Extremely detailed and high quality notes on the Depth Study (Russia) as part of the AQA A Level History course. Notes cover/include:
- The Great Turn 1927
- Stalin's Foreign Policy 1924-29
- Collectivisation
Dec 1927 15th Party Congress issued a policy change that has become known as ‘The Great
Turn’
This ended NEP + introduced rapid industrialisation, highly centralised planning +
collectivisation (create huge fields -> sow them with crops)
S saw this as a ‘revolution from above’ (unlike 1917 that had been a ‘revolution from below’
S saw this shift as ESSENTIAL as USSR was 100 years behind the advance capitalist countries in
the West: “We must make good this distance in ten years or we shall be crushed” (S 1931)
o S knows industrially they are not strong enough
SUMMARY OF WHAT IT WAS:
A shift in economic policy away from NEP towards rapid industrialisation whatever the
costs and previous policies towards the peasantry were scrapped to make way for brutal
enforcement of collectivisation of agriculture
Marked start of Stalinism
WHY DID STALIN TAKE SUCH A DRAMATIC CHANGE IN POLICY:
Serious weaknesses in industrial management + more efficiency needed to increase
production to improve the quality of industrial goods
The problems of industry + agriculture = closely intertwined -> both peasants + urban
worker facing harsh economic conditions including shortages unemployment and low living
standards
The drive towards industrialisation going to slowly
o By 27 NEP failing to produce growth expected; wanted to increase USSR’s military
strength + develop its self-sufficiency so it was less reliant on foreign imports
Huge crisis in grain procurement in winter of 27-8
o Amount of grain purchased by gov = 25% lower than prev yr
o Grain prices = low + peasant producers concentrating on other goods for which they
could obtain higher prices
o Party Officials sent stream of complaints to Moscow, blaming peasants for
‘hoarding; grain while they hoped for higher official prices
Many in the Party were impatient to revert to ‘true; communist ideology in managing the
economy
o To move towards ‘true socialism’ it was essential to develop industry + not have a
state dependent on procuring grain by purchasing it from peasant producers
o ‘True socialism’ also demanded state control over production, not dependence on
the peasantry for good grain harvests
S’s attitude to economic policy changed, now more radical (either forced to be by economic
situation or encouraged to be by more secure stance)
WAS THE NEP BROKEN IN 1927?
Yes:
Agriculture still very backward, relying on traditional methods of farming e.g. 1927 over 5m
inefficient wooden ploughs were still in use
When the land was shared out after the rev, peasant landholdings had tended to become
smaller than before 1917. The large estates + farms which supplied the cities had
disappeareds -> they were divided amongst land-hungry peasants. On the majority of these
smaller holding people ate most of what they produced
NEP hadn’t created more wealth than pre-war levels, pre war produced 12 m tonnes of
grain, post war = 3 m
, Stalin’s Foreign Policy 24-29
Summary:
Other world revolutions had failed (Germany and Hungary)
Comintern set up 1919 to promote world revolution
Treaties of Rapallo (1922) and Berlin (1926) with Germany (another pariah state) – brought
economic and military gains
Trade agreement with Britain – proved that capitalist countries would trade with the Soviets
(but strained relations)
• BUT – following Lenin’s death there was a shift
• Stalin was not as much an internationalist as Lenin
• Post 1924 there were only 3 more Comintern congresses and Stalin never addressed them
• Stalin was committed to ‘Socialism in One Country’
• He was dismissive of foreign Communists: “One Soviet tractor is worth ten good foreign
Communists”
• This led to division in the Party (Trotsky’s ‘Permanent Revolution’ vs. Stalin’s ‘Socialism in
One Country’)
• Stalin changed focus of Comintern from promoting foreign revolution to protecting the
interests of the Soviet State. Eg: China
CASE STUDY: CHINESE/RUSSIAN RELATIONS
1911 Revolution in China removed the Manchu Dynasty
A period of warlord rule followed
The Chinese Communists led by Mao Tse-Tung and the Nationalists
(bourgeoisie) had formed a united anti-warlord faction. This had been
encouraged by Lenin and the Comintern.
When Chiang Kai-Shek took over as nationalist leader in 1925 he showed
strong anti-Communist tendencies
Stalin continued to give him military support . He thought the Chinese Chiang Kai-Shek
communists were too weak on their own, and therefore he needed to
continue to support the Nationalists to protect Soviet interests. He hoped
that a Nationalist government would be a friend to Soviet Russia.
In 1927 Chiang stuck. Around 30,000 Communists and workers were
massacred in Shanghai.
This led to the Chinese Communist Party under Mao adopting an
independent policy from Moscow.
In 1928 Chiang set up a Chinese Republic that lasted until Mao’s communist
revolution in 1949
Mao Tse-Tung
• As Stalin’s policies moved to the left during his ‘Great Turn’ so too did the policies of the
Comintern.
Foreign communist parties were instructed to denounce left wing Social Democrat parties as
fascists
The most damaging consequences of this policy were in Germany.
This led the German Communists (Spartacists) to denounce the Social Democrats. This
divided the left at the time when they needed to combine to combat the rise of fascism and
Hitler.
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