Famine in the Volga region is one of the most tragic events in Russian history of the 20th century. When you read about him, it's hard to believe that it was real. It seems that the photographs taken at that time are shots from a Hollywood trash-horror. Cannibals appear here, and the future Nazi criminal, and the robbers of churches, and the great polar explorer. Alas, this is not fiction, but real events that took place less than a century ago on the banks of the Volga.
The famine in the Volga region was very severe both in 1921-22 and in 1932-33. However, the reasons for it were different. In the first case, the main one was weather anomalies, and in the second, the actions of the authorities. We will describe these events in detail in this article. You will learn about how severe the famine was in the Volga region. The photos presented in this article are living evidence of a terrible tragedy.
In Soviet times, "news from the fields" was held in high esteem. In news footageprograms and on newspaper pages many tons of grain found their place. Even now you can see stories on this topic on regional TV channels. However, spring and winter crops are just obscure agricultural terms for the majority of city dwellers. Farmers from the TV channel may complain about severe drought, heavy rainfall and other surprises of nature. However, we usually remain deaf to their troubles. The presence of bread and other products today is considered an eternal given, beyond doubt. And agrarian disasters sometimes raise its price by only a couple of rubles. But less than a century ago, the inhabitants of the Volga region found themselves in the epicenter of a humanitarian catastrophe. At that time, bread was worth its weight in gold. Today it is difficult to imagine how severe the famine was in the Volga region.
Causes of the famine of 1921-22
The lean year of 1920 was the first precondition for disaster. In the Volga region, only about 20 million poods of grain were harvested. For comparison, its quantity in 1913 reached 146.4 million pounds. The spring of 1921 brought an unprecedented drought. Already in May, winter crops perished in the Samara province, and spring crops began to dry out. The appearance of locusts that ate the remains of the crop, as well as the lack of rain, caused the death of almost 100% of the crops by early July. As a result, famine began in the Volga region. 1921 was a very difficult year for most people in many parts of the country. In the Samara province, for example, about 85% of the population was starving.
In the previous year inAs a result of the "surplus appraisal" almost all food supplies were confiscated from the peasants. From the kulaks, the seizure was carried out by requisition, on a "gratuitous" basis. Other residents were paid money for this at rates set by the state. "Food detachments" were in charge of this process. Many peasants did not like the prospect of confiscation of food or its forced sale. And they began to take preventive "measures". All stocks and surpluses of bread were subject to "utilization" - they sold it to speculators, mixed it into animal feed, ate it themselves, brewed moonshine based on it, or simply hid it. "Prodrazverstka" initially spread to grain fodder and bread. In 1919-20, meat and potatoes were added to them, and by the end of 1920, almost all agricultural products were added. After the surplus appropriation of 1920, the peasants were forced to eat seed grain already in the fall. The geography of the famine-stricken regions was very wide. This is the Volga region (from Udmurtia to the Caspian Sea), the south of modern Ukraine, part of Kazakhstan, the Southern Urals.
Actions of the authorities
The situation was critical. The government of the USSR did not have food reserves in order to stop the famine in the Volga region in 1921. In July of this year, it was decided to ask for help from the capitalist countries. However, the bourgeois were in no hurry to help the Soviet Union. Only at the beginning of autumn did the first humanitarian aid arrive. But it was also insignificant. In late 1921 - early 1922, the number of humanitarianaid has doubled. This is a great merit of Fridtjof Nansen, the famous scientist and polar explorer, who organized an active campaign.
Aid from America and Europe
While Western politicians were pondering what conditions to put forward to the USSR in exchange for humanitarian aid, religious and public organizations in America and Europe got down to business. Their help in the fight against hunger was very great. The activities of the American Relief Administration (ARA) have reached a particularly large scale. It was headed by Herbert Hoover, the US Secretary of Commerce (by the way, an ardent anti-communist). As of February 9, 1922, the contribution of the United States to the fight against hunger was estimated at $42 million. By comparison, the Soviet government spent only $12.5 million.
