2B: Industry and Agriculture in the Stalin Era. Flashcards
1
Q
What were the aims of the Five Year Plans in Russia?
A
- Combine central planning and large-scale investment to industrialise Russia.
- Catch up to GB within 15 years.
- Eliminate inefficiencies and corruption of N.E.P.
- Defend Soviet territories through strengthening the economy.
- Assertion of Stalin’s own authority.
- 1st: 1928-32; 2nd: 1933-37; 3rd: 1938-41.
- Use Gosplan to manage targets or every means of production.
- Utilise propaganda to motivate the working population.
- Ultimately became a command economy.
2
Q
Outline the successes of the Five Year Plans in Russia.
A
- Heavy industrial output increased drastically (e.g. 35.4 mill tons were produced in 1927 compared to 165.9 in 1940) as a result of the introduction of new factories.
- Transport services improved, e.g. opening of Moscow Metro lines in 1935.
- Labour productivity rose significantly, perhaps due to incentives and a propaganda scheme based around Alexei Stakhanov.
- Prioritisation of arms production with war impending = rearmament: by 1940, 1/3 government income was dedicated to military production.
3
Q
Outline the problems/failures of the Five Year Plans in Russia, 1928-41.
A
- Low quality goods as quantity was prioritised over quality.
- Lack of transport and communication led to inefficient use of products; as much as 40% of produce was wasted.
- The purges had rid industry of many experts now needed to manage production.
- Continual shortages of consumer goods due to poor planning, consideration and technical knowledge.
- Similarly, living and working conditions were never prioritised
- Black market trade still flourished.
4
Q
What were the reasons and methods used for launching collectivisation in Russia.?
A
- Communist ideology: advocated abolishing private trade and ownership as a means of efficiency, equality and commitment.
- Failure of N.E.P. = ‘grain procurement crisis’ and potential opposition to the socialist model.
- Stalin’s position would be made more secure by siding with Trotsky and the left, who wanted to end the N.E.P. as they held the most power in government.
- Within a year of announcing full-scale collectivisation in 1929, Stalin claimed total success.
- The re-introduction of grain requisitioning and rationing signalled the end of free trade and arguably helped fund industrialisation.
- This stimulated class conflict, giving Stalin the excuse he needed to purge his opponents.
5
Q
What were the consequences of collectivisation?
A
- devastated agriculture, but released funds for industrialisation.
- provoked protests among peasants in the form of destruction of crops, animals and machinery.
- famine, often government created, as a result of failure to meet targets.
- limited impact of mechanisation (75,000 tractors =/= 17 million horses).
- increased grain procurement and exportation = starvation.
6
Q
State the features of industry and agriculture in the USSR during and after WWII.
A
- collective farms only around 3/4 productive as private farms = continual small harvests.
- reliant on US imports for 1/5 calories consumed by the Red Army during WWII; rations continually decreased.
- The Fourth Five Year Plan began recovery from the devastation of was; industrial output increased by 80% in the five years after WWII.
- military spending continued to dominate government expenditure, meaning consumer goods continued to be scarce.
- wages remained low; everyone able to was forced to work.
- agriculture faced a return to the strict guidelines of the pre-war period.