Chap 2.

2
To what extent did Stalins
dictatorship devastate the Soviet
Union?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzon
e/clips/russia-reconsiders-the-o
fficial-view-of-stalin/7229.html

Stalins leadership: from 1929

1953.

The Soviet Union became one of the most industrialized

countries during that period.

BUT It is estimated that he caused the deaths of no

fewer than 15 million Soviets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awxHKqEquco

Slave labourers in gulags

(Soviet labour camps)

Joseph Stalin
One death is a
tragedy; one
million is a
statistic.

But his leadership

continues to evoke
intense and sometimes
contrasting emotions.

Communist
supporter
kissing a
portrait of
Stalin, Feb
2010

7 Feb 2013 Statue of Stalin removed

and painted pink by unidentified
vandalizers

To what extent did Stalins

dictatorship devastate the
Soviet Union?

Economic Impact of
Stalins Policies

Stalins Economic
Policies

Rapid
Industrialization
(cities)

Collectivization
(countryside)

Stalins Aims
To modernise the Soviet Union
Achieve same economic and military levels as the

Western powers.
Rapid industrialization and agriculture were to
work hand in hand
Launched a series of Five-Year Plans targets
were set for industrial and agricultural
development.

But ironically, collectivisation resulted in

millions of deaths!

How did it happen?

After todays lesson you wont want to

waste food ever again!

Agriculture before collectivisation

Lenins NEP
Farmers allowed to possess their own land.
Farmers could plant crops for personal use and sell extra
crops for profit.
A new class of wealthy peasants (kulaks) formed. They
owned 98% of the agricultural land in the USSR.
To make even more profits, kulaks sometimes hoarded
their crops.
Others chose to eat all of their crops instead of selling
them.
Result: food shortages in the cities and towns.

Stalins goal for Russia

Stalins goal: to
increase the
amount of crops
produced by the
farms

"Agriculture is
developing slowly,
comrades. This is
because we have
about 25 million
individually owned
farms. They are the
most primitive and
undeveloped form of
economy. We must
do our utmost to
develop large farms
and to convert them
into grain factories
for the country.

WHAT IS COLLECTIVISATION?
Farms in the same area were grouped into a unit to form a larger

collective farm (kolkhoz).

It was thought that larger units of farms could be farmed more efficiently

through mechanization such as tractors.

Land owned by the state; crops distributed by the state.

Equipment such as tractors were provided by the state.
Quantities of crops that farmers were to produce, as well as their working

hours and wages were fixed by the state. (In this way, farmers became
paid labourers.) Farmers kept and shared about 10% of the crops, the
rest was sold to the state for a very low price, which was fixed.

Farmers who produced low quantities or were absent from work were

punished.

Aims of Collectivisation
To increase agricultural output from collective farms
To make food production more efficient
To make tax collection more efficient
To reduce the manpower needed for farms so that more

people can work in the cities.

 By 1935, almost all the farms in the USSR were kolkhozy.

Persuading the peasants

The caption
reads
Comrade,
come join the
kolkhoz!

Down with
the ancient
grandfathers
village!

How did the peasants respond to

collectivisation?

Peasant 1
This idea sounds
good. With
collectivisation, I
will be a co-owner
of the land and I
will get what the
other peasants
with land get.

Peasant 2

It sounds fine for

those of us who
work hard, but what
about those who are
lazy? Why should we
share our hardowned money with
them?

Kulak
In the past, we got
high prices for selling
our crops. Now with
collectivisation, we
have to sell our
produce at very low
prices to the
government.

Results:
Many peasants, especially the kulaks, slaughtered their

livestock, burnt their grain and produce and hit or buried

their crops in the ground to prevent them from being taken
over by the state.
Bad harvest contributed to the Great Famine of 1932
1933. Millions of peasants in parts of the USSR starved to
death.
Grain harvest dropped dramatically between 1931 and
1934 and did not recover to their 1928 level.
Loss of animal production (cattle pigs and sheep) were not
recovered until after WW2 in 1945.
.

 The state, however, managed to collect the grain it

needed to feed the industrial towns and export them to

buy industrial equipment.
Manpower for new factories was found as peasants left
the countryside.

Famine in Ukraine (Additional Info)

Ukraine bread basket of Soviet Union
Food from Ukraine sustained the lives of millions of people

as it was sent to the other parts of the Soviet Union that did
not produce enough food.

The Holodomor, 1932 1933

The Holodomor: Death by Forced Starvation
A famine that was engineered/ man-made.
Part of Stalins programme to crush peasant resistance.
Increased Ukraines grain contribution by 44%.

(Deliberate decision because they knew this would

caused food shortages in Ukraine.)

Victims of the ukraine famine

Negative impacts of
Collectivization
Peasants caught with
human body parts
Cannibalism as a
result of famine

Estimated death toll between 7 11 million people!

Famine everywhere!
When famine in Ukraine occurred, other parts of the

Soviet Union suffered from food shortages as well!

Eyewitness account of the famine:

I would climb a cherry tree and would eat cherries,
green cherries. My body swelled up, and sometimes I
survived eating only grass and leaves. That was all
my food.

Rejecting International Aid

Stalin sought to suppress information about the famine.
Instead, he inflated figures of food production and boasted

about how successful collectivization was.

Stalin rejected any international aid.

Stalins Economic
Policies

Rapid
Industrialization

Collectivization

42

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_
8e_OUUA2s
(play
from
0.00-0.26
and
3.09-09.38)
Stalin in a 1931 speech to factory managers explaining
the need for rapid industrialisation

We must put an end to backwardness in the

shortest possible time. We are 50 to 100 years
behind the advanced countries. We must catch up
in 10 years or they will crush us.

Industrialization
Not just industrialization, but RAPID industrialization!

And when we have

the Soviet Union on
an automobile and
the farmer on a
tractor, let them try
to overtake us!

Rapid Industrialization
Emphasis on development of heavy industries
E.g.: steel, coal, electricity, oil
Hardest steel from Soviet mills was named Stalinite. (Stalin

a humble man? Go figure)

Hundreds of new factories were built, and the industrial

workforce expanded.
As with collectivisation, the state set quotas for producing
farming machinery and other factory goods.
Working hours and wages of factory workers were also fixed.

[Under-construction]
worlds largest blast
furnace in
Magnitogorsk (a new
industrial city in the
USSR)

Excavating for the

building of a steel plant in
Magnitogorsk, 1930s

Evaluation of the Five-Year Plans

Five-Year Plans were marked by poor coordination

and planning (especially the 1st Five-Year Plan)

Some parts of the economy faced underproduction

because factories were held up by shortages of materials.

Other factories overproduced in their attempts to exceed
the targets.
This resulted in a great deal of wastage when

some parts were overproduced.

Evaluation of the Five-Year Plans

Moreover, since the emphasis was on the development of

heavy industries, there was little growth in consumer

industries such as house-building and woollen textiles.
Consumer goods were often in short supply and rationing
was imposed on every household.
Thus, it could be seen that the Five-Year Plans had failed
to consider the basic needs of the Soviet people.
In addition, in the haste to meet production figures, the

quality of products was often sub-standard and potentially

hazardous.

 Greater planning and coordination as well as taking stock

of production were put in place for the Second and Third

Five-Year Plans.
This resulted in a declining rate of growth.
After 1937, the USSR witnessed an economic slowdown
and industries such as oil and steel stopped growing.
Nonetheless, the Five-Year Plans helped to propel the
USSR forward to become an industrial base for powerful
arms industry by 1941.
The USSR became the second most industrialized
country in the world after the USA by the end of the
1930s.