Honey Production in the Urals: Sweet Products of the Bitter First Post-War Years

Abstract

Introduction. The problem of the development of such a specific branch of animal husbandry as beekeeping within the boundaries of the Ural Economic Region (UER) in the first post-war years (1946–1950) is investigated. The relevance of the topic lies in the fact that the Urals was characterized by a well-developed bee industry, and the collection of honey ensured the supply of valuable products to the population and industry of the country. Materials and Methods. The main source base of the study is the materials of the USSR CSI stored in the Russian State Archive of Economics, which made it possible to trace the development of the industry and the dynamics of honey collection in the republics and regions of the Urals for all categories of farms. The work is based on the use of a complex of methods: general scientific and special scientific (historical-genetic, historical-comparative, historical-systemic). Results. The analysis of honey production by both public and individual sectors of agriculture of the Urals is carried out. It is emphasized that the climatic conditions of the UER as a whole in a significant part of its space cannot be considered favorable for the development of beekeeping. It is argued that the beginning of the period under study was not the most successful period of the development of the Ural beekeeping due to the just ended the Great Patriotic War. It is stated that during the war the number of apiaries and the number of bee colonies has significantly decreased. Attention is focused on the fact that in the studied five-year period for beekeeping in most regions of the Urals, there were two clearly unfavorable years – 1947 and 1950. Discussion and Conclusion. Beekeeping is a rather specific branch of animal husbandry and agriculture in general, designed to provide the population, first of all, with its main products – honey. Due to a number of reasons, there was no significant increase in honey production in the Urals during the study period. One of the reasons mentioned was that it was in the years under study that there was a sharp and widespread increase in sugar consumption. It is established that the superiority in honey collection both in the pre-war and in the first post-war years belonged to Bashkiria, beekeeping was also well developed in the Molotov region. Most of the honey was collected by collective farms, but over the years under study, their role gradually decreased. At the same time, the role of individual farms of the population, both collective farmers and workers and employees, increased