State farms in the Sverdlovsk Region in the second half of the 1950s: based on annual reports

The relevance of the work is due to the great interest of researchers in the agrarian policy of the Soviet state during the "glorious decade", one of the manifestations of which was the rapid expansion of the state farm system mainly due to the massive transformation of collective farms into state farms. To analyze the state of the state farm system in the Sverdlovsk region in the second half of the 1950s. Such a fundamental source as the annual reports of state farms was used, as well as various materials from two central archives — the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GA RF) and the Russian State Archive of Economics (RGAE). This made it possible to characterize the number and composition of state farms in the Middle Urals, to study the strengthening of their material and technical base, the state of agricultural production and the delivery of the products received to the state. The paper shows that the expansion of the state farm system has significantly increased the volume of products produced in them. This was extremely necessary for the industrial Sverdlovsk region, whose agriculture did not meet the needs of the urban population living in it. However, the expansion of the state farm system could not radically solve the problem of providing food to the population. At the same time, the inclusion of weak farms in state farms seriously hampered the strengthening of state farms, affected the results of their production activities, reduced quality indicators and transferred the bulk of Soviet farms in the region to the category of unprofitable, requiring significant government subsidies.