E4: Economy & Society, 1929-1941

How many farms were collectivised by mid-1929?

Less than 5%

What was announced in January 1930?

The party would aim to have 25% of grain producing areas collectivised by the end of the year.

What were the three main types of collective farm?

Toz: Peasants owned their own land but shared machinery and co-opted in activities such as sowing and harvesting. Sovkhoz: Land owned and run by the state, farmers working were paid a regular wage like factory workers. Kolkhoz: All land is run in common and by a committee, all land, tools, and livestock is pooled, the peasants worked on the land as one unit, but could keep a private plot of one acre for their own crops and animals.

Why did Communists think that collectivisation was the solution to the USSR’s agricultural problems?

Tools and machinery could be shared, lowering the costs for buying machinery and it also introduced modern technology into the archaic ways of farming. More machines used on the land also meant that less peasants could work on the land, freeing up labour for new industries. Fewer individual farms meant that less grain requisitioning points needed to be established, allowing for tighter control over the requisitioning of grain. It was also seen as impossible to build a Socialist society where land was still privately owned.

Why was collectivisation carried out so rapidly?

The state was finding it increasingly difficult to get grain out of peasants by 1929, leading to a harsher crackdown on collectivisation in order to root out the alleged kulaks who were holding the entire requisitioning effort back.

How many MTS stations were there and what did they do?

Machine and Tractor stations were services that a farmer could give 20% of their produce to in exchange for access to machinery.

How were collective farms paid?

Kolkhoz workers received no hourly wage, instead, the profits of the farm would be divided and distributed to each farmer depending on the amount of days they had worked on the farm. As collective farms made little, most relied on their private plots to sustain themselves.

What were the concerns about collectivisation from members of the party?

The right wing of the party was predominantly concerned with a return to the attitudes of War Communism, which led to high amounts of civil unrest amongst the peasants due to the grain requisitioning.

What was the role of the ’twenty five thousanders’?

A shock brigade of party activists with the purpose of rooting out designated quotas of kulaks and pursuade the rest of the peasants to collectivise.

How did the peasants resist?

They formed riots and protests. Peasants would often burn their households and tools to prevent them from being collectivised. Additionally, they would consume as much of their produce as possible in order to also prevent it from being collectivised. This had the effect of causing livestock populations to plummet, where they would not recover until after WW2.

Why did Stalin halt and then restart the collectivisation process in 1930-1931?

He believed that the urban activists were “dizzy with success”, and had gone too fast with collectivisation, going beyond what he believed was necessary. Party officials had little control over the actions of the activists, with many competing with each other to collectivise as many households as possible.

What were the consequences of collectivisation?

50% of farms were collectivised by Feb 1930. 30% of livestock was killed by peasants, and peasants were reluctant to work on the collective farms.

What happened in agriculture after 1934?

70% of farms were collectivised. Grain production fell and did not return to pre collectivisation levels until 1935. Meat production did not return until 1953. Private plots contributed over 50% to the amount of produce sold on store shelves.

Why was collectivisation was an economic success and why was it was an economic failure?

Grain procurement rose by several millions of tons after 1930. Dispossessed peasants from collectivisation fled to towns and cities, providing labour for the new factories.
Grain production fell dramatically and did not recover until 1935. Livestock populations did not recover until after WW2.

Describe how collectivisation was a political success.

The party had eliminated a large sector of the economy which was privately owned, and now had full control over the grain produced, allowing them to requisition it with greater efficiency.

What was the human cost of collectivisation?

10 million peasants were dispossessed between 1928 and 1932. 3 million of which died. 7 million died separately of famine.

How did central planning differ from market led economy?

In a Capitalistic economy, the production of materials is driven by supply and demand. In a centrally planned system, the production of materials is decided by state agencies, such as the allocation of resources and the amount of goods produced.

Describe how The Five Year Plans were organised.

The party sets targets for industries which are given to the Commissariat for that industry. The Commissariat sets out output targets, which are given to Regional Administrators. The administrators give out more general output targets and resource allocation instructions to the managers of each factory, who have the sole responsibility of reaching output targets.

Who was Sergei Ordzhonikidze?

An old Bolshevik who was the Commissariat for Heavy Industry.

What were the three main features of the Five Year Plans?

Output targets were always declared a year ahead of schedule. The plans often constructed industrial centres from nothing. Spectacular building projects were built in order to demonstrate the might of the Soviet industrial machine.

For each of the three pre WWII Five Year Plans, identify its aim, two strengths, and two weaknesses.

