Unconquered Corn

Before he made himself king of the Soviet mountain, Nikita Khrushchev fought for and proudly wore the title of king of the Soviet cornfield. Even now, when Soviet agriculture lags, Khrushchev charges furiously forth to defend his crown. Last year, as the year before, the Soviet harvest fell short, and once again Khrushchev is laying about him viciously in the barnyard. He has fired his Agriculture Minister, he has ordered a reorganization of the whole farm sector, and last week he put on a roaring show when the Communist Party's Central Committee met to discuss what is still his country's No. 1 problem, agriculture.

The Russian Republic's youthful, dynamic Dmitry Polyansky, premier of the largest of the 15 Soviet republics, tried to put over his report by quoting a dirt farmer's lyrical letter to Khrushchev: "Affectionately our people call corn 'Nikita's daughter,' and in truth you, Nikita Sergeevich, gave corn its vital importance. I think we can compare corn, the queen of the fields, with a rocket that will thrust us into the orbit of Communist abundance and help us sooner to overtake America." But when Polyansky began talking about poor local corn harvests, Khrushchev interrupted: "Once you've taken an obligation and failed, then write: 'Comrades, I've flopped. I ask to be relieved and that my post be given to more capable people.' " Polyansky said officials had tried to cover up. Khrushchev: "It is an incredible thing, comrades, when they buy butter in the stores and then the collective farm delivers it to the state in fulfillment of its plan. It is a big crime. The hoodwinkers should be expelled from the party and put on trial regardless of their position."

Pilfered Ears. Ukrainian Party Secretary Nikolai Podgorny, member of the ruling Presidium, was next. When he asserted that his region's harvest was "almost on the previous year's level," Khrushchev snorted. And when Podgorny said bad weather cut corn yields, Khrushchev gave him a brutal verbal beating. "I'm certain, Comrade Podgorny, that the figures on corn yield you just cited are only for half the crop. The other half of the corn was stolen, torn up by the roots." "Correct, Nikita Sergeevich," cringed Podgorny. Roared Khrushchev: "So what has the weather to do with it? The crop was pilfered, stolen, and yet you say weather prevented growing a good harvest. Can we put it that way?" Podgorny: "We can." Khrushchev: "Then why didn't you mention it?"

Reeling on, Podgorny tried to say that drought compelled many districts to cut corn before the ears formed. Again Khrushchev struck: "But that can't be, because if you can see that the ears won't head out, you know it is no good for fodder either, because it has already withered." Podgorny: "Yes, that must have been an excuse to cut the corn."

Khrushchev: "You should have said so."

Podgorny: "I should like to confirm that with examples. In the Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk and Stalino districts, they even cut green corn that could have been picked." Khrushchev: "That's impermissible. Why, it's simply criminal!"

Short of Plan. Tikhon Sokolov, Party Secretary of the Virgin Lands Territory of North Kazakhstan, admitted that poor farming methods as well as a rainy spring had knocked the region's harvest down to 73% of plan. "We are criticizing you for this," snapped Khrushchev. "We are taking it to heart," Sokolov replied. Sokolov said his region had boosted meat production, but 3,000,000 sheep had died for lack of feed. Unaccountably, Khrushchev said nothing. But when Sokolov said his region planned to raise hogs for a market weight of 110 kilograms (242 lbs.), the boss broke in. "Is it wise to push them up to 110 kilograms? That is too much. Ninety kilograms is the most effective weight for bacon." Sokolov: "You are right." That took care of that.

Lying on each delegate's desk was a set of "theses" in which Khrushchev proposed a program to resettle peasants in large apartment-house towns called agrogoroda, or agro-cities, from which they could commute to work on the farm. When Khrushchev, as Stalin's farm troubleshooter, first brought up this idea back in 1949, his rival, Georgy Malenkov, attacked it as wildly irresponsible, and Stalin called it off before it was even tried. Trying to please Khrushchev, Sokolov now said that his region planned to build agro-cities on big state farms to replace villages. Khrushchev has approved plans to create the first such agro-city 20 miles south of Moscow. There peasants uprooted from their scattered traditional one-room log huts (isbas) are to have separate one-family flats in four-story apartment buildings.

In the U.S., some 21 million farmers produce enough to feed 179 million Americans, with so much to spare that farm surpluses are a constant embarrassment to the Government. But plainly, Khrushchev's Communism had still not found a way to get some 100 million Russian peasants to do even a passable job of feeding themselves and the ever more numerous city dwellers.

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