The head of the USSR, Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1954, after assigning corn the status of "the main agricultural crop", called it "a tank in the hands of the soldiers." Besides, Nikita Sergeevich felt genuine sympathy for the “queen of the fields,” as she would later be called. But corn happiness never came to the USSR. Probably the US intelligence services also played a role in this.
Corn can be said to have saved Khrushchev's life. An inexperienced politician, a native of peasants, nevertheless possessing a peasant acumen, back in 1948, being the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, he ordered to increase the area under corn. And as he looked into the water - at next year the republic was struck by a drought, which the corn did not care. But for the new "Holodomor" the party governor could answer to Comrade Stalin not only with his position, but also with his head.
To catch up and overtake America.
By the mid-50s of the last century, the sown area of corn in the USSR was only 15% of the total. And now, given the proclaimed slogan "Catch up and overtake America!" And the main role in solving this issue was assigned to corn.Of course, varieties of this cereal were grown in the USSR - in the Ukraine, Moldova, the Kuban and the North Caucasus. But after genetics was declared a pseudoscience in the country, breeding work was practically reduced to zero, as a result of which the varieties began to degenerate. Specialists from the Ministry of Agriculture monitored and came to the conclusion that the most promising is the “double interline hybrid” variety “Cooper Supercross”, bred in the United States on the basis of farms of the agricultural firm “Pioneer Hi-Brad Korn”, which was reported to Khrushchev. He, after a short thought, agreed to purchase a large batch of grains. Nikita Sergeevich was also impressed by the fact that the founder and current president of the company was a certain Henry Egard Wallace, who was benevolent to socialism in general, and to the Soviet Union in particular. As a result of negotiations, the grain delivery was entrusted to the chief manager of Pioneer - an experienced farmer Roswell Garst, whom the head of the Soviet state received in Moscow in 1955 with open arms, and during a visit to the United States four years later he visited his friend's farm in Iowa. And after the batch of grain arrived in the USSR, our breeders, on the basis of the revived experimental stations of the All-Union Institute of Plant Industry, began to create domestic varieties. For three years, agronomists and breeders managed to breed four species - VIR-42, VIR-25, "Odessa-10" and "Krasnodarskaya 1/49". All that remained was to throw the grains into the ground and wait for the harvest.
Celebration of the "queen of the fields".
First, the fields of Ukraine and Moldova were chosen as testing grounds. The result was impressive, and the "queen of the fields" began a victorious march across the vast expanses of the country. And if in 1956 18 million hectares were sown with corn, then six years later the sown area has already doubled. In a country that had just comprehended the cult of Stalin, a new cult arose - the cult of corn.In the excitement that arose, no one noticed the first danger - instead of the sown areas intended for the usual crop rotation (rye, wheat), plantations of "miracle cereals" began to grow like mushrooms after rain. Moreover, in accordance with the installation from above, not only in the southern regions of the country, but also in the northern ones - in particular, in the Arkhangelsk and Vologda regions. The main motto of agricultural workers was: "Give 50 centners per hectare!" Those who exceeded this plan received state awards or were awarded the title of "Honorary corn breeder". But the careless bosses, whose farms did not fulfill the plan, were mercilessly removed from their posts and deprived of their party cards. It even came to paradoxes: okay, magazine covers were full of color photographs of the "queen", even if books like "Corn Farmer Pelageya Gontar" were born, but the combine operator from Zaporozhye, who named his son Kukutsapol ("corn is the queen of the fields"), surpassed everyone. But the second mistake was noticed only in 1964, when it became clear: at least 60% of the crops from the grains produced two years ago were lost. And then it turned out that Cooper Supercross really retains the quality of the grains not only in the first, but also in subsequent generations in accordance with the “effect of heterosis”. But this very effect acts only on the latitude of the state of Iowa, at which our southern, but by no means central, and even more so northern regions are located.
Did the Americans know about this? Of course, they knew, but they kept silent “tactfully”. The Americans were well aware that such climatic conditions in the USSR would not be found in the daytime with fire. We can say that it was a well-planned action, as a result of which the main "corn grower" of the country lost his position, and the USSR took new course- to stability, then to stagnation, and then to the complete collapse of the country.
But it all started with innocent corn, which in experienced hands can also become a time bomb.
This winged phrases four times the hero of the Soviet Union replenished the already packed to the eyeballs, piggy bank with aphorisms
USSR General Secretary Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev in everything, like any reformer, did not know half-measures, unfortunately, his "corn" experience gave negative result, could it be otherwise? Let's talk about everything in order.
