Chernye zemli: natural and climatic conditions and economic activities of the population in the 1930s.

The study of the history of the country’s agriculture and its main branches in the prewar years is of great interest to historians, social and political scientists, which, in turn, is due to a number of socio-political factors. It was in the 1930s that the USSR finally became a country of victorious socialism, where industrialisation was accelerated and the course of collectivisation of agriculture was implemented. The process of transformation of the country’s agriculture was not easy despite its apparent success, it was full of dramatic events and tragic collisions. Yesterday’s Kalmyk nomads had to develop agricultural production in unusually difficult natural and climatic conditions in the desert and semidesert territory of the steppe region — Chernye zemli (the Black Lands). In this article we will examine the situation in the Kalmyk Autonomous Region, which developed during this period in the distant pastures, when people faced such a natural cataclysm as drought, which caused zud, thus complicating the already difficult process of keeping and caring for cattle. For the first time, an analysis is made of the activities of the Centre and local authorities and economic structures in such extreme conditions. Specific steps taken by the Soviet authorities to overcome the critical situation are described and analysed. The results of the study give a broad picture of the methods and style of work of managers at all levels to preserve the public stock in the difficult natural and climatic conditions of the Black Lands in an emergency in the autumn-winter period of 1930–1931.

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