Soviet harvest failure

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34021, 10 December 1975, Page 18

Soviet harvest failure

CV.Z P A.-Keuter—Copyright) MOSCOW. , Western analysts ha\e said they think that the Kremlin leadership will maintain dosed the 1975 Russian grain ranks after the shock of harvest failure, and that any reshuffling in the Soviet hierarchy will be at a fairly low level. The analysts—experienced; diplomats in several foreign embassies in Moscow—made' their conclusions after study-! ing an official report which revealed a grain harvest of only 137 million tonnes. The figure. 80 million tonnes below the target, is the lowest for 10 years — a period in which needs have rapidly increased. The approval of both the! Communist Party General-! Secretary' (Leonid Brezhnev) and the Prime Minister! (Alexei Kosygin) as the ma- ' jor speakers at the twenty-1 fifth Party Congress next February, has been seen as| confirmation that they are to retain their posts in the fore- 1 seeable future. A Congress! is called every' five years to! elect the Party’s ruling poli-J itburo. The most immediate effect' of the harvest failure was! likely to be widespread] slaughter of livestock because of fodder shortages 1 and this would be a blow to 1 long-term plans championed ' by Mr Brezhnev to bring So- p viet meat consumption up to Western standards. I*