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Table of Contents

Introduction: Have a Merry Christmas, or Not ......................................... 2 The Soviet Beginnings and Attempts at Collectivization ........................... 3 Hope for Ultimate Salvation in the Virgin Lands ...................................... 4 Yet There Was Still Not Enough Grain .................................................... 6 The Aspiring New Project: Baku ............................................................... 7 Then the World Starts To Tumble ......................................................... 10 Spontaneous Combustion, At Least in the Wests Eyes .......................... 13 Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!............................................... 14 The Most Reputable of Sources .............................................................. 16 Point and Case ......................................................................................... 17 Works Cited ............................................................................................ 19 Appendices ................................................................................................. 23 Appendix 1- Map of Kazakhstans relative location. ........................ 23 Appendix 2- Map of lands utilized for the Virgin Lands Project. .... 24 Appendix 3- Picture of the Arid Lands of the Kazakh Steppes. ...... 25 Appendix 4- Map of Azerbaijan (Baku) and location....................... 26 Appendix 5- Picture of oil seepage in Baku. ..................................... 27

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Introduction: Have a Merry Christmas, or Not The Soviet Union fell on Christmas Day 1991; shocking the West as an Empire went down. Supporters of the administration of American President Ronald Reagan have happily taken credit for matching the military might of the Soviet Union and putting them into an economic crisis. There were, however, more important internal economic events tearing down the USSR. First, the agriculture in the Soviet Union was in shambles. Unreliable weather, poor harvest schedules, lagging technology and overall bad planning had left the USSR in a deep hole. Second, the desperate agriculture production was masked by a booming oil production. What role did the relationship of the oil sectors success masking agricultural failures play in bringing about the demise of the Soviet Union as oil prices fluctuated in the 70s and 80s? The Soviet Union had a poor agricultural foundation and poor methods. There was lack of communication between the state and the farmers; they never had proper equipment and the methods used were medieval. These factors allowed each round of collectivization to be worse. There was not near enough food to go around and that is problem that haunts societies today. Evaluating the roots of the Soviet Unions fall challenges a common Western misconception while allowing the insight to how an enormous country with a flailing agriculture sector could survive for so long. The Soviet Union was in the midst of the Cold War. Mikhail Gorbachev was instituting radical changes all across the board through programs like Glasnost or Perestroika. The world and the Soviet Union were in the middle of an ideological battle, but they still had an economic one. The roots of the economy were being changed with a trade and balance system that was fundamentally different from the foundations of the Soviet Union. There was no longer an internal dependence on the communist states, but instead a globally interlocked economy. If there had not been a fundamental change to the Soviet Union, they could

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have survived the blow of worlds ever changing market. While taking note of the Soviets reaction and changes to the worlds fluctuations, the future is easily predicted. This knowledge helps understand modern Russia and how they can flourish, or perish, during oil price fluctuation. The Soviet Beginnings and Attempts at Collectivization Many factors pushed the Soviet Union into inexistence, but the two most inflectional were grain collection and oil money. Since the Soviet Unions beginning, agriculture had always been a weak faction in the Soviet Union because it requires heavy labor, long hours, and unreliable working conditions. These factors were magnified by poor communication and weather. Due to the great distances between farms and the government owned granaries, miscommunication was common. The weather only delayed communication and provoked problems by producing a plentiful season one year then the next poor and rainy. Many workers opted to work in the private sector instead.1 The private sector was part of Lenins New Economic Policy (NEP). It proposed a free agricultural market in order to acquire food from the peasants with a tax at a fixed percentage; it was necessary to take a step backwards in order to move forward.2 The NEP included household plots of workers and employees and a dwindling number of independent peasants3; those farmers had private ownership of their own cattle and land strips and were generally more industrialized.4 The individual sector farms had more perks too, such as lower quotas, reduced taxes, and bonuses for

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Nimitz, Nancy. Farm Employment in the Soviet Union, 1928-1963. Santa Monica, Calif: Rand Corp, 1965, v. "New Economic Policy." Untitled Document. Web. 24 Sept. 2009. <http://www.pvchico.org/~bsilva/projects/russia/lenin/nep.htm>. 3 Ibid. 4 Wright, John G. "John G. Wright: The Farm Crisis in the Soviet Union (Fall 1954)." Marxists Internet Archive. Web. 13 Aug. 2009. <http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/wright/1954/xx/farmcrisis.htm>.

