Talk:1973 United States–Soviet Union wheat deal

Title of article

More than half of this article is an understated explanation why it is poorly titled:

This event was referred to in US media of the day as "The Russian Wheat Deal" or "The Soviet Wheat Deal," and may be better recognized under one of these two names by individuals who remember listening to the US news coverage.[3][4][5]

--P64 (talk) 21:19, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

Among agricultural economists and Sovietologists the event is known today as the Great Grain Robbery (hence the titles of the books by Hamilton and Trager). "Russian/Soviet Wheat Deal" didn't really capture the event since there were so many deals between 1972 and 1993; that term is a bit ambiguous at this point (though in the early 1970s of course it was a real novelty, before the USSR became the world's largest importer of grains).

We no longer refer to "The Great War," as the contemporary media called the event we now know as "World War One." Amustard (talk) 06:37, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

This is pretty ridiculous, using a very biased title. I would hope most editors would avoid using such POV terminology unless it were more widely supported. Shall we simply move the article forthwith, or do we need more discussion first? --Dhartung | Talk 21:45, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

I would like to see this article moved. Seeing this event with an exceedingly neutral name rewritten into a Cold War slogan seems wrong. The Wheat Deal was given an exceedingly NPOV name at the time, precisely in order to convince the public to accept something that was totally against the Cold War way of thinking. Changing the name does a disservice to our readers old enough to remember the early seventies. It just isn't so that things that happened before the Internet did not exist. Given the tensions of the Cold War, it is quite surprising that this event happened at all. Most of us aren't scholars, we're members of the general public. If Sovietologists and agricultural specialists have since concluded it was a bad deal, then by all means let us write an extensive section called "The Great Grain Robbery", and give middle-aged people seeking to refresh their memories more information as to what has come out during the intervening years regarding the negative aspects. Djembayz (talk) 00:59, 9 February 2014 (UTC)

Actually, this is not a Cold War slogan; the so-called "robbery" of U.S. taxpayers was allegedly perpetrated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, not the Soviets. 182.69.9.165 (talk) 10:56, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

I must respectfully disagree that the article should be moved. "Great Grain Robbery" is the term of art in today's agricultural economic literature referring to this event. Amustard (talk) 05:06, 6 December 2014 (UTC)

The Term 'Russian Wheat Deal' and 'Soviet Wheat Deal' are far too vague in my opinion. Flalf^Talk 03:22, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

Nixon

This article should incorporate nixon's then secret motivation for subsidizing the russian wheat deal, namely ending the vietnam war: http://thislandpress.com/2016/12/06/the-secret-wheat-deal/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tphyahoo (talk • contribs) 17:11, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Comment about infobox

Not every article needs to have an infobox. I'm usually pro-infobox, but I'm not convinced that this one is aiding my understanding of the article, so I would suggest removing it.

By the way, is there any reliable source which connects the Soviet logo to this event? If not, I do think that it is original research to include the logo in the article, which implies a connection that is not made in reliable sources. (t · c) buidhe 05:48, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

I agree, Buidhe. The image in the infobox is confusing, rather than increasing my understanding. The image of wheat stalks and the Soviet logo superimposed has no intuitive relationship, given that the event is about a wheat and corn shortage in the USSR. There is minimal additional content in the infobox. At the very least, that image should be replaced with something more relevant, or the infobox be removed entirely. I will check to see the provenance of the Soviet logo with this event as depicted by the image, as I wonder if it is WP:OR too. If it is clearly WP:OR, I will remove it and document my findings in support of it being WP:OR.--FeralOink (talk) 22:08, 3 July 2021 (UTC)

Requested move 3 July 2021

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) Lennart97 (talk) 13:42, 12 July 2021 (UTC)

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Great Grain Robbery → 1973 United States–Soviet Union wheat deal – NGRAMS evidence shows that if there's a common name for this event, it's "Russian wheat deal", for which this topic is WP:PRIMARY per Google Scholar[1] (most results refer to the 1973 purchase). What this means is that the current title is unacceptable per WP:POVNAME since it isn't used by a substantial majority of English language sources. However, since the deal wasn't with Russia, that name is just as misleading as "Great Grain Robbery". Therefore I am proposing a descriptive title, which should be more recognizable as it says when the deal was and who was involved. (t · c) buidhe 22:40, 3 July 2021 (UTC)

• Rename, although some sources describe it with the name Soviet Wheat Deal, a neutral name that doesn't have the somewhat inaccurate Russia label. This title should be considered. BUT, don't use my suggestion of an alternate title as a reason not to rename the page. The current title is unacceptable and must be changed. Oiyarbepsy (talk) 17:18, 4 July 2021 (UTC)
• Support per nom. Rublov (talk) 01:01, 6 July 2021 (UTC)
• Rename although I suspect there may be a missing supertopic issue here like United States grain sales to the Soviet Union, as the overarching event lasted far beyond 1973 - see Soviet_Union–United_States_relations#End_of_Détente for Carter temporarily stopping sales, and Reagan later resumes them. Plus this article portrays the event as some sort of US fiasco while I've always heard of it as a major propaganda coup for the US - that the USSR, which has an agricultural sickle in its flag for farmers, couldn't even feed themselves and needed to come to America for help. Anyway, either move to current proposed title if this stays on just the 1973 side, but would also be fine with turning this article into the missing overview article on grain trade during the late Cold War. SnowFire (talk) 15:17, 8 July 2021 (UTC)
• Rename - "Great Grain Robbery" is colloquial and is inherently POV. I remember when this happened. Americans were very concerned about the USSR not having enough bread to eat due to a bad crop year, and sent grain from the MidWest. The current title violates WP:NPOV as it suggests that America was naive or fatuous, and that the Soviets took advantage. (That can be fixed later.) At a minimum, we should change the title to something that is neutral and accurate, e.g. "1973 United States–Soviet Union wheat deal". The title should not have "Russia" in it, as that is not accurate. I am okay with "United States-Soviet Union grain sales", "1973 United States-USSR wheat deal" etc. The title should mention both the United States and the Soviet Union, and wheat or grain.--FeralOink (talk) 13:05, 10 July 2021 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.