Activities carried out in 1921-22
However, the Bolsheviks were not idle. By decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets in June 1921, the Pomgol Central Committee was organized. This commission was endowed with special powers in the field of food distribution and supply. And similar commissions were created locally. Abroad, an active purchase of bread was carried out. Special attention was paid to helping peasants sow winter crops in 1921 and spring crops in 1922. About 55 million poods of seeds were purchased for these purposes.
The Soviet authorities used the famine to deal a crushing blow to the church. On January 2, 1922, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to liquidate church property. At the same time, a good goal was declared - the funds from the sale of valuables belonging to the church should be directed to the purchasemedicines, food and other necessary goods. During 1922, property was confiscated from the church, the value of which was estimated at 4.5 million gold rubles. It was a huge amount. However, only 20-30% of the funds were directed to the stated goals. The main part was "spent" on kindling the fire of the world revolution. And the other one was simply corny plundered by local officials in the process of storage, transportation and seizure.
The horrors of the famine of 1921-22
About 5 million people died from hunger and its consequences. Mortality in the Samara region increased four times, reaching 13%. Children suffered the most from hunger. There were frequent cases at that time when parents deliberately got rid of extra mouths. Even cannibalism was noted during the famine in the Volga region. Surviving children became orphans and replenished the army of homeless children. In the villages of Samara, Saratov, and especially Simbirsk province, residents attacked local councils. They demanded that they be given rations. People ate all the cattle, and then turned to cats and dogs, and even people. Famine in the Volga region forced people to take desperate measures. Cannibalism was just one of them. People were selling all their possessions for a piece of bread.
Prices during a famine
At that time you could buy a house for a bucket of sauerkraut. Residents of the cities sold their property for next to nothing and somehow held on. However, in the villages the situation became critical. Food prices skyrocketed. The famine in the Volga region (1921-1922) led to the fact that speculation began to flourish. In February 1922 onIn the Simbirsk market, a pood of bread could be purchased for 1,200 rubles. And by March, they were already asking for a million. The cost of potatoes reached 800 thousand rubles. for a pud. At the same time, the annual earnings of a simple worker amounted to about a thousand rubles.
Cannibalism during the famine in the Volga region
In 1922, with increasing frequency, reports of cannibalism began to arrive in the capital. Reports for January 20 mentioned his cases in the Simbirsk and Samara provinces, as well as in Bashkiria. It was observed wherever there was famine in the Volga region. The cannibalism of 1921 began to gain new momentum in the following year, 1922. The Pravda newspaper on January 27 wrote that rampant cannibalism was observed in the starving regions. In the districts of the Samara province, people driven by hunger to madness and despair ate human corpses and devoured their dead children. This is what the famine in the Volga region led to.
Cannibalism in 1921 and 1922 was documented. For example, in the report of a member of the Executive Committee of April 13, 1922, on checking the village of Lyubimovka, located in the Samara region, it was noted that "wild cannibalism" takes mass forms in Lyubimovka. In the stove of one inhabitant, he found a cooked piece of human flesh, and in the hallway - a pot of minced meat. Many bones were found near the porch. When the woman was asked about where she got the flesh from, she admitted that her 8-year-old son died and she cut him into pieces. Then she also killed her 15-year-old daughter while the girl was sleeping. Cannibals during the famine in the Volga region of 1921admitted that they did not even remember the taste of human meat, as they ate it in a state of unconsciousness.
The newspaper "Nasha Zhizn" reported that in the villages of the Simbirsk province, corpses are lying on the streets, which no one cleans up. The famine in the Volga region of 1921 claimed the lives of many people. Cannibalism was the only way out for many. It got to the point that the inhabitants began to steal stocks of human meat from each other, and in some volosts they dug up the dead for food. Cannibalism during the famine in the Volga region of 1921-22. no longer surprised anyone.