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over productivity.5 The private sector clearly had more incentive for the workers. The productivity in the socialized grain sector always depended on weather and machinery, which were not easily predicted.6 The state started to decline in delivering updated machinery and keeping up the maintenance of broken ones.7 Starting in 1928, Stalin had attempted to seize food to feed the people living within the U.S.S.R.s large cities.8 Collectivization, though, proved to be a deadly game, killing 7 million Ukrainians alone from 1932-1933 due to starvation.9 There were three major pushes in collectivization between 1928 and 1940 under Stalin, wreaking more devastation than progress as the number of collective farms rose from 33,300 to 236,900.10 Stalins Five Year Plan, confirming the plan of collectivization, was ruthless in converting farmers and acquiring the necessary grain for the state while ignoring the farmers own needs, such as food and proper animal raising environments. The next two were similar waves and proved to be ineffective at easing the grain crisis and in the end, only made a deeper hole in the crisis.11 Hope for Ultimate Salvation in the Virgin Lands After seeing Stalins agricultural failures, the General Secretary of the Communist Party, Nikita Khrushchev, tried a new approach in 1954 at collecting grain with the Virgin Lands project. This project looked into expanding the Soviet Unions agricultural sector since it had been neglected while attention went to the industrialized sector in the Five Year Plans to build up
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Ibid. Nimitz, VI. 7 Wright. 8 Statistics for the population during his bloody reign arent accurate because the census bureau had to elaborate on numbers to make up for the missing or the dead. 9 Shcherbytsky says famine was a result of collectivization of Soviet agriculture (01/10/88)." The Ukrainian Weekly. Web. 31 July 2009. <http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/1988/028801.shtml>. 10 Sotsialisticheskoe sel'skoe khoziaistvo SSSR, Gosplanizdat, Moscow-Leningrad, 1939, 42- 43. 11 "Collectivization." Progressive Labor Party - Partido Laboral Progresista. Web. 31 July 2009. <http://www.plp.org/books/Stalin/node19.html>.

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a more powerful state.12 The agricultural plans before 1954 for grain production were to increase crop yields on pre-existing lands, primarily on the highly productive farms in Ukraine. These plans overlooked the aspect of nutrients being drained by overexerting the soil.13 His campaign focused on cultivating lands in Central Asia that were untilled, but suitable for tillage or had not been cultivated for a long period of time.14 This new project had another goal: curbing the raging fear of a famine, a fear that was especially prevalent in the 1920s and 1950s.15 It was going to take a lot more than a new plan to ease the fear of starvation, because in 1953, only 31 million tons of grain was purchased by the state from farms, while 32 million was needed.16 There were multiple obstacles standing in Khrushchevs way. The amount of food necessary was tremendous. The amount of hard labor necessary to make the plan successful was astounding.17 However the biggest problem he faced was the lack of grain within the reserves.18 Khrushchev implemented his program immediately in the Kazakh Steppes and by August of 1954, 33.5 million acres had been plowed.19 (see Appendix 1 and 2) This figure is misleading though. Although a large amount of area had been plowed, not all of it was sown with seeds, nor was all the grain produced fit to be sold. Many cases showed grain to be destroyed by mildew

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Glantz, MH. Drought follows the plow cultivating marginal areas. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994. Print, 135. Ibid, 135. 14 Lydolph, P.E., 1979: Geography of the USSR: Topical Analysis. Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin: Misty Valley Publishing, 222. 15 Glantz, 142. 16 Maslov, N., 1980: Virgin Lands: 25 years later. Soviet Life, May, 6. 17 Ibid. 18 Ibid. 19 Watkins, Thayer. "The Virgin Lands Program in the Soviet Union under Nikita Khrushchev." San Jos State University - Powering Silicon Valley. Web. 13 Aug. 2009. <http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/virginlands.htm>.

