Chris is a Professor of Military Science and Doctrine, and the Director of the Security Studies Institute at Cranfield University. To discuss perhaps the most brutal siege of the Second World War, James Rogers is joined by Chris Bellamy, author of Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War. One of the strategic objectives of this operation, Barbarossa, was to conquer Leningrad. In 1941, Nazi Germany turned on its former ally, the Soviet Union. In their desperation, residents butchered animals within the blockade, including strays and pets, and cases of cannibalism were recorded. The blockade led to mass starvation within the city.
One of the most notorious cases was during the Siege of Leningrad, which lasted 872 days and saw the Nazis blockade the city, shutting off key supply routes. World War Two saw the reemergence of food supply issues in the Soviet Union. Soviet leaders would turn to this practice on various occasions throughout the 20th century. The famine also saw the instigation of food rationing in the USSR as the purchasing of certain goods, including bread, sugar and butter, was restricted to certain quantities. In recent years, the famine has been recognised as an act of genocide by the Ukrainian people, and many perceive it as a state-sponsored attempt by Stalin to kill and silence Ukrainian peasants.Įventually, seeds were supplied to rural regions across Russia in 1933 to ease the shortage of grain. It’s thought that some 3.9 million Ukrainians died during the famine, which is often referred to as the Holodomor, meaning ‘murder by starvation’. The famine was particularly deadly in Ukraine. The Soviet authorities covered up the famine and forbade anyone from writing about it. The result was a devastating famine, during which millions of people starved to death. Even when farmers had limited grain for themselves, let alone to export, Stalin ordered requisitions. Nonetheless, Stalin insisted on increasing the export of grain from the Soviet Union abroad to achieve the economic and industrial targets of his second Five Year Plan. Officials seize fresh produce during the Soviet famine, or Holodomor, of 1931-1932. In response, some peasants slaughtered their livestock. Simultaneously, the Soviet state tried to requisition livestock from peasants to supply new collective farms. Then, millions of ‘kulaks’ (supposedly wealthy peasants) were deported or imprisoned. In the late 1920s, Joseph Stalin collectivised farms across Russia. The early 1930s witnessed the worst famine in Soviet history, which primarily affected Ukraine, Kazakhstan, the North Caucasus and the Lower Volga region. As the seizing of grain was relaxed into 1922, and a famine relief campaign was instigated, the food crisis eased. Ultimately, it’s thought that 5 million people may have died during the 1918-1921 famine. The seizing of grain during the conflict exacerbated the famine. This, coupled with the lasting effects of World War One and the political transition causing food supply issues, led to a major famine between 1918-1921. Listen NowĪfter the Russian Revolution, the empire became embroiled in a civil war.
#POTATO FARMERS CONQUER DEVASTATING WITH PAPER SERIES#
Helen Rappaport joined me on the podcast for the third episode of our lockdown learning series to talk about the Russian Revolution. During World War One, for example, the war turned swathes of farmers into soldiers, simultaneously increasing demand and decreasing output.īread shortages and subsequent unrest played into the 1917 revolution, with Vladimir Lenin rallying revolution under the promise of ‘peace, land and bread’. In Bolshevik RussiaĮven before the Soviet Union was formed in 1922, food shortages had been a concern in Russia. Here’s why the distribution of food presented such an enduring problem for the Soviet Union. Even into the late 1980s, Soviet citizens could expect to occasionally endure rationing, bread lines and empty supermarket shelves. Commodities such as fresh fruit, sugar and meat would intermittently grow scarce. Into the second half of the 20th century, Soviet citizens were no longer starving to death in great numbers, but the Soviet diet remained heavily reliant on bread. As a result, famine devastated swathes of the USSR, especially Ukraine and Kazakhstan, from 1931-1933 and again in 1947. In the first half of the 20th century, Joseph Stalin implemented drastic economic reforms that saw farms collectivised, peasants criminalised and deported en masse and grain requisitioned in unsustainable quantities. In its nearly 70 years of existence, the Soviet Union witnessed tragic famines, regular food supply crises and countless commodity shortages.
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