The consequences of the famine of 1921-22
In the spring of 1922, according to the GPU, there were 3.5 million starving people in the Samara province, 2 million in Saratov, 1.2 in Simbirsk, 651, 7 thousand in Tsaritsyn, 329, 7 thousand in Penza, 2, 1 million - in the Republic of Tatarstan, 800 thousand - in Chuvashia, 330 thousand - in the German Commune. In the Simbirsk province only by the end of 1923 the famine was overcome. The province received assistance with food and seeds for the autumn sowing, although until 1924 surrogate bread remained the main food of the peasants. According to the census conducted in 1926, the population of the province has decreased by about 300 thousand people since 1921. 170 thousand died from typhus and starvation, 80 thousand were evacuated and about 50 thousand fled. In the Volga region, according to conservative estimates, 5 million people died.
Famine in the Volga region of 1932-1933
In 1932-33. hunger returned. Note that the history of its occurrence in this period is still shrouded in darkness and distorted. Despite the huge amount of published literature, the debate about it continues to this day. It is known that in 1932-33. there was no drought in the Volga region, Kuban and Ukraine. What then are its causes? Indeed, in Russia, famine has traditionally been associated with crop shortages and droughts. Weather in 1931-32 was not very favorable for agriculture. However, it could not cause mass crop shortages. Therefore, this famine was not the result of natural disasters. It was a consequence of Stalin's agrarian policy and the reaction of the peasantry to it.
Famine in the Volga region: causes
The immediate cause can be considered the anti-peasant policy of grain procurement and collectivization. It was carried out to solve the problems of strengthening the power of Stalin and the forced industrialization of the USSR. Ukraine, as well as the main grain regions of the Soviet Union, zones of complete collectivization, were struck by famine (1933). The Volga region again experienced a terrible tragedy.
Having carefully studied the sources, one can note a single mechanism for creating a famine situation in these areas. Everywhere it is forced collectivization, dispossession of kulaks, forced procurement of grain and state deliveries of agricultural products, suppression of the resistance of the peasants. The inextricable link between famine and collectivization can be judged, if only by the fact that in 1930 the period of stable development of the countryside, which began after the hungry years of 1924-25, ended. The lack of food was already marked by 1930, when a complete collectivization was carried out. In a number of regions of the North Caucasus, Ukraine, Siberia, Middle andIn the Lower Volga, due to the campaign for the procurement of grain in 1929, food difficulties arose. This campaign became a catalyst for the collective farm movement.
1931, it would seem, should have been a full year for grain growers, as a record harvest was gathered in the grain regions of the USSR due to favorable weather conditions. According to official data, this is 835.4 million centners, although in reality - no more than 772 million However, it turned out differently. The winter-spring of 1931 was a harbinger of future tragedy.
The famine in the Volga region of 1932 was the natural result of Stalin's policy. Many letters from the collective farmers of the North Caucasus, the Volga region and other regions about the difficult situation were received by the editors of the central newspapers. In these letters, the policy of collectivization and grain procurement was cited as the main cause of the difficulties. At the same time, the responsibility was often assigned to Stalin personally. The Stalinist collective farms, as the experience of the first 2 years of collectivization showed, in essence were in no way connected with the interests of the peasants. The authorities considered them mainly as a source of marketable bread and other agricultural products. At the same time, the interests of grain growers were not taken into account.
Under pressure from the Center, local authorities raked out all available bread from individual households and collective farms. Through the "conveyor method" of harvesting, as well as counter plans and other measures, tight control was established over the crop. Activists and dissatisfied peasants were mercilessly repressed: they were expelled, dispossessed of kulaks, and put on trial. The initiative came from the highestleadership and from Stalin personally. Thus, from the very top there was pressure on the village.
Migration of peasants to cities
Large-scale migration to the cities of the peasant population, its youngest and he althiest representatives, also significantly weakened the production potential of the countryside in 1932. People left the villages, first because of fear of the threat of dispossession, and then, in search of a better life, they began to leave the collective farms. In the winter of 1931/32 due to the difficult food situation, the most active part of the individual farmers and collective farmers began to flee to the cities and to work. First of all, this concerned men of working age.
