AS FP3 : Social and Economic developments, impact of the great turn

Question 1

Industry

What were the main aims of the First Five Year Plan?

Answer 1

• Develop Heavy Industry
• Boost overall production by 300 percent
• Improve transport system and railways
• Transform society and economy by electrification, the target was to generate six times more electrical power by 1933 than the total in 1928.
• Light industry expected to double its output.

Question 2

Why were the targets for industrialisation so high?

Answer 2

These ambitious targets were intended to force managers and workers to devote maximum effort to the fulfilment of the Five-Year-Plan. The launch was accompanied by a propaganda wave to while up enthusiasm.

Question 3

What was the general attitude towards rapid industrialisation?

Answer 3

Stalin’s rush to transform Russia through industrialisation and collectivisation aroused much enthusiasm and expectations in society. Many elements of the party membership were eager to see commitment to radical social change. Urban workers hoped for better living and employment. Middle and poor peasants hoped to benefit from further land reform.

Question 4

Was there oppositon to the great turn?

Answer 4

Yes, many on the right saw the Kulaks as the backbone of the agricultural economy and many of those managing industrial producrion were already critical of the adverse impacts of central planning and were not persauded that a huge new emphasis on central planning would solve the problems of industry.

Question 5

What were the reasons for the decision to collectivise agriculture?

Answer 5

• Grain procurement crisis
• Need for increased food supplies and export of grain to pay for industrialisation
• Collectivisation was the right socialist path to take.

Question 6

How did the decision to collectivise impact Bukharin?

Answer 6

• By the summer of 1928, Bukharin’s political position was weakening, he found himself outvoted more often.
• In octoberm the Bukharinists lost the majority they had held in the Moscow Soviet
• In November, Bukharin was charged with right deviation and in 1929 he was deprived of several government posts.