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 resulted in more than 4 million deaths. 3. Occurred because; o Peasants killed their own livestock and burnt or hid their crops just to prevent them from being taken away by the state between 1927-1929. o The NKVD, party officials and volunteers however, continued to confiscate all the crops they could find and took over the fields, livestock, farming tools and buildings. This led to bad-harvest in 1932 to 1933.

The Impact of Stalin's Rule o Grain was distributed to cities and towns to feed workers and some of these grains were exported to other countries to earn hard currency to buy industrial equipment. o Grain failure was also caused by overconfidence in technology, and 17 million horses used to till plough the field were killed to ensure that farmers used tractors, however, shortages in tractors and farming equipment led to crop failure. Continued food shortages in grain production and livestock 1. Collectivisation failed to increase grain production. Between 1928 and 1934, grain production fell by 5 million tonnes. Livestock like cattle, pigs, sheep and goats fell by more than 50%. 2. Grain production was low because there was no incentive to increase productivity and harvests was still sold to the state at fixed prices. 3. Tractors also frequently broke down and did not lead to any increase in grain harvests; peasants were forced to pay tax to the machine tractor stations (MTS) and tractors were kept and shared by several kolkhozes which made farming inefficient. 4. Food shortages remained a constant problem for the USSR right up to the 1960s. 2. Industrialisation ● The USSR was weak industrially which relied on agriculture. ● Almost all the industries were concentrated in only a few cities and Stalin wanted to create more cities and industries in other parts of USSR. ● WW1 and RCW had devastated the USSR, and farmland was ruined, millions died and had brought famine in 1921 and he had to rebuild the SE ● Industrialisation helped to strengthen Stalin's political authority by making a success of his economic policies ● By making USSR catch up with the western countries, Stalin believed that the surrounding capitalist countries won't try and come attack USSR Methods 1. Industrialisation / Five-Year Plans 1. Stalin developed FYPs between 1928 and 1938 to centralise the economy and achieve industrialisation. 2. Factory managers and workers were to work towards achieving those specific targets or face harsh disciplinary measures. A. First FYP (1928-1932) 1. Focused on improving heavy industry: coal, iron, steel and electricity. 2. The weakness was the lack of Soviet infrastructure, especially roads, railways and canals to increase industrialisation. 3. The targets were high and unrealistic. Despite this, massive gains were made: coal and iron doubled their output and electric power trebled. 1500 new industrial plants were built, alongside 100 new towns. B. Second FYP (1933-1937) 1. Continued to focus on heavy industry (the successes of the 1st FYP) upon building, with emphasis placed on improving soviet transportation and communication networks. 2. The Trans-Siberian railway was expanded and new canals, such as the Moscow-Volga, were constructed. 3. Communications were improved under his plan and railway links between cities and industrial centres were improved. 4. Industrial focused on chemicals and metallurgy grew rapidly under this plan. *(Metallurgy: branch of science concerned with the properties of metal and their production and purification) C. Third FYP (1937-1940) 1. Concentrated on consumer goods etc radios, bicycles and household goods for the people of USSR. However, the plan had to be changed when the USSR was attacked by Nazi Germany in 1941. 2. When the Nazi Germany attacked, the focus was turned to producing armaments (tanks, planes and weapons) 3. This plan was not completed as Russia entered the war against Germany in June 1941.

The Impact of Stalin's Rule 2. Use of shock brigades, skilled workers and gulag labour 1. Shock brigades were formed from keen and young communist party members who were motivated by communist ideas and travel barren areas to set up new towns and industrials. 2. Engineers and skilled workers from the western region helped to set up industrial projects, were workers were trained by more skilled workers. By the 1930s, the setting up of technical institutes and universities produced enough engineers and technicians to help industrialise the USSR. 3. Slave labour from gulags was also used to build large public work projects. 4. Peasants were forced to migrate to various cities to work as unskilled labour, and there were nearly 12 million of such workers between 1928 and 1938. 2. Control of workers through a system of rewards and punishment 1. The communist state-controlled workers