부산대학교 도서관

This chapter focuses on the political role of food and food supply in the USSR. The authors show how food was inherently and closely linked to, or essentially the catalyst of, key events of Soviet history, from the state’s birth to its demise. The chapter argues that despite the widespread perceptions of Soviet technological power and industrial prowess, at its core, the USSR was dominated by a primal and premodern quest to feed the growing and increasingly urban population. Soviet history was a constant and ultimately failed struggle to overcome, adapt to, and survive the chronic and often acute food shortages that more than once escalated into widespread famines. The chapter also discusses the critical role of food shortages in the collapse of the Soviet Union.