Stalin's Industrialisation Test Flashcards
What was the name of the peasant class that Stalin had liquidated (killed) following their refusal to accept Collectivisation?
The Kulaks. The “liquidation of the kulaks as a class” was announced by Joseph Stalin on 27 December 1929. Stalin had said that “Now we have the opportunity to carry out a resolute offensive against the kulaks, break their resistance, eliminate them as a class and replace their production with the production of kolkhozy and sovkozy.”
How many kulaks were killed following Stalin’s decree in 1929 that they were to be liquidised?
At least 5 million were killed within a few years.
Why did Stalin want to modernise agriculture and industry?
- He wanted to move away from the NEP policies (that allowed for limited capitalism) back towards the communism the Bolsheviks had fought for.2. He wanted the country to be self-sufficient and able to defend itself if it was attacked.
What did Stalin say in a speech to the First All-Union Conference of Industrial Managers in February 1931?
“We are fifty of a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or we shall go under.”
Sovkozy
A large (collectivised) state farm run by a manager. Sovkozy had more facilities, such as nurseries and schools, and were better organised.
Kolkhozy
A large (collectivised) state farm, run by a committee of peasants.
brigades
Peasants were organised into ‘brigades’ of families - on an 80-hectare kolkhoz, a brigade was about 15 families.
How hard did the peasants work?
Each peasant would do about 140 days per year, both on the kolkhoz and on other jobs like repairing roads. Hours and jobs were set by the state.
Were peasants free?
No, they could not leave to work in towns.
MTS
Machine and Tractor Stations (MTS): Tractors and combine harvesters were borrowed from the MTS. The state provided seed and other equipment.
Communes
A system of village-run communes was set up after the revolution; land was re-distributed and given to the peasants, depending on how many they had in their families. The Kulaks were among the most organised of these households and had made money under the NEP.
Early resistance to collectivisation.
Many peasants did not want to join a kolhoz. They carried on farming as before, producing enough for themselves - they didn’t see the need to work harder to feed the industrial workers.
Resistance to collectivisation intensifies.
In 1928, Stalin began to enforce collectivisation, and the peasants reacted badly - between 1929 and 1933, half the pigs and a quarter of the cows in the country were slaughtered so that the state could not take them. Peasants burned their crops and even their houses to prevent them being taken.
How did Stalin react to resistance to collectivisation?
Severely:1. He sent officials to find hidden crops, salted-down meat and tools. If they failed (and some were killed trying), he sent in the army.2. He purged the kulaks through ‘dekulakisation’ - around 5 million were killed or exiled to gulags.
What were the negative effects of collectivisation?
- Famine of 1932-33: About 3 million peasants died in the famine. They had killed their animals and burned crops and had not planted enough the year before.2. Continued resistance - by breaking machinery and working as little as possible - meant that Stalin brought in a new law in 1935 allowing peasants to own an acre of land privately to grow their own crops and keep animals.
What were the positive effects of collectivisation?
- By 1935, over 90% of farmland was collectivised.2. There were improvements in production - people adapted to using new machinery and by 1935, the steep fall in grain production and numbers of animals began to recover.3. The state now controlled food production and distribution and was able to sell surplus grain on the international market.
Define industrialisation.
Rapid growth in factories and the production of energy, such as electricity and oil.