Livestock industry of the Urals on the eve of the Great Patriotic War

The study examines the development of the most important branch of agriculture and livestock farming on the eve of the great Patriotic war of 1941–1945. The work provides the most important indicators of the livestock development in the USSR as a whole and in the Ural Region in particular after the beginning of agricultural production reconstruction in the Soviet Union on an industrial basis. The authors analyze the reasons that influenced the dynamics of the agricultural livestock sector development in the country after the beginning of collectivization in the Soviet village. The paper contains the facts of the negative impact of the first steps that the leaders of the country and the Ural regions made during the transition to industrial methods of livestock farming. The paper also considers the ways of the identified shortcomings and excesses elimination in the agricultural policy in the 20s–30s of the XX century. The paper provides clear evidence that, despite the most serious mistakes in planning the development of the industry in conditions when the bulk of commercial livestock products gradually began to be produced by large collective and state agricultural enterprises rather than by small farms, the state’s efforts to improve the efficiency of the industry yielded positive results. Compared with previous periods, the marketability of agricultural production in general and the livestock industry in particular significantly increased. For example, in comparison with the pre-revolutionary period, the marketability of meat had risen from 42% to 67% by 1940 as well as the amount of meat produced in the country had increased from 2,4 million tons in the late 20s to 4,2 million tons by 1940. At the same time, the Ural economic area during the period under review, contrary to many established stereotypes, was one of the largest livestock areas in the USSR. In the Soviet Union the share of livestock in agricultural production reached 25,4% while in the Urals it was 28,4%.