At the origin of the corn business
The question of sowing corn was raised long before Nikita Khrushchev, but already at the very top of the government Russian Empire... The spread of corn was first attended to more than 200 years ago Russian emperor Alexander I. In 1802, Radetsky, a student of the Medical-Surgical Academy, sent Count Muravyov, the emperor's tutor, an essay on the properties of "a plant called cockerouse", this document is now kept in the Russian archive of ancient acts.
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Its author, like Khrushchev one hundred and fifty years later, believed that the cultivation of maize - "cockeruz" is quite capable of solving the grain problem in Russia. But ... Count Muravyov pondered over the essence of the issue and concluded: the plant "cockerouse" - "very convenient for cultivation in all climates and can serve as a great aid during crop failures." But - “can this plant be migrated from the southern regions of the empire to others”? History repeats itself: the same questions worried Khrushchev many years later. So, after a while, the Medical College made a conclusion on the work of a student Radetsky: corn "according to many observations of naturalists cannot grow in the northern zone of the Russian Empire, because for these perfect fruits of ripening, more summer warmth is required." The conclusion, as they say, lay on the surface.
Interesting fact
“In praise, we can say that the regions, which mainly consume corn, have strong, flourishing and healthy people. It seems that their food has destroyed some diseases, reduced the number of human suffering and mortality! "
"Instructions to the population of the Caucasus" of the middle of the XIX century
The consequences of the American voyage
After the massacre of Beria and the exile of the "Stalinist Politburo" in remote areas, intoxicated with sole power, bursting with energy, Khrushchev threw the slogan: "Catch up and overtake America"! The Americans were to be overtaken in the production of meat and dairy products. The first secretary made this statement in 1956, and at the same time the grass-field crop rotation system (typical for most of the USSR) began to be replaced by fast and wide crops of corn. On September 1, 1956, an all-Union seminar on corn was held in Moscow, at which dear Nikita Sergeevich called for the cultivation of Zéa máys from Kazakhstan to Taimyr.
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The most important factor that changed Khrushchev's view of the development of Soviet agriculture was the trip of the secretary general to the United States. The "thaw", the raised "iron curtain", the possibility of dialogue - now became clichés, and at that time definitions that instilled in the hearts of people hope for the establishment of relations between the two superpowers. And then there was CORN. A trip to the fields of Rockwell Garst, who grew hybrid corn with a high yield. An interesting, somewhat anecdotal dialogue took place on the maize field. Rockwell Garst inadvertently pointed out that high yields are favored by the Iowa climate.
- I'll tell you: what are you smart people“Yes, that's right,” Khrushchev replied. - But that the Lord God helped you, for which you are not guilty, admit that too.
- He's on our side! Garst said happily.
- No-no! What do you think, God only helps you, but does not help us ?! He helps us more! We are growing faster than you - which means that God is on our side!
- We have a saying: God helps those who help themselves.
- God always supports the smart! - sums up Khrushchev, straightening his straw hat. Dot. The conversation is over.
Returning to Moscow, Nikita Sergeevich immediately decided to act, because corn promised a breakthrough in agriculture: firstly, the ear of grain would feed the working people of the Soviet country, and secondly, the long stalk would be profitable to use for livestock feed. The first secretary did not consider it shameful to personally travel to collective farms and engage in agitation there. “Corn, comrades, is a tank in the hands of soldiers, I mean collective farmers; it is a tank that makes it possible to overcome barriers, overcome obstacles on the way to creating an abundance of products for our people. " - Khrushchev persuaded the villagers, and this was as harmonious as the threat to Kuzka's mother or accusations of homosexuality among avant-garde artists (non-conformists).
For the sake of the "queen" of the fields in the fashionable district of Dnepropetrovsk in the building of the "Stalinist Empire" style, the "Institute of Corn" was located.
Kuruza went to the masses, even to the northern latitudes.
At some point, the corn madness took possession of the USSR: corn flakes, corn sticks, corn bread and even corn sausage! Films about corn, poems and songs appeared.
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Corn, corn, yeah hybrid
Throughout the Union you have become prominent
Make room, mustachioed barley and unkempt oats
Corn will bring us wealth in the fall
On the Oka and in the Kuban, and on the Terek river
Corn is better than America
We are calm in character, but energetic
We will catch up with America at Soviet speed
We were scared - we are not cowards, we are not afraid
We will try to beat everyone on corn
We are not in the fashionable miles, we keep track of the length of the steps
We walked seven miles, we walk seven years
Distribute the song in the Union, the song is more fun
Now corn has become the queen of the fields
CORN occupied the fields: the area of its crops increased from 18 million hectares (1955) to 37 million hectares (1962). The sowing of wheat and rye has decreased, but take corn and do not become “the second bread”! The "cornification" of Soviet agriculture failed. The personality cult of corn was debunked, as was the adventurism and voluntarism of Nikita Khrushchev.
