key facts and figures 1929-41 Flashcards
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Temporary return to voluntary collectivisation
1930
Launch of Machine Tractor Stations
1931
Resumption of all-out dekulakisation
1931
Start of the famine in Ukraine
1932
Mass famine in the Ukraine, Kazakhstan and North Caucus
1933
Peasants forced into collective farms
December 1929
Expansion of the Urals-Siberian method
May 1929
Party activists (industrial workers) sent into countryside to help dekulakisation
Nov 1929, 25,000
What proportion of peasant households were kulak households?
4%
Proportion of peasant households were destroyed by dekulakisation
~15%
How many peasants were forced to migrate north and east to poorer land?
~150,000
Proportion of grain-farming areas did Stalin announce would be collectivised in 1930
25%
Percentage of peasant households collectivised in 1934?
70%
Percentage of peasant households had been collectivised in 1935
75%
Percentage of peasant households had been collectivised in 1937
90%
State quota for kolkohzes
Up to 40% of crops
How many Machine Tractor Stations were established?
2500
Percentage of threshing was carried out mechanically by 1938
95%
Percentage of ploughing was carried out mechanically by 1938
72%
Percentage of spring sowing was carried out mechanically by 1938
57%
Percentage of harvesting was carried out mechanically by 1938
48%
How many lorries were being used in Soviet agriculture in 1938 compared to the USA?
196,000 to 1,000,000+
Punishment for stealing from a collective farm by August 1932
10 years in prison, later raised to capital punishment
Punishment for selling meat or grain before quotas were filled
10 years in prison
Percentage of the USSR’s food produced on private plots and then sold on the private market by the late 1930s
- 52% of vegetables
- 70% of meat
- 71% of milk
Dnieprostroi Dam construction
1927-32
Second 5YP launched
1933
New emphasis placed on armaments production
1936
Moscow-Volga Canal construction
1932-7
Third 5YP launched
1938
What doubled in 1940?
Armaments spending
Aims of the first 5YP
- Develop heavy industry
- Boost electricity production
- Double the output from light industry e.g. chemicals
Failures of the first 5YP
- None of the extremely ambitious targets were met
- Improvements in the chemical industry lagged behind
- Consumer industries were badly neglected
Successes of the first 5YP
- Electricity output tripled
- Coal and iron output doubled
- Steel production increased by 1/3
Aims of the second 5YP
- Continue the growth of heavy industry
- Boost light industry: chemicals, electricals, consumer goods
- Develop communications
- Foster engineering
Failures of the second 5YP
- Oil production failed to meet its targets
- Consumers were still very short of some products
- Quantity increased but quality still tended to be very low
Successes of the second 5YP
- Some large-scale communication projects
- Rapid growth in electricity production and chemicals
- New metals (e.g. copper and tin) mined for the first time
- Steel output tripled
- Coal production doubled
- The USSR was self-sufficient in metal goods and machine tools by 1937
Aims of the third 5YP
- Renewed emphasis on heavy industry
- Promote rapid rearmament
- Complete the transition to communism
Successes of the third 5YP
- Some strong growth in machinery and engineering
- Defence industries developed exceptional models e.g. the T-34 tank
- Spending on rearmament doubled 1938-40
Limitations of the third 5YP
- Other areas stagnated after defense was prioritised
- Oil production failed to meet targets, causing a fuel crisis
- Lack of specialists due to Stalin’s purges
- The German invasion of 1941 disrupted the Plan, causing it to end early
What world event impacted all of the 5YP’s?
The Great Depression
1929-39
How did the Dam impact Soviet electricity?
Increased Soviet electric power by 500% after 5 extra generators were installed in the second 5YP
Moscow Metro constructed
1932-37
Who built the Moscow-Volga canal?
~200,000 prisoners from the Dmitlag labour camp
~22,000 died
What percentage of the workforce was female by 1940?
43%
How much did women earn in comparison to men in 1940?
Around 40% less
When did absenteeism become a crime?
1940
When did measures to toughen up on absenteeism appear?
1930-33
Wage differentials introduced
1931
How did the Soviet economy grow between 1928 and 1940?
5-6% per year
How much did the first 5YP aim to increase production by?
300%
How much did the first 5YP aim to increase electricity production by?