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caused by rain20. Khrushchev had also not thought the situation through and overlooked the weather, which seemed to constantly plague this region by being unpredictable. His program was based off his experiences in Ukraine, which had not prepared him for the inconsistent rains, hot summers, and dust storms of the Kazakh region.21 This type of weather led to fast soil erosion, so within two years, minimal food had been produced and the land had been severely damaged.22 Overall, poor results and harsh critiques were blamed on the projects heavy reliance on the unpredictable weather.23 (see Appendix 3) Yet There Was Still Not Enough Grain The Virgin Lands Campaign was a last big show for agricultural success. It was guaranteed to produce between 18 to 20 million tons of grain.24 The first year was going well, until there was not enough time to harvest the entire crop and much of it went to waste.25 The second year was disappointing due to droughts.26 This solution was proving to be a poor choice. The amount of grain being produced was
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Watkins, Thayer. "Virgin Lands Operations." San Jos State University - Powering Silicon Valley. Web. 13 Aug. 2009. <http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/virginlandsoperations.htm>. 21 Glantz, 138-140. 22 Ibid, 144. 23 Gaidar, Yegor. Collapse of an Empire Lessons for Modern Russia. New York: Brookings Institution, 2007. Print, 102. 24 Watkins, The Virgin. 25 Ibid. 26 Ibid. 27 Watkins, Thayer. Virgin Lands Operations. Chart. Web. 15 Aug. 2009. <http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/virginlandsoperations.htm>.

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disappointing and not near the amount that was promised, as shown in the table. The amount of sown seeds was nowhere near the amount of grain that should have been produced. This last big attempt to save the flailing agriculture sector was plummeting, perhaps showing an internal flaw in planning. This Virgin Lands scheme was no solution to the food shortages and the reserves were still not filled. The Aspiring New Project: Baku The Soviet oil sector was also in need of work. Technology was lagging, but that did not stop oil from elevating the Soviet Unions economy. The Soviets found their oil fields by supporting Azerbaijans Bolshevik revolution and re-occupying the rich Baku region in 1920.28 The region was overflowing with oil and the Soviet Union had rights to drill by occupation. By 1930, Stalin was investing vast amounts of man power and money into the region and it was paying off, in that year alone, 100 million barrels of oil was pumped out.29 At the time, this was the third largest amount in the world.30 Baku continued to produce a large amount of wealth for the Soviet Union by pumping out more oil every year. (see Appendix 4) In 1941, 125 million barrels was produced.31 With oil pumping out and money flowing in, the Soviet Union was able to keep their agricultural department afloat by importing grain that was paid for in the hard currency of oil. In the same eventful year, Hitler abrogated the Nazi Soviet Pact with Stalin and invaded the Soviet Union, opening a new war front which Baku

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LeVine, Steve. The Oil and the Glory The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea. New York: Random House, 2007. Print, 45. 29 Ibid, 49. 30 Ibid. 31 Ibid.

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funded.32 Hitler laid out plans to steal the Baku oil fields in Mien Kampf, so Stalin decided to block the oil wells with cement, ceasing production before hed ever let Hitler have them.33 Hitler had planned to defeat Stalingrad then take Baku, India, Iraq and Iran; he claimed that Unless we get Baku's oil, the war is lost."34 Stalingrad defeated him, and Hitler never made it to Baku. The long term cost was concrete seepage into the oil, which ruined the area.35 (see Appendix 5) Although a good amount of oil was lost in the area, the Soviets were not fretting because the Volga Basin had been discovered and dubbed to become the Second Baku36. Baku had a few more riches left though, involving off-shore drilling which was a feat the Soviets were willing to take part in.37 Starting in 1941, metallic trestles were built off the shore of Baku to search for oil in the sea, and by 1947 shallow off-shore drilling had been found.38 The experience proved to be fruitful but dangerous and quickly spent.39 Soon after another opportunity presented itself, this time as deep off-shore drilling, but the Soviets did not have the most up to date technology and could not drill four miles deep into the ocean; the Soviets then pulled out and become an internal world petro-power.40 They were able to rely solely on their inner production since it was so high, but there was still an incredible waste of oil at Baku.

