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Plans and Realities on Soviet Farms, 1930-1963
Jenny Leigh Smith
What really caused the failure of the Soviet Union’s ambitious plans to modernize and industrialize its agricultural system?
This book is the first to investigate the gap between the plans and the reality of the Soviet Union’s mid-twentieth-century project to industrialize and modernize its agricultural system. Historians agree that the project failed badly: agriculture was inefficient, unpredictable, and environmentally devastating for the entire Soviet period. Yet assigning the blame exclusively to Soviet planners would be off the mark. The real story is much more complicated and interesting, Jenny Leigh Smith reveals in this deeply researched book. Using case studies from five Soviet regions, she acknowledges hubris and shortsightedness where it occurred but also gives fair consideration to the difficulties encountered and the successes—however modest—that were achieved.
This book is the first to investigate the gap between the plans and the reality of the Soviet Union’s mid-twentieth-century project to industrialize and modernize its agricultural system. Historians agree that the project failed badly: agriculture was inefficient, unpredictable, and environmentally devastating for the entire Soviet period. Yet assigning the blame exclusively to Soviet planners would be off the mark. The real story is much more complicated and interesting, Jenny Leigh Smith reveals in this deeply researched book. Using case studies from five Soviet regions, she acknowledges hubris and shortsightedness where it occurred but also gives fair consideration to the difficulties encountered and the successes—however modest—that were achieved.
Jenny Leigh Smith is assistant professor of history in the School of History, Technology and Society, Georgia Institute of Technology. She lives in Atlanta, GA.
ISBN: 9780300200690
Publication Date: October 28, 2014
Publication Date: October 28, 2014
288 pages, 5-1/2 x 8-1/4
5 b/w illus.
5 b/w illus.