Industrialisation Flashcards
How did gosplan develop from 1921?
Its headquarters were in Moscow and from 1925, it co-existed with Veshenka to draw up plans to increase economic output in accordance with party directives. Regional party leaders competed to put forward ambitious projects and wanted the first call on resources. It lacked reliable information and difficulties planning on a national scale ergo limited infrastructure for maximum strength
What were targets like?
- Targets were harsh to encourage maximum effort from managers and workers which were later accompanied by propaganda
- Since failure to achieve targets was criminalised, administrators inflated reported statistics to show huge improvements demonstrating how corruption was built into it through fear
- Once the plans were underway, thousands of state employees were dismissed including gosplan members that they weren’t class conscious, enthusiastic and free from corruption
What were the steel and coal targets in the first 5 year plan?
Steel - 10.4 whilst actual production was 4
Coal - 75 whilst actual production was 35.4
What was coal and steel production by 1933?
Steel 5.9 and Coal 64.4
Why was the 5 year plans always somewhat a success?
It increased production during the wall street crash in October 1929
How did authoritarian conditions affect its success?
Over-enthusiasm from local officials that allowed Stalin to state that it was achieved in four years
What happened to the targets?
None of the targets were met but growth did happen as electricity trebled, coal and iron doubled and steel production increased by a third. Targets for house building, chemical industry, food-processing and other consumer industries were neglected as there were too few skilled workers and effective centralised coordination meaning that smaller industrial works and workshops lost to bigger factories
What were the aims of the second 5 year plan (1933-38)?
- Continued development in heavy industries as the overall priority
- Promoting the growth of light industries such as chemicals, electricals and consumer goods
- Develop communications to provide links with cities and other industrial areas
- Foster engineering and tool making
What happened to coal and steel?
Steel: Target production - 17 million tonnes and actual: 17.7
Coal: Target production - 152 million tonnes and actual: 128
What were the successes?
- In the three good years (1934-36), the Moscow Metro, Volga canal and Dnieprostroi dam were built
-Copper, Zinc and tin were mined for the first time - Steel output trebled and coal doubled
- By 1937, the USSR was virtually self-sufficient in metal and machine goods
What happened in the 1936?
After Germany invaded the Rhineland, the focus changed to rearmaments which rose from 4% of the GDP in 1933 to 17% by 1937 as one secret workshop devoted to weapons was placed in each industrial complex as output during the second year plan increased by 300%
What failed in the second year plan?
Oil production and consumer goods other than footwear and food-processing saw little improvements
What were the targets of the third 5 year plan?
- Continued emphasis on heavy industry
- Rapid rearmament due tot the threat of Nazi Germany but the plan was disrupted by war in 1941
- Transition to socialism
What were the outcomes of the third 5 year plan (1938-41)?
- Whilst there strong machinery and engineering growth, it was varied across the country dependent on resources to rearmament as spending doubled between 1938-40
- Steel production stagnated, oil didn’t meet its targets causing a fuel crisis and many industries were short of raw materials
- Consumer goods continued to be the lowest priority
- Its success was limited due to the dearth of good managers, specialists and technicians due to the purges
- Hard winter in 1938 increased the failure of the plan
What was the Dnieprostroi dam?
- Construction began in 1927 however it didn’t open until 1932
- It produced hydro-electric power on the Dnieper river and with the extension of four more generators in the second 5 year plan, it became the largest in Europe producing 560MW
- It was produced to mostly give power to aluminium production plants and high quality steel production plant that was being produced in the area
- It increases soviet electric power by fivefold in 1932
- The industrial centres of Zaparizhia, Krgvyi Rih and Dnipropetrovsk grew from the power it provided
What is the Turksib (Turkestan to Siberia) railway?
- Built between 1926 and 1931 but the first passenger service was in 1929
- It is also known as the central Asiatic railway designed to create a working class in the steppes and semi-deserts of central Asia
- It was built by 50,000 workers
- It also facilitated the transport of cotton from Turkey to Siberia and cheap Siberian grain from Russia to the Fergana Valley
- Viktor Alexandrovitch Turin directed a 1929 soviet documentary about its construction
What is the Moscow metro?
- Opened in 1935 with one 11km line and 13 stations as the first underground railway system in the USSR
- It expanded in 1938 but its third expansion was prevented by the war
- It focused on urbanisation and needed to cope with the influx of peasants in the city in the 1930s
- It wanted to surpass capitalist design by gaining specialist workers and resources in Russia as well as unskilled labourers in recruitment campaigns
- It included marble walls, high ceilings, grand chandeliers and steel as an industrial achievement
What is the Volga canal?
