Stalins Economy Flashcards
1
Q
Key aspects of Stalins economy
A
- 5 year plans
- collectivisation
2
Q
What were aims of all 5 of Stalins 5YPs?
A
1) heavy industry
2) Infrastructure
3) munitions - mass production of T 34 tank
4 and 5) post war reconstruction
3
Q
What is socialism in one country?
A
- industrialising the USSR to move towards Socialism
- not inspiring socialist revolutions in other countries (like Trotsky idea of world revolution)
4
Q
What were Stalins main economic objectives?
A
- industrialise
- modernise
- move towards socialism
5
Q
When was it decided to abandon Lenin’s NEP
A
1927 - 15th party congress
6
Q
How would the economy become modernised and industrialised?
A
- mass mobilisation
- improve technology
- focus on heavy industry
- military language used like ‘storm’ and ‘conquer’
7
Q
What was GOSPLAN?
A
1921 - State planning committee
8
Q
What did gosplan do for industrialisation?
A
- set targets for priority industries
- planned and distributed resources needed
- created peoples commissariats to coordinate industry at branch level
- party officials are factory level - supervising
9
Q
How were the NEPMEN dealt with?
A
- forced into cooperatives
- made into ‘class enemies’, shown as bourgeoise experts - campaign, 1928 show trials for wrecking!
- removing the bourgeois experts = more jobs for loyal communists BUT hindered industrialisation
10
Q
1st 5YP dates
A
1928-32
- only 4 years, propaganda
11
Q
Summarise 1st 5yp
A
28-32
- heavy industry, coal, iron, steel
- recommended by superindustrialisers (PMs in favour of seizing ag.surplus for reinvestment)
- preobeazhensky
- consumer goods neglected
- made better use of existing factories
- centres like Magnitigorsk and Gorki
12
Q
His much did Magnitogorsk grow, starting in 1929
A
- 1929 = 25 people
- 250,000 three years later
13
Q
Stakharnovites
A
- exemplary workers
- best workers rewarded with better rations and new flat
14
Q
Use of Slave labour in the first 5YP
A
- mines, railway, construction etc
- White Sea Canal - 1932
- 180,000 prisoners, 10,000 died in the winter
- propaganda triumph
- too shallow so useless
15
Q
Second 5YP dates
A
1933-37
16
Q
Second 5YP
A
- initially higher targets
- redirected from infrastructure as tensions grew
- initially higher consumer production
- used technical expertise more
- new industrial centres in use
- increase in coal and chemical but oil dissapointing
17
Q
1st 5YP issue with targets
A
- workers put under EXTREME pressure
- factory managers lie, bribe, forge stats, steal from other factories
- corruption began here
18
Q
Quality of products in 1st 5YP
A
- rush to fill targets
- quality sacrificed
- stalingrad tractor factory = 500 a month target
- only 8 produced, most broke down
19
Q
Third 5YP
A
1938 - interrupted by invasion, but was preparing for invasion!
20
Q
2nd and 3rd development:
A
- developed existing centres
- set up new centres in Kazakhstan - east of urals so safe from WEST
21
Q
Despite official figures…
A
- undoubtedly made HUGE progress
- low start point BUT helped defeat Germany
- rapid growth in engineering and transport
- even if few met targets, enormous growth anyway
- 1928 - 41 = 17% growth rate
22
Q
1928-41 growth rate:
A
- 17% = huge
But unbalanced - 4x coal
- 6x steel
- increase in power industry - Dneiper Dam
- shortage of agriculture - especially with collectivisation killing cottage industry (consequences felt for rest of USSR)
23
Q
Official production figures:
A
1927 - 37:
- only one that surpassed = steel - 4 —> 17.7 (target 17m tonnes)
- coal - 35 —> 128m tonnes
- oil - 11.7 —> 28.5m tonnes
24
Q
Consumer industries in 2nd and 3rd 5YP
A
- 2nd: improvement in footwear and food processing
- by 1930s not enough and impacting living standards, shortages still plagued
25
Why could the 5YPs not have been as successful as they could have been?