600%
What proportion of GDP was rearmament in the second 5YP?
It rose from 4% of GDP in 1933 to 17% in 1937
Actual production of oil in 1932 compared to the target and the output in 1928?
Target: 21.7 mill tonnes
1932: 21.4 mill tonnes
1927: 11.7 mill tonnes
Actual production of steel in 1932 compared to the target and the output in 1928
Target: 10.4 mill tonnes
1932: 5.9 mill tonnes
1927: 4 mill tonnes
Actual output of electricity in 1932 compared to the target
Target: 22,000 m.kWh
1932: 13,540 m.kWh
Machine tools produced in 1932
19,700
Machine tools produced in 1940
50,600
Actual production of coal in 1937 compared to the target
Target: 152.5 mill tonnes
1937: 128 mill tonnes
Actual production of oil in 1937 compared to the target
Target: 46.8 mill tonnes
1937: 28.5 mill tonnes
Actual production of steel in 1937 compared to the target
Target: 17 mill tonnes
1937: 17.7 mill tonnes
Actual production of machine tools in 1937 compared to the target
Target: 40,000
1937: 45,500
Actual production of tractors in 1937 compared to the target
Target: 166,700
1937: 66,500
How much energy did the Dnieprostroi Dam generate?
560 MW
How much coal did Stakhanov cut?
102 tonnes in 5 hrs 45 mins
14x the amount expected for that length of time
How much were work norms raised by in 1936?
10-50%
End of the free labour market for workers
1940
Belomor Canal deaths
- ~300,000 employed for the construction at its peak
- 700 died a day
- 1500 new arrived every day
How much of the workforce did women represent in 1929?
~29%
Zhenotdel closed down
January 1930
Change in the industrial workforce 1928-32
Doubled
Change in the urban population 1926-39
26 mill - 56 mill
Stalin cult fully established
After 1933
Stalin cult at its height
After WW2
Changes in 1932
- All writers had to belong to the Union of Soviet Writers
- All artists and art critics had to belong to the Union of Artists
- Similar unions for musicians, film makers and sculptors
Frame of reference for writers laid down
Apr 1934 at first Congress of the Union of Soviet Writers, Andrei Zhadanov
Change in percentage of collectivised households in 1930 (no longer enforced)
50%-20%
‘The History of the All-Union Communist Party’ published
1938
Copies of ‘The History of the All-Union Communist Party’ published in the USSR by 1948
34 million
Percentage of female factory workers described as ‘norm-breaking’
25%
Change in steel production 1928-40
1928: 4 million tonnes
1940: 18 million tonnes
Change in planning targets for Gosplan 1930-40
Early 1930s: 300
1940: 2500
Change in urbanisation 1920s-30
1926: 17%
1930: 33%
End of food rationing
1934
How much of the USSRs food were private plots producing by the late 1930s?
Nearly 2/3
Deaths in the famine of 1932-34
6-8 million
Deaths due to effects of dekulakisation and deportation
10 million
Grain production by 1941
Less than under the NEP
Change in military spending 1930s-40s
3% of total budget 1933
34% of total budget 1940
How many aircraft factories were built in 1937?
9
How many tanks was Soviet industry producing per month in 1941?
230
How many military aircraft was Soviet industry producing per month in 1941?
700
How many rifles was Soviet industry producing per month in 1941?
100k+
Grain production 1928-40
73 –> 95 million tonnes
Cow production 1928-40
29 –> 28 million tonnes
Pig production 1928-40
19 –> 27 million
Coal production 1928-40
35.4 –> 165 million tonnes
Poor quality production made a criminal offence
July 1940
Shoe production 1928-40
58 –> 211 million
Shakhty trial
1928
Trotsky expelled from the USSR
1929
The ‘Industry Party’ trial
1930
Senior industrialists and economists tried
1930
Ryutin (and K and Z) trial
1932
The Party purge
1933
Communist Party members 1933
3.2 million
Kirov shot
December 1934
Legislative change June 1935
Death penalty extended to apply to those who were aware of subversive activity and didn’t report it
Legislative change April 1935
Legal for those over the age of 12 to be punished in the same way as adults, including the death penalty
First major show trial
August 1936, Kamenev Zinoviev and 14 others
New constitution introduced
1936
When was Ryutin’s document circulated?