- Constructed between 1932 and 1936 connecting the Muskava and Volga rivers
- A the confluence of the Volga river and canal, a 25 metre high statue of Lenin was built
- It was bulit by prisoners from Dmitlag labour camp which was the largest in 1934 with almost 200,000 constructing the dam alone
- c22,000 died during the construction
- The white sea Baltic canal of 1933 was similarly built with forced labour
- Those fulfilling work quotas were given 600g of bread per day, 400g of those who didn’t and 300g if they were punished
What was Magnitogorsk?
- It was built in the Urals to showcase socialism through producing steel, iron and pig iron after the construction of the blast furnaces by 1935
- Initially, work was hard and dangerous through living in communal barracks with temperatures as low as -35 degrees and limited sewage pipes
- However, by the late 1930s, it began functioning as a city with shops
- It consisted of 150,000 people with 3500 of them being kulaks
- They were also subjected to the ideology as there was propaganda through images of Lenin and Stalin plus lectures about politics
What is the Komsomolsk?
- It was the result of a government decision in 1931 to construct a shipyard on the river Amur in East Russia in order to open the areas which was largely built by volunteer Komsol
- It was also used as penal labour through construction in the nearby labour camps
- By the late 1930s, several shipyards and heavy plants had been completed an the city became a regional centre for industries such as metal lurgy, machinery, oil refining and shipbuilding
What was the percentage of change of people living in towns?
1926 - 17%
1939 - 33%
What were rates of industrial production like in the USSR compared to the west?
Surpassed France and Britain in Steel, Pig iron and iron except in Britain as as production was only 10.3million tonnes compared to 18.4
How did rearmaments grow by 1941?
- Nine aircraft factories were constructed in 1939
- Between 1938 and 1941, spending on rearmaments grew from 27.5 billion roubles to 70.9 billion roubles
- In 1933, only 3.4% of the budget was devoted to rearmament but this grew to 32,6%
- Industry was producing 230 tanks, 700 million military aircraft and more than 100,000 rifles per month
What happened to economic development by 1941?
- Uneven as consumer good producer was scarcer than under the NEP
- The quality decreased as they were so focused on meeting targets as local organisation was chaotic due to centralisation
What was pig iron production rate?
14.9 million tonnes
What was steel production rate?
18.4 million tonnes
What was coal production rate?
164.6 million tonnes
How much had grain increased by million?
73 in 1928 to 95 in 1940
How much had crude oil increased by million by 1940 from 1928?
11.7 to 31
How much had trucks increased by million by 1940 from 1928?
0.7 to 14
How much had tractors increased by million by 1940 from 1928?
0.1 to 3
How much had cars increased by million by 1940 from 1928?
0 to 0.5
How much had radios increased by million by 1940 from 1928?
0 to 16
How were steps made towards socialism?
- State ownership of fields and factories furthering communist ideology as is challenged private ownership
- The USSR argued that under Stalin it reached socialism as the government didn’t wither away however critics asserted it was social ownership because it was conducted in a dictorial style that didn’t benefit the people
- Communist control was strengthened in the countryside through collective MTSs
- A class was created that was still dominated by party elites instead of capitalist employers
What were the damages to urban workers?
- Placing factory managers under the control of the party through labour books, ration cards and punishments such as denial of ration cards, eviction from lodgings and penal sentences for misdemeanours
- The life and social welfare of urban workers was subjected
- In July 1940, decrees were issued making poor quality production a criminal offense
- This inference breached a central committee directive of 1929 to the effect that enterprises should be managed by one person free from the inference of party organisation
- The harshness of labour laws allowed the soviet labour force to build up resilience which they lacked in 1928
What were the Komsomol doing?
The nation was split up through the Komsomol against class enemies that were challenging progress
What percentage rate did the Soviet economy grow each year?
5/6% each year between 1928 to 1940
What happened to the industrial workforce?
Between 1928 and 1932, it doubled and by 1939, the urban population reached 56 million
What were some positives of the economy?
- The three good years had social benefits such as consumer goods like gramophones and productivity because wages rose as prices fell
- The ability of the USSR to gear itself for war is a reflection of the success of the plans through the proletarianisation of the people
- During the 3rd 5 year plan, there was the opportunity for oil extraction as it gained Eastern Poland in late 1939 and the Baltic states in 1940
What were foreigners most used for?
To provide expertise on show piece projects as they had managerial and technical experience
What did Henry Ford do?
He advised on the car industry training Russian engineers in the USA helping them to design a car-plant at Gorky
What happened in 1932?
Engineers such as Colonel Hugh Cooper were awarded the order of the red banner of labour for helping to build the Dnieprostroi dam
Who was Walter Rukeyser?