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Suiedlis, Saulius. "The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact: The Documents." Lituanus.org - Home. Web. 01 Aug. 2009. <http://www.lituanus.org/1989/89_1_03.htm>. 33 LeVine, 50-51. 34 "Oil in Azerbaijan." Web. 15 Aug. 2009. <http://www.members.tripod.com/azmsa/oil.html>. 35 Levine, 50-51. 36 Ibid. 37 Gaidar, 100. 38 Ibid. 39 LeVine, 50-51. 40 Ibid.

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Poor Choices in Time of Oil Prosperity The USSR was building up a reserve of oil and in the early 1950s they reached a surplus; once at that point, they began exporting large amounts all through 1960s mainly to socialist states.41 Their grain crisis was not solved but oil provided a temporary answer. It was used as currency in a new trade and balance economy to buy the food they could not produce.42 The trade economy is when local businesses have no direct contact with foreign buyers.43 The central government buys the goods then exports to the users.44 The importing system worked similarly; the Communist Party handled all the imported goods and then distributed them among the locals.45 Oil provided money, but not in terms of the rubles that the Soviet peasants needed. Rubles had to be converted and there was no fixed rate, so the conversion was often exaggerated on one end, shorting one party.46 This provided a problem to banks, peasants and anyone that was not in the government. So, money that was in circulation and in banks was generally left in foreign oil money which was US dollars. The Cold War was raging and the pressure for oil was high. The methods of drilling for oil ensured fast results but were damaging the area. Valentin Shasin, Minister of the Oil Industry, told Party officials that although the current oil rigs were producing high yields, they were overstraining production and not considering the consequences.47 These consequences could be lower yields in the future, diluted oil and depleted fields.

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Gaidar, 100. Ibid. 43 Corden, Max W. Trade Policy and Exchange Rate Issues in the Former Soviet Union. Working paper no. WPS915. 1992. Print, 4. 44 Ibid. 45 Ibid. 46 Ibid, 7. 47 Gaidar, 102.

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Then the World Starts To Tumble

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The Soviet Union was gradually increasing production since they had withdrawn to become an internal power. As they produced more oil, they gained more wealth and certainly became a stronger Soviet Union. Oil price rises only helped the economy, especially two major price jumps between 1973- 1974 and 1979- 1981.49 The 1973 jump was controlled by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries when they decided to increase prices to sustain their embargo on the United States.50 The embargo was put into effect because the US was supporting the Israeli army in the Yom Kippur War.51 The 1979 price jump was due to the Islamic Revolution in Iran; the Shah went into exile and supporters were killed, oil workers went
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"Crude Oil Prices 2006 Prices." Chart. The Politics eZine- Oil Economics. Mar. 2008. Web. 15 Aug. 2009. <http://www.lilith-ezine.com/articles/politics/images/History-of-Oil-Prices-Chart-01.gif>. 49 Gaidar, 102. 50 "The October War and U.S. Policy." The George Washington University. Web. 15 Aug. 2009. <http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB98/index.htm>. 51 Ibid.

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on protest and the country that produced 20% of the worlds oil suddenly stopped.52 The lower supply, but still ever high demand, produced the large jump in prices. This gave the Soviets a chance to dig themselves out of a food reserve crisis they were still in by importing extra amounts of grain to place into the reserves; however, they did not capitalize on this opportunity by ordering extra food or converting and reserving hard currency to last them.53 They only continued to trade with their oil money.54 The Soviet Union was not thinking about their future and endangered itself even more by borrowing money to trade.55 They were taking loans in foreign currencies to allow them to import more.56 This was a poor choice though because of the lack of fixed currency conversions and their revenue was high enough to rely on alone due to their peak oil prices. By this point socialist countries were not the only ones importing Soviet oil; capitalist countries were demanding it too, so by 1980, they were exporting 500 percent more tons than in 1965.57

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"History of Iran: Islamic Revolution of 1979." Iran Chamber Society. Web. 15 Aug. 2009. <http://www.iranchamber.com/history/islamic_revolution/islamic_revolution.php>. 53 Gaidar, 102. 54 Ibid. 55 Ibid. 56 Ibid. 57 Ibid, 100.

