Key Questions

Question 1

Why did Stalin win the Power Struggle?

Answer 1

1. Control over the administrative system.
2. Popular policies.
3. Mistakes/Weaknesses of the Left.
4. Mistakes/Weaknesses of the Right.
5. Mistakes/Weaknesses of Trotsky.

Question 2

Why was the NEP launched?

Answer 2

1. Agriculture was failing.
   (Drought, famine, inefficient methods.)
2. This lead to economic failure. (Barter and the black market. Wages paid in goods. Hyperinflation. Unemployment.)
3. Grain requisition is failing. (Grain hoarding. Tambov rebellion. Peasant resistance.)
4. Quality of life was poor and War Communism was unpopular. (Kronstadt revolt. Organised demonstrations in Moscow. More people moving to countryside where Party control was limited.)

Question 3

Why was the NEP ended?

Answer 3

1. The country needed controlling. (Peasant unions. Strikes in key industries. Kulaks elected to congress. Attacks on Party officials and complaints about wages.)
2. Economic crisis. (Peasants not selling grain. USSR needs exports to pay for industrialisation. Wages dropped)
3. Problems in NEP society/Need to build Communism. (Social classes exist. Young people want Western lifestyles. Petitions to reopen churches. Critics believed it was a return to Capitalism.)
4. 1927/28 war scare. USSR needed to industrialise. (Pilsudski, Chinese communists killed by nationalists, Germany joins League of Nations, UK break off diplomatic relations.)

Question 4

Why did the Soviet government have concerns about agriculture?

Answer 4

1. Agriculture was backwards and ineffective. (Sowing seeds by hand. Strip farming. Mechanised agriculture = more peasants moving to cities.)
2. Agriculture was necessary for industrialisation. (Exports had fallen. Workers were on rations. War scare.)
3. The rural population were difficult to control. (Class system. Peasant society still religious. Communism unpopular.)
4. 1928 Grain Crisis. (Government forced to import. Private traders. Procurement halved.)

Question 5

Why was Collectivisation introduced?

Answer 5

The NEP was failing:

1. Economic crisis. (Need to industrialise due to war scare. Grain crisis. Exports fall.)
2. Agriculture was backwards and inefficient. (Strip farming. Wooden ploughs. Seeds sown by hand.)
3. Need to take Socialism to the countryside. (Class system. Grain crisis was an embarrassment. Religion. Private traders.)

Collectivisation promised to solve these problems. This made it popular.
(25,000 volunteers. Workers hated rationing. Molotov supported it. It was a key Socialist policy.)

Stalin supported collectivisation when it was popular, helping him win the power struggle.

Question 6

Why did peasants oppose collectivisation?

Answer 6

1. The party had limited influence in the countryside. (Communism was associated with immorality. Priests preached against it. Collectivisation was considered a second serfdom.)
2. Due to the Party’s limited influence, peasants had no concept of a Kulak.
3. Due to the Party’s limited influence, brutal force was necessary.
4. These two factors lead to the destruction of peasant culture. Community members were killed and traditions write destroyed to enforce Communism.

Question 7

Why was rapid industrialisation launched?

Answer 7

The NEP was failing:

1. Industry was failing.
   (Unemployment, strikes, wages. Production never surpassed pre-war levels.)
2. There were problems in NEP society and a need to build Communism. (Social classes, black market, lack of enthusiasm.)
3. Collectivisation needed help.
   (Agricultural problems were not solved by the NEP.)

These problems needed to be fixed because of the war scare!

Stalin supported rapid industrialisation when it was necessary. This was the final step in the power struggle.