Industry and agriculture in the Stalin era

Question 1

what was one of the central aims of the communist regime and how would 5 year plans help reach it?

Answer 1

as one of the central aims of the communist regime was to industrialise the country, 5 year plans were designed to get away from the NEP (as had capitalist elements/ unintentional consequences of NEPmen), bring rapid industrial growth to modernise economy and move towards socialism.

Question 2

when and where was the decision to move away from NEP and towards industrialisation made?

Answer 2

fifteenth party congress in 1927

Question 3

who was in charge of Industrialisation

Answer 3

Gosplan

Question 4

When was the first five year plan ?

Answer 4

1928-32

Question 5

what was the aim of 5 year plans in general?

Answer 5

to emphasise heavy industry and achieve self sufficiency in the USSR

Question 6

what was the focus of the 1st 5 year plan

Answer 6

it concentrated on rapid growth in heavy industry

consumer goods e.g household goods were neglected, which was justified as a need to build up industrial infrastructure of factories/plants etc. before other sectors could flourish

Question 7

what was the focus of the 2nd 5 year plan

Answer 7

1933-37

initially set high targets for consumer goods, but as Hitler was rising to power this was redirected to focus in heavy industry in the need of defence

Question 8

what was the focus of the 3rd 5 year plan?

Answer 8

launched in 1938

directly focused on arms production to meet threat of Germany.

Question 9

what were the successes of the first 5 year plan?

Answer 9

industrial expansion mainly due to more efficient use of existing factories and equipment

new plants were built

industrial centres built from scratch like Magnitogorsk, 1929 only 25 people lived their 3 years later 250,000 residents.

propaganda success, model workers like Stakhanov were rewarded with a new flat and bigger rations

government used slave labour (labour camp prisoners) to mine economic resources in harsh conditions

Question 10

what were the failures of the first 5 year plan

Answer 10

workers lived in tents and huts in industrial centres

material reward was limited but work was hard

workers only motivated buy revolutionary attitudes

by 1933 only 17% of workforce was skilled in Moscow

white sea canal killed 10,000 prisoners during a winter, while propaganda success, canal was useless only to small barges as depth was reduced to save money

factory manager received unrealistic target, and were forced to bribe and steal due to fear

quantity over quality e.g. Stalingrad factory meant to produce 500 tractors a month in 1930, they only achieved 8 by June and most broke down

Question 11

what were the success of the second and third 5 year plans?

Answer 11

made more use of technical expertise, new industrial centres rose coal production substantially

chemical industry made progress

regionally developed USSR e.g. built industrial centres in Kazakhstan also protected industry from invasion

engineering industry and transportation industry grew

1928-41 saw a growth rate of 17%

4x increase in coal production

footwear and and food processing output increased (new bakeries, ice cream factories in many towns)

Question 12

what were the faliures of the second and third 5 year plans?

Answer 12

oil industry remained disappointing

growth was imbalanced

less success in production of metal

consumer industry still suffered, production of textiles declined, housing ignored

planners were disorganised, lots of wasted materials + mangers and technical experts were purged in 1937 slowing down the economy

Question 13

what was the conclusion of Stalin’s five year plans?

Answer 13

able to defend itself from Nazi invasion in 1941-45

Soviet union made enormous economic growth, but was unbalanced

some sectors declined while others grew

lots of human cost, 10,000 died in white sea canal

health and safety of workers was terrible

Question 14

what policy did Stalin implement to ‘fix’ agriculture?

Answer 14

collectivisation which was state ownership which mechanised and combined small farms into large units

Question 15

what were the 3 reasons for Stalin introducing collectivisation?

Answer 15

link with industry;

Threat of invasion meant modern economic society was essential to defend USSR for invasion and industry was only able to be developed by increase in agricultural productivity, to feed workers, export food for tech.

economic case;

small farms were inefficient compared to rest of Europe, larger units equates to economies of scale e.g. machinery more cost effective which would improve food production and therefore require less labour so more workers could work in industry

political case;

would help extend socialism to countryside to help revolution survive, get rid of kulaks and gain greater control over countryside as they lowered food production as they knew the state would take it. Stalin saw that forced policy of collectivisation would increase food production

Question 16

how and when was collectivisation first introduced?

Answer 16

December 1927, at the 15th party congress voluntary collectivisation was introduced

Question 17

what was the Ural-Siberian method?

