Economy and society: Stalin Flashcards
What were the five year plans designed to do?
Transform the USSR into an industrial economy and create a socialist society. This would help to protect the USSR from foreign threats.
What would the five year plans do?
End private business, gear everything in the state toward fulfilling the plan.
How did Stalin transform the economy though fear?
Managers and technicians were made responsible for meeting targets, if they didn’t they could be accused of sabotage or wrecking, leading to imprisonment or death.
When were the five year plans?
- Oct 1928- Dec 1932. 2. Jan 1933- Dec 1937. 3. Jan 1938- June 1941. 4. Jan 1946- Dec 1950. 5. Jan 1951- Dec 1955.
How did Stalin transform the economy through slave labor?
Political prisoners were used to construct major projects, they could be worked to death and replaced easily.
How did Stalin transform the economy through propaganda?
Propaganda such as the Stakhanovite movement was constantly fed to workers, they were told that they were in a battle to build socialism for the common good.
What was the stakhanovite movement?
Individual workers had targets to fulfill, Alexie Stakhanovite was a miner who had produced 14x his target in one shift, he was hailed as a hero and the model soviet worker. The Stakhanovite movement attempted to promote a vigorous work ethic and get workers to smash targets.
Give three successes of the plans.
- Led to colossal increases in coal, steel, oil and electrical power. 2. The ussr would not have survived the German invasion without the plans. 3. Built up the numbers of industrial workers and the most productive workers were rewarded with better housing and wages.
Give four failures of the plans
- Pay was low and safety compromised to reach targets. 2. Restrictions placed on the movement of workers. 3. Absence from work was a criminal offense and could see you imprisoned.
Give five failures of industrialization
- Shortages of consumer goods, too much focus on heavy industry. 2. Over ambitious targets such as 250% increase in output. 3. Lack of investment in agriculture. 4. Low living standards. 5. Poor quality consumer goods.
What was collectivization?
Creating large state owned farms where peasants would work together. These would be more efficient and would reduce grain hoarding and shortages.
What was the thinking behind collectivization?
Industrialization would need an increase in urban population, which would need more food, this could not be provided by the backward agriculture of the USSR. To allow workers to move to towns and cities, agriculture needed to be mechanized and collectivized.
What were the two intentions of collectivization?
- Collective farms would have new machinery which would increase production and require fewer workers, so peasants could move to cities. 2. It would create a socialist society with no privately owned land.
What did Stalin claim about collectivization?
It was an economic and political necessity which would sweep away the NEP, allow rapid industrialization and build a socialist society.
How did peasants react to collectivization?
Killed animals and burned crops, this lead to harvest failure in 1931.
