THE CAUSES OF FAMINE IN RUSSIA 47
been saved if the export of foodstuffs had been abandoned.
But the continuance of the industrialization process was
evidently considered more important than the lives of whole
regions.
The export figures for 1932 show a considerable decline
compared with the previous years. In 1930 exports of grain
were worth 207-1 million roubles, and in 1931,157-8 million
roubles. The quantities of grain exported amounted to 4-8
million tons and 5-2 million tons respectively; so that it
must be admitted that the Soviet Government did send much
less grain out of the country during the famine years than
previously. At the same time the fact remains that at the height
of the famine foodstuffs were sold abroad which would have
sufficed to save the lives of some millions of persons. It is
impossible to avoid the conclusion that a more cautious export
policy in the preceding years would have allowed the formation
of reserves amply sufficient to keep the famine at bay for a long
time. It would not have required any very great foresight to
build up such reserves. In the hot and dry regions of the south
periods of drought, accompanied by bad harvests, recur at
almost regular intervals. Nor should it have been hard to
foresee that the collectivization of agriculture, which began
first during the years of record exports, would necessarily
bring about at least a passing reduction in the yields of the
harvest.1
To sum up, the delays in the process of reconstruction due
to the building of giant works, etc., and the production of
defective goods (braK) had the result that, to maintain the
industrial system, imports of foreign goods had to be continued
on a much larger scale than had been anticipated. The demand
for foreign currency grew correspondingly and in a manner
1 In. the last two months of 1934 the export of grain and foodstufis
continued, and during this period 780,400 tons of grain were exported. If
the export of this "famine grain/* as a journalist of long residence in Moscow
called it, has latterly shown a tendency to decline, it is still regularly main-
tained.