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The past cannot be changed ...
And corn could have been introduced differently and the result would have been different. After all, hybrid varieties bought in Canada and the United States gave stunning yields in the North Caucasus, Ukraine and Moldova (twice as much as Soviet varieties), improved the feed supply of animal husbandry in 1958-1959.
Unfortunately, after Leonid Brezhnev came to power, arable land was occupied by wheat and rye, and corn was abandoned - even in areas where it has always been successfully grown. Such is the story with corn, to put it briefly.
Are there any prospects for corn today? Make up your mind by reading the new issue of AgroMir magazine.
Corn is a type of annual herbaceous plants family of cereals. Corn is a crop of high productivity and versatile use. Corn grain contains 9-12% protein, 4-6% fat (up to 40% in the germ), 65-70% carbohydrates, yellow grain varieties contain a lot of provitamin A.
Until the second half of the 1950s, corn in the structure of grain crops in the USSR barely reached 15%, and, for example, in North America accounted for more than 35% in Australia and South America- over 30%. This structure was dictated by agricultural traditions and geographic conditions.
In 1956, the 1st Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev put forward the slogan: "Catch up and overtake America!" It was about competition in the production of meat and dairy products. Instead of the grass crop rotation system, traditional for almost the entire USSR (except Central Asia) at the meeting it was recommended to move to fast, wide and widespread crops of corn.
In 1957-1959, the area under corn was increased by about a third - due to the sowing of industrial crops and forage grasses. At that time, this undertaking covered only the North Caucasus, Ukraine and Moldova.
While on a visit to the United States in September 1959, Khrushchev visited Iowa in the fields of the famous farmer Rockwell Garst. He grew hybrid corn, which gave a very high yield. Khrushchev urged to use the "corn" experience of the United States.
The mayor of the capital even developed special technology, on which corn is grown in the Serpukhov district of the Moscow region.
The essence of the technology proposed by Yuri Luzhkov is that corn is not sown directly into the ground, but first its grain is placed in so-called biocontainers, or macrocapsules, which consist of biocompost, peat and other nutrients. In such a protective shell, the grain is not afraid of frost, which our climate is rich in, it germinates faster.
According to Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, the production of corn should have removed two problems of the Soviet agricultural industry at once - the lack of grain and the lack of feed for animal husbandry. In 1954, on his initiative, experiments in agriculture began to sharply expand the zoning of maize, including in the zone of northern agriculture. Contrary to popular myth, the introduction of corn began even before Khrushchev's visit to the United States.In his program for the introduction of corn, Khrushchev indicated that “ specific gravity sowing of corn in the USSR is 3.6 percent of all grain, and in the United States - 36 percent. This largely explains high yield of all grain crops in the United States (17.3 centners per hectare), since the yield of corn in the United States per hectare is more than double that of wheat and oats. "
If in 1954 the sowing of corn in the USSR amounted to 3.5 million hectares, then by 1960 their area should have grown to 28 million, that is, approximately equal to the area of developed virgin lands.
In general, a reasonable decision - of the grain feed for livestock, the most valuable in terms of fodder value is corn grain (total nutritional value of 1 kg of dry corn grain is 1.31 fodder units). attention neither to the climate (they sowed in the northern regions), nor to the presence or absence of agricultural infrastructure. To land already under a different slogan - “Komsomol members! Act as skirmishers for two corn harvests a year! " - detachments of the Komsomol were thrown. Corn was called “Komsomol culture”, recalled Zinaida Nikolaeva, a local historian from Kostroma: “Elderly collective farmers could not understand why such laborious and capricious corn is needed when there are perennial grasses that have proven themselves for centuries. But at schools, student teams were created: in biology lessons, children studied agricultural techniques of corn, the peculiarities of its cultivation, and in the spring and summer they underwent practical training on educational plots. "
Virgin lands, lands for fodder crops, low-yielding crops, fallow fields, and pastures were plowed up for the "miracle girl". The area of land allotted for corn eventually became equal and even surpassed the area entered into agricultural circulation as a result of the development of virgin lands. Under it, in order not to receive complaints from above, they tried to assign the best fields, which were previously allocated for traditional grain crops - wheat and rye.
