Welcome to Russian History Retold, Episode 251, how the US saw Stalin and the USSR in 1943,

Part 3.

Last time, we covered the leadership of the Soviet Union, along with answers to questions posed

to the former ambassador to the Soviet Union, Joseph Davies.

Today, we wrap up the series based on the March 30, 1943 issue of Life magazine.

On page 64, they featured an article praising the collective farms of the Soviet Union.

They said, quote, although Russia was always overwhelmingly an agricultural country, most

Russians used to go hungry.

Year after year, crops were poor and inadequate.

The land was sadly misused.

Peasants worked inefficiently and without incentive, using farming methods hardly more advanced

than those of the Middle Ages.

Well, there are quite a few misstatements here.

First, most Russians did not go hungry all the time.

There were numerous famines and periods of poor harvests, but this was primarily due

to poor weather, or when too many men were fighting in wars, such as the ones in Crimea

in the 1850s, and not enough harvesting their crops.

Yes, Russia was somewhat inefficient on how they handled their farm, but the blame it on

incentives is hypocritical, as the collective farms actually took away any incentives.

Or the more you grew, the more you made.

Now, as for the misuse of land, that's kind of laughable.

If you remember the episode on Trifim Lysenko, he single-handedly ruined whole years of crops

...