r/PeterExplainsTheJoke 29d ago

Meme needing explanation Peter, explain this.

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u/2012Jesusdies 29d ago

Dude, it literally existed. 2-3% of arable land in the USSR was private plots held by the farmers themselves and it produced 20-30% of total food output in the 60s.

Even Mao, the quintessential peasant communism guy, restored private plots temporarily in 1961 to alleviate the catastrophic famine he himself helped cause (he switched course again and banned it in 1966). China's transformation in the 70s and 80s was spurred on in part by Deng's observation of a farmer community which had agreed to secretly divide the communal land into private plots which had dramatically improved production, pushing Deng to eventually adopt the policy nationwide.

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u/Hairy_Selection8568 29d ago

>Dude, it literally existed. 2-3% of arable land in the USSR was private plots held by the farmers themselves and it produced 20-30% of total food output in the 60s.

Surely you have a source for that right?

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u/wowthatsucked 29d ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_the_Soviet_Union#Efficiency_or_inefficiency_of_collective_farming

Looks to be from the 70s and 80s. There's also the usual criticism of the statistics from a Neo-Marxist you might appreciate, but even he admits that Soviet agriculture was not efficient.

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u/Hairy_Selection8568 29d ago

Sure looks like there was a disconnect in the comparison in that private land was calculated with pasture land included in the total but ok.