ABSTRACT
It is common knowledge that political instability and shaky national economy have a negative affect on agricultural production. Economic or political factors aside, the main natural cause of sluggish food production is unfavorable weather. This is especially true for countries where a considerable share of arable land is located in high-risk agricultural zones. Russia certainly belongs to such disadvantaged countries, with its most productive "chernozem" (black soil) lands located in the south of European Russia where precipitation is highly variable and droughts frequent. Given these two factors, arguably for the same weather pattern, agricultural production will be lower if the country is under social, political, or economical stress. Indeed, numerous studies as well as our own research have shown just that: when slowly changing factors of productivity are taken into account, the production of agriculture during the years of political suppression appears to be lower than during years of relatively liberal economy. We found another interesting tendency: during "liberal" years the variation in agricultural production seems to be much better explained by weather pattern than during years of political suppression.
