15) Stalin: Economic Developments Flashcards
(9 cards)
What was the Great Turn?
- 1927 S announced end of NEP - failing to produce sufficient growth📉.
- S wanted be associated w/ new + successful economic direction.
- ’True socialism’ demanded developed industry rather than dependence on peasantry👨🏼🌾❌.
- Important to rely less on foreign imports + ⬆️military strength⚔️(in case of war).
- Aimed for rapid industrialisation along w/ cultural rev.
How did collectivisation aid industrialisation?
✅State can take as much grain as necessary to support industrialisation➡️capital to invest in industry + feed ⬆️ workforce👷🏽♀️🥖.
✅Kolkhozy efficient➡️fewer peasants needed➡️surplus for labour force.
✅20mn peasants moved to towns + industrial areas (1928-41)❌➡️towns under strain➡️internal passports.
✅By 1941 all 👨🏼🌾 households collectivised.
❌Dekulakisation removed millions of successful farmers.
❌1932-33 excessive grain procurements➡️man-made famine in Ukraine🥖🚫➡️7mn☠️starvation.
❌Collectives poorly organised + lacked sufficient equipment.
❌👨🏼🌾 little incentive to be productive - more interested in their private plots (could sell surplus at markets💰).
❌Grain output didn’t exceed pre-collectivisation levels until after 1935📈.
What were the Five Year Plans?
1) Emphasis on heavy industry🏭: most investment into coal⛏, iron, steel➡️pr power + equipment to manufacture other products➡️less dependent on West for goods.
- Citizens sacrifice standard of living - ⬇️ consumer industries.
- Develop industries to protect from West attack.
2) Impossibly high pr targets backed by law➡️failure to meet = criminal offence.
•Bonuses for enterprises which exceeded planned target💴.
3) New industrial centres: mostly located Ural Mountains - strategic, less vulnerable from West attack (e.g. Magnitogorsk).
4) Gigantomania: projects to show Sov industrial might (e.g. Magnitogorsk).
Successes of the First Five Year Plan 1928-1932✅
✅Emphasis heavy industry (80% investment)➡️developed heavy industry, 1,500 enterprises opened.
✅Rapid, significant ⬆️industrial output - coal + iron output✖️2.
✅Impressive growth📈.
✅Electricity pr✖️3.
✅No. workers✖️2 - shock workers who strove to ⬆️ pr.
✅Young people initially enthused, inspired by road to socialism.
✅S claimed targets met in only 4 yrs - successful.
Failures of the First Five Year Plan 1928-1932❌
❌Impossible targets - Vesenka + Gosplan outbidding each other➡️prediction of 35mn tones pr➡️75mn tones. Poor central coordination.
❌No major targets achieved - hindered by Great Depression + collectivisation.
❌Bourgeois specialist-baiting: attacked, political purge from workplace➡️uneducated, inexperienced workers took their positions➡️no discipline in workforce➡️1931 halt to specialist-baiting.
❌Incentives + ⬆️wages to encourage workers➡️inequality⚖️.
❌1932 decree supported authority of management➡️could sack unsatisfactory workers + deprive of ration cards➡️workers moving on to better conditions👷🏼♀️☹️.
❌Collectivisation➡️millions unskilled 👨🏼🌾 workforce from countryside➡️instability.
Successes of the Second Five Year Plan 1933-1937✅
✅Benefited from raw materials + investment from 1st Plan.
✅1934-36 = “3 Good Yrs” - agr recovering from collectivisation➡️rationing ended, food supplies improved🥖.
✅By 1937 USSR self-sufficient in machine-making + metalworking.
✅4,500 new enterprises opened.
✅Signs of recovery in consumer goods industries.
✅Continued growth of heavy industry.
✅Chemical industries (e.g. fertiliser pr) growing🧪.
✅Improvements to communications - railways to link cities + industrial centres🚂.
✅People began to see some benefits of ec growth.
✅1935 Stakhanovite movement (x16 av coal output but set up w/ perfect conditions) - propaganda in Pravda as “Soviet Hercules”➡️pr rates ⬆️ (workers wanted to be Stakhanovite) + managers not adopting new pr methods = saboteurs, removed.
Failures of the Second Five Year Plan 1933-1937❌
❌From 1937 economic slowdown.
❌Consumer industries still neglected.
❌Oil pr not on track.
❌Emphasis on quantity over quality.
❌Pressure on managers for workers be named Stakhanovite➡️violence, sabotage, demands.
❌1936 situation worsened: bad harvest, shortages, industrial accidents, worker discontent➡️self-protective practices (local party leadership + NKVD colluded).
❌Fear of not meeting ⬆️targets➡️systematic deception of centre: managers bribing, stealing others’ raw materials➡️substandard, useless products.
Successes of the Third Five Year Plan 1938-1941✅
✅Heavy industry grew in machinery + engineering (❌some areas did poorly).
✅Defence + armaments grew rapidly📈 (Hitler invaded Austria + Czech 1938-39).
Failure of the Third Five Year Plan 1938-1941❌
❌1941 plan cut short when G invaded R.
❌Economic slowdown blamed on deliberate sabotage➡️purges of officials + managers + ⬆️ tough Labour Decrees➡️worsened situation, universally detested💔.
❌1938 Labour decree - easier for managers refuse employment.
❌1940 Labour decree - ⬆️ working day (8hrs) + week (6days) w/o ⬆️ pay, can’t change jobs w/o authorisation, absenteeism➡️6months Labour w/ greatly reduced pay.
❌Diversion funds into armaments industries + purges of skilled personnel limited progress🚫.
