Stalin (1928-1941)

Question 1

How many peasants died from resisting collectivisation?

Answer 1

Over 10 million

Question 2

What was the 1936 constitution?

Answer 2

Promised 4 yearly elections with suffrage for all over 18, Stalin called it the “most democratic in the world”

Question 3

How many people joined the party under “Lenin Enrolment”?

Answer 3

Party nearly doubled its membership to 1 million. By 1930, there were 1,677,910 members and by 1933, there were 3,399,975.

Question 4

When was the Kirov murder?

Answer 4

1934

Question 5

What was “The History of the All Union Communist Party”?

Answer 5

The main historical textbook used in Russia, published in 1938. By 1948, it had sold 34 million copies.

Question 6

When was the show trial of Zinoviev and Kamenev?

Answer 6

1936

Question 7

What was the Yezovchina?

Answer 7

The most extreme period of purges during Stalin’s Terror, between 1936-38.

Question 8

How many died under the Yezovchina?

Answer 8

It is thought that 1 million where killed on the spot, and 7 million were arrested and send to gulags. the survival rate within the gulags was 10%.

Question 9

When did Stalin call for the liquidation of the Kulak class

Answer 9

27th December 1929

Question 10

How many Kulaks were killed?

Answer 10

roughly 30,000 were shot and around 2 million were forcibly deported to inhospitable areas such as Siberia

Question 11

When were the army purges?

Answer 11

1937-1938

Question 12

How many military officers were purged?

Answer 12

14/16 military commanders and 37,000 officers

Question 13

Who was Yezhov

Answer 13

Namesake of the Yezovchina, who purged 3000 of his own staff

Question 14

What was NKVD Order 00447

Answer 14

Gave officers in the Secret Police the power to issue rapid and extreme sentences without appeal or external approval

Question 15

How many died due to Order 00447?

Answer 15

Estimated vary from 600,000 to 800,000

Question 16

What were the names of the Youth Groups under Stalin?

Answer 16

The Young Pioneers and The Komsomol

Question 17

What was the result of expansion of education?

Answer 17

By 1941, 94% of 9-49 yr olds in towns were literate, and 86% in the countryside

Question 18

What was the art style that emerged under Stalin

Answer 18

Socialist Realism

Question 19

When did rationing end?

Answer 19

January 1935

Question 20

How many women joined the Soviet workforce in the 1930s?

Answer 20

10 million
up to 60% of doctors were women

Question 21

Who were the Stakhanovites?

Answer 21

A movement of workers who strived to exceed targets in order to receive benefits such as larger rations or better housing

Question 22

When did peasant collectivisation start?

Answer 22

Voluntary collectivisation began in 1928, and forced collectivisation began in 1929.
By 1936, 90% of peasants had been collectivised

Question 23

What is a Kolkhoz?

Answer 23

A collective farm

Question 24

What was grain production like under collectivisation?

Answer 24

. Famine between 1932-34 (a man made-famine as 1.73 million tonnes of grain continued to be requisitioned and exported)
. Grain production did not exceed pre-collectivisation levels 1935

Question 25

When was the first 5 year plan?

Answer 25

1928-32

Question 26

What were the outputs of the first 5 year plan?

Answer 26

. Electricity output trebled
. Coal and Iron output doubled
. Steel production increased by a third
. Huge new tractor works built to meet the needs of mechanised agriculture

Question 27

what were the failures of the first 5 year plan?

Answer 27

. Not all targets were met
. Some figures were exaggerated to emphasise the success of socialism
. Skilled worker shortages due to purges (most workers were under 29 and only 20% had 5 years’ experience in industry)

Question 28

When was the second 5 year plan?

Answer 28

1933-37

Question 29

What were the outputs of the second 5 year plan?

Answer 29

. Boom in production between 1934-36
. By 1937, industry was producing four times as much as it had in 1928
. Production of consumer goods began to revive
. Metals such as copper and zinc were mined for the first time

Question 30

What were the failures of the second 5 year plan

Answer 30

. Oil production failed to meet targets
. Continued shortcake of skilled workers

Question 31

When was the third 5 year plan?

Answer 31

1938-41

Question 32

What were the outputs of the third 5 year plan?

Answer 32

. Continued growth of heavy industry, most of which was put into building up armaments
. Over half of iron and steel went into the armaments industry by 1938

Question 33

What were the failures of the third 5 year plan?

Answer 33

. Oil production did not meet targets
. Original targets were not met due to the approach of war, steel output barely increased
. Interrupted by the Nazi invasion in June 1941

Question 34

What overall industrial progress was made?

Answer 34

. 1,500 new power stations, factories and complexes built
. Thousands of miles of railway track laid
. Number of industrial workers doubled between 1928-32