Answer 17

Food shortages in 1928 led to forcible grain requisition which limited the exploitative tendencies of the Kulaks

Stalin wanted to go further and liquidate the Kulaks, so local party officials lectured peasants to the advantages of collectivisation by promises of increased mechanisation via Machine and Tractor stations (MTS) which supplied equipment, advice and lectures on socialism

once enough peasants signed up, collectives seized animals, grain and buildings as property of the collective

any peasant who then refused to join was deported to Siberia and Urals by secret police, red army or dekulakisation squad.

but successful as by 1937 93% of households were collectivised

(basically tricked them into joining)

Question 18

what was the negative consequences of collectivisation?

Answer 18

civil unrest in rural areas lead to peasants killing 17 million horses, 26 million cattle, 11 million pigs and 60 million sheep/goat leading to shortages of meat

grain production decreased from 73.3 million tonnes in 1928 to 68.4 in 1933

famine in Ukraine which was government created to feed towns and read army by seizing grain and live stock

death, around 5-10 million dead due to collectivisation

removal of kulaks was detrimental as they were often the most productive workers

Question 19

what was the positive consequences of collectivisation?

Answer 19

did modernise to a degree, 75,000 tractors provided but only made up for all dead horses

government procured more grain 22.6 million tonnes in 1933 around 12 more million then 1928. grain exports rose 5 million in 1931 from less then a million in 1928.

party control was extended and secured in the countryside

rural and agricultural communities suffered so industry and towns could flourish

getting rid of Kulaks was Stalin’s goal even if it seemed ridiculous.

Question 20

what impact did WW2 have on soviet Industry?

Answer 20

despite immediate collapse of industrial output due to the aftermath of invasion, soviet industrial production rose

1943 and 1945 73,000 tanks and 94,000 aircrafts were produced

production of consumer goods was basically non existent

by end of war steel production had fallen 12 million tonnes comapred to 18 million prouced in 1940, oil was less than 2/3 and woll was less than half of what produced in 1940

Question 21

what impact did WW2 have on soviet agriculture?

Answer 21

as male farmer were conscripted and farm machinery and animals was forcibly requiistioned agriculture failed.

grain output fell from 95 million tonnes in 1940 to 30 in 1942. no of cattle halfed

private plots were reintroduced to incentives peasants to keep production

Question 22

what was the economic impact of ww2 on the USSR

Answer 22

25 million homeless
1,700 towns destroyed
70,000 villages were destroyed

Question 23

what was the aim of the 4th 5 year plan

Answer 23

economic reconstruction and restoration back to pre war levels

as factories had been converted to produce wartime goods needed to be reverted to civilian goods

industrial plants needed to be rebuilt

Question 24

what happened and what was the result of the 4th 5 year plan

Answer 24

rigid state control was reinforced,

USSR exploited regained controlled eastern Europe, trade agreements were signed with governments in eastern Europe but most of the reconstruction was done by the soviet people with soviet reasources

results of plan were impressive, industrial production recovered helped by 2 million slaves in the gulag

government central planning was strong and helped restore economy quickly

retraining programmes meant workers had skills for jobs demanded

focus still on heavy industry with metal and engineering sectors flourishing

similar to 1930s consumer goods ignored, no development of plastic or chemicals (bad)

Question 25

what was the aim of the 5th 5 year plan?

Answer 25

to continue growth but at a slower and realistic rate

Question 26

what happened in the 5th 5 year plan

Answer 26

cold war meant military spending increased, propaganda projects took away budget from useful industries e.g Volga don Canal just had statues of Stalin without much traffic

large government building built in Moscow should’ve been spent on shortages in housing

but 1948 living standards started to recover to pre war, price reductions eased conditions and by 1952 real wage returned to 1928 levels

countryside conditions recovered slowly

Question 27

what effect did WW2 have on agriculture

Answer 27

link system introduced to incentivise peasants as long as targets for food were met peasants could sell on the produced from the area assigned to them for profit

Question 28

what happened to agriculture after ww2

Answer 28

link system abolished, taxes were raised on private owned plots, supervision centralised through MTS

agricutlrural production low, imbalance too many women due to losses of men in war and men moving to towns to persue industry

shortage of livestock

drought in 1946 made situation worse, 1947 famine in Ukraine

by 1952 production still lower than 1940 and productivity was lower than 1913

Question 29

who attempted to improve productivity

Answer 29

Krushchev

Question 30

what did Khrushchev (party sectary) do to improve productivity

Answer 30

created larger collectives so easier to use large scale machinery and make control easier, by 1952 over 100,000 collectives created (still unpopular among peasents)