Death By Agriculture

[Draggingtree]

Death By Agriculture

by Jonathan Daly

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Editor’s note: The following essay is an excerpt of the Hoover Press book Hammer, Sickle, and Soil: The Soviet Drive To Collectivize Agriculture.

Russia entered the modern age during the reign of Peter the Great (r. 1682–1725). Among his first acts as sole ruler, after his half-brother and co-ruler, Ivan V, died in 1696, was to spend eighteen months in Europe, learning everything he could from a continent in the dramatic throes of a transformation more radical than any region of the world had ever undergone. The printing revolution, the Renaissance and Reformation, the age of exploration and empire building, the scientific revolution, a commercial revolution involving transoceanic trade and stock exchanges, the Dutch War of Independence, the English Glorious Revolution—all had unleashed the creative skills and abilities of millions of Europeans, raised standards of living, begun unlocking the secrets of nature, empowered individuals in matters of faith and politics, and soon would launch the Industrial Revolution and the making of the modern world. Peter loved Europe’s dynamism and the inventiveness of its people and resolved to remake his country in its image.