Stalin Economy

Question 1

Second Revolution, 1928

Answer 1

End of NEP.
Hardline policies = rapid industrialization + collectivization, and fulfill Marx’s communism.
Fearful of war/invasion.
Economy centralized under Gosplan.
Gulag prisoners = slaves.

Question 2

Gosplan

Answer 2

Made targets for FYP

Question 3

Why did Stalin predict a war?

Answer 3

Russia had a history or being invaded.
Churchill wanted to “strangle” the Bolsheviks.
Offices raided at Soviet Trade Delegations in London (1927).
Soviet diplomat assassinated in Poland (1927).

Question 4

1st FYP, 1928-32

Answer 4

Focus on heavy industry, neglected consumer industry.
Quantity > Quality.
Break away from capitalist features of NEP.
Aim to increase industrial production by 200% (achieved) and agricultural production by 50% (failed = food shortages + rationing).
Magnitogorsk - 25 (1929) to 250k (1932).
Labour camps + gulags = slaves. 180k workers built White Sea Canal, 10k died, it was useless.

Question 5

2nd FYP, 1933-37

Answer 5

Focus on consumer industry = advancements + rose in SOL. Short-lived, shifted to heavy industry with Hitler’s rise in Germany (imminent war).
Kolkoz, 93% if farms collectivised by 1937.
Crack down on political dissent, purging Party officials + intellectuals who threatened Stalin’s power. Great Purge 1936-38 = 1.2m killed.
NEPmen = class enemy for capitalist traits.
Central planners in Moscow had little understanding of local conditions = short falls on targets.

Question 6

3rd FYP, 1938-41

Answer 6

Military + heavy industry focus.

Question 7

1928-41

Answer 7

Complete nationalisation: industry = Gosplan, agriculture = collectivisation.
17% economic and 250% industrial output growth rate.
1940, USSR 2nd-largest global industrial power.
Resources diverted from agricultural + consumer industries to heavy industries = shortages + fall in SOL.

Question 8

Soviet Wartime Economy, 1941-45

Answer 8

Command economy with huge workforce + resources.
Outproduced Germans: 1941, 4k more aircraft + 1k more tanks.
1943-45, produced 73k tanks + 94k aircraft.
1/2 national income spent on war efforts.
Allied assistance useful, but USSR fought alone on E. Front.
19m civilians + 9m soldiers died, 25m homeless.

Question 9

Allied Assissatance

Answer 9

“Lend-Lease” Agreement.
US supplied: 95% trains, 75% jeeps, 12% aircraft , 10% tanks, 2% artillery, of Red Army.
1943, 17% of kcal consumer by Red Army supplied by US.

Question 10

4th FYP, 1946-50

Answer 10

Economy back to 1930 lvls.
Aimed to recover to pre-war levels, achieved by 1952.
Recovery via command economy mass mobilisation saw 2m gulag laborers utilized.
Coal, oil, steal production grew at least 20% before 1950s.
1950, fastest growing economy in the world.
Grain production plummeted.

Question 11

5th FYP, 1951-55

Answer 11

Aimed for slower/more realistic growth.
Achieved pre-war economic lvls in 1952.
Military budget increased due to Cold War.
Volga Don Canal constructed 1952. 1 days work = 3 days off gulag sentence.
National income rose 70%.

Question 12

Key Constructions

Answer 12

Magnitogorsk (1929) - USSR’s largest steel plant.
Dneiper Dam (1932) - largest hydroelectric dam in the world.
Chelyabinsk (1933) - tractor farm. Produced 100k tanks in 1940.
White Sea Canal (1933) - 141m water way, taking 20 months to build, but it was too shallow.