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"Crude Oil Production (Mbbl/d) Iran. Chart. The Politics eZine- Oil Economics. Mar. 2008. Web. 15 Aug. 2009. <http://www.lilith-ezine.com/articles/politics/images/History-of-Oil-Prices-Chart-08.gif>.

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Spontaneous Combustion, At Least in the Wests Eyes Tough times had been building up for the Soviet Union though; Poland was facing an unemployment crisis and needed money fast. The central government in the Soviet Union paid a first installment of 4 billion
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million dollars in todays economy) in 1980 and continued to funnel money in afterwards to prop up Polands government.61 At the same time, the trade and balance system, which the Soviets were relying on, was plummeting in 1981 because of oil currency peaks and the USSR could not repay what it had borrowed.62 Inflation erased the Soviet currency, conversion rates had changed and all that trading money had vanished. The West was sending in loans while the Soviets increased oil production in hopes of another price increase to spike their economy.63 From 1982 to 1985, OPEC was having problems regulating oil prices and used Saudi Arabia as a swing

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"Figure 4-3. Exports of Oil and Oil Products from the USSR to OECD Countries, 1972-85." Chart. Collapse of an Empire. Harrisonburg: R. R. Donnelly, 2006. 103. Print. 60 "Top Producing Countries, 1960 - 2008." Chart. Web. <http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/pdf/pages/sec11_10.pdf>. 61 Gaidar, 105. 62 Ibid, 107-108. 63 Ibid.

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producer (one who could cut back or increase depending on orders.64 Saudi Arabia became tired of this and in the beginning of 1986 and tripled production.65 Prices dropped dramatically and the Soviet Union had to slowly lower its production of oil.66 Surprisingly, Saudi Arabia was not hurt by the lower prices because the high volume made up for the difference.67 Perhaps the Soviet Union could have sustained itself by increasing production instead of reducing. Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall! The Reagan administration was known for being hard on communism and given credit that they would go all the way to end it.68 During 1984, his third year in office, Reagan spent one trillion dollars (adjusted for inflation) on the military.69 Reagans supporters claim that his plan was to build up American forces and force the Soviets to match it.70 The Soviets, however, had neither increased nor decreased their spending on military defense throughout the late 70s and 80s.71 Americans had been changing their mind about the military since 1976, when more people favored increased spending on the military then decreased.72 In 1980, a definite majority

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"The History of Oil Prices - Oil and Gasoline Economics - The Politics eZine." The Lilith Gallery of Toronto - Home of The Lilith eZine, The Feminist eZine & 1001 Feminist Links. Web. 15 Aug. 2009. <http://www.lilithezine.com/articles/politics/History-of-Oil-Prices.html>. 65 Ibid. 66 Gaidar, 109. 67 The History. 68 "President Ronald Reagan: Winning the Cold War HistoryNet." HistoryNet - From the Worlds Largest History Magazine Publisher. Web. 31 July 2009. <http://www.historynet.com/president-ronald-reagan-winning-the-coldwar.htm>. 69 Holguin, Jaime. "Reagan's Cold War Legacy - CBS Evening News - CBS News." Breaking News Headlines: Business, Entertainment & World News - CBS News. Web. 31 July 2009. <http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/10/eveningnews/main622398.shtml>. 70 "President. 71 "Reagan and the Russians - 94.02." TheAtlantic.com :: Home. Web. 24 Sept. 2009. <http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/foreign/reagrus.htm>. 72 Knopf, Jeffrey W. "Strategic Insights -- Did Reagan Win the Cold War?" CCC - Center for Contemporary Conflict. Web. 05 Aug. 2009. <http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/si/2004/aug/knopfAUG04.asp>.

