related to rainfall during the growing season,in particular because such rainfall

encourages the spreadof cropdiseases.SI This tyPe of problemchronically affected

.: theSovietUnion. A reportprepared by theU.S.Central Intelligence Agency in 1978
foundthatamongthe mainfactors reducing Sovietgrainqualityand yieldwererust
and smut, which are the most widespreaddiseasesof wheat, rye, and other grain
crops. The report notedthatwhilethesediseases causedsignificant losses everyyear,
in certainyearsthey wereespeciallydestructive.P Sovietagronomic literature and
other publishedand archivalsourcesfromthe 1930s, however, whichno previous
scholarship on thefaminehasdiscussed, indicate thatin 1932Soviet cropssuffered
from an extraordinarily severecombination of infestations from crop diseasesand
pests.
Themostimportant infestation in 1932camefromseveral varieties of rust, a
category of fungi thatcaninfestgrains andmanyotherplants. Different types of rust
vary in their symptoms,with spores formingon the stems (black or stem rust and
yellow or striperust), the leaves (brown or leaf rust), or the heads (crown rust of
oats), but theireffects are similar. Afterapproximately a weekof infestation,rust
causesplantcells to ageprematurely, reduces theplant'scapacity to photosynthesize
to a fraction of itsnormalrate, anddivertsincreasing amounts ofcarbohydrates and
othernutrients in theplantfortheinfestation's owngrowth andreproduction. Although
in somecasesrust will killgrainplants, rusted grainordinarily willcontinueto grow,
fonn ears, and in generalappearnormal; butthegrainheadswillnot "fill," so thatthe
harvest willseem"light"andconsistof smaIl grains, oroffewernonnal-sized grains,
anddisproportionately of husksandotherfibrous materials." In otherwords, a field
of wheat(or barley, rye, oats, or othergrain, all of whichare susceptible to rust)could
appear entirely normal andpromising, andyetbecauseoftheinfestation couldproduce
an extremely low yield. One Soviet study showed that a 100percent infestation
reducedtheweightof 1,000grainsof wheatfrom39.7gramsto 14.1 grams,or more
than 60 percent,"
Rustshavebeen the mostcommonandthe mostdestructive infestationsof
grain crops, andremainsotoday. Fromtheeighteenth through thetwentieth centuries
rusts have infested U.S. crops, in a few cases severely. In 1935, wheat stem rust
causedlossesof more than 50 percentin NorthDakotaand Minnesota; black rust
infestationsreducedaveragedurum wheatyieldsfrom 14.5bushelsan acre in the
1940sto 3 bushelsan acre in 1954. Becauseof this destructive potential,the U. S.
Anny producedand stockpiledrustsporesas a biological weaponin the 1950sand
1960s,and apparently the Soviet Union did so as well.ss Rust is among the most
difficult of plantdiseases to combat Themain methods are elimination of alternative
hosts, such as barberries, on which spores overwinter to spread during spring,
application offungicides, and mostimportant, planting resistant varieties of grains.

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