FYP 1: Heavy industry focus, production of coal, oil, iron, and steel. Electricity production trebled, coal doubled. However, there was little growth in consumer industries, and there was a lack of skilled workers, creating major problems due to workers quickly changing jobs.
FYP 2: Communications focus such as railways. Heavy industries such as electricity improved due to the production plants built during the first FYP. The USSR became self sufficient in metalworking by 1937. Oil production failed to meet its quota, and consumer industries were still struggling.
FYP 3: Heavy industry focus. Heavy industries continued to grow, alongside the production of armaments. Steel output grew insignificantly, and oil continued to fail to reach its quotas, leading to a fuel crisis.

Who were the bourgeois specialists and why were they attacked by the party?

Pre revolution factory managers who were blamed for the underproduction of materials, being labelled as saboteurs in a similar vein to kulaks.

What was ‘target mania’?

A planning fervour between Gosplan and the Veskenka to see who could set the most ambitious targets.

How did managers deal with the targets that were set?

They often made illegal deals in order to get the parts or supplies to fill their quotas, or raided lorries and trains to gain supplies intended for other plants. Additionally, few were prepared to report any wrongdoing, covering up mistakes and reporting higher output figures than reality.

Identify ways that the plans benefitted workers.

Initially, workers were enthusiastic at the announcement of the plans, believing that their wages would rise, and many of those who stayed in their jobs enjoyed higher pay and better housing.

Describe the features of the ‘quicksand society’.

The rapid changing of jobs by peasants who had now become workers upon being offered a better deal than their current situation, leading to frequent labour turnovers. The ex peasants also had completely different work ethics than the regular workers, leading to high rates of absenteeism and unskilled workers.

How did the soviet government try to deal with the following labour problems?

They rewarded those who stayed put in their jobs with higher wages and honours, such as better clothing and housing. They also introduced training programs in order to create more skilled workers, but the training programs were often of poor quality. Workers were also paid extra for the pieces of work completed, such as major projects.

What was the Stakhanovite movement?

A propaganda campaign predominantly featuring the monumental task by Alexi Stakhanov of mining 16 times the normal amount of coal in a 5 hour shift. His achievement was made with the aid of assistants who would carry and deposit his coal for him, giving him more time to mine. He was rewarded with better housing and other honours, and he was used as a means to convince workers to work harder with the promise of benefits.

What was the Cultural Revolution and when did it start and ‘end’?

A social upheaval encouraged by the party in the 1920s, focusing on a rejection of the pre revolutionary "bourgeois" ideas present in art and culture.

What was Socialist Realism and when did it start?

Socialist Realism was an art movement started by the party in the 1930s, and was signified by its aims to celebrate the achievements of a proletarian in their struggle to contribute to the revolution.

How was the cult of Stalin shown at his fiftieth birthday celebrations?

Stalin received 350 greetings from people and organisations, the length of clapping became longer during his speeches, portraits of Stalin are always accompanied by portraits of other Socialist leaders, such as Marx and Lenin.

How did the Cultural Revolution impact religion?

Religion was attacked by the Cultural Revolution, with religion being associated with the pre revolution "bourgeois" ways of thinking. By 1930, 80% of churches were closed down, with only 1 in 40 remaining by the end of the 1930s.

How did the Cultural Revolution impact on education?

Shulgin was an educational reformist who believed education should be linked directly to factories, with one result of his reforms leading to all the children in the upper years being taught to become poultry breeding technicians. This created a highly specialised workforce whose skillsets were too narrow for the wide array of factory work.

How did the Great Retreat impact on the role of women and the family?

The liberal divorce laws established in the 1920s caused most marriages to end in divorce, leading to families with only a single mother to care for the child. The Great Retreat caused divorce to cost a rising fee for each subsequent divorce, 50 for the first, 150 for the second, and 300 for any subsequent divorces. Abortion was also outlawed in cases where it was not necessary to save the woman’s life.

What happened to juvenile crime in the 1930s?

Juvenile crime was made punishable in the same way adults were punished in 1935. Parents could also be fined for the hooliganism of their children.

What was the RAPP?

The Russian Association of Proletarian Writers was an organisation who regulated the content and messaging of literature. Socialist construction and class struggle had to be at the heart of all literature. Artistic brigades were done in order to show writers the reality of Socialism they were meant to convey, such as the “First Writers’ Brigade in the Urals” intended to display collectivisation.

What was the Komsomol?

The “Young Communist League”. A youth group of people of proletarian origin from ages 14-28. They fulfilled a variety of roles between 1929 and 1933 such as being “soldiers of production” in the industrial drive, and joining shock brigades for the purposes of collectivisation and rooting out bourgeois specialists in industry.

Who was Pavilk Morozov?

A Socialist martyr who testified that his father had stolen property confiscated from the kulaks in 1932. He was stabbed to death by his grandfather and cousin. He was used for propaganda purposes in order to display the “good” and selfless Socialist citizen who had dedicated his life to the cause.