Impact of Stalin's Rule

The Impact of Stalin's Rule Economic Impact ● Create a modern industrial country ● Make agriculture more efficient and productive 1. Collectivisation ● Stalin's plans for setting up large state-run farms called kolkhozes. ● Seen as a way to create a more communist society based on modern towns and cities. ● Private land ownership would also be removed from rich farm owners. ● Cities and towns would grow in size and quantity, creating a worker paradise. Aims 1. Move more peasants to move to cities and towns to become workers; this would provide more workers for industrialisation. 2. Be more in line with the Party's motto of 'Peace, Land and Bread', rather than private land ownership. 3. Aid Stalin's main aim of rapid industrialisation 4. Promise a secure food supply for the factory workers 5. Export crops to other countries to raise funds for industrialisation. 6. Make farming more efficient and allow farmers to become factory workers. Methods Forced collectivisation 1. Collectivisation first began on a voluntary basis for peasants in 1927, but by 1929 forced collectivisation was enforced. 2. By 1929, collectivisation was still unpopular as it meant that they might earn less income as they are getting fixed wages. 3. The state will own the land and distribute the crops. 4. Quantities of crops the farmers are to produce; working hours; wages are fixed by the state. 5. The state will provide equipment such as tractors for the farmers to work with. 6. Farmers who produce low quantities or are absent from work were punished. 7. Shock workers, who were made to be model urban workers and farmers were used to force peasants to join collective farms and remove kulaks. 8. When forced collectivisation was enforced, people were forced to give up their land and those who resisted were killed, forced to migrate to other parts of Russia or sent to gulags. Class war against the Kulaks 1. Stalin declared that those who resisted collectivisation were enemies of the state and capitalists. 2. 'Kulak' was vaguely defined as a wealthy peasant, but anyone who resisted collectivisation was known as a kulak. 3. Declaring a class war against the Kulaks divided the peasant classes and made the poorer peasants turn on their richer neighbours. 4. There were even quotas for kulaks to reach at the district level, and this enabled larger farms of peasants to be confiscated and run as collectives by the local communist party. Results State control of farming 1. By 1940, almost all farms were collectivised and some used new farming methods. 2. This system gave USSR complete control over the peasants who made up more than half of the population of the USSR. The Great Famine 1. Collectivisation, however, led to widespread famine in the rural area in 1932 and 1933 especially in grain-rich areas like Ukraine. 2. It resulte