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Guillermo Paz

How successful were Stalins economic policies?


When Lenin died there was a huge dispute in which should be the new leader of Russia. Stalin as one of chosen to be elected started working so he could have power. In the end he became Russias new leader. By this came a lot of change, which at the end helped Russia a lot. Stalin came with the 5 years plan; Stalin will use them to improve Russias economy, and making it modern. Industrialisation and collectivisation where the two things that Stalin would improve. Industrialisation for Stalin was to produce more coal, oil, electricity, pig iron and steel. He would use this to create machinery, which will help collectivisation. This machinery could also help the process of producing. Industrialising a country means to transform it from a primary agricultural society into one based on the manufacturing of goods and services. Collectivisation for Stalin was to produce a lot of food. So this was the farming part. He wanted to improve and produce masses of food so industrialization could take place. Workers needed the food, so collectivisation was all about producing enough food and more for Russia. So the 5 years plan where to generate the tension on a worker on completing its target so the country could modernise. The 5 years plan came with many successes, which did improve Russia in a lot of ways. But it also generated failures, which made people doubt about the progress. The plan created a lot of successes. Statistics showed that they had really accomplished the goal of modernizing Russia. Stalin was able to modernize Russia in only 10 years, which seems a great success. The productions aims started low but then they got higher and higher so they where really high, which meant they where producing more and more. In the first five-year plan, electricity aim was 17.0 thousand million kilowatt hours, and it ended with 13.4, which was a great improvement because before they only produced 5.0. In the second five year plan the target was for 38.0 and they ended with 36.2.You can see they had great improvements, with this plans. In the coal section, the first plans aim was for 68.0 million tons. They ended with 64.3 that is a lot because before they produced 35.4. In the second plan the aim was 152.5 they ended with 128.0. Again you see the great improvements they had. They produced 11.7 million tons of oil before Stalins plans. In the first plan the aim was 19.0 and they ended with 21.4 this shows that the pressure implemented in the worker did generate results. Russia produced only 3.3 millions tons of iron. By the end of the second plan they produced 14.5 million tons. Steel 4.0 million tons, at the end of the second plan they produced 17.0. You can see the great improvement made with this plans. Stalins idea was coming as successful. This statistics as you can see show how big improvement they where generating. Industrialisation was succeeding so they could create tractors. There was enough oil for them to use. Peasant started to use them a lot, which meant the production rate of farming was faster. Many of the success the five-year plans were making were psychological. Many soviet people were convinced to commit them selfs to the cause. This made them work as hard as they could till they could no more. Producing as much as they could. This gave many Russian people a sense of optimism. They thought that they where working towards something

Guillermo Paz better. Working for the good of the soviet people and or them. When ww2 came Stalin was seen as a war leader. This was because Russia had produced so much that they where heavily prepared for war. In the other hand there were failures to this plans. As said before statistics proved the improvement, but if you look at the second five-year of oil, which target was 46.8 million tons, they could only go up to 28.5 from 21.4. This shows the failure of the hard work they made. Workers where so stressed to work hard everyday, that not always they could reach the target. This worker that were tired and could not reach their target people saw them as a threat to the country. This persons who where looked like they were not committed to the cause they where punished, very harsh punishments, which sometimes even involved death. Working conditions where terrible. The industrialising cities were barely cities. There where no roads or sewers, which meant a terrible smell. Soviets were so obsessed with accomplishing their target that they started to use the machinery in unsafe ways. Pushing it over the safe limits, which many workers had to suffer. Many died or got serious injuries. Workers where put into danger, the working conditions where terrible, but they still had to work. If they didnt want to work or did not work as hard they were arrested, many of them with no reason. Factory owners started to fear. The targets where so high that people had to work for long hours a day. No mater what the conditions there was hard labour, people where really suffering when working. At the end we could say that this went both ways. It had success and failures. As success we could say that they did reach the aims, showing the great improvements they made. They had produced a lot so they could introduce the tractor into the peasant accelerating the rate of production. Farming machinery improved and people no more were dying of hunger. Also the massive production made, was able Russia to be prepared for war. They had many military improvements. But again we can see the failures of it. The forced and hard labour implement to worker by superiors and even work partners. Generating fear for people. Making them work hard for long hours a day. Putting them into terrible condition and expecting them to work as hard as they could. So I think that Stalin economic policies had a bit of both. In one hand they had success and in the other the hand failures. Showing that they where very good on accomplishing the target but did no care about other aspects which generated a failure. So I think the policies are not the best but did work.

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