Topic 7 facts

Question 1

why did Stalin launch the Great turn in 1927?

Answer 1

ideology, economy and practical necessity

Question 2

what were the ideological reasons for the great turn?

Answer 2

• many in the party were impatient to revert to ‘true’ communist ideology in managing the economy. To move towards ‘true socialism’ it was essential to have a state dependent on procuring grain by purchasing it from grain producers. Socialism demanded control over production
• having previously supported the NEP Stalin was ready to be more radical
• right wing wanted NEP left didn’t

Question 3

what were the economical reasons for the great turn?

Answer 3

• imports under the NEP were 38% of 1913 levels
• real wages for urban workers in 1928 had not passed pre-war levels
• the state procured only 75% of the amount of grain of grain at the end of 1927 than they had at the end of 1926
• grain crisis in the winter of 1927-8. Amount of grain purchased by the govt was down by 25% of previous year. Grain prices were low and peasants were producing other goods for more profit

Question 4

what were the practical reasons for the great turn?

Answer 4

• agriculture relied on backward methods of farming. in 1927 5mil inefficient wooden ploughs were still in use
• less than 5% of peasants had voluntarily moved to collective farms under the NEP
• the NEP provided a ‘breathing space’ while industry and agriculture recovered from the disasters of war communism. But from Bolshevik view it was creating the wrong type of society
• NEP encouraged private markets, private enterprise and NEPmen

Question 5

what was the impact of the great turn?

Answer 5

• First 5 year plan announced in 1927
• relationship between Stalin and Bhukarin broke down
• vast new industrial complexes planned like ‘steel city’ of Magnitogorsk
• collectivisation- by 1930 half of all peasant households had been collectivised- but in reality was a disaster as enterprising peasants were killed and animals slaughtered
• in 1929 the central committee introduced a policy sending 25k industrial workers into countryside to develop farms
• in December 1929 Stalin imposed collectivisation with no restraint ‘smash kulaks’

Question 6

what were the aims of the first 5 year plan?

Answer 6

• develop heavy industry (coal, iron, steel)
• boost overall production by 300%
• improve transport
• 6x more electricity by 1933

Question 7

what were the features of Stalin’s style of government?

Answer 7

• bureaucratic centralism (govt controlled the central)
• factionalism a crime against the party
• role of GPU as secret police became more pervasive under Stalin as it was key to rise to power
• the Lenin cult had its origins in Stalin’s actions
• Tsaritsyn was renamed Stalingrad in 1925

Question 8

what was Stalin’s foreign policy in the 1920s?

Answer 8

• chief representatives of foreign affairs were Chicherin and Litvinov- both polished diplomats who could make favourable impressions
• CC formed in 1921 and hoped to carry a com revolution but Stalin preferred to back the GMD
• bitter conflict in China
• continued cooperation and relations with Germany
• 1926 Treaty of Berlin- USSR benefitted as lots of money from German banks
• USSR in a strong position to survive wall street crash of 1929 due to relative isolation from world trade

Question 9

what were the issues with Stalin foreign policy?

Answer 9

• working with Weimar Germany made a mockery of previously proposed world revolution idea
• Britain ruptured diplomatic relations in 1927
• marriage of convenience both Germany and USSR isolated
• prospects of world revolution very remote in the 1920s

Question 10

what was Stalin’s new approach to the comintern?

Answer 10

• after 1929 he began an all out attack on anti-communist, social democratic parties in Europe (social fascism). Soviet control over the comintern became tighter.
• His new approach showed the reality of a communist brotherhood were illusionary and so he abandoned world revolution