Tax on trees was a

tax A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...

imposed on the owners of fruit trees in the USSR by

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

's government in 1944. The tax made it expensive to have trees on a farm, and had the

unintended consequence In the social sciences, unintended consequences (sometimes unanticipated consequences or unforeseen consequences) are outcomes of a purposeful action that are not intended or foreseen. The term was popularised in the twentieth century by Ameri ...

of causing a mass felling of trees by Soviet farmers. This subsequently led to shortage of fruit. The idea was proposed by the Minister Arseny Zverev, and Stalin failed to foresee the problems it would produce. The tax was repealed in 1954 by

Georgy Malenkov Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov ( – 14 January 1988) was a Soviet politician who briefly succeeded Joseph Stalin as the leader of the Soviet Union. However, at the insistence of the rest of the Presidium, he relinquished control over the p ...

, when taxes were reduced by 60 percent for farmers.

References

Trees In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are u ...

Agriculture in the Soviet Union

Forestry in Russia Deforestation Environmental issues in Russia Agriculture in Ukraine Agriculture in Moldova {{environment-stub

See also

References