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wanted increased spending in the military, but by his second term, a clear majority favored cutting defense spending.73 Reagan was losing the peoples support with his policies and the high price of equipment.74 Thus, the perception the public was given was that the Soviets were far ahead, that this build up was just to keep up with them.75 What most Americans did not know what that the Soviets were already going through an economic crisis and food shortage; they were not focusing on the military might of the United States since they were above the number of arms where both countries would be annihilated. The Soviet Union still offered to open up talks to cut down the sizes of each nuclear force.76 Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev met in Washington D.C. in 1987 and lowered their sides nuclear power by signing the INF Treaty.77 While military tensions had reduced, the Soviets still faced turmoil and could not provide food to feed their people. It wasn't Reagan's hand forcing Gorbachev to withdraw from communist puppet states and to tear down the Berlin Wall, but the forces of the people, the lack of money, the lack of food and the overall reformist aura of Gorbachev. This was an existentialist crisis much more than a military one. How far would the Soviet Union go in maintaining control? Or would they dissolve in order to save the lives of the people they could not feed? Reagan did eliminate intermediate missiles and eased back from what seemed to be oncoming nuclear war, but he was too attached to his Star Wars project78, the supposed defense

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Ibid. Ibid. 75 Ibid. 76 President. 77 "INF TREATY." Federation of American Scientists. Web. 15 Aug. 2009. <http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/inf/text/inf.htm>. 78 Eberhart, Dave. "Reagans 40-Year War Against Communism." NewsMax.com: America's News Page - News Archives. Web. 31 July 2009. <http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/6/9/215130.shtml>.

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system that would be the best in saving the United States because mutually assured destruction would no longer cut it, to dismantle the USSR from the inside. The Most Reputable of Sources It is hard to find someone who does not have an opinion on the Soviet Union and what caused it to fall. Reagan supporters are almost fanatical in supporting him as the savior who brought down the Red Menace. There are strong limits to reading sources that support Reagan because they are all on one side of the political spectrum, Republican, and they view the Soviet Union as a terrible nation. The arguments against the Reagan factor as bringing upon the fall of the Soviet Union vary greatly in terms of political affiliations and views on the Soviet Union. Yegor Gaidar was the primary resource for oil information on the Soviet Union post 1960. Although he was the first Prime Minister of Russia, he was also an economist and views the situation as an analytical one, not one of national pride, but one of numbers and mistakes. He also had access to information, such as KGB documents, that are not released to the public regarding oil production and the impact of poor planning in the money management sector of it. MH Glantz was the primary source for agricultural shortcomings on the Virgin Lands Project. He published multiple books focusing on lands, mostly in Central Asia, that failed to produce the agriculture that was expected of them. Glantz was key in analyzing different problems in the plans and the lands.

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Point and Case The oil booms of 1973 and 1979 gave the Soviet Union unprecedented wealth. With the new found wealth, they became the worlds largest importer of food, which was key in order to compensate for their chronically deficient agriculture. While relying on their oil money, they neglected to build up their agricultural programs to sustain themselves nor did they capitalize on the opportunities to fill their reserves to nearly the size they should be for a state of emergency. The main problem with the oil boom was that the Soviet economy became intertwined and dependent on the international economy, so with each drop, they started to tumble.79 This fundamental change broke their foundation that set them apart on a different path from early on.80 The depression that ravaged the world economy in the late twenties and early thirties had not affected the Soviet Union because of their independence from the world. This was a radical change for them to be tied with the world. It became clear that once the oil prices dropped; there would be no more wealth. The oil drop sparked the beginning of the end. The oil price plummet launched a 43% drop in production in oil, devastating the economy and most importantly, preceding the GDP decline.81 This points to oil as the reason for putting the Soviet Union in a dwindling state, coupled with a poor agricultural foundation. Once the GDP fell, coal production also dropped off, causing an internal black hole within the Soviet Union.82 With all other sectors falling, the already weak agricultural sector was surely going to plummet; sending anger through the hungry people had not filled themselves on food since the first wave of collectivization.

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Gaidar, 110. Ibid. 81 "Commentary: Peak Oil and the Fall of the Soviet Union |." Energy Bulletin. Web. 01 Aug. 2009. <http://www.energybulletin.net/node/19837>. 82 Ibid.

