Industrialisation Flashcards
Economy
In 1929 the Great Depression happened which started in the US when stock prises fell having a terrible affect globally with global GDP falling by 26.7%. However the Soviet Union was barely affected due to the Soviet Union’s Financial independence and between 1928 and 1941 national income increased by 14%.
Economic - Five Year Plans
In the First Five Year Plan there were huge and unrealistic targets (many were not achieved) set which put a huge amount of pressure on workers and managers (failure lead to savage attacks from ministers).
Economic Specific Increases
Although the targets were often not made Industrial production increased rapidly as between 1928-1940 Coal went up from 35.5 million to 165.9 million and Rolled Steel went up from 3.4 million to 13.1 million in the same time period. (Tonnes)
Military Spending
Maybe don’t need US Example
In 1937 the USSR spent 26.4% of their national income on defence compared to 5.7% in the British Empire and 1.5% in the US.
However in 1937 Japan spent 28.2% of their national income on military strength which is more than the USSR
When did Hitler become German Chancellor?
1933
Threat of War - In
Maybe don’t need men example
Stalin decided to strengthen the Red Army and successfully managed to by increasing it’s size to 1,300,000 men by 1935. By 1940 Germany only had 5,200 tanks compared to Soviet Union 6,590 tanks.
Finland War - Military
Soviet Union were on the winning side in WW2 but the USSR when fighting Finland between 1939-1940 had over 200,000 casualties compared to Finland’s 70,000 causalities
WW2 outcome
Yes the Soviets lost over 20 million men but their military strength allowed them to win the war despite the costs proving the country’s military strength had proven showing the success of Stalin’s Industrialisation policy.
Sino-China War - Maybe an irrelevant fact
Although this may have been true the Red Army was not exactly in a bad place prior to Industrialisation as in 1929 (very early stages of Industrialisation) the Soviets defeated the Chinese in the Sino-Soviet conflict where only 281 Soviet troops were killed compared to 2,000 Chinese troops.
NKVD
Talk about Seventeenth Party Congress and Gulags in this factor too.
NKVD (Secret Police) which can easily identify opponents to the regime as no one knows who’s part of it so opponents will either get caught speaking about it and get arrested or not speak about it in fear stopping them from building an opposition amongst the people (as they can’t spread their ideas and get enough support for a revolution). However the NKVD didn’t all go to plan as it’s leader Yaguda gained full control of it in 1934 and had many supporters. It took three years for Stalin to deal with this by arresting him in 1937. It may have taken a while to deal with this threat and again arresting opposition didn’t make Stalin look good but at the end of the day Stalin was still in power and crushed this opposition (23,000 NKVD workers who supported him were killed) proving Stalin’s policy of Industrialisation was successful in achieving it’s aims.
Historians
Norman Stone argues there was no master plan and Industrialisation was a process of “simply putting one foot in front of the other as he went along.”
Alec Nove says without rapid industrialisation for industrial base there would be no success for USSR in WW2.
Chris Ward argues that the Soviet economy was fundamentally transformed and Industrialisation did what was intended.
Party
Khrushchev stated that 98 out of the 139 (70%) members of the Central Committee elected at the Seventeenth Party Congress (1934) were arrested and shot.