As a result of the corn campaign, the USSR began to lack not only meat and milk, but also elementary bread. Already in the fall of 1962, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers issued a resolution "On restoring order in the expenditure of grain resources." They were limited to the sale of bread - no more than 2.5 kg per person. Moreover, white bread practically disappeared from the shelves, and corn and pea flour was mixed into black bread.
Miracle woman. A musical cartoon promoting the virtues of corn. Soyuzmultfilm, 1957
The cartoon received the following prizes:
XI IFF in Edinburgh, 1957 - Diploma;
I All-Union Film Festival, Moscow 1958 - First Prize
The maize growers who achieved success were awarded with badges.
Posters from the time promoting corn.
Corn is a valuable agricultural crop that provides food for both livestock and people. Nevertheless, during the reign of Nikita Khrushchev, it was the "queen of the fields" who brought Soviet Union before the distribution of bread on ration cards, and this is in peacetime! The fact is that corn was categorically not suited to the Soviet climate - neither natural nor political.
September 7 marks 65 years since Nikita Khrushchev took over the post of First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. In March 2016, the Levada Center conducted a survey: respondents were asked to answer which events that occurred during his time in power were most memorable for them. In the first place, predictably, was the flight into space of Yuri Gagarin, in the second - the development of virgin lands, and the third were expensive and unsuccessful experiments in agriculture. Khrushchev and maize were remembered more than the "Khrushchevs" or the debunking of the personality cult of Stalin.
It is believed that the idea of sowing almost the entire territory of the USSR with corn came from Khrushchev during a trip to the United States. But interest in this culture, according to the ex-head of the country’s own recollections, arose in his youth, when he became a locksmith's apprentice at the Machine-Building and Iron Foundry near Yuzovka (now Donetsk). “Corn was the main crop for livestock feeding. Sometimes a Ukrainian went to the bazaar in Yuzovka, grab a sack of corn and always put a trough in the cart, then put the cobs in the trough, and the horses gnaw the corn, "Khrushchev wrote in his book" Time. People. Power (Memories). ”In 1955, Khrushchev spoke at the plenum and talked a lot about animal husbandry. He put the Americans as an example: they do business much more successfully than we do, and therefore they do not line up for meat. And the editor of one of the newspapers published in Iowa went further and even invited Soviet collective farmers to come to the United States. Khrushchev decided to send a delegation of agricultural scientists to the United States to collect agricultural "intelligence". At the end of the trip, the delegates presented a report, one of the main places in which was assigned to corn. When in 1956 Khrushchev demanded to "catch up and overtake America" in terms of meat and milk production, there were no questions about how to feed this army of cows, pigs and other livestock.
By 1959, the area occupied by corn had increased by about a third - at that time it replaced only industrial crops and forage grasses. The landings were located in the North Caucasus, Ukraine and Moldova. In the same year, Nikita Khrushchev spent two weeks in the United States, where he managed to visit Iowa at the Roswell Garst farm. 
It was not by chance that he was there - in 1955, after the Soviet delegation left the States, the USSR invited American agrarians to its place. Garst obtained permission to travel to the USSR and even the right to trade. The farmer met with Khrushchev and persuaded him to buy 5,000 tons of corn grains. They paid in gold bars - there was nothing else to pay with.
Khrushchev's son, Sergei, in the book “Nikita Khrushchev. Reformer, ”recalls:
“I found out that my father was throwing his hand into the gold storerooms shortly after his return from vacation. In my presence, he discussed with one of his colleagues the benefits of the deal made with Garst. I was indignant ...
My father listened to me complacently and replied with a quote from Eugene Onegin: How the state gets richer, And how it lives, and why, He does not need gold, When a simple product has. "
Since 1959, the planting of corn in the USSR begins to grow almost in geometric progression: if in 1956 18 million hectares were allocated for them, then by 1962 - 37 million hectares. Corn was sown not only in the south of the country, but also in northern regions, up to the Vologda Oblast, although it did not mature well in the local climate. Only in Western Siberia sowing of corn from 1953 to 1960 increased from 2.1 thousand hectares to 1.6 million hectares, while the yield was 7.5 centners per hectare. 
For North Caucasus, Ukraine and Moldova, hybrid corn seeds were purchased in the USA and Canada, which gave large yields, and for a while this made it possible to solve the problem of feeding livestock in these regions. But already in 1960, imported seeds became too expensive, and Soviet seeds had to be planted.
