Industrial and agricultural change: Stalin

Question 1

What provoked the decision to move to a command economy?

Answer 1

• Economy had fully recovered in industrial terms by 1926
• Events in 1927 such as a British raid on the Soviet trade mission in London caused fear of an invasion, the provoking peasants to hoard food. This said to Stalin that the problem was the peasants, Kulaks and Nepmen
• USSR had to be self sufficient due to the decreased amount of global trading it participated in after 1917
• Moving away from the NEP would allow Stalin to further consolidate his power
• In 1928 it was decided that a command economy alongside the proposed 5 year plans would enable rapid industrialisation

Question 2

How were the five year plans implemented?

Answer 2

• USSR was outdated and industrially behind the western countries
• Nepmen and Kulaks were detested and any trace of capitalism needed to be eradicated
• Decision made after 1927 and aimed to use the most advanced technology with an emphasis on industry to make the USSR self-sufficient, relying on mass mobilisation of people and resources
• Reflected a massive military campaign
• Gosplan supervised it, but it saw the rapid extension of government control over industry
• Nepmen forced to join state co-operatives
• In factories there was a concentrated campaign against the “bourgeois experts” who had kept positions to keep operations running smoothly. Also dealt with these experts’ opinions about the probability of failure concerning the 5 year plans targets, while replacing the people in these positions with loyal communists
• This hindered the progress of the 5 year plan but also made them a reasonable scapegoat in show trials concerning sabotage
• Chaotic planning and implementation were the main cause of any inefficiencies and lack of production, as well as the centralising of government combined with the command economy not taking conditions in different areas of the USSR seriously

Question 3

What happened in the first 5 year plan?

Answer 3

1928-32
- Concentrated on rapid growth in industry

• Consumer goods were neglected
• Justification was the need for greater infrastructure of factories
• Standards and expectations were raised to unreachable heights, however industrialisation increased by a massive amount creating factories such as Magnitogorsk
• Government publicised and made propoganda surrounding shock brigades made up of the best workers, one man being praised and publicly rewarded for being able to mine 15 times as much coal as anyone else
• Workers were not compensated well for their efforts, often having to feed off of their pride for socialism
• Slave labour from the gulags was often used, but the many deaths revealed Stalin’s attitude towards live and their relation to getting what he wanted
• Corruption and crime developed as the unreachable goals extended further, stealing of other factories’ materials and bribing officials were commonplace
• Quality was often sacrificed for quantity, many vehicles breaking down

Around 10 thousand died in 1931 due to the slave use in the white sea canal

Question 4

What happened in the second 5 year plan?

Answer 4

1933-37
- Initially focused on consumer goods, however with the rise of Hitler industry and defence was prioritised

• Made more use of technical expertise and results were impressive with particularly coal mining
• Strategic placement of factories so the allies could not reach them
• Some advances in consumer goods especially concerning food processing

Question 5

What happened in the third 5 year plan?

Answer 5

• Started in 1938 primarily focusing on defence and creating an army to rival Hitler’s

Since the first plan oil, coal and steel production had more than trebled

Question 6

Reasons for Collectivisation

Answer 6

• Stalin was keen to abandon the NEP and collectivise farms to bring around more socialist change
• Fear of attack was rising, and to support industrialisation and militarisation agriculture would have to be made more efficient and mechanised. As well as this an excess of food was needed for export to ensure technologies could be bought
• Economically farming was inefficient compared to the rest of Europe, so a solution was to collectivise all farms making it more efficient and cost effective, while reducing hoarding and increasing the amount of peasants that could now go and work in factories
• Would help extend socialism to the countrysides and allow all areas to be controlled by Stalin at the centre, securing the revolution after such instances as the Tambrov rising. Kulaks were also seen as enemies of communism so they would be removed if collectivisation occured

Question 7

What was the process of Collectivisatation like?

Answer 7

• Started in December 1927 when it became optional and officials would visit villages in attempts to convince enough of them to join a collective farm
• Food shortages occurred in 1928 so forced to requisition food from the peasantry
• Collective farms were promised support from the MTS along with lectures and advice on efficiency and better growing of crops, also added to indoctrination into socialism
• Many formed resistance against this increasingly forced collectivisation, methods including setting crops o fire and killing livestock. “De kulakinisation” squad were formed, also known as the “twenty-five thousanders” who murdered and deported resisters
• By 1932 62% of peasant households had been collectivised ad in 1937 this became 93%

Question 8

What were the results of Collectivisation?

Answer 8

• Devastating results economically
• Machines and other things to improve efficiency were temporamental and slow to arrive, whilst the Kulaks (who had been the most productive and experienced) were no longer around
• Cattle had halved in number due to the slaughters and grain had fallen from 73 million tonnes in 1928 to 67 million tonnes in 34
• Forced requisitioning of crops led to widespread famine between 1931-32 especially across Ukraine and in 1933 alone over 4 million died because of it
• Disguised by model collectives to global onlookers
• recovery started slowly in 1933 with a good harvest, with a positive of the livestock cull being more grain could be saved
• 5 to 10 million Kulaks killed
• Seen as a genocide of Ukrainian people called the Holodomor and Kazahkstan lost around 40% of its population
• Succeeded in gaining control of the people

Question 9

Impact of the second world war on the Soviet economy?

Answer 9

• Centralisation helped to fight against the germans
• Production rose impressively
• Production of consumer goods almost non existant
• Production and the effect of the Germans had caused most apects to decrease by a third
• Devastating impact on food production, going from 90 million tonnes to 30 million, even private plots could be reintroduced to keep production higher
• Infrastructure destroyed after the war

Question 10

what occured in the 4th 5 year plan?

Answer 10

1946-1950
- Rigid state control reintroduced as the main riority was to rebuild and reconstruct infrastructure, industry and the economy in general

• Now had control of the Easter bloc so the absorbtion of other economies could occur
• 5 year plan was dedicated to regaining levels to pre war USSR, however consumer goods were still ignored heavily
• More of an emphasis on chemicals and plastics
• Re training programs were introduced

Question 11

What occured in the fifth 5 year plan?

Answer 11

1951-55
- With the emergence of the cold war money was spent heavily on arms and developmet in that area

• while it recovered the housing crisis was not focused on
• Countryside took much longer to recover while industrail workers and cities continued to be prioritised