At the same time he tried to tackle the urgent problem of famine in Russia; following a widespread failure of crops around 30 million people were threatened with starvation and death.
Pada saat yang sama, ia berusaha mengatasi masalah bencana kelaparan di Rusia; setelah merebaknya kegagalan panen, sekitar 30 juta orang terancam kelaparan dan mati.