Key Topic 4: Economic And Social Changes 1928 - 1939

Question 1

What was the name of the peasant class that Stalin had liquidated (killed) following their refusal to accept Collectivisation?

Answer 1

The Kulaks. The “liquidation of the kulaks as a class” was announced by Joseph Stalin on 27 December 1929. Stalin had said that “Now we have the opportunity to carry out a resolute offensive against the kulaks, break their resistance, eliminate them as a class and replace their production with the production of kolkhozy and sovkozy.”

Question 2

How many kulaks were killed following Stalin’s decree in 1929 that they were to be liquidised?

Answer 2

At least 5 million were killed within a few years.

Question 3

Why did Stalin want to modernise agriculture and industry?

Answer 3

1. He wanted to move away from the NEP policies (that allowed for limited capitalism) back towards the communism the Bolsheviks had fought for.
2. He wanted the country to be self-sufficient and able to defend itself if it was attacked.

Question 4

What did Stalin say in a speech to the First All-Union Conference of Industrial Managers in February 1931?

Answer 4

“We are fifty of a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or we shall go under.”

Question 5

Sovkozy

Answer 5

A large (collectivised) state farm run by a manager. Sovkozy had more facilities, such as nurseries and schools, and were better organised.

Question 6

Kolkhozy

Answer 6

A large (collectivised) state farm, run by a committee of peasants.

Question 7

brigades

Answer 7

Peasants were organised into ‘brigades’ of families - on an 80-hectare kolkhoz, a brigade was about 15 families.

Question 8

How hard did the peasants work?

Answer 8

Each peasant would do about 140 days per year, both on the kolkhoz and on other jobs like repairing roads. Hours and jobs were set by the state.

Question 9

Were peasants free?

Answer 9

No, they could not leave to work in towns.

Question 10

MTS

Answer 10

Machine and Tractor Stations (MTS): Tractors and combine harvesters were borrowed from the MTS. The state provided seed and other equipment.

Question 11

Communes

Answer 11

A system of village-run communes was set up after the revolution; land was re-distributed and given to the peasants, depending on how many they had in their families. The Kulaks were among the most organised of these households and had made money under the NEP.

Question 12

Early resistance to collectivisation.

Answer 12

Many peasants did not want to join a kolhoz. They carried on farming as before, producing enough for themselves - they didn’t see the need to work harder to feed the industrial workers.

Question 13

Resistance to collectivisation intensifies.

Answer 13

In 1928, Stalin began to enforce collectivisation, and the peasants reacted badly - between 1929 and 1933, half the pigs and a quarter of the cows in the country were slaughtered so that the state could not take them. Peasants burned their crops and even their houses to prevent them being taken.

Question 14

How did Stalin react to resistance to collectivisation?

Answer 14

Severely:

1. He sent officials to find hidden crops, salted-down meat and tools. If they failed (and some were killed trying), he sent in the army.
2. He purged the kulaks through ‘dekulakisation’ - around 5 million were killed or exiled to gulags.

Question 15

What were the negative effects of collectivisation?

Answer 15

1. Famine of 1932-33: About 3 million peasants died in the famine. They had killed their animals and burned crops and had not planted enough the year before.
2. Continued resistance - by breaking machinery and working as little as possible - meant that Stalin brought in a new law in 1935 allowing peasants to own an acre of land privately to grow their own crops and keep animals.

Question 16

What were the positive effects of collectivisation?

Answer 16

1. By 1935, over 90% of farmland was collectivised.
2. There were improvements in production - people adapted to using new machinery and by 1935, the steep fall in grain production and numbers of animals began to recover.
3. The state now controlled food production and distribution and was able to sell surplus grain on the international market.

Question 17

Define industrialisation.

Answer 17

Rapid growth in factories and the production of energy, such as electricity and oil.

Question 18

Gosplan

Answer 18

This was the State Planning Committee - set up in 1921. It had the job of making industrialisation work. From 1928, Gosplan organised Five-Year Plans for industry.

Question 19

What is a ‘command economy’?

Answer 19

This is what Stalin set up - where the state decided what was to be produced, where and who was to produce it.

Question 20

The Five-Year Plans

Answer 20

The Five-Year Plans set industrialisation targets.There was an overall target for the Soviet Union and this was broken down so that each factory, mine, or electricity plant, had its own target.