He helped to develop the asbestos industry in the Urals
What happened when the Moscow metro was built?
- It relied on specialists from Britain because despite its construction and decoration by native workers, engineering designs, routes and construction plans were based on the London underground
- The secret police arrested British engineers in Moscow because they gained in-depth knowledge of the city’s geographical layout
Why was Russia appealing to foreigners?
During the depression, the economic success was seen as a new world therefore later they were used as scapegoats for failure
Who was Alexei Stakhanov?
A coal miner in the Don basin who cut 102 tonnes of coal with his pneumatic pick in 5 hours and 45 minutes in August 1935. The same amount coal would have taken someone usually 14 times longer
How was Stakhanov’s efforts a publicity stunt?
He had a team to process the coal but it still revealed human determination to increase productivity and he was declared a Soviet hero with honorary awards. It encouraged a new proletariat culture through competition based on teamwork and self-sacrifice. By December 1935, the number of broken records had entered the world of make believe and filled two volumes and gave managers an incentive to place harsh incentives on worker?
What were the effects of the Stakhavovite movement?
It was universally popular as those who benefitted gained superior accommodation and other material benefits which encouraged them to be victimised or attacked
How were pressures placed on managers?
- They worker for the commissariat for their particular economic area
- They did their best to negotiate the largest workforce and wage fund possible but once this was established, their priorities were to meet targets
- The threat of trial, imprisonment an execution if trials weren’t met meant that they falsified data
- They had to ensure their books were balanced so they were not accused of economic wrecking (sabotage)
What were the benefits for managers?
- Bonuses could be up to 40% of income if they did better than expected
What happened from 1936?
- Factories had to pay their own fuel, raw materials and labour from their profits
- There were national work norms which governed what a labourer should do and enforcing rules such as being absent making it difficult for them to for a relationship with workers but some tried to ignore rules but production fell
- Work norms were raised in 1936 between 10-50%, it became harder for them to deal with protesting workers yet there were threats of being accused of wrecking
What were the impacts of the Stakhanovite movement on managers?
- Too much effort from workers could lead to increased factory targets ergo increased pressure
- Workers were keen to show their prowess through medals and sometimes accused managers of failing to provide tools or resources
What happened due to the slump in trade in the 1930s?
- They faced shortages as conditions on collective farms improved, reduced immigrants and the scale of young men conscripted into the military
- Military demands created a shortage of raw materials as consumer demand was growing
How did working conditions become harder for workers?
- Introduction of 7 day working week and longer working hours
- Arriving late even by 20 minutes or missing work could be criminalised leading to dismissal, eviction from housing and loss of benefits
- Damaged machinery, strikes and leaving a job were also criminalised
What were introduced in 1938?
Labour books were introduced to record worker’s employment, skills and disciplinary issues
How were workers initially motivated?
- Extensive training programmes to learn new skills
- From 1931, wage differentials for those stayed longer and worked harder making the proletariat more diverse
- His purges in the 1930s left vacancies for intellectuals and white collar jobs
How was their quality of life?
- Due to mass population growth, workers lived in cramp communal apartments with a lack of sanitation and water
- Queues especially on transport and shortages became an expected part of life
- Real wages increased under the 1st 5 year plan but by 1937, there were still less than 1928
- Rationing was phased out in 1935 but market prices were high and those in positions of power obtained the most goods
- A decree in 1940 cut social benefits and the free labour market as unskilled workers unlike skilled needed permission to change jobs
What was the Belomor canal?
It was built entirely with 300,000 prison labourers at its peak with many dying due to overworking, poor treatment, lack of food and disease with an average survival time of two years
What was the percentage change of women entering the workforce?
1929 - 29% mostly in textiles and other light industries
1940 - 43%
What was closed in 1930?
Zhenotdel (the department devoted to women’s affairs) closed with no drive to increase female labour
How did female employment increase?
- As prices rose, urban working class women entered industry, education, healthcare and administration
- Mangers employed wives, widows and teenage daughters of their male workers in order to meet quotas who were more reliable than urban workers
- This indirectly helped the accumulation of capital as housing developments didn’t need to be made
- During the second 5 year plan, Women were encouraged to enter heavy industry but managers continued to hire them for low-skilled jobs with lack of promotion or skills
- From 1936, the party introduced technical training programmes for women to enter managerial positions
- The provision of state nurseries, creches, canteens and child-clinics enabled women to manage work and the family
How were women still limited in the workplace?
- On the factory floor, women were physically and sexually harassed by their male co-workers which they couldn’t fight for due to the loss of Zhenotdel
- Women still earned 40% less than men
