A2 Russia Revision Notes:
Section 4: Economy and Society 1929-1941
Chapter 1: Agricultural and social developments in the countryside
Why did Stalin want to collectivise agriculture?
Reasons for Great Turn (1928)
1. Increase Military Strength
2. Self Sufficiency
3. Increase Grain Supplies
4. Establish Credentials
5. Achieve Socialist Society
6. Improve Living Standards
My Sexy Goat Clearly Stays Loyal
Voluntary and forced collectivisation:
Collectivisation was introduced into society in a series of phases and between 1928
and 1936, the phase of this varied. In 1930, Stalin announced in his written article to
the Pravda that the collectivisation drive had been so successful that it was now time
to slow down.
State and collective farms:
There was a clear distinction between the state and collective farms.
In the collective farms (Kolkhoz) the peasants worked together and shared
their resources, wages and labour.
In state farms, however, (Sovkhoz) the peasants worked directly for the state
and were paid a small wage for their labour. (A very similar wage to that of
the factory workers).
Mechanisation:
The official collectivisation plan was for large units of land to be farmed. (Roughly
between 50-100 holdings). Collectivisation was accompanied my a mechanisation
drive, which allowed collective farms to borrow tractors from MTSs (Machine tractor
stations) and the government believed that this would not only help to speed up the
pace of the collective farming process, but it would also require less man power, thus
freeing up labour for the factories in the cities.
Unfortunately, these 75,000 tractors had very little impact on Soviet farming, in
reality; they basically made up for all the horses lost as a result of collectivisation.
Chapter 2: The impact and success of collectivization
Dekulakisation:
As a response to the introduction of requisitioning, the peasants reacted with violence
and resistance. They began to hide or even destroy their crops rather than handing
them over. Stalin believed that this was an act against socialism by the capitalist
Kulaks and as a result, he announced the liquidation of the Kulaks as a class in
December 1929.
,In theory, this meant taking the farms from the richer peasants. In reality, this
amounted to the mass deportation and killings of all peasants who resisted the
government’s policies. Roughly 15 million peasants were sent to the labour camps as
a result of Dekulakisation.
Following the Dekulakisation and collectivization campaigns, peasants began to hide
and destroy their crops and this lead to the destruction of:
17 million horses
26 million cattle
60 million sheep and goats
11 million pigs
As well as all this, the amount of grain production also decreased. In 1928, grain
production was at 73.3 million tonnes, and it decreased to only 67.6 million tonnes in
1934.
The famine of 1932-33:
Collectivisation led to a famine in Ukraine and the Ukrainians had resisted Stalin’s
collectivization for years and therefore he began to steel rain and livestock. This
resulted in a Government induced famine, which led to the deaths of 5 million. Stalin
refused to accept international aid to help the peasants as a way of crushing the last
bits of resistance from the Ukrainian farmers.
Successes of collectivisation:
1. Government was able to procure more grain than NEP
2. Grain procurement rose from 10m tonnes in 1928 to 22m tonnes in 1933
3. Grain exports also rose from 1m in 1928 to 5m in 1931
Chapter 3: Industrial and social developments in towns and cities
Gosplan:
Gosplan was the Soviet Union’s central economic agency and it set the production
targets for industries that every soviet worker and manager had to follow and meet.
Accompanying this, there was a massive propaganda campaign launched by the
government in order to inspire workers. These campaigns focused on:
1. The successes of the campaigns
2. Focused on the heroic objectives
3. Claimed that it would destroy capitalism
4. Described a modern and industrial society that the plans would create (ideal
for achieving socialism).
Organisations, aims and results of the 1st Five Year Plans
First launched in 1928, the first five-year plan was, in Stalin’s eyes, to defend
the Soviet Union from a future attack from capitalist enemies.
Stalin believed that the country was 50-100 years behind the west in terms of
industrial development and he wanted to make up the difference in 10 years.
o So the first 5YP focused on heavy industry in areas such as coal, oil,
electricity and steel.
The original targets of the first FYP were revised and the Politburo believed
that these targets could be reached in 4 years instead of 5 and so managers
, began making up some of their results as to avoid persecution and
repercussions. Despite this, industrial production did actually increase during
the 1st FYP.
Soon, big showcase projects began like the Dnieper Dam and the hydroelectric
power station. These were the biggest in Europe and were used to show the
successes of the FYPs.
Magnitogorsk developed under the 1st FYP and this was a huge mining town
near the Urals and by 1932 it had a population of around 250,00.
The first FYP failed to address consumer goods or focusing on improving the
living standards for those living in the Soviet Union.
Success statistics – First Five Year Plan:
Production 1928 1933
Coal 35 million tonnes 76 million tonnes
Pig Iron 3 million tonnes 7 million tonnes
Electricity 4 billion Kwh 16 billion Kwh
Chapter 4: What were the strengths and weaknesses of the five-year plans?
Working and living conditions:
Between 1928 and 1940, there were continual shortages of consumer goods such as
clothes and shoes etc. This was mainly because of:
1. Stalin’s priorities – Stalin focused on developing heavy industry and defence
of the Soviet Union rather than consumer goods.
2. Poor Planning – Planners underestimated the needs of consumers
3. Production techniques – by the mid 1930s the USSR could produce huge
quantities of things for the heavy industries but it lacked the ability to do this
for consumer goods.
Housing became a huge problem during the FYPs because many peasants were
moving into the towns to work in the factories. Towns would see population increases
of around 50,000 people a week.
At the town of Magnitogorsk, state of the art housing was developed for those who
were going to be building the factories, and there was a small town for the American
specialists. However the rest of the workers at Magnitogorsk had to live in small
wooden shacks.
Success of the Five Year Plans:
Stalin’s first 3 FYPs were very successful in terms of heavy industry, labour
productivity, transport and rearmament. During the first FYPs, coal, iron, steel and
electricity all increased massively.
This was done mainly through the development of new factories such as
Magnitogorsk to exploit the Soviet Union’s natural resources.
Transport was also a success of the FYPs with the Moscow Metro’s first train lines
being built in 1935. The Moscow-Volga canal was constructed between 1932 and
1937, which allowed people to travel more easily around Moscow and it also aided
the transport of goods to and from Moscow.