- chaotic implementation/plannibg
- ridged and fast adoption of command economy
- planners in Moscow didn’t know realities in far regions = wasted resources/innapropriate resources
- purge of managers and experts 1937 = slow down economy
26
Pros and cons of industrialisation under Stalin:
- able to defend itself against capitalist powers (GERMANY)
- transformed into modern industrial economy, areas of HUGE improvement
Cons:
- unbalanced progress
- lead to decreased living standards
- human rights abuses, WSC
- deprivation grew, industrialisation based on agricultural policy - famine!
- worker health and natural environment damaged
27
Basic idea of collectivisation
- for industrialisation, workers need food
- agriculture needs to be so much more efficient!
- sweep away peasant farms and labourers (Mir)
- replaced with state owned farms, imposed mechanisation => agriculture on larger scale
28
Mir
A collection of wise village elders who oversaw farming, they knew what they were doing
…
Soviet officials did not
29
Agricultural policy under NEP
- no formal collectivisation - compromise to get villagers back on side after hated grain req. of Civil War
- instead tax on what grain they grew
- rest could sell at market for a profit
(Unmonitored by the state, so officials thought intervention could make it so much quicker!
30
Why need more food in industry?
- Industrialisation = more people moving to cities
- people make more children
- more mouths to feed
- also could be exported in exchange for foreign tech
- mechanisation in country = less people needed in country so more workers in cities
31
Economic case for collectivising:
- remove hedgerows and boundaries = larger SA for crop growth
- inefficient compared to other countries
- machinery could be shared = more cost effective
- release farmers to be city workers
32
Political case for collectivisation
- the farmers didn’t get socialism:
- land decree vague - some assumed claim for themselves (private ownership)
- NEP stopped collectivisation - peasants still controlled much of land
- kulaks had become richer under the NEP, able to sell excess grain (hoarders - needing to be liquidated)
- support for the party declined after Tambov rising in 1921
- chance to extend socialism to the countryside
33
Why was Stalin convinced agriculture was hindering industrial progress
- grain procurements has decreased since 1926
- less food for cities
- peasants wary of growing a lot as the state would siege their hard work for little money
= less incentive!
34
Process of collectivisation
- 1927 - 15th party = voluntary collectivisation
- 1928 - forced requisitioning - temporary emergency measure due to shortages
- ‘Ural - Siberian’ method = accelerated collectivisation
-party officials sent to villages to announce the ‘Kolkhoz’: collective farm, advantages layer out
- MTS established to supply machinery
- once enough signed up, collective farms seized animals, grain and buildings
35
Kulak term
- initially to describe the richer peasants who owned their own plot
- later = any peasant who didn’t sign up to the Kolkhoz
- labelled as ‘class enemies’ and deported to Siberia
36
Where was there violent opposition to collectivisation
- Ukraine and the Caucasus
- kulaks set fire to farms and killed their livestock
- sometimes murdred party officials
37
Who was sent to deal with the unruly kulaks?
Twenty-Five Thousanders/Dekulakisation squads:
- sent to forcibly organise collectives
- rounded up uncooperative peasants and sent them to labour camps
- red army used to quell unrest
38
Who did Stalin blame for the ‘excesses’ of dekulakisation?
- ‘Dizzy with Success’ article
- blamed over zealous party members for dekulakisation
- temporary slowing down, very brief to ensure the peasants sowed enough seeds!
39
Statistics for collectivisation
1932 - 62% of households collectivised
1937 - 93%
40
Failures of collectivisation
- supply of machinery slow, many without till 1930s
- kulaks = most productive farmers, removing them not smart
- resistance from peasants damaged collectivisation
- slaughter of animals - 1928-33 HALVED number of cattle - not solved till 53
- shortages! Meat, milk
- grain production fell
41
Why was grain production disastrous?
- fall in production from 73–>67 million tonnes (1928-34)
- bad but made worse by INCREASING requisitioning
- cities and RA fed
- grain seized for exports
- countryside left starving!
42
Famine:
1932-33
- Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Caucasus
- peasants move into towns for search of more food - passport system established
- starving, some ate their own children
- govt dismissed ‘famine rumours’
- four million died in 1933 alone
43
HOLODOMOR
- 5 - 10 million dead from kulakisation
- RObert Conquest - famine from collectivisation was Stalins deliberate genocide against Ukrainian people due to concerns over nationalism
- HOLODOMOR - Ukraine - grew the most but saw worst shortage
- some peasants cheered German invasion!
