A single chapter cannot do more than scratch the surface of the subject of Soviet agriculture and the role of the CPSU in the rural economy. However, the party's role in industry simply cannot be understood without giving some attention to its deep involvement in agriculture.

J. Hough himself did not attempt to incorporate agriculture into his model of the obkom first secretary as prefect, but at several points he noted that ‘local party officials have been greatly tempted to neglect industry in order to have more time to devote to agriculture’, and that ‘for many years the greatest danger for the obkom first secretary has arisen from the agricultural sector’.

This chapter will briefly review the status of agriculture and its importance for the CPSU, then map the shifting pattern of institutions through which the sector was managed from the 1960s to the 1980s. After examining the role played by party organs, three brief case studies will be presented: party campaigns to promote livestock rearing and elevator construction, and industrial sponsorship of farms.

Agriculture and the Soviet economy

The party's dominant role in farming went back to the collectivization campaign of 1929–32, which undermined the traditional structures of village life and left local party officials with the task of bringing the countryside into the domain of the Soviet economy. What transpired was something resembling a process of ‘primitive socialist accumulation’, with food and labour being pumped out of the countryside to fuel the industrialization drive.