Ministry of Agriculture and Food (Soviet Union)

Graph for Soviet Union and Ukrainian SRR (share state grain procurement from 1930-1933 harvests. Figures derived from The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia Volume 5: The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture 1931-1933^[1]

Cotton picker from Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, between 1930 and 1940

The Soviet Ministry of Agriculture and Food was established in 1929 and known prior to 1946 as the People's Commissariat for Agriculture - Narkomzem).

The commissariat united all republican commissariats of the Soviet Union. It took over the Narkomzem offices located at Orlikov Pereulok, 1, Moscow, designed by Aleksey Shchusev. This building is currently occupied by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation. It was formally known as the People's Commissariat for Agriculture (Russian: Народный комиссариат земледелия - Narkomzem) was set up in Petrograd in October 1917. Vladimir Milyutin was appointed the first People's Commissar of Agriculture. He was a member of the Council of People's Commissars.

The Narkomzem offices located at Orlikov Pereulok, 1, Moscow were designed by Aleksey Shchusev in 1928. This building is currently occupied by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation.

Biological weapons research and production

Despite having signed the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), the Soviet Union continued development and mass production of offensive biological weapons. These activities were conducted by a main directorate — "Biopreparat" — along with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and several other Soviet ministries and agencies (Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Health, USSR Academy of Sciences, the KGB, etc.).^[2] In the 1980s, the Ministry of Agriculture successfully developed variants of foot-and-mouth disease and rinderpest against cows, African swine fever for pigs, and psittacosis to kill chicken. These agents were prepared to be sprayed down from tanks attached to airplanes over hundreds of miles. The secret program was code-named "Ecology".^[3]

People's Commissars of Agriculture

See also

• Ministry of Agriculture (Russia)
• Kolkhoz
• Sovkhoz

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Agriculture of the Soviet Union.

• The Governments of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 1917-1964

Agencies and offices of the Union government of the Soviet Union
All-Union	President and Vice President of the Soviet Union (list) Presidential Council State Council Security Council Premiers
Ministries	Agricultural Products Procurement Agriculture and Food Assembling and Special Construction Armament Automobile and Agricultural Machine Building Aviation Industry Building Materials Industry Chemical Industry Chemical and Oil Machinery Building Coal Industry Cellulose and Paper Industry Civil Aviation Coal Industry Commerce Communications Communication Equipment Industry Construction Construction of Fuel Industry Construction of Heavy Industry Construction of Oil and Gas Industry Construction of Petrochemical Machinery Construction of Power Plants Construction of Road Building and Communal Machines Construction of Tool-Machines Cotton Culture Defense Defense Industry Economy Education Electrical Engineering Electrical Power and Electrification Electronics Industry Electrotechnical Industry Environmental Protection Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ferrous Metallurgy Finance Fish Industry Foreign Economic Relations Forestry Forestry Industry Fruits and Vegetables Gas Industry General Machine Building Geology Grain Products Health Housing and Architecture Heavy Machine Building Heavy and Transport Machines Construction High Education Industrial Construction Installation and Special Construction Work Instrument-Making, Automation and Control Systems Interior Iron and Steel Justice Light Industry Land Reclamation and Water Resources Machine Building Machine Building for Animal Husbandry and Fodder Products Machine Building for Light and Food Industry Machine Tool and Tool Building Industry Machinery for Stock Raising and Feeding Manufacture of Communication Media Meat and Dairy Industry Medical Industry Medical and Microbiologiacal Industry Medium Machine Building Merchant Marine Mineral Fertilizer Production Metallurgy Non-Ferrous Metallurgy Nuclear Power Industry Oil Industry Oil and Gas Industry Oil Processing and Petrochemical Industry Power and Electrification Pulp and Paper Industry Radio Industry Railways Rubber Industry Shipbuilding State Farms State Security Technical Cultivation Textile Industry Timber Industry Timber, Paper and Wood Processing Industry Tool and Tool Building Industry Trade, Home Tractors and Agricultural Machines Transport Construction Urban Construction without Portfolio
Regional ministries	Construction in the Eastern Regions Construction in the Far East and Transbaikal Regions Construction in the Northern and Western Regions Construction in the Southern Regions Construction in the Urals and West Sibirian Regions
State Committees and commissions	Building Materials Cinematography Construction Defense Defense Technology Fuel Industry Labour and Social Problems Logistics People's Control Prices Publishing Metallurgy State of Emergency Science and Technology Standards and Product Quality Management State Planning State Security Statistics Television and Radio Timber and Paper Industry Transport Construction