2B: Industry and Agriculture in the Stalin Era.

Question 1

What were the aims of the Five Year Plans in Russia?

Answer 1

• Combine central planning and large-scale investment to industrialise Russia.
• Catch up to GB within 15 years.
• Eliminate inefficiencies and corruption of N.E.P.
• Defend Soviet territories through strengthening the economy.
• Assertion of Stalin’s own authority.
• 1st: 1928-32; 2nd: 1933-37; 3rd: 1938-41.
• Use Gosplan to manage targets or every means of production.
• Utilise propaganda to motivate the working population.
• Ultimately became a command economy.

Question 2

Outline the successes of the Five Year Plans in Russia.

Answer 2

• Heavy industrial output increased drastically (e.g. 35.4 mill tons were produced in 1927 compared to 165.9 in 1940) as a result of the introduction of new factories.
• Transport services improved, e.g. opening of Moscow Metro lines in 1935.
• Labour productivity rose significantly, perhaps due to incentives and a propaganda scheme based around Alexei Stakhanov.
• Prioritisation of arms production with war impending = rearmament: by 1940, 1/3 government income was dedicated to military production.

Question 3

Outline the problems/failures of the Five Year Plans in Russia, 1928-41.

Answer 3

• Low quality goods as quantity was prioritised over quality.
• Lack of transport and communication led to inefficient use of products; as much as 40% of produce was wasted.
• The purges had rid industry of many experts now needed to manage production.
• Continual shortages of consumer goods due to poor planning, consideration and technical knowledge.
• Similarly, living and working conditions were never prioritised
• Black market trade still flourished.

Question 4

What were the reasons and methods used for launching collectivisation in Russia.?

Answer 4

• Communist ideology: advocated abolishing private trade and ownership as a means of efficiency, equality and commitment.
• Failure of N.E.P. = ‘grain procurement crisis’ and potential opposition to the socialist model.
• Stalin’s position would be made more secure by siding with Trotsky and the left, who wanted to end the N.E.P. as they held the most power in government.
• Within a year of announcing full-scale collectivisation in 1929, Stalin claimed total success.
• The re-introduction of grain requisitioning and rationing signalled the end of free trade and arguably helped fund industrialisation.
• This stimulated class conflict, giving Stalin the excuse he needed to purge his opponents.

Question 5

What were the consequences of collectivisation?

Answer 5

• devastated agriculture, but released funds for industrialisation.
• provoked protests among peasants in the form of destruction of crops, animals and machinery.
• famine, often government created, as a result of failure to meet targets.
• limited impact of mechanisation (75,000 tractors =/= 17 million horses).
• increased grain procurement and exportation = starvation.

Question 6

State the features of industry and agriculture in the USSR during and after WWII.

Answer 6

• collective farms only around 3/4 productive as private farms = continual small harvests.
• reliant on US imports for 1/5 calories consumed by the Red Army during WWII; rations continually decreased.
• The Fourth Five Year Plan began recovery from the devastation of was; industrial output increased by 80% in the five years after WWII.
• military spending continued to dominate government expenditure, meaning consumer goods continued to be scarce.
• wages remained low; everyone able to was forced to work.
• agriculture faced a return to the strict guidelines of the pre-war period.