Collectivisation and industrialisation

Question 1

What motivated collectivisation?

Answer 1

• Stalin was determined to solve the peasant problem and make peasants embrace socialism
• To rid soviet society of Kulaks
• End large scale private ownership of land
• By 1928 NEP was failing, agricultural production failed, Kulaks were blamed
• Opposition to NEP was a key reason for Stalin’s success he had to change agriculture

Question 2

State farms

Answer 2

• State farms (Sovkhos) workers worked for the state and were paid a wage
• Kolkhoz - were co-operatives with shared resources and labour and an acre of private plot. Wages came from surpluses
• Collecitivisation - initially voluntary but people didn’t want to join so was made compulsory = Dizzy with success in 1930 - 25% collectivised by 1940 - 100%

Question 3

How mechanised were collective farms?

Answer 3

1. MTS set up across the country
2. 75,000 tractors produced but in 1932 only 1/2 of Russian farms had access. They didn’t make up for the loss of horses.
3. By 1938, 95% of threshing, 72% of ploughing, 75% of sowing and 48% of harvesting done mechanically

Question 4

What was the positive impact of collectivisation?

Answer 4

• Did increase production - eventually:

1928 - 73m tons

1940 - 95m tons

• Grain exports rose

1928 - 0.03m tons

1931 - 5m tons

Question 5

What was the negative impact of collectivisation?

Answer 5

• Famine - 5-7m dead (1932-33)
• Resistance - strongest in the Ukraine - led to loss of livestock. Pigs only reached 1914 levels in 1956
• Between 9.5m and 10m were exiled as part of dekulakisation, often the most successful peasants
• Mechanisation was slow - Havest of 1933 was 9m tons less than 1926
• Wages fell by half between 1928 and 1932
• Meat consumed by urban workers fell by 1/3
• Failed to end the private market with 50-70% of products produced on private plots

Question 6

How successful was collectivisation?

Answer 6

• Strengthened Stalin’s control over the party and the peasants
• United the party behind Stalin and blamed the peasants
• Many viewed the harsh treatment of the peasants as back to the Civil war period and associated him with heroism
• Mechanisation did imporve
• Grain exports allowed the funding of industrialisation
• Grain procured was more than NEP levels - 1928 - 10.8m tons, 1933 - 22.6m tons
• Improved urbanisation - providing a workforce

Question 7

What was Gosplan?

Answer 7

• The soviet central economic agency
• They made production targets for every factory, mine and workshop
• Soviet workers and managers were responsible for meeting these targets

Question 8

What were the aims of industrialisation?

Answer 8

• Preparing for future war
• Catch up with the West
• Develop heavy industry

BUT

• Targets were unrealistic and poorly coordinated

HOWEVER

• Gigantomania - Moscow underground, Magnitogorsk
• Production dramatically increased

Question 9

How successful were the 5YPs?

Answer 9

• Significant increase in production of coal, iron and steel.
• The Russian economy grew by 14% per year
• Magnitogorsk, Moscow Underground, Dneiper dam - huge propaganda successes
• Opportunities for workers - red specialists
• Some improvement in living standards for some, end to rationing and increased wages in 2FYP
• Preparation for war

Question 10

Why were the FYPs unsuccessful?

Answer 10

• Managers lied about targets - so planning was uncoordinated, quality was often low, and scarcity of workers and parts
• Industrial production lagged behind Germany and the US.
• Living standards decreased and there were few consumer goods. (1928-1933 milk, fruit and meat consumption fell by 2/3s)
• Labour discipline and long working weeks
• Wage differentials but led to division with workers living in barrack housing and senior communists living in 14 room houses.
• 50% of work force were peasants and turnover was high
• Economy not prepared for war in 1941
• Russia did not become self-sufficient

Question 11

What new centres and projects were created?

Answer 11

Magnitogorsk, Dnieper Dam, Belomor Canal, Moscow Metro

Question 12

How were foreign industrial leaders involved in the development of Russia?

Answer 12

• Henry Ford
• Learnt the lessons of Western Industrialisation
• Used 1000s of engineers out of work due to the depression in USA and Europe