme and decided to instead import grain to feed the people as
well as keep the prices of grain and food low. This shows how despite having common aims, the
approach of the economic policies of both Khrushchev and Brezhnev were very different to
each other since Khrushchev decided to use far-reaching and complicated reforms to increase
grain which ultimately failed, whereas Brezhnev abandoned these reforms and used small
economic changes such as importing grain instead. Moreover, Khrushchev also used improved
incentives in the agricultural industry to encourage production of grain. Under Stalin the state
imposed high quotas and then bought produce at extremely low prices, which lowered the
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