5 Year Plans/Collectivisation

First Five Year Plan

Launched in 1928- focus was to rapidly expand heavy industry such as coal, oil iron and steel, chemical production, little attention paid to development of consumer industries

Second Five Year Plan

1933-1937, similar concerns to first but some allowance for development of light industry

Third Five Year Plan

1938-41- Cut short due to WW2

Focus on defence area

By 1941 Soviet Union became number 2 industrial power in the world, one of the lowest illiteracy rates in the world

However cost was high- lives lost, waste and inefficiencies, plummeting standard of living and denial of freedom- police state took form

Scissors crisis

Majority of population working in agriculture- main source of capital for industrialisation had come from rural sector, but failures in manufacturing sector meant peasants had ceased trying to increase output by 1926. Output would not increase without improvements in manufacturing, but this couldn’t be achieved without capital from agricultural sector

Increasing gap between urban and rural prices

Inefficiencies in industry led to increasing prices of industrial goods, as prices of rural goods fell peasants pu less on the market- led to food shortages

Industrialisation drive

Needed capital, labour, resources- fundamental method of capital accumulation was to squeeze the country side- forcing peasants on to collective farms, maximising grain output, exporting as much as possible

Grain exports → foreign exchange- could be used to purchase western technology+ technicians

Movement of peasant labour into factories

Gulags- prison camps established from 1930s- source for labour

Mid 1930s

Canal and railway network created across country- made possible movement of resources

“We are 50 or 100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in 10 years. Either we do it, or we shall be crushed.”

Stalin statement in 1931

Country thrown into struggle to transform from a backward agricultural economy to an industrial one, Hitler coming to power increased urgency for change

Expected rise 600%

Target for electrical power in second five year plan

By 1933

GNP planned to be 236% above 1927-28 level

Achievements

Iron and steel centre of Magnitogorsk started, Dneiper dam and hydroelectric works built, coal fields near Moscow, canals constructed by forced labour, huge new tractor works built in Stalingrad and Kharkov, coal and iron output doubled

By 1937 USSR self-sufficient in machine making and metal working

3rd plan- heavy industry continued growth, defence armaments grew rapidly

Weaknesses

First plan- very little growth in consumer industries, small workshops died, chemical targets not fulfilled, Great Depression drove down Bruce of grain and raw materials= not enough money from exports

2nd plan- Oil production didn’t advance, consumer goods industries still lagging

3rd plan- oil production failed to meet targets leading to fuel crisis, many factories ran short of materials

Propaganda

Promoted feelings of nationalism within Soviet Union, when propaganda failed to motivate people incentives introduced- higher wages for skilled workers, additional social benefits

Loss of freedom for workers

More restrictive work practices- hours lengthened, absenteeism fines, workers had internal passports- couldn’t travel/change jobs without permission, factory managers greater power over workers, NKVD agents in factories + mines ensured discipline, ill-health/fatigue/injury seen as attempts to sabotage plans

Living conditions bad

As nation was industrialised population increased in cities and towns- little provision for amenities, millions of workers in 1930s lived in rat-infested slums

Factory managers had to fulfil targets

Falsified figures, fear, led many managers to buy off state officials- bribery and corruption

Famous foreigners in Russia eg journalists only shown specially resourced areas where people smiled and were well fed- spread inaccurate ideas of reality of Soviet life

Lack of coordination between sectors of economy

Steel production targets couldn’t be met due to failures in iron ore sector, party officials interference, managers dismissed for political and not economic reasons

White Sea Canal built by 100,000 prisoners by 1932

Millions in Gulags- forced slave labour for projects such as this, death rates high

Stakhanovisms

In September 1935 coal miner Aleksei Stakhanov in the Donets Basin allegedly dug up 102 tons of coal in his shift, 14x his quota, his name was used to inspire/shame other workers into similar feats

November 1935- First All-Union Stakhanovite Conference held, a month later the Central Committee passed resolutions for Stakhanovite thinking to be incorporated into industrial training

However this was concocted propaganda- output figures boosted by including efforts of fellow workers.

Collectivisation

Economic purpose- lack of capital- needed to squeeze countryside + increase grain production for export → foreign exchange- buy Western material goods, employ technicians

Means of ending capitalist interlude of NEP

‘Liquidation of kulaks’ politically would ensure long term control of country as well as towns

Seen as necessary adjunct to industrialisation policy- grain exports seemed only way to raise capital for industrial change- increase grain procurements

Political motive for Stalin- obsessed with class warfare- middle-class peasants (kulaks) had larger farms + success during NEP, hired others to work for them- seen as class enemy

Grain procurements increased from 15% to 34% of total harvest

Between 1928-34- collectivisation achieved economic objective

Grain exports rose from 0.029 million tons in 1929 to 5.05 million tons bu 1931

Success for Stalin

Collectivisation destroyed private ownership in countryside and chance peasants might have had of using economic power against regime- peasants now dependant on the state

Forced famine in Ukraine had destroyed source of opposition to regime (Ukrainian nationalism)

Social structure in countryside destroyed- millions of deaths, deportations, end of private property, church power weakened

Possibly high as 5 to 7 million

Uncertain number of people died from collectivisation- no accurate figures kept on how many died from GPU violence, executions, deportations, famine

60 million in 1928 to 33.5 million in 1934

Cattle numbers decreased

Increased again to 50.9 million by 1938

74.5 million in 1928, 32.9 in 1934, 57.3 1938

Tons of grain

Holodomor 1932-33

Manmade famine in the Ukraine, seen as a result of a deliberate genocidal program

Stalins motive was to maximise grain procurement but he likely deliberately engineered the famine to also destroy remnants of Ukrainian nationalism
Stalin denied situation in region- staged visits for foreign figures, Red Cross trains with grain turned back at border on grounds that there was no famine

Constitution of 1936

‘Fundamental Law’- on paper a democratic document, basic freedoms and free elections, made the ‘Supreme Soviet’ the highest organ of state power with two houses that representatives could be elected to

However was a façade- party according to self definition theoretically represents the interests of the people- all other parties weren’t needed and illegal. Elections with only 1 candidate to vote for (Party’s nominee)