Mass exits from collective farms
Most of the collective farmers sought to leave them and return to individual farming. The first half of 1932 saw the peak of mass withdrawals. At this time, in the RSFSR, the number of collectivized farms decreased by 1370.8 thousand
The undermined sowing and harvesting campaign of 1932
By the beginning of the sowing season in the spring of 1932, the village found itself with undermined animal husbandry and a difficult food situation. Therefore, this campaign could not be carried out on time and with high quality for objective reasons. Also in 1932, it was not possible to harvest at least half of the grown crop. A large shortage of grain in the USSR after the end of the harvesting and grain procurement campaign of this year arose due to both subjective and objective circumstances. The latter include the above-mentioned consequences of collectivization. Subjective became, firstly, the resistance of the peasantscollectivization and grain procurements, and secondly, the policy of repression and grain procurements pursued by Stalin in the countryside.
The horrors of hunger
The main granaries of the USSR were gripped by famine, which was accompanied by all its horrors. The situation of 1921-22 was repeated: cannibals during the famine in the Volga region, countless deaths, huge food prices. Numerous documents paint a terrible picture of the suffering of many rural residents. The epicenters of famine were concentrated in the grain-growing regions subjected to complete collectivization. The situation of the population in them was approximately equally difficult. This can be judged from the data of the OGPU reports, eyewitness accounts, closed correspondence with the Center for Local Authorities, and reports from the political departments of the MTS.
In particular, it was found that in the Volga region in 1933 the following settlements located on the territory of the Lower Volga Territory were almost completely depopulated: the village of Starye Grivki, the village of Ivlevka, the collective farm named after. Sverdlov. Cases of corpse eating were revealed, as well as burials of victims of hunger in common pits in the villages of Penza, Saratov, Volgograd and Samara regions. This was observed, as is known, in Ukraine, Kuban and on the Don.
Actions of the authorities
At the same time, the actions of the Stalin regime to overcome the crisis were reduced to the fact that the inhabitants who found themselves in the famine zone were allocated significant seed and food loans, with the personal consent of Stalin. The export of grain from the country by decision of the Politburo in April 1933 was stopped. In addition, emergency measures were taken to strengthen the collective farms in terms oforganizational and economic with the help of political departments of the MTS. The grain procurement planning system changed in 1933: fixed delivery rates began to be set from above.
Today it is proved that the Stalinist leadership in 1932-33. quelled the hunger. It continued to export grain abroad and ignored the attempts of the public of the whole world to help the population of the USSR. Recognition of the fact of famine would mean recognition of the collapse of the model of modernization of the country, chosen by Stalin. And this was unrealistic in the conditions of the strengthening of the regime and the defeat of the opposition. However, even within the framework of the policy chosen by the regime, Stalin had opportunities to mitigate the scale of the tragedy. According to D. Penner, he could hypothetically take advantage of the normalization of relations with the United States and buy surplus food from them at cheap prices. This step could be regarded as evidence of US goodwill towards the Soviet Union. The act of recognition could "cover" the political and ideological costs of the USSR if it agreed to accept America's help. This move would also benefit American farmers.
Memory of the victims
At the Assembly of the Council of Europe on April 29, 2010, a resolution was adopted to honor the memory of the inhabitants of the country who died in 1932-33. due to hunger. This document says that this situation was created by the "deliberate" and "brutal" actions and policies of the regime at the time.
In 2009, the "Memorial to the victims offamines in Ukraine". In this museum, in the Hall of Memory, the Book of Memory of the Victims is presented in 19 volumes. It contains 880 thousand names of people who died of starvation. And these are only those whose death is documented today. N. A. Nazarbaev, On May 31, 2012, the President of Kazakhstan opened a memorial dedicated to the victims of the Holodomor in Astana.
