13, Stalinism

Question 1

The first five-year plan - industrialisation

Answer 1

1928-32
Make Soviet Union a socialist powerhouse
Centralised: economy planned and state run

Economic incline
Industrial powerhouse
Modernity: technology in industrial sphere
Encouragement of workers to go above and beyond: shop worker campaign (workers who exceeded expectations)

Question 2

The first five-year plan – collectivisation

Answer 2

Centralisation of agriculture – collective farming
Early 1930s caused widespread disturbance – millions of peasants left without food – estimated 5.7 million people died of starvation

Question 3

The first five-year plan – class war

Answer 3

Attempt to eradicate whole groups of people
Kulaks – Stalin illimitation of Kulaks as a class
Anti-church: linked to collectivisation – idea that saints, icons and religion had no place in the farm
Propaganda produced to stigmatise the groups and reaffirm the climate of class war – people encouraged to participate in stigmatisation

Question 4

Stalinist society in the 1930s: everyday life

Answer 4

Stalin’s revolution from above
State had a constant presence in everyday life:
Centrality of the State – state was the employer, producer of goods, setter of prices from farms, regular checks of documents – the regulator

Question 5

Stalinist society in the 1930s: culture

Answer 5

Images of prosperity and abundance in propaganda – to enter into new era of celebration – life more enjoyable, work goes well

Inequalities, scarcity, bad living standards, violence are eradicated - in reality, they were just excluded and ignored

Question 6

What was the Great Terror?

Answer 6

1936-38
State repression vastly intensified under secret police
Targets: Kulaks, clergy, political opponents, ethnic and national groups
Ethnic and national purges took place