The whole country was seized by the "corn fever" - films and cartoons were made about it, poems and songs were written, and the stores presented corn champagne, sticks, bread, cereals and even corn sausage. Corn was featured both in children's amateur performances and on campaign posters - for example, with the slogans “Let the bean walk around the Union in an embrace with corn” and “Every heifer has corn”.
It would seem that the building of communism went on full swing(in 1961, at the XXII Party Congress, Khrushchev assured that it would be completed in 20 years), feed for livestock in the form of corn silage was found, and, therefore, a bright future awaited people. But everything turned out to be not so simple - in the south, corn gave wonderful harvests, and in the north they could not boast of success. Equally important, corn displaced other essential crops, and this ultimately led to a shortage of bread.
“The failure was due to the very mechanism of implementing the idea of the Politburo chairman. The political conjuncture of those years presupposed an unconditional, automatic agreement with the initiative party, its Central Committee and the Politburo of the Central Committee. Therefore, as it was said back in Stalin's times, “local excesses” did not just take place, but prevailed. It should also be borne in mind that, by the time of Khrushchev's leadership, the Soviet school of genetics in plant growing, breeders, the selection school as a whole were largely or physically destroyed (the most striking example is Nikolai Vavilov) or brought under the "administrative line". At the head of the implementation (ideologically, in terms of materiel) there were no specialists, in fact, the planting (without taking into account the properties of the soil and often climatic conditions) was carried out by student, volunteer Komsomol detachments that did not have special profile training, ”explains Natalya Soboleva, director of the corporate ratings department of the NRA. 
If in 1955-1959 the Soviet Agriculture showed an annual growth of an average of 7.6%, then during the years of reforms and innovation of Khrushchev (1959-1962) this figure fell to 1.7%. In 1962, the "queen of the fields" already occupied 37 million hectares, but in most of the Non-Black Earth Region and the eastern regions, the entire corn crop was lost. For the needs of livestock, corn proved to be helpful, which had a positive effect on the state of animal husbandry.
“Some people in the USSR did not understand me before and do not understand me now. There are those who condemned me at that time and condemn me now. I think it was out of ignorance. They do not understand that there is no other crop equal to corn for animal husbandry. It may be objected that it is far from being everywhere. Yes, but the main thing is people. In one and the same climatic region, corn does not grow for one person, while for another it gives 500 and 1000 centners of silage mass. To put it bluntly: a smart one has an effect, but a fool will not grow oats with barley, ”Khrushchev wrote in his book of memoirs.
In the fall of 1962, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the allied Council of Ministers issued a decree "On restoring order in the expenditure of bread resources", limiting the sale of bread to 2.5 kg per person - there was no longer enough grain for grinding. "The consequences of thoughtlessly following the directives from above were catastrophic. I remember well how, as a child, I stood in line for bread - there was gray bread, black bread too, but there was no white bread. The rolls were given either by coupons or in accordance with the norms of the holiday. I was 7-8 years old then, and in one hand I could get two white rolls of 7 kopecks each. To do this, it was necessary to stand two lines - one at the cashier, the other for dispensing, because there might well not be enough bread. On TV they showed the clogged store shelves - they say, look, there is bread. But these were photographs taken before people entered this store ", - the professor of the Department of History of Economics of the Institute shared his memories with" Gazeta.Ru " social sciences RANEPA Alexander Bessolitsyn.
In 1963, the situation worsened. Due to the poor harvest, the gross grain harvest amounted to only 107.5 million tons (30% less than in 1962), and the yield dropped from 10.9 to 8.3 centners / ha.
“The country is on the brink. There was no talk of a famine comparable to the famine of 1890, but my father was not up to reforms. In 1963, all efforts were reduced to how to hold out until the next harvest, ”writes Sergei Khrushchev in his book.
According to him, not only white bread, but also semolina, noodles and other products disappeared from the shelves.
“The poor harvest of 1963 hurt my father's authority. Still, two years ago he promised to build communism, and now you won't find decent bread in the store. And in the canteens, free bread disappeared, as they explained - temporarily, only for a year ... People, contrary to the facts, suddenly began to think that under Stalin they lived better, ”complains Sergei Khrushchev.
The USSR had to buy grain from the capitalists.
“All together amounted to about 12 million tons. Getting rid of hunger cost 372.2 tons of gold from the cash reserve of 1,082.3 tons for that year, ”Sergei Khrushchev calculated.
In mid-October 1964, the Pravda newspaper reported that the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU had granted Khrushchev's resignation request. After Leonid Brezhnev came to power, corn was almost completely ousted from arable land - it was no longer cultivated even in those parts of the country where it had been done for a long time and successfully. 