Question 21

The Five-Year Plans

Answer 21

The Five-Year Plans set industrialisation targets.There was an overall target for the Soviet Union and this was broken down so that each factory, mine, or electricity plant, had its own target.

Question 22

The first Five-Year Plan

Answer 22

This focussed on

Question 23

The first Five-Year Plan

Answer 23

This focused on heavy industries such as coal, steel and iron AND ‘new’ industries, such as electricity, motor vehicles, chemicals and rubber. Consumer industries such as textiles and household goods were neglected.

The first Five-Year Plan was a huge success because people willingly went to work in new towns and factories because they genuinely believed they were creating a new society.

Question 24

The first Five-Year Plan

Answer 24

This focused on heavy industries such as coal, steel and iron AND ‘new’ industries, such as electricity, motor vehicles, chemicals and rubber. Consumer industries such as textiles and household goods were neglected.

Question 25

How successful was the first Five-Year Plan?

Answer 25

The first Five-Year Plan was a huge success because people willingly went to work in new towns and factories because they genuinely believed they were creating a new society. In fact, Stalin revised the targets twice because they were doing so well.

Question 26

Give an example statistic from the first Five-Year Plan

Answer 26

Coal (in million tonnes): The original target was for 35 million tonnes and the highest expected amount was 75 million tonnes. This target was revised to 100 million tonnes in 1932. The actual output was 64 million tonnes by 1932 - almost double the original target.

Question 27

Give an example statistic from the first Five-Year Plan

Answer 27

Coal (in million tonnes): The original target was for 35 million tonnes and the highest expected amount was 75 million tonnes. This target was revised to 100 million tonnes in 1932. The actual output was 64 million tonnes by 1932 - almost double the original target.

Question 28

The Second Five-Year Plan

Answer 28

At first - set targets for consumer goods, but this was replaced by armaments (weapons) as fears of a war with Germany increased.

Question 29

How successful was the second Five-Year Plan?

Answer 29

Quite successful. Armament production trebled. Also, mistakes from the first Plan were avoided, such as setting targets that were too high. However, living standards did not increase and strikes had to be banned.

Question 30

How successful was the second Five-Year Plan?

Answer 30

Quite successful. Armament production trebled. Also, mistakes from the first Plan were avoided, such as setting targets that were too high. However, living standards did not increase and strikes had to be banned because the Russian people were becoming unhappy about standards of living.

Question 31

The Third Five-Year Plan

Answer 31

Launched in 1938, but then abandoned when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. It concentrated on the production of household goods and luxury items such as bicycles and radios.

Question 32

Give two overall statistics about the three Five-Year Plans

Answer 32

All the statistics below are in million tonnes - the first number is the output in 1927, the second number is output by 1941:

Coal: 35-150
Steel: 3-18
Oil: 12-28
Electricity: 18-90

Question 33

Overall, what effect did the plans have on Soviet industries?

Answer 33

Although not all targets were met, the overall advances were remarkable. By 1940, the USSR was the second-largest industrial power behind the USA.

Question 34

How did Stalin use propaganda to encourage industrialisation?

Answer 34

Stalin began a propaganda campaign based on the miner Alexei Stakhanov, who supposedly shifted 102 tonnes of coal in a single shift - fifteen times the normal amount (it was actually a fix - he had two helpers to remove the coal while he continued to work at the coal face). Other workers were encouraged to follow his example and formed ‘shock brigades’ to copy their hero.

These workers became known as Stakhanovites and they were awarded medals (e.g. the ‘Order of Lenin’).

Question 35

How did Stalin use propaganda to encourage industrialisation?

Answer 35

Stalin began a propaganda campaign based on the miner Alexei Stakhanov, who supposedly shifted 102 tonnes of coal in a single shift - fifteen times the normal amount (it was actually a fix - he had two helpers to remove the coal while he continued to work at the coal face). Other workers were encouraged to follow his example and formed ‘shock brigades’ to copy their hero.

These workers became known as Stakhanovites and they were awarded medals (e.g. the ‘Order of Lenin’).

Question 36

Was the Stakhanovite movement a complete success?

Answer 36

No. Initial success was soon replaced by anger and resentment towards the Stakhanovites and the campaign was quietly dropped in the late 1930s after a number of Stakhanovites were beaten up and killed by fellow workers.