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The agricultural sector never produced what was necessary for the Soviet Union. The oil boom allowed for the Soviet Union to stay afloat with their new trade and balance economy. Exported oil paid for imported food. The brief time when the Soviet Union could have reworked their agricultural department to produce a more viable sector was wasted. So, when the Soviet economy declined due to the oil price drop, every other sector did too. Had the agricultural department been strong and actually harvesting plentiful amounts of food or the reserves been built up, the economic shock would not have been so devastating. However, since the agriculture became totally dependent on oil money in the years following 1950, there was no path for the Soviet Union to take that would enable them to deal with an internal meltdown and a grain crisis. There was a need to dissolve the Soviet Union in order for each republic to rehabilitate on its own or starve millions. Reagan had not hurt the Soviet Union by building up nuclear forces. There were internal flaws building for 70 years. There was no way to avoid the break down once the market within the Soviet Union became enmeshed with the global economy.

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Works Cited "Collectivization." Progressive Labor Party - Partido Laboral Progresista. Web. 31 July 2009. <http://www.plp.org/books/Stalin/node19.html>. "Commentary: Peak Oil and the Fall of the Soviet Union |." Energy Bulletin. Web. 01 Aug. 2009. <http://www.energybulletin.net/node/19837>. Corden, Max W. Trade Policy and Exchange Rate Issues in the Former Soviet Union. Working paper no. WPS915. 1992. Print. Crude Oil Prices 2006 Prices." Chart. The Politics eZine- Oil Economics. Mar. 2008. Web. 15 Aug. 2009. <http://www.lilith-ezine.com/articles/politics/images/History-of-Oil-PricesChart-01.gif>. "Crude Oil Production (Mbbl/d) Iran. Chart. The Politics eZine- Oil Economics. Mar. 2008. Web. 15 Aug. 2009. <http://www.lilith-ezine.com/articles/politics/images/History-of-OilPrices-Chart-08.gif>. Desert Camp. Photograph. Kazakhstan. Web. 24 Aug. 2009. <http://www.kazakhstanbirdtours.com/images/desertcamp.jpg>. Eberhart, Dave. "Reagans 40-Year War Against Communism." NewsMax.com: America's News Page - News Archives. Web. 31 July 2009. <http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/6/9/215130.shtml>. "Figure 4-3. Exports of Oil and Oil Products from the USSR to OECD Countries, 1972-85." Chart. Collapse of an Empire. Harrisonburg: R. R. Donnelly, 2006. 103. Print. Gaidar, Yegor. Collapse of an Empire Lessons for Modern Russia. New York: Brookings Institution, 2007. Print.

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Glantz, MH. Drought follows the plow cultivating marginal areas. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994. Print. "History of Iran: Islamic Revolution of 1979." Iran Chamber Society. Web. 15 Aug. 2009. <http://www.iranchamber.com/history/islamic_revolution/islamic_revolution.php>. Holguin, Jaime. "Reagan's Cold War Legacy - CBS Evening News - CBS News." Breaking News Headlines: Business, Entertainment & World News - CBS News. Web. 31 July 2009. <http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/10/eveningnews/main622398.shtml>. "INF TREATY." Federation of American Scientists. Web. 15 Aug. 2009. <http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/inf/text/inf.htm>. "Kazakhstan." Map. Globalis. Web. 13 Aug. 2009. <http://globalis.gvu.unu.edu/country.cfm?Country=KZ>. Knopf, Jeffrey W. "Strategic Insights -- Did Reagan Win the Cold War?" CCC - Center for Contemporary Conflict. Web. 05 Aug. 2009. <http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/si/2004/aug/knopfAUG04.asp>. LeVine, Steve. The Oil and the Glory The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea. New York: Random House, 2007. Print. Ludwig, Gerd. Soviet Pollution. Photograph. Baku, Azerbaijan. GLP. Web. 13 Aug. 2009. <http://www.gerdludwig.com/html/stories_soviet_02.html>. Lydolph, P.E., 1979: Geography of the USSR: Topical Analysis. Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin: Misty Valley Publishing, 222. Maslov, N., 1980: Virgin Lands: 25 years later. Soviet Life, May, 6. "New Economic Policy." Untitled Document. Web. 24 Sept. 2009. <http://www.pvchico.org/~bsilva/projects/russia/lenin/nep.htm>.

