Expansion of Sowing Area and Change in the Structure of Crops in the Initial Period Great Patriotic War (By the Materials of the Decisions of the SNK of the USSR)

The article analyzes the policy of the Soviet state on the development of agriculture during the Great Patriotic War in terms of changing the size of sown areas and optimizing their structure. The source base for the study was the declassified resolutions of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks devoted to this problem, most of which are being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The author concludes that the increase in areas for potatoes and vegetables under wartime conditions was quite legitimate. As for grain crops, there were no conditions in the rear areas of the country for expanding their crops. In general, the work positively assesses the changes that occurred in those years in the structure of sown areas: the reduction in the sowing of annual grasses and the increase in areas under sugar beet and kok-saghyz was a consequence of the loss of important agricultural regions of the country, as well as the increased need of industry for raw materials.

Great Patriotic War, Council of People is Commissars of the USSR, sown areas, cereals, potatoes, industrial crops