Stalin’s Rule, 1929 – 1953
Stalin’s consolidation
Economy and Society 1929-1941
Agricultural and social developments (country)
Industrial and social developments (urban)
The development of the Stalin cult
Social and economic condition of SU by 1941
Stalinism, politics and control, 1929 – 1941
Dictatorship and Stalinism
Yezhovshchina
Culture and society
Stalin and international relations
The Great Patriotic War and Stalin’s dictatorship
1941 – 1953
Impact of the Great Patriotic War on the Soviet Union
Defeat of the Germans
‘High Stalinism’
Transformation of the international position
,Economy and Society, 1929 – 1941
Agricultural and social developments in the countryside
The Great Turn
Great Turn revolutionary changes to the Soviet economy (committed to industrialisation)
To facilitate this, it was necessary to impose a rapid agricultural revolution through forced
collectivisation. This concept was not new – it’s key in Marxist-Leninist theory.
From 1921, the compromise of the NEP meant that collectivisation was slow and patchy.
The Great Turn forced individual farms into collectives, planning to increase grain production by 50%
over the course of the 5 Year Plan.
Main aims:
- Eradicate ‘class enemies’ in the countryside (kulaks)
- Make farming in the USSR socialist rather than capitalist
- Replace NEP w true Marxist-Leninist theory
1929, Stalin gives a ‘war on kulaks’ speech
1930, temporary return to voluntary collectivisation
1931, resumption of dekulakisation / launch of Machine Tractor Stations
1932, famine in Ukraine
1933, mass famine in Ukraine and other areas
Voluntary and forced collectivisation:
Collectivisation was officially voluntary, but after 1929 peasants were forced into collective farms
through a campaign of intimidation.
Methods used include:
- Expansion of the Urals-Siberian method
o May 1929 Urals-Siberian method of enforced grain requisitioning was extended to
almost all grain-producing regions of the USSR
o Bukharin opposed, risked making the peasants hostile to the state
- Help from the poorest peasants
o To ‘snitch’ on the kulaks
o They had the most to gain from collective farms
- Help from the Party activists
o November 1929, 25,000 Party activists (industrial activists) were sent into the
countryside to help dekulakisation
o Officially sent to promote the benefits of collective farms
o Searched households for hidden grain, helped identify and round up kulaks,
administered the exile process and enforced collectivisation of peasants
o Assisted by local police, OGPU and Red Army
- Mixture of propaganda and fear
o Propaganda and positive messages
o Real motivation came from fear of what was happening to the kulaks – people who
resisted joining the collective farms were likely to be classed as kulaks too
,Process of collectivisation
State farms and mechanisation
Kolkhozes and Sovkhozes:
For communist purists, the ideal type of farm was the sovkhoz – state owned farm where labourers
were paid a fixed wage. Peasants were opposed to becoming wage-labourers meant farms in the 1930s
were turned into kolkhozes (earnings varied according to how much profit the farms make).
Differences between the two -
Kolkhoz (used) Sovkhoz (ideal)
Created by combing small, individual farms Created on land confiscated from tsarist-era
large estates – usually larger than kolkhoz
Created from farms that already existed – Members recruited from landless rural
members still lived in their old houses labourers. They were often housed in barracks
Consisted of around 75 families in one village
Paid by dividing any farm earnings by the Members classified as workers, not peasants,
number of labour days members had contributed and were paid a wage for their work (factory
workers)
Communal fields where everyone worked, Organised for large-scale production on
members also allowed small private plots to industrial lines. Private plots allowed
farm
All communal lands held in common and tools / State owned all the land
livestock pooled – farmed the land as single unit
Similarities -
- Both required to meet high quotas
- Price set for quotas was low – industrial workers fed cheaply and state could make big profits
on exporting grain in order to finance industrialisation
- After 1932, kolkhoz members and sovkhoz workers restricted by internal passports (no leave)
Machine Tractor Stations (MTS) :
They were set up from 1931. They hired out tractors and machinery to collective and state farms, as
well as distributing seed.
, Evaluation:
Provided mechanisation and expertise to modernise farming
Tractors were the main focus
o By the start of 1933, 75,000 MTS tractors
Reduced the need for peasant labour, so more peasants could leave the countryside and
become industrial workers
Agronomists, vets, surveyors, and technicians helped to improve efficiency and advised on
how to use the machines
More farms than MTS
o By 1940 there was 1:40 MTS : farms
Tractor hire prices high because the state was squeezing farming for money
Efficiency only improving in some areas
o Machines often only complete part of a process (cutting hay but not bailing)
State farms got the majority of MTS support and access to best machinery
Impact of collectivisation
There was widespread and violent opposition to the process of collectivisation. Peasants killed their
livestock and destroyed their machines, fearing they would be labelled as kulaks.
Armed forces responded brutally to the unrest, sometimes burning down whole villages and deporting
anyone who resisted.
- Deported peasants were often to remote places in Siberia where they worked in labour camps
- Thousands died in the harsh conditions of the camp, run by the OGPU
- Estimated that as many as 10 million people were deported as kulaks
Peasants in collective farms were treated badly – state targets were set high, w farms receiving
nothing if quotas weren’t met. State prices were low and farms struggled to cover the cost of
production, let alone share profits among members.
There was little incentive for peasants to work in collective fields rather than on their own private
plots.
Many of those who could leave did, by 1939, 19 million peasants had migrated to the towns and cities
Many regions experienced drought in 1931 (esp. in Ukraine) famine spread in 1932-3. The
government continued to demand grain quotas were met despite the drop in production. It is estimated
that 6-8 million people died. This was man-made.
Success:
Increasing agricultural productivity (failure) –
- Peasant opposition caused agricultural productivity to fall
o 1933, harvest was 9 million tonnes less than 1927
- Grain output didn’t exceed pre-collectivisation levels until after 1935
- Livestock numbers fell by 25-30% during collectivisation and didn’t recover until 1953
This was because the most skilled and knowledgeable peasants were lost through dekulakisation, the
destruction of the USSR’s livestock herds in opposition to collectivisation, the poor organisation of
many farms and the lack of incentives.