44
Collectivisation succeeding in some areas:
- 1930, Mir replaced with kolkhoz administration
- chairman party member in charge
- youth organisation employed to spy on peasants working
- deepened the divide between town and country
- rural communities were sacrificed for the cities - the smychka (collaboration between society) was exploititive, not symbiotic
45
When did Germany invade the USSR
1941
46
What was useful in wartime economic policy?
System of centralisation: mobilising and moving around resources
47
Features of wartime economic policy:
- defence committees set up at local level to coordinate production
- factories converted (eg: Moscow bike factory —> flame thrower factory)
- factories evacuated to eastern areas
48
How many tanks and aircraft produced between 43-45?
- 73000 tanks
- 94000 aircraft
= huge output
49
Lend lease help
- supplies sent from Britain (like spam)
- with payment deferred
- helped where consumer industries lacked
50
How far did steel production fall by 1945
- 12 million tonnes (18 million tonnes before 1940)
- wool production half of 1940 figure
51
Agricultural wartime policies:
- able-bodied men conscripted
- farm machinery/cattle requisitioned = huge decrease in food production
- private plots provided an incentive
- link system established - peasants in charge of small areas can sell excess grain for profit
52
How far did grain output fall from 1940-42
- 95 million tonnes
- to 30 million tonnes in 1942
53
Devastation stats after war:
- 25 million homeless
- 1700 towns, 70,000 villages destroyed
54
4th 5yp dates and aims:
Reconstruction (46-50)
Reconstruct and restore economy to the pre-war levels
- conversion of factories back to what they were
- industrial plants rebuilt
=> state control increased, more difficult because lend lease finally ended
55
What post war advantage did the USSR have to reconstruct?
Exploit Eastern Europe
- controlled increased parts of EE because of RA occupying land at the end of the war
- large amounts of machinery requisitioned from eastern Germany (rusted before put to use)
- trade agreements easily signed with (Soviet dominated) EE governments
However reconstruction was hugely placed upon soviet people
56
How was industrial production increased/recovered rapidly?
- two million gulag slave labourers
- strong central planning - redirect wartime labour efficiently
- retraining programmes - trained workers with the basic skills for in-demand jobs
- harsh penalties for slackers
57
Focus industry for 4th 5YP
- successes in heavy engineering industry and metal
- consumer industries neglected
- fell behind other industries (developments in plastics and chemicals put on back burner - outdated economy)
58
Dates and aims of 5th 5YP
- 51-55
- continued growth - more realistically
- Cold War = increase in arms
- less impressive growth in other industries
- vanity projects for stalin
- construction government buildings (housing crisis ignored)
59
Vanity project: Volga-Don Canal
- constructed by slave labour in 5 YP
- encouraged by ‘working 1 day on project, 3 days off sentence’
- HOWEVER, wasn’t used often, area didnt need to transport items by water
- better use of investment would be in train lines
HOWEVER supported the cult of Stalin - especially during HIGH Stalinism - statues littered the banks
60
Conclusion in post war recovery:
- industry bounced back (started at very low point)
- 1948 onwards = increased living standard as
- eg: 1952 real urban wages reached the 1928 level (end of NEP so good!)
- recovery in country side much slower
61
Recovery in the country:
- link system abolished (increased party control - workers didn’t control their small areas anymore)
- taxes put on private plots
- supervision and surveillance by party members at the Machine and tractor stations
62
Post war issues in the country:
- huge inequality between sex demographics (able-bodied men get jobs on cities)
- no machines or livestock due to requisitioning (strapped selves to the plough)
- 1946 drought
- 1947 some parts of Ukraine have famine
- recovery so slow! By 1952 still below 1940 levels
- productivity lower than 1913!
63
Attempts to improve productivity in post-war countryside:
- Moscow party secretary Khrushchev promotes creating larger collectives
- easier to use large scale machinery
- collectives easier to control
- by 1952 - 100,000 larger collectives (very unpopular)
- also Stalin tries to cultivate the desert - trees die 🤦♀️
