Leaving Cert History: Stalin + the Soviet economy

Paragraph I: Intro (4 points)

Stalin comes to power in 1922

His aims: Shift from NEP, catch up with Western countries' indusatrial power, strengthen military, secure socialist state

Thesis: Stalin transformed the USSR's economy into an industrial superpower, but did so at massive human, agricultural and social costs.

'We are 50 or 100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this lagin 10 years or we will be crushed'

Paragraph II: Move away from NEP (6 points)

NEP failed to industrialise quickly enough

1927-1928 - grain procurement crisis convinced Stalin to take dramatic action - 'extraordinary measures'

piatikratka - a fine for Kulaks who did not meet grain quota that was five times the value of the missing grain

Mass arrests, confiscation of land

Article 107 - allowed prosecution of speculators + allowed the forced sale of grain to the government

Gosplan - 1921 - organised + implemented Five Year Plans + planned economy

Paragraph III: The First Five Year Plan (1928-1932) (4 points)

Industrial focus

- Heavy industry - coal, steel, iron, electricity

- Giant projects (Magnitogorsk (5m tons of steel, 4.5m tons of iron), Stalingrad, Moscow tractor factory)

- Goals - 250% incr. in industrial development, 330% incr. in heavy industry

- Propaganda - shock troops - longer hours, better paid, improved conditions - industry was a battlefield

Paragraph IV: Second and Third Five Year Plans (6 points)

Focus on communication, transport + machinery production

Attempt to improve consumer goods availability - failure

Increased focus on defense - war incoming

1927-1937 - steel prod. incr. x4.5, oil x4, electricity x7, coal x4

Terror used if goals not met - Show Trials - managers put on trial + accused of sabotage

Propaganda - Stakhanovite movement - Stakhanov mined 102 tons of coal in one six hour shift

Paragraph V: Collectivisation: Aims + methods (6 points)

Purpose: to feed industrial workforce, fund industrialisation, grain exports, control Kulaks

Process: abolish privately owned farms + send families to state controlled farms.

Eliminate Kulaks as a class

Kolkhoze - 50-100 families on one kolkhoz

by 1938 - 90% of 1927's 25 million farms were in 400,000 kolkhoze

5 million sent to Gulags - Siberian Winter killed most

incr. grain quota in Ukraine - Holodomor

Paragraph VI: Resistance + human cost (5 points)

Peasants resisted by burning crops + slaughtering livestock - 50% of crops burnt/livestock killed

The Holodomor - 6-7 million Ukrainians killed when the grain quota incr. by 44%

- Millions deported to Gulags as well

~ 10 million killed

'I can't give an exact figure because nobody was keeping count. All we knew that people were dying in enormous numbers' - Khrushchev

Paragraph VII: Successes of Industrialisation (6 points)

Massive production increases - steel, iron, coal, oil, electricity

Soviet Union an industrial superpower

Soviet Union able to defend against Germany in WW2

Rapid dev. of cities

1939 - Russia is industrially self-suffificient

Creation of a stable workforce, though overworked

Paragraph VIII: Failures + Limitations (4 points)

Quantity over quality - goods produced in big numbers but often unusable, bad quality

Neglect of consumer goods - shortages

bureaucratic inefficiency in command system - kholkoz managers often employed based on party loyalty

Livestock + crops reduced by 50%

Paragraph IX: Social impact + living conditions (5 points)

Drastic reduction in living standards - peasants + urban workers

Strict labour discipline

Long hours, poor housing, lack of consumer goods

Millions removed from homes

Millions killed

Conclusion (3 points)

Stalin successfully transformed the Soviet Union into an industrial superpower, and prepared it for a German invasion in 1941, but at great human, social and economic costs.

Final judgement: Policies a mixed success; effective for state power + military strength, terrible for welfare of people

Long term legacy: structural imbalances - problem for Soviet economy for years