Virgin Land Program

The Virgin Land program initiated by Nikita Khrushchev in 1954 became one of the important events in the history of the Soviet Union ever recorded. In March 1954, the Central Committee of the Communist Party issued a decree to increase grains production by planting grains in unused soils and soil that has not been used previously as agricultural land, which is called the virgin land. (Watkins, 2014). This program is not only giving impacts to the Soviet Union; but in particular, the implementation of this campaign became one of the turning points in the history of Kazakhstan as one of the republic in the Soviet Union. The Virgin Land program itself cannot be separated from the role of Kazakhstan as the program is done mostly in the Kazakh Soviet
(Novikova, Russiapedia) Khruschev saw a possible threat to the Soviet Union if the government is not able to fulfil the food needs of its population. USSR requires 32 million tons of wheat annually, but not able to meet the needs because most of agricultural areas were damaged. Therefore, by decree of the Communist Party Committee in March 1954, The Virgin Land Program or tselina introduced and began to be implemented in some regions of the Soviet Union. Khrushchev determined the areas that the Virgin Land Program will be implemented because traditional areas of grain production and agricultural products such as Russia, Ukraine, the upper Volga, and the black soil region have been unable to fulfil domestic food needs. (Burke,
Several issues rose such as the coercive mobilization of the central government, bad living condition for workers, to the excessive exploitation of human labor. This is compounded by the amount of people sent to Kazakhstan were those who do not have the competency and unskilled, food availability was also a serious problem. (Roudik, 2007: 130) Another problem arises also is associated with the displacement of Native Kazakhs by immigrants so triggered chaos in society. This riots is resolved by using the military by soldiers (Roudik, 2007: 130), causing the pressure to ethnic Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities. Another problem is no less serious is the environmental degradation that caused by this program. Where the program is considered as a cause of erosion and other environmental damage caused by irrigation programs and so on. (Roudik, 2007: