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Collectivisation Essay plan / OCR History Russia
- Module
- Russia 1894-1941
- Institution
- OCR
Detailed essay plan for 20 mark question. Includes facts and analysis for three factors to discuss, along with an overall opinion.
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Essay plan:‘The improvements of agricultural production was the reason for voluntary and forced
collectivisation after 1928’. How far do you agree?
(20 marks)
Agriculture:
Why did agriculture need to be improved?
- Stalin understood that to modernise industry, a revolution in agricultural production
also had to occur. Rural workers had to increase their productivity to meet and follow
the Five Year Plans.
- Four to five million (out of 120) wealthy peasants (kulaks) are the only sellers of
agricultural products.
- The Kulaks took advantage of the NEP to get rich at the expense of the less favoured
peasants.
- The maintenance of private ownership of the means of production is incompatible
with the system of socialist economy that the Communists wanted to install.
- Productivity was low among the peasants, and they still used old fashioned farming
methods, which will prevent modernisation. Even after the reforms of the NEP, it was
failing to meet the needs of the Soviet people.
- Agriculture was still very backwards, over 5 million wooden ploughs were still in use.
How did collectivisation aim to improve agriculture?
- The sovkhozes will receive modern agricultural equipment in order to increase their
productivity, like tractors. Meaning larger units of land could be farmed more
efficiently.
- The independent peasants are grouped in the kolkhozes, they give back to the
kolkhoz their land, their cattle and agricultural equipment.
- Use of machinery meant that agriculture would require fewer peasants, they could go
to the cities and work in factories.
- The motorised tractor became the symbol of the new mechanised farming and the
regime hoped that this would result in a decrease in numbers to work on the farms,
and an increase in the factories.
Political:
Did Stalin have any political motivation in collectivising the peasants?
- Large numbers of peasants were resisting the government’s policies and weren’t
marketing their food. Cites were hungry, meat and bread had to be rationed.
- Stalin blamed the kulaks and called upon the party to ‘liquidate the kulaks as a class’.
Many were then arrested and deported to Siberia.
How did collectivisation help improve his political position?
- Stalin was forced into a temporary retreat (Dizzy with Success article). Immediately,
many peasants left the kolkhozy.
- However, in 1930 the drive was renewed at a slow pace, but with determination. The
government managed to collectivise almost all the peasantry, but in the process
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