Stalin - 1928-53 Flashcards
What was the nature of Stalin’s economy?
- Command economy (Gosplan)
- 5 year plans
- Dekulakisation
- Collectivisation
Give 4 reasons for stalin introducing the plans?
- Ideology
- Economics
- Military
- Political
Reasons for the plans
Ideology
- wanted to abolish the capitalist market
Reasons for the plans
Economics
- NEP had failed to help Russia to industrialise
Reasons for the plans
Military
- Stalin argued that Russia had to industrialise in order to prepare for war with capitalist nations
Reasons for the plans
Political
- by abolishing capitalism, stalin won the support of the left wing of the party
What were the main aims of the plans?
- Heavy industry
- Transport
- Labour productivity
- Rearmament (from 1936)
- MASS INDUSTRIALISATION
When was the First 5 year Plan?
1928-1932
When was the Second 5 year Plan?
1933 - 1937
When was the Third 5 year Plan?
1938 - 1941
Overall success of the first three ‘5 year plans’ - in reference to aims.
The first three ‘5 year plans’ succeeded in industrialising the Soviet Union.
- Heavy industry = success
- Transport = success
- Labour productivity = improvement, but still poor
- Re-armament = success
Success of the first three ‘5 year plans’ -
Give three facts about how heavy industry succeeded.
- Electricity output increased almost ten-fold.
- Coal and steel production increased 5 times over.
- There was a three-fold increase in oil production.
Success of the first three ‘5 year plans’ -
Give two facts about how transport succeeded.
- Moscow Metro opened in 1935
2. Moscow-Volga Canal opened in 1937
Success of the first three ‘5 year plans’ -
Evidence of labour productivity improving.
- productivity rose between 25 and 50% in Russia’s major industries between the first and third ‘5 year plan’
Success of the first three ‘5 year plans’ -
What were the government initiatives aimed at improving labour productivity?
- Stakhanovite Movement
- propaganda campaign praising miner who mined 14 times his quota in his shift
- aimed to encourage productivity - higher payments to reward the most productive workers
Success of the first three ‘5 year plans’ -
Evidence of labour productivity remaining limited
soviet productivity still lagged behind that of Germany, USA and France
Success of the first three ‘5 year plans’ -
Evidence of rearmament being successful.
9 military aircraft factories built between 1939-1941
Name 3 ways in which the first three ‘5 year plans’/ command economy was unsuccessful.
- Poor quality goods
- Inefficiency
- Falsified data
Failures of the first three ‘5 year plans’ -
Why was quality poor
because factory managers were rewarded for producing large quantities of material, regardless of quality
Failures of the first three ‘5 year plans’ -
Give a fact showing the planned economy was inefficient
poor transport and communication meant that 40% of what was produced was wasted
Failures of the first three ‘5 year plans’ -
Problems with command economy
ignorance/ falsified data
- Gosplan didn’t set reasonable targets because they didn’t know how big the factories they controlled were or how much they could produce
- factory management lied about production to avoid punishment –> falsified data made it harder to plan
When was Stalin’s period of collectivisation?
1928-41
What was collectivisation?
- small farms were merged into large farms
- ownership of farms was taken over by the state
Name 4 causes of collectivisation?
- ideology
- economics
- failure of the NEP
- politics
Causes of collectivisation -
Communist Ideology
- NEP farming was essentially capitalist. the government wanted to end private ownership of farms
Causes of collectivisation -
Economically more beneficial to the state
- NEP = gov collected a small tax on farms
BUT with collectivisation, the government could take much more wealth from farms and INVEST in industrialisation
Causes of collectivisation -
Failure of NEP
agricultural production fell in 1927 –> leading to food shortages in the cities
Causes of collectivisation -
Political
won stalin support from the left wing of the party
Describe the process of collectivisation.
a) violent = kulaks who refused were killed or deported
b) wasteful –> decline in agricultural production = many peasants responded by destroying their crops/ animals/ machinery
What were the 5 main consequences of collectivisation?
- Falling production
- Famine
- Modernisation
- Grain procurement
- Slow recovery
Consequences of collectivisation -
Give 2 pieces of evidence showing how collectivisation caused falling production.
- Grain production decreased from 73.3 million tons in 1928 to 68.4 tons in 1933.
- 60 million sheep and goats were destroyed as a result of rural unrest.
Consequences of collectivisation -
Give evidence of famine.
- Ukraine in 1932-1933 caused 5 million deaths.
HAPPENED BECAUSE = stalin seized grain and livestock because Ukraine resisted collectivisation
Consequences of collectivisation -
Give evidence of modernisation. How effective was it?
- 75,000 tractors provided
EFFECTIVE = made limited impact. Barely made up for all the horses lost during the collectivisation period
Consequences of collectivisation -
Give a fact demonstrating how the government procured far more than under the NEP.
The government procured almost double the amount of grain in 1933 as it did in 1928
Consequences of collectivisation -
Evidence that the recovery of Soviet agriculture was slow and that productivity was worse than during the NEP.
private farms = 410 kilos of grain per hectre
collective farms = 320 kilos of grain per hectre
What was the overall effect of WW2 on the soviet economy?
- devastated economy
- soviet industry recovered quickly, but agriculture grew more slowly
Name 2 economic consequences of WW2.
- 25 million people were homeless
- soviet industry was producing around one third of what they produced in 1940
When was the fourth ‘5 year plan’?
1945 - 1950
Name 2 successes of the fourth ‘5 year plan’?
- by 1950, the soviet economy was producing more iron coal and steel than in was in 1940
- fastest growing economy in the world
What were the priorities of the fourth ‘5 year plan’?
- industrial recovery
- military spending (cold war)
Give evidence that industrial recovery was a priority of the fourth ‘5 year plan’.
almost 90% of economic investment was devoted to developing heavy industry.
Give evidence that the military was priority of the fourth ‘5 year plan’.
1952 = military = 25% of government spending
Name 3 problems that remained in the fourth ‘5 year plan’.
- Low labour productivity and inefficiency.
- Light industry/ consumer goods failed to grow.
- High-tech production lagged behind other modern economies.