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Nimitz, Nancy. Farm Employment in the Soviet Union, 1928-1963. Santa Monica, Calif: Rand Corp, 1965. "Oil in Azerbaijan." Web. 15 Aug. 2009. <http://www.members.tripod.com/azmsa/oil.html>. "President Ronald Reagan: Winning the Cold War HistoryNet." HistoryNet - From the Worlds Largest History Magazine Publisher. Web. 31 July 2009. <http://www.historynet.com/president-ronald-reagan-winning-the-cold-war.htm>. "Reagan and the Russians - 94.02." TheAtlantic.com :: Home. Web. 24 Sept. 2009. <http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/foreign/reagrus.htm>. "Shcherbytsky says famine was a result of collectivization of Soviet agriculture (01/10/88)." The Ukrainian Weekly. Web. 31 July 2009. <http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/1988/028801.shtml>. Sotsialisticheskoe sel'skoe khoziaistvo SSSR, Gosplanizdat, Moscow-Leningrad, 1939, 42- 43. Suiedlis, Saulius. "The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact: The Documents." Lituanus.org - Home. Web. 01 Aug. 2009. <http://www.lituanus.org/1989/89_1_03.htm>. "The History of Oil Prices - Oil and Gasoline Economics - The Politics eZine." The Lilith Gallery of Toronto - Home of The Lilith eZine, The Feminist eZine & 1001 Feminist Links. Web. 15 Aug. 2009. <http://www.lilith-ezine.com/articles/politics/History-of-OilPrices.html>. "The October War and U.S. Policy." The George Washington University. Web. 15 Aug. 2009. <http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB98/index.htm>. "Top Producing Countries, 1960 - 2008." Chart. Web. <http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/pdf/pages/sec11_10.pdf>.

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"Virgin Lands Program." Map. San Jos State University. Thayer Watkins. Web. 13 Aug. 2009. <http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/virginlands.htm>. Watkins, Thayer. Virgin Lands Operations. Chart. Web. 15 Aug. 2009. <http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/virginlandsoperations.htm>. Watkins, Thayer. "Virgin Lands Operations." San Jos State University - Powering Silicon Valley. Web. 13 Aug. 2009. <http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/virginlandsoperations.htm>. Watkins, Thayer. "The Virgin Lands Program in the Soviet Union under Nikita Khrushchev." San Jos State University - Powering Silicon Valley. Web. 13 Aug. 2009. <http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/virginlands.htm>. Wright, John G. "John G. Wright: The Farm Crisis in the Soviet Union (Fall 1954)." Marxists Internet Archive. Web. 13 Aug. 2009. <http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/wright/1954/xx/farmcrisis.htm>.

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Appendices Appendix 1- Map of Kazakhstans relative location.

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"Kazakhstan." Map. Globalis. Web. 13 Aug. 2009. <http://globalis.gvu.unu.edu/country.cfm?Country=KZ>.

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Appendix 2- Map of lands utilized for the Virgin Lands Project.

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"Virgin Lands Program." Map. San Jos State University. Thayer Watkins. Web. 13 Aug. 2009. <http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/virginlands.htm>.

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Appendix 3- Picture of the Arid Lands of the Kazakh Steppes.

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Desert Camp. Photograph. Kazakhstan. Web. 24 Aug. 2009. <http://www.kazakhstanbirdtours.com/images/desertcamp.jpg>.

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Appendix 4- Map of Azerbaijan (Baku) and location.

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"Baku Oil." Map. Azerbaijan. Web. 13 Aug. 2009. <http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/caucasus_crisis/index/cc_maps/baku_oil_all_map.jpg>.

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Appendix 5- Picture of oil seepage in Baku.

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Ludwig, Gerd. Soviet Pollution. Photograph. Baku, Azerbaijan. GLP. Web. 13 Aug. 2009. <http://www.gerdludwig.com/html/stories_soviet_02.html>.

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