secretary of theCrimeanregion(which ordinarily producedlargeharvests of export-

quality wheat), wrote to Stalin in September 1932 that because of sukhovei, and
,"
certainotherfactors, the total harvestinstatefarms wassmallerthan theiraggregate
procurement quota.41

Other Weather Factors

Thesesourcesindicatethatdrought reducedharvestsin many areasin 1932,

even if itdidnotapproach theseverity of 1931. Yetit wouldbeanoversimplification
to attribute eventhemostclearly"drought-causedfamines" to thatfactoralone. The
1920-1923famine,for example,resultedfromharvests reducednot only by severe
droughts but alsoby massiveinfestations of locusts, rodents, and plantdiseases." A
focusondroughtcanreflectan assumption thatlackof droughtrepresented favorable
weatherconditions andthatharvest sizecorrelatedpositively withrainfall. Daviesand
Wheatcroft, for example, correlate more rainfall with a larger harvest and do not
discussany other climate factors thatcouldhaveinfluencedthe harvest." Penner,
whileminimizing droughtin 1932, notes thatincertain regions heavyrains affectedthe
harvesting process, but does not draw any further conclusions from this." Jasny
simply asserts that because 1932 was not a year of drought, the famine was man-
made,eventhoughhe considersthe 1932harvest datainaccurate."
This focus ondroughtastheonlyenvironmental condition affecting famine in
Russia led these scholars, like Stalin and other Soviet officials, to overlook other
factors thatcouldbeat leastas importantToomuchraincouldhaveas destmctive an
effectas too little, andmanyothernatural eventscoulddestroy harvests aswell. Russian
peasantagriculture evenin thetwentieth century, likepeasantfanning in medieval and
earlymodemBurope, washighly wlnerable to weather, pests, anddiseases. Peasants'
proverbsreflectedtheir utter subjection to thesefactors."
Otherweatherconditions quitedistinct fromdroughtaffectedthe 1932crop.
In January 1932a sudden warm spell in the southernregions of the Soviet Union
causedfall-sown crops to startgrowing, afterwhich wintertemperatures returnedand
killeda portion of thecrop. In Ukraine thiswinterkilldestroyed at least 12Percentof
fall-sown crops,more than doublethelong-term average; in onedistrict 62percentof
wintercropsfailed. 47
And most important,despitethe regional droughtsmentionedabove, 1932
wasoveralla warm and humid year. In severalregionsheavy rains damagedcrops
andreduced yields, particularly on therightbankof theVolga, in the NorthCaucasus,
and in Ukraine," Cairns notedheavyrains in Junethatcauseddrownings in basement
apartments in Kiev,and the OGPU (internal securitypolice, predecessorto KGB)
reportedflooding in thecottonfields inUzbekistan in August, aswellas a hunicane in
11