Stalin and the Soviet Economy Flashcards
1
Q
How did Stalin aim to transfer the Russian economy
A
- 1920s Stalin decided to impose USSR a crash
programme to reform the Soviet economy
-Agriculture and Industry were to revolutionised
-Stalin referred to this as the second revolution,
a way of equating its importance with that of
the 1917 revolution itself
-Two essential methods
-Collectivisation and Industrialisation
-Revolution from above
2
Q
Why was transforming the Russian economy considered so important to Stalin
A
- Stalin was concerned that the needs of Soviet Russia could only be met only by modernisation
- By that he meant bringing his economically backward nation to a level of industrial production that would enable it to catch up them overtake the advanced economies of Western Europe
3
Q
What was the simple formula Stalin ran by for industrialising the economy
A
-The USSR needed to industrialise
-Industrialisation requires a large amount of man power
-The under-developed USSR did not have sufficient capital and could not borrow from abroad due to its strained relations with the capitalist world
-Land was the only available resource
-Therefore, the peasants must produce surplus food
to be sold abroad to raise capital
-Efficient farming under collectivisation would create
a surplus of farm labourers who would thus
become available as factory workers
4
Q
What were the fundamental principles of Collectivisation
A
- Farmers would instead of selling their grain, give up everything they produced and hand it over to the government. The government would then provide them with a wage
- Large farms were used as this was believed to encourage the use of more modern techniques, the motorised tractor became an outstanding symbol of soviet farming in this period.
- This mechanisation would help decrease the number of rural workers required and thus these workers could then work in the factory.
5
Q
Why was Collectivisation not immediately successful
A
- Between 1929 and 31 half the farms were
collectivised - Not successful at first
- Millions of peasants resisted in flaming anger
- 30,000 arson attacks occurred
- Stalin reverted back and started again at a
slower pace , by end of 1930s nearly all farms
were collectivised
6
Q
The 5 year plan principle
A
- Stalin’s collectivization policies, although
causing misery for peasants, forced many off
the land and this is exactly what the country
needed. - Enabled for industrialization to occur
- Stalin believed heavy industry was the way
forward, iron and steel being particularly
forward for making the Western counterparts
so strong. - Stalin under took industrialisation under a
series of five year plans - Lasted until Stalins death in 1953
7
Q
First 5 year plan 1928-32
A
- Collectivisation had not had a profound effect on the
number of workers yet - This meant there were still a shortage of workers
- Despite this Coal, iron and the generation of
electricity had increased In huge proportions - The young became involved and genuinely believed
that they were building a new and better world. - Yet like with collectivisation, local officials and
managers falsified their production figures to give an
impression they had met their targets, when in fact
they had fallen way short. - Those who could not falsify their production
quantities found themselves on trial as enemies of
the Soviet state. - The government exhorted, cajoled and bullied the
workers into ever-greater efforts towards ever
greater production. Regional and site managers
struggled to make sense of the instructions they
were given from above. No one dared tell Stalin that
what they made was not what the figures actually
said, so as a result he continued to up targets despite
them not being realistic.
8
Q
Second and third five year plans
A
- The targets set here were more realistic
- Nevertheless, there was still a great lack of co-
ordination from above that had characterised the first
plan - Over-production occurred in some areas of the
country while under-production in other areas - Whole branches of industry were frequently held up
due to the great lack of supplies, there were limited
spare parts so when machines broke, they simply
sat un-used. - Heavy industry were the only ones who largely
continued to be successful - In other industries, the fear of not meeting targets
meant the hoarding of materials, leading to fierce
competition between regions - Realistically, coal production had grown from 65
million tonnes in 1927 to 150 million in 1940 , all other
industry had increased in production
9
Q
How successful was Stalins reforms by 1940
A
- Stalin’s reforms only succeeded largely in the heavy
industry - The results here were impressive in fairness, large
building projects, factories, bridges and canals
were very well executed - in 1935 coal production was 35 tonnes, by 1940 it
was 150 tonnes - Steel and oil output more than doubled
However
- Stalins economic reforms only succeeded in the
traditional areas of heavy industry - the economy
remained unbalanced - Stalin gave little thought to developing an overall
economic strategy - Old, wasteful techniques, such as relying on mass
labour rather than efficient machines, continued to be
used - No real attention was paid to producing quality goods
that could then be profitably sold abroad to raise money
the USSR so badly needed - it meant the country lost
the opportunity to compete with the modern economies
such as Europe and the USA - The most serious failing was the neglect of the
agriculture, which continued to be deprived of funds as
it was considered wholly insignificant compared to the
needs of the industry, this meant constant food
shortages which resulted in the buying of foreign
supplies - subsequently this drained the USSRs financial recourses
10
Q
What were the social effects of collectivisation
A
- Bewildered and confused, the peasants either would or
could not co-operate in the deliberate destruction of
their traditional way of life. - The consequences were increasingly tragic.
- The majority of peasants ate their seed corn and
slaughtered their livestock - yet there were no crops left
to harvest or animals to rear - The Soviet authorities responded with still fiercer
coercion, but this simply made matters worse:
imprisonment, deportation and execution could not
replenish the barns or restock the herds - In Kazakhstan - 90% of peasants lost their livestock
- Nationwide famine - 10 million died
- This was worsened by the fact that the authorities
would not publicly accept the famine was occurring in
order to protect the reputation of Stalin - meant there
was no outside help as had occurred in the 1921 famine
11
Q
What were the positive aspects of collectivisation
A
- The hard fact is that Stalin’s policies did force a large
number of peasants to leave the land - This was the process that Russia had needed for
centuries in order to allow for economic development - The nation needed change from an agricultural and
rural society to and urban and industrial one - it relieved the pressure on the land and provided the
workforce which enabled the industrialisation
programme to be started
12
Q
What were the negative effects on Russian society as a result of the 5 year plans
A
- Under Stalins industrialisation programme any vestige
of workers’ rights had disappeared - Strikes were prohibited and the traditional demands for
better pay and conditions were prohibited - Living conditions deteriorated during this period - nearly
all workers lived in overcrowded apartments - The money available was not spent on improving
Russians social conditions but on armaments - between
1933 and 1937 defence expenditure rose from 4-7% of
the overall industrial budget
13
Q
Give the four negatives of Stalins economic reforms
A
- Unbalanced economy
- Inefficiency
- Lack of emphasis on quality
- Failure to address agrarian economy
