Agriculture in the Buryat-Mongolian ASSR during the Great Patriotic War: Dynamics, Organizational-Economic Structure

The aim of this study is to reconstruct the development dynamics of key agricultural sectors and specific categories of farms in the Buryat-Mongolian ASSR during the Great Patriotic War. The primary source for constructing the development trends of agricultural production consists of aggregated statistical monitoring data on agriculture for 1940–1945, processed by specialists from the Central Statistical Directorate (CSU). These materials are being introduced into scholarly circulation for the first time. The research establishes that agriculture in the autonomy developed under unfavorable conditions during the war years. Labor resources decreased significantly, and the material and technical base deteriorated. Nevertheless, at the initial stage of the war, the republican authorities managed to increase the sown area and the livestock population in collective farms (kolkhozes) and state farms (sovkhozes). However, the decline in agricultural production that began in 1943 escalated into a full-scale crisis by 1944–1945, characterized by a substantial reduction in quantitative and qualitative indicators. The most striking manifestation of the crisis was the decline in gross grain harvests. The study concludes that the reduction in the production potential of agriculture in Buryatia during the war was less severe compared to the average across the region.