Economic policies- Unit 3

Question 1

Collectivisation:

Answer 1

• Before Stalin, only 3% working in collectives.
• Famine 1927-8 prompted him to push for mass collectivisation.
• Got rid of NEP, wanted to eradicate Kulaks and marginalise the rightists (opposed collectivisation).
• 1930, Stalin said 58% of households had been collectivised. Exaggeration.
• March 1930, Stalin issued claim it was voluntary, too many left so he imposed forced collectivisation.

Question 2

Forced Collectivisation:

Answer 2

• Intense collectivisation.
• 50% peasants brought into collectives and by 1937, 93%.
• Used motor tractor stations (MTS) to be loaned to peasants.
• Famine disrupted collectivisation.
• Special charter issued 1935to improve payments for workers and produce plots of land, which were more effective than collective farms.

Question 3

Impact of Collectivisation:

Answer 3

• 1941, 98% all peasant households worked on collectives.
• 29 million-75 million tons of grain, 1939.
• Disliked from peasants.

Question 4

Dekulakisation:

Answer 4

• Collectivisation and dekulakisation hand in hand.
• ‘Class war in the countryside’.
• Poorer peasants encouraged to oppose wealthier neighbours.
• Komsomols recruited to seek out wealthier peasants.
• Houses stripped to find hidden wealth, belongings confiscated.
• Kulaks would sell belongings and abandon homes.

Question 5

Liquidation of Kulaks:

Answer 5

• ‘Fortunate’ Kulaks reallocated land of poor quality. Failed to meet targets, deported to concentration camps like Siberia.
• ‘Sub-kulaks’- transported or shot immediately.
• 1928-30, 1-3 million kulak families deported.
• 30,000 shot.

Question 6

Mechanisation:

Answer 6

Part of Collectivisation:
MTS (motor-tractor stations), loaned to peasants. Could distribute seeds, collecting grain and a process farmers could decide what they could keep for their own consumption.