Chapter 11 - Economic developments 1924-29

Question 1

Start of the grain procurement crisis

Answer 1

October 1927

Question 2

When and where was the end of the NEP announced?

Answer 2

December 1927
At the Fifteenth Party Congress

Question 3

What did Stalin demand to deal with the grain crisis and when?

Answer 3

‘extraordinary measures’
January 1928

Question 4

When was the first Five Year Plan launched

Answer 4

October 1928

Question 5

When was the Five Year Plan confirmed by the Central Committee

Answer 5

April 1929

Question 6

When did Stalin declare ‘war against the kulaks’

Answer 6

December 1929

Question 7

What was the Great Turn?

Answer 7

A radical change in economic policy
The Party rejected the NEP and committed to rapid industrialisation under state control, along with the collectivisation of agriculture

Question 8

What did the Great Turn mark?

Answer 8

The start of Stalinism

Question 9

Key reasons for the Great Turn

Answer 9

• The slow pace of industrialisation under the NEP
• The grain procurement crisis in 1927-28
• Ideological concerns about the NEP
• Stalin’s changing attitude

Question 10

Give more detail on why the slow pace of industrialisation under the NEP was a problem

Answer 10

By 1927, NEP failing to produce growth that many leading communists had expected

Anxious to increase the USSR’s military strength and develop its self-sufficiency

Serious weaknesses in industrial management also needed to be addressed

More efficiency needed to improve the quality and lower the price of industrial goods

Question 11

Give more detail on the grain procurement crisis 1927-28

Answer 11

Amount of grain purchased by government down by 25% on the previous year in winter of 1927-28

Local Party officials blamed the peasants for hoarding their grain in hope of higher prices

Question 12

Give more detail on the ideological concerns about the NEP

Answer 12

Many in Party impatient to return to ‘true’ communist ideology to manage the economy

Essential to develop industry for this and to not have the state dependent on procuring grain from peasants

State had lost control over the countryside and this control had to be regained in a ‘war on grain’ so the USSR could get back on the right ideological path

Question 13

Give more detail on Stalin’s changing attitude

Answer 13

Stalin was ready to be more radical

May have been because economic circumstances pushed him to look for new solutions or because he felt comfortable enough in power to push through changes he’d always wanted