Question 37

Was the Stakhanovite movement a complete success?

Answer 37

No. Initial success was soon replaced by anger and resentment towards the Stakhanovites and the campaign was quietly dropped in the late 1930s after a number of Stakhanovites were beaten up and killed by fellow workers.

Question 38

What changes were made to the location and organisation of industry?

Answer 38

Much new industry was located in the remoter areas of the USSR, east of the Ural mountains, so that the would be safe from attack if Germany invaded in the West. Huge towns and industrial centres were built from scratch deep inside the USSR.

Question 39

Give an example of a new town or industry created from scratch.

Answer 39

Magnitogorsk. Nothing had existed there before 1929 but in the space of three years up to 1932, the population of Magnitogorsk grew from 25 people to 250,000. It concentrated on iron and steel production.

Question 40

Give an example of a new town or industry created from scratch.

Answer 40

Magnitogorsk. Nothing had existed there before 1929 but in the space of three years up to 1932, the population of Magnitogorsk grew from 25 people to 250,000. It concentrated on iron and steel production.

Question 41

What effects did industrialisation have on the work force?

Answer 41

In 1929, most workers in heavy industry were unskilled peasants, who had been forced to move away from their villages to work in factories. There was a lot of drunkenness and absenteeism - workers returning to their villages. Between 1929 and 1937, investment in education and training schemes created a skilled workforce. Also, a new elite emerged of teachers, scientists, engineers, factory managers and skilled workers.

Question 42

What incentives were there for the new, skilled workforce?

Answer 42

They received extra benefits, such as better housing or the right to buy scarce foods. They enjoyed a higher standard of living, which went against communist ideals, but Stalin realised that incentives had to be used to attract the right types of people.

Question 43

What effects did Stalin’s policies have on different social groups?

Answer 43

Peasants:

Collectivisation removed the kulaks and conditions for most peasant continued to be harsh because prices of food from the countryside were kept low to feed industrial workers in towns. As a result, more and more peasants moved to the towns.

Town workers:

Promotions to managerial positions was encouraged (e.g. 1.5 million workers became managers under the first Five-Year Plan). Unemployment was removed completely but numbers rose (urban population grew from 29 million in 1929 to 40 million in 1933!). Therefore, living conditions got worse and working conditions were harsh.

Question 44

How did Stalin influence family life?

Answer 44

He returned to traditional values of encouraging families to stay together (after Lenin had made divorce very easy, which led to many broken homes). To do this, Stalin:

1. payed family allowances for married couples;
2. made divorce much harder;
3. restricted abortion.

Question 45

How did Stalin’s policies affect women?

Answer 45

Women gained much equality with men in terms of pay, voting rights and education, IN THEORY.

However, in reality, women were expected to both raise large families AND hold down full-time jobs. Also, there was much inequality that continued - women were rarely made managers, for example.

Question 46

How many women were working under Stalin?

Answer 46

in 1928, there were just under 3 million women working (mainly in farming or as domestic servants). By 1940, there were over 13 million women working in all types of industry (although mostly at the lower levels)

Question 47

How were ethnic minorities treated under Stalin at the start of his reign?

Answer 47

At the start, minorities were treated as equals and propaganda posters showed Stalin smiling with people from different areas, often wearing their national dress.

Question 48

Why did Stalin’s attitude towards ethnic minorities change?

Answer 48

A lot of opposition towards the policy of collectivisation came from the regions such as Ukraine and Finland, so Stalin started to see support for regional identity as ‘counter-revolutionary’.

Question 49

How were ethnic minorities treated by Stalin towards the end of his time in power?

Answer 49

They were heavily purged. From 1932, support for regional identity became known as ‘counter-revolutionary’ and a policy of Russification started - creating a dominant Russian culture. Russian became a compulsory language in schools and ‘cleansing’ operations purged/removed ethnic groups. For example, in 1936, the entire Korean population (170,000) of Vladivostok was relocated to Kazakhstan by the NKVD.

Question 50

How was religion influenced by Stalin?

Answer 50

Officially - all religions were supposed to be equal. However, in reality, all religions were ridiculed and atheism was encouraged. Priests were purged and in 1915, Russia had 54,000 churches but by 1940, there were just 400.