Ryazan Slaughtered Its Own Success

In 1957, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev set a goal of tripling the USSR's meat production within three years. Communist official Alexei Larionov, head of the Ryazan Obkom, promised to do it in one year, and authorities reported meeting the 1959 target by slaughtering all that year's calves and much of the dairy and breeding stock, seizing privately owned cattle, and buying meat from neighboring regions. The state named Larionov a Hero of Socialist Labour in December 1959, but production plunged from 150,000 tons to 30,000 tons in 1960 after the mass slaughter reduced cattle numbers by 65 percent. Officials dismissed him that September, and he died the following month amid rumors of suicide.

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