Stalins - ERA

Question 1

How did Stalin end the NEP?

Answer 1

Launched 1928 - introducing a command economy

Question 2

What did Stalin introduce?

Answer 2

Industrialisation was achieved through a series of 5 year plan
Plans formulated by Gosplan, setting targets for every factory, workshop.
Plans accompanied by propaganda designed to inspire workers to support new system

Question 3

Economic Planning?

Answer 3

Stalin argued he had created a ‘planned economy’ however, his economy was a command economy, an economy where the government controls the economy

Question 4

Reasons for the plans P.I.E.M

Answer 4

• Ideology = Wanted to abolish the capitalist market and lay the economic foundation for socialism
• Economics = NEP had failed to lead to further industrialisation
• Military = Believed Russia had to industrialise to prepare for war with capitalist countries
• Political = By abolishing capitalism, Stalin won the support of the Party left wing

Question 5

Stalins aim of the plans

Answer 5

• To build up heavy industry
• Gov heavily invested in building new iron and steel factories and establishing new coalminers and oil wells.
• From 1936 Stalin prioritised rearmament
  Stalins plan did not focus on consumer goods to maximise resources for heavy industry and the military

Question 6

What were the success of the first five year plan?

Answer 6

• The plan stimulated Russia’s heavy industry
• New industrial complexes were built in places such as Siberia, coal and iron output doubled
• Forced collectivisation freed millions of peasants from agricultural labour and thus led to the growth of the industrial workforce in factories

Question 7

What were the failures of the first five year plan?

Answer 7

• consumer goods production fell, and light industries were neglected due to focus on heavy industry
• emphasis on quantity over quality meant that materials produced as a result of rapid industrialisation were often of a poor standard
• forced grain requisitioning and droughts in 1931 - 1932 caused another extensive famine leading to death of almost 6M people

Question 8

What was the aim of the second five year plan?

Answer 8

• Maintained emphasis on industry however, Stalin promised an improvement in the living conditions of industrial workers who had been suffering as a result of food rationing.

Question 9

What were the successes of the second five year plan?

Answer 9

• Railway networks and canals were expanded to deal with increased traffic
• food production increased, and rationing ended in 1934
• second only to Germany as a global producer of steel.

Question 10

What happened as a results of Stalins achievements in regards to transport?

Answer 10

• The Moscow Metro’s first train lines opened in 1935
• Moscow - Volga canal opened 1937

Question 11

What is Collectivisation?

Answer 11

Farms forcibly merged

Question 12

Causes of Collectivisation? IEFP

Answer 12

1) Ideology - NEP ran farming in a capitalist way = communists wanted to abolish capitalism and end private ownership of farms
2) Economics - NEP only collected tax, collectivisation allowed gov to take much more wealth from farms = invested into industrialisation
3) Failure of NEP - agricultural prod fell in 1927, food shortage cities
4) Political - Allowed Stalin win support from left of the Communist Party

Question 13

Consequences of collectivisation

Answer 13

Unrest in rural areas led to destruction:
- 17M horses
- 26M cattle
- 11M pigs
- 60M sheeps and goats

Question 14

What happened to labour productivity?
(Stakhanovite)

Answer 14

Created the Stakhanovite movement:
- A propaganda campaign praising the work of coal miner Alexei Stakhanov who mined 14 times his quota in a single shift
- Stalin authorised a system of higher payment to reward most productive workers
Productivity rose between 25% and 50% in Russias major industries

Question 15

What was the impact of agricultural collectivisation?

Answer 15

Devastating impact on Russia’s peasantry
- Creation of state owned farms (Sovkozy) turning peasants into state workers who were no longer able to own their own land and cultivate produce for a profit = great resentment & led to decreased productivity
- Resistance to peasant collective farms (kolkhoz), Kulaks burnt crops and slaughtered live stock in protest = sent to Gulags

Question 16

Summary of collectivisation

Answer 16

• Forced grain requisition = series of droughts with decreased production = 1931 - 1932 famine. Agricultural production inefficient
• Stalins collectivisation allowed to serve the needs of industrialisation as the export of grain brought much-needed foreign capital into the economy to be invested into his modernisation project.

Question 17

What was the “Scissors Crisis:”

Answer 17

• Agriculture recovered quickly, industry recovered much more slowly
• This imbalance led to fall in price of food and rise in price of industrial goods
• a gap opened between farmers incomes and industrial prices
• Trotsky nicknamed the crisis as scissors crisis
• gov forced to step in and impose price cuts on industrial goods

Question 18

What were the Economical consequences of the 2nd world war?

Answer 18

• 25M people homeless
• Soviet Industry producing around 1/3 of what it produced 1940
• Agriculture producing half the grain it had in 1940

Question 19

How was industrial recovery achieved?

Answer 19

• Post war plans focused on heavy industry and rearmament
• 90% of economic investment devoted to developing heavy industry
• By 1950, Soviet Economy producing + coal, oil electricity

Question 20

What was Russias Military spending?

Answer 20

• Development of Cold War meant they had to prioritise military spending
• By 1952 around 25% of gov budget budget made up military spending
• By 1949 Soviet scientists successfully tested their first atomic bomb

Question 21

What were the Economic problems?

Answer 21

• Soviet workers remained unproductive
• Light Industry failed to grow - less then 12% of industrial investment went into it
• Consumer goods remained scarce