Under the inept government of the Czars and with the most primitive methods of
agriculture, Russia was a major grain exporter. The unusually fertile soil of
the Ukraine alone was (and is) capable of feeding the entire world. Whatever
natural conditions are required for growing wheat, Russia had (and has) them in
overabundance. That Russia should now be on a list of hungry, wheat-begging
importers, is the most damning indictment of a collectivist economy that
reality can offer us.