Вплив «Великої Війни» на українське зерновиробництво

Abstract

Introduction. The article analyzes the state of agriculture in Ukraine during the war years 1914–1921, clarifies the factors of destructive impact on the main production and economic elements of agriculture and grain production. The aim of the article is to clarify the factors and scale of destructive impact of military disasters of 1914–1921 on the state of agriculture in Ukraine, in particular on agriculture and grain production as the main production and economic elements. Research tasks set by the authors are the following: to outline qualitative characteristics of the pre-war growth of commodity agricultural production of Ukrainian provinces as the basis of imperial exports; to study the main factors, trends and dominants of destructive influence on the pace of production, economic and socio-political processes during the «Great War» of 1914–1921 on the example of agriculture and grain production in Ukraine. Scientific novelty is determined by the involvement and elaboration of authoritative scientific sources, a critical and unbiased view of the problem. The authors use methodological principles of system analysis, statistical method and content analysis. It is noted that with the beginning of the Great War, positive processes observed in Ukrainian agriculture before the First World War were suspended, and then destructive phenomena began to develop more and more. The disorganization of market relations with the beginning of the war significantly affected economic interests of the peasantry, as evidenced by information and statistical indicators. The number of the rural population during the two years of the war significantly decreased, as did the number of able-bodied men on average per farm. Military and labor duties of Ukrainian peasants to serve the needs of the front, which involved unmobilized male rural population and even peasant women, also exacerbated negative effects of the outflow of labor from agriculture, which hit especially hard on small farms, which were actually ruined. The occupation of Ukraine resulted in a reduction in sown areas and, consequently, a reduction in the gross harvest of grain crops. At the same time, the front’s needs for food resources, including grain, were significant. Both imports and the production of agricultural machinery were also completely disorganized due to the withdrawal of labor, the forced transition of some factories to military rails, and the suspension or hindrance of the supply of metal and fuel. Depreciation of agricultural equipment, cessation of supplies of agricultural machinery, the ever-increasing number of seedless, tax-free and non-stock farms led to a decrease in the quality of land cultivation, which led to a decline in grain yields. Conclusions. It has been found that the «Great War» hit the agriculture of Ukraine very painfully with an unprecedented number of mobilized rural male population to the tsarist army, catastrophic shortage of labor, withdrawal of horses from farms – the main driving force of agriculture, depletion of rural labor. Socio-political and socio-economic cataclysms of the war years led to a decrease in the marketability of peasant farms, respectively, and to a reduction in the volume of marketable bread, and, as a consequence - led to a crisis in the grain market.