Stalin - Economic Policies

Question 1

Which trial of 1928 created a ‘war scare’ deliberately to terrify the people into working harder to defend themsleves against the west?

Answer 1

Shakthy

Question 2

In what year did Stalin say ‘We are 50 to 100 years behind the west. We must catch up in 10 years. Either we do this or they crush’ ?

Answer 2

1931

Question 3

Stalin recognised that industrial production needed to keep pace with agricultural production to avoid a ‘….’ crisis.

Answer 3

scrissors

Question 4

Stalin was fearful that the proletarian needed to be expanded in numbers and influence for Bolshevism to survive. What did Trotsky say that expresssed this fear?

Answer 4

We have too little proletarian yeast in our peasant dough.

Question 5

The name of the state planning agency responsible for carrying out the five years plans was…?

Answer 5

Gosplan - It formulated production of targets for every factory mine and workshop.

Question 6

The first five year plan focused on which section of the economy?

Answer 6

Heavy industry

Question 7

The second five year plan set more realistic targets for heavy industry and encouraged the production of what?

Answer 7

Consumer goods

Question 8

A gigantic steel works was built at…?

Answer 8

Magnitogorsk - had state of the art housing for the factory managers. Normal workers lived in wooden shacks.

Question 9

In which city was an underground railway built?

Answer 9

Moscow

Question 10

The achievements of the five year plans were more impressive given that they were carried during…?

Answer 10

The Great Depression

Question 11

An Irish playwrite who paid a visit to the USSR and reported back to the west that the five year plans were successful and popular?

Answer 11

George Bernard Shaw

Question 12

Stalin built his industrial feats deep in the eastern zone of the USSR. In other words, beyond the…

Answer 12

Ural Mountains

Question 13

In the first five year plan marxist ideology was compromised by employing which capitalist firm?

Answer 13

Ford

Question 14

In the second five year plan marxist ideology was compromised by giving wage incentives to elite workers called…?

Answer 14

Stakhonovites

Question 15

In the second five year plan marxist ideology was fulfilled by encourage which sector of the population to enter the work force?

Answer 15

Women

Question 16

The building of which canal led to deaths of 100,000 by slave labour?

Answer 16

Belomor Canal

Question 17

What were Stalin’s slave labour camps called?

Answer 17

Gulags

Question 18

During the five year plans women who went to work were rewarded with…?

Answer 18

Free childcare

Question 19

During the five year plans industrial production increased by what percentage?

Answer 19

200%

Question 20

The economic growth was from what economists call a…?

Answer 20

Low Base (meaning industrial production was very poor to begin with)

Question 21

Give the dates of the three pre-war five year plans.

Answer 21

1) 1928 - 1932 (Cut short due to problems with the plan)
2) 1933 - 1937 (Cut short due to Gosplan economists being purged)
3) 1939 - 1941 (Cut short due to Nazi invasion)

Question 22

What were the general aims of the plans?

Answer 22

• Industrialise Russia. Stalin believed Russia was 100 years behind the West but could catch up in 15 with the help of planning.
• Elimination of Nepmen
• Introduce state controlled production and distribution.
• Create an economy that was modern enough to support effective defence programmes (German threat)
• Stalin wanted to assert his own authority by completing major industrial feats.

Question 23

How did Stalin try to inspire the workers to achieve the unrealistic goals set by the plans?

Answer 23

Massive propaganda campaigns which:
- showed the objectives of the plan to be heroic
- celebrated the sucess of the plans
- promised a modernised industrial future.
However, the plans were a list of targets backed by propaganda, not actual ‘action plans’.

Question 24

What was the increase in the production of coal and steel between 1927 and 1940? (Over the course of the first three 5 year plans)

Answer 24

COAL: 1927 = 35.4 millon tons, 1940 = 165.9 million tons
STEEL: 1927 = 4, 1940 = 18.3
Heavy industry was the major success of the five year plans.

Question 25

What was the issue with labour productivity in the USSR? | What initiative was launched to combat this problem?

Answer 25

- Very unproductive workforce, far more unproductive than western workforces. - Due to long hours, little pay and lack of incentive. - Stakhanovite initiative launched in 1935: A reward system for workers who exceeded their production quota. Stakhanovite workers were asked to teach other workers how to be more productive. - Very effective, productivity in electricity rose by 51%, 25% in coal mining.

Question 26

What production problems are associated with the five year plans?