March 1932
Yezhov head of NKVD
September 1936
Number of army leaders sacked 1937-39
30,000+
Number of military officials shot for refusing to approve the execution of their colleagues 1937-39
74
Bukharin’s show trial
March 1938
Also involved Rykov and 19 others
Change in the gulag population during the Great Purges
800,000 1935
5.5-9.5 million 1938
Gulag mortality rates
4-6 times higher than the rest of the USSR
People executed 1937-38 (the Terror)
650,000 (there are no exact figures)
Effect of the purges on Party membership
1/3 expelled by 1938
850,000 expelled 1936-38
By 1939 less than 10% had joined before 1920
Change in size of Red Army
1938-41
<1 –> 5 million
Impact of the purges on the army
Lost ~23,000 experienced officers
Proportion of officer corps and military intelligence imprisoned in the purge of the Red Army reinstated by 1940
~25%
Percentage of the officer corps arrested in the purge of the Red Army
~50%
Proportion of admirals arrested in the purge of the Red Army
100%
There were only 8 of them and their replacements were also arrested
Impact of NKVD Order 00447 by the start of 1938
575,000 sentenced, 258,000 of them executed
NKVD Order 00447
July 1937
Impact of Order 00447 after one month
100,000 arrested, 14,000 sent to gulags
Priests imprisoned in the Purges
4000
Churches destroyed
40,000 by 1941
Pilgrimages to Mecca forbidden
1935
The ‘family code’ law
June 1936
Change in birth rate 1928-32
-25%
Abortion rates before, during and after the Great Retreat
1.9 million 1935
570,000 1937
755,000 1939
Effect of the Great Retreat on birth rates
Rose slightly then fell from 1938 and never reached pre-rev levels
Effect of the Great Retreat on working women
3 million 1928
13 million 1940
Effect of the Great Retreat on marriage
1937: 91% of men and 82% of women in their 30s married
Effect of the Great Retreat on divorce rate
Stayed high, 37% in Moscow in 1934
Change in literacy levels
65% pre 1917
94% in towns and 86% in countryside literate 1941
Most intensive period of Russian-German cooperation
1929-32
Proportion of foreigners working in the USSR that were German
70% in 1930
How many foreigners were working in the USSR in 1930?
9000
USSR invited to join the League of Nations
Sept 1934
Hitler Chancellor
1933
Non aggression pact with France
November 1932
Non-aggression pact with Poland
December 1932
Mutual assistance pacts with France and Czechoslovakia
May 1935
Spanish Civil War
July 1936
Soviet intervention in the Spanish Civil War
Sept 1936
German annexation of Austria
March 1938
Munich conference
Sept 1938
Germany invades Czechoslovakia
March 1939
Anti-Comintern Pact signed
Japan and Germany 1936
Italy 1937
USSR defeats Japan
August 1939 at Khalkhin Gol in Soviet Mongolia
War between Japan and the USSR begins
May 1939
Japanese invasions
Manchuria 1932
The rest of China 1937
Percentage of Japanese forces killed at Khalkhin Gol
75%
Nazi-Soviet Pact signed
August 1939
Germany invaded Poland
September 1939
Hitler defeats France
May 1940
The ‘Winter War’
November 1939 –> March 1940
Military power in the war between Japan and the USSR
100,000+ troops
1000 tanks and aircraft
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Britain and France make guarantees to Poland
March 1939
Polish German non-aggression pact signed
1934
Polish German non-aggression pact ends
April 1939
Hitler publicly announced German rearmament
March 1935
Germans invade the USSR
22nd June 1941
Time taken for the German army to defeat most of Western Europe
6 weeks
US and USSR establish diplomatic relations
1933
The earliest Stalin thought Hitler would invade the USSR
May 1942
Grain production 1930-34 (failure of collectivisation)
83.5 –> 67 million tonnes
Peasant grain production 1928-33 (success of collectivisation)
11 –> 22.6 million tonnes
Average production of grain per hectare private farms vs collective farms
Private: 410kg
Collective: 320kg
Proportion of churches open 1940
1% of all the churches that had been open in 1917
New enterprises established
8,000+ between 1928-41
Grain harvest 1940
Same as 1913
How much did the Great Turn plan to increase grain production by?
50% by the end of the first 5YP
