Nikita Khrushchev's corn campaign

Y. N. Fyodorov. Filling column to abundance. 1962

At the turn of the 1950s and 1960s first Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist party of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev conducted a large-scale corn campaign.

He believed that the production of maize will help to remove two problems of the Soviet agricultural industry-the shortage of grain and the lack of feed for livestock. in 1954 the corn crops in the USSR was 3.5 million hectares. By 1960 he area had grown to 28 million.

Corn was planted everywhere, not paying attention even to the climate. Under it, in order not to get complaints from above, sought to allocate the best fields, which had previously been allocated for traditional crops ― wheat and rye. As a result of the corn campaign in the USSR was not enough meat, milk and even bread.

The corn campaign ended with Khrushchev's resignation on October 14, 1964.

E. Mukhamedov. Corn is a source of abundance. 1962