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Essay plans for the following questions for IB HL European History:
“Stalin’s Five-Year Plans and the policy of collectivization failed to improve the Soviet economy by 1941.” Discuss.
Compare and contrast the rise to power of Stalin and Khrushchev
...
THE USSR
“Stalin’s Five-Year Plans and the policy of collectivization failed to improve the Soviet economy by 1941.”
Discuss.
Through his Five Year Plans (FYP), Stalin intended to increase food production, bolster the USSR”s industry/agricultural/and
consumer goods production, and strengthen his rule. The policy of collectivization mainly fell under his first two FYP, and
specifically targeted the food issue. However, it can be argued that the three FYP (1928-32, 1933-37, 1938-41) all failed to
improve the Soviet economy, especially in terms of agriculture and consumer goods. Nonetheless, because of Stalin’s focus on
heavy industry, all three FYP helped enhance the Soviet economy in this aspect.
CLAIM COUNTERCLAIM
1st Five Stalin’s first Five Year Plan focused on collectivization and the Nevertheless, the first Five Year Plan may have actually brought
Year Plan advancement of industrial economies, though these generally benefits to the Soviet economy
(1928-32) failed to improve the Soviet economy
- Collectivization helped boost economy to some extent as
- Quotas not met Stalin exported grains to US, Eastern Europe → increased
- Steel only 62% profit
- Iron only 59% - Wanted to create an industrial force that would match that
- Unrealistic quotas → expected 250% increase in of the USA
overall industrial development - At the start of this Plan, USSR was 5th in
- Products were generally of poor quality → high quotas industrialization, but by the end, USSR was 2nd in
meant workers produced at an extremely rapid rate = industrialization (just behind the US)
poor workmanship and damaged machinery - Strong focus on heavy industries → aimed to triple output
- Collectivization made peasants burn their crops and kill - Industrial expansion of coal → 1929: 40 million tons
their animals instead of giving it to the government vs. 1938: over 130 million tons
- 1928: grain production over 70 million tons vs. - Machinery output increased four times
1932: grain production at 68 million tons - 15 rollings mills came into operation; 12 under construction
, - 1928: 26 million pigs vs. 1932: 13 million pigs - New factories for iron and steel production in Urals,
- Grain production had not increased during the first Magnitogorsk
Five Year Plan except in 1930
- Took half a century to recover grain output at Counter: still a failure overall because quotas had not been met,
pre-FYP levels and everything produced was of poor quality. Moreover, the push
- Resulted in famine, especially in the Ukraine in industry meant there was a lack of consumer goods and
- Overall, this seems to suggest that the Soviet economy shortages in rations
worsened as a result of the first Five Year Plan and Stalin’s
policy of collectivization
*stats may not be accurate → may have been fabricated because
workers needed to meet quotas
2nd Five Stalin’s second Five Year Plan was essentially an extension of the However, the second Five Year Plan was actually quite beneficial to
Year Plan first Plan, and again, failed to improve the Soviet economy the Soviet economy
(1933-37)
- Failed to reach quotas for coal and oil - GNP grew at a rate of 12% → faster than any other Western
- Could not revive agrarian sector as a result of the failure of nation
collectivization during first Five Year Plan as farmers had - No unemployment
been evicted, imprisoned, and murdered - Heavy industry continued to grow
- Planners’ preferences replaced consumers’ preferences → - Steel output tripled
focus on heavy industry, militarization - 1934: rationing reduced and increase in workers wages
- Products were still of poor quality - 1937: completion of Moscow-Volga canal
- Belomor Canal was built to increase trade but froze = - Allowed for transport (e.g. of resources) throughout
failure Western Russia
- Increase in workers from 32% to 47%
- USSR became one of the top steel producing countries in
the world
- Railway and communication became faster
- Lower quotas = fewer mistakes BUT this meant that less
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