Answer 26

- Quality of good v.low. Quotas encouraged quantity not quality. - Plans undermined by Stalin's terror as he executed/ imprisoned workers being accused and saboteurs and did the same to economists who suggested there were issues with the plans. - Materials produced were often wasted, as much as 40% wasted in some regions. - It was supposed to be a planned economy but there were no real plans, only targets. - Managers falsified data in order to meet production targets. Made accurate analysis v.difficult.

Question 27

What was the availability of consumer goods through out the plans?

Answer 27

- Constant shortages of everyday necessities. - Plans underestimated the needs of consumers - Uneducated workforce could not managed the industrial processes to make consumer goods. - Rationing of consumer goods from 1928, severe shortages in the 1930s which led to queues of 6000 people for clothes in leningrad. - Constant shortage of housing, factory building was the priority.

Question 28

How did a Black Market emerge during the five year plans?

Answer 28

- Constant shortage of consumer goods meant the black market filled the gap. - Workers would steel materials from factories and then sell them on to the highest bidder. - They could falsify paperwork to cover up the theft.

Question 29

When did the collectivisation drive begin?

Answer 29

1929 - but there was a pause in 1930 due to the chaos caused. Reinstated in 1931.

Question 30

What were the causes of collectivisation?

Answer 30

1) Communist ideology - make a more egalitarian society by abolishing private farming - suspicious peasant farming was driven by individualistic material concern. Supposed rise of capitalist Kulaks. 2) Failure of NEP - industrial production fell back down to 1926 levels in 1928 - Grain procurement crisis in 1927 (farmers stopped producing as much grain in order to up agricultural prices) 3) Leadership struggle. - Collectivisation was a left wing policy and Stalin needed the support of the left in order to secure his power base.

Question 31

What was Dekulakisation?

Answer 31

- When peasants resisted the grain requisitioning with violence Stalin claimed it was an attack on socialism by the capitalist Kulaks. - He initiated the 'liquidation of Kulaks as a class'. - Mass deportations and executions - 1.5 million kulaks sent to Gulag labour camps.

Question 32

What did the collectivisation process involve?

Answer 32

- Farms forcibly merged together. Sometimes contained as many as 150 families. - Equipment taken from richer peasants and given to poorer ones. - Very small amount of grain given to peasants living in collective farms, the rest was used to feed the industiral workforce of exported. - This released money for investment in industry.

Question 33

What were the consequences of collectivisation?

Answer 33

1) Destruction of Soviet farming - peasant destroyed crops and livestock rather than hand them over. Millions of animals slaughtered. - Skilled and experienced farmers killed in Kulak liquidation. Grain harvest dropped below 1929 levels in 1931 - absence of any incentive for farmers to be productive 2) Famine - Especially in the Ukraine - Grain exported for foreign currency so farmers left to starve. 5m died in the Ukraine. 3) Long term agricultural problems - failings became apparent during ww2 - Had to rely on US imports of food, made up 1/5 of the Red Army diet. - private farming was only 7% of farming but it made a huge contribution because it was far more production?

Question 34

How much more productive was private farming than collective farming?

Answer 34

- On average private farms produced 410 kilos of grain per hectare - Collective farming produced 320 kilos per hectare.

Question 35

What was the nature of the fourth five year plan? (The post-war plan)

Answer 35

- Reconstruction of USSR's industry which had been devastated by ww2 - 88% of investment into heavy industry, caused industrial output to increase by 80% between 1945 to 1950. - Production of consumer goods doubled but they still continued to be scarce. Only 12% of investment. - Wages kept low for free up money for investment in industry and force women to work as well. - Between 1945 and 1950 USSR economy became the fastest growing in the world.

Question 36

What changed in agriculture after ww2?

Answer 36

- Stalin reimposed strict state control over farming. - Stalin had allowed some private farming during ww2 because he had needed the extra food supplies. - Agricultural production reached its pre-war level by 1952.

Question 37

What were the implications for the economy with the start of the cold war?

Answer 37

- Huge amount of military spending due to arms race. - By 1952, the total amount of military expenditure about 1/4 of the state budget. - Meant less money was available for investment in other sectors of the economy.

Question 38

What did Stalin's economic policies mean for the future of soviet economy?

Answer 38

He had established the basic nature of the soviet economy right up until 1990: - low labour productivity, inefficiencies in agriculture, huge defence budget, consumer goods shortages.

Question 39

When were the first train lines opened in Moscow?

Answer 39

1935 | Meant more efficient transport of goods.

Question 40

What was the state of soviet industry in 1945? | How does Stalin respond?

Answer 40

Industry devastated: - 25m homeless - Industrial output 2/3 of 1940 level - Infrastructure largely destroyed due to scorch the earth policy in ww2 - Progess made in first three 5 year plans lost. Stalin responds with more five year plans.