13

‪Large stretches of fertile steppes at the Russo-Kazakh border raise hopes that there are still significant land reserve to feed a growing world population. This article tells the history of the cultivation of this steppe region by focusing on two major ecological and economical upheavals: the Virgin Land Campaign (1954) and the collapse of collectivized agriculture in the 1990s. Since 2008 much abandoned land has been recultivated. Are steppes on the eve of a new major change, a “new Virgin Land Campaign”? This article shows that the recent land expansion is doomed to remain limited, given the Soviet experience and the ongoing climatic changes.‪