What motivated collectivisation?
- Stalin was determined to solve the peasant problem and make peasants embrace socialism
- To rid soviet society of Kulaks
- End large scale private ownership of land
- By 1928 NEP was failing, agricultural production failed, Kulaks were blamed
- Opposition to NEP was a key reason for Stalin’s success he had to change agriculture
State farms
- State farms (Sovkhos) workers worked for the state and were paid a wage
- Kolkhoz - were co-operatives with shared resources and labour and an acre of private plot. Wages came from surpluses
- Collecitivisation - initially voluntary but people didn’t want to join so was made compulsory = Dizzy with success in 1930 - 25% collectivised by 1940 - 100%
How mechanised were collective farms?
- MTS set up across the country
- 75,000 tractors produced but in 1932 only 1/2 of Russian farms had access. They didn’t make up for the loss of horses.
- By 1938, 95% of threshing, 72% of ploughing, 75% of sowing and 48% of harvesting done mechanically
What was the positive impact of collectivisation?
- Did increase production - eventually:
1928 - 73m tons
1940 - 95m tons
- Grain exports rose
1928 - 0.03m tons
1931 - 5m tons
What was the negative impact of collectivisation?
- Famine - 5-7m dead (1932-33)
- Resistance - strongest in the Ukraine - led to loss of livestock. Pigs only reached 1914 levels in 1956
- Between 9.5m and 10m were exiled as part of dekulakisation, often the most successful peasants
- Mechanisation was slow - Havest of 1933 was 9m tons less than 1926
- Wages fell by half between 1928 and 1932
- Meat consumed by urban workers fell by 1/3
- Failed to end the private market with 50-70% of products produced on private plots
How successful was collectivisation?
- Strengthened Stalin’s control over the party and the peasants
- United the party behind Stalin and blamed the peasants
- Many viewed the harsh treatment of the peasants as back to the Civil war period and associated him with heroism
- Mechanisation did imporve
- Grain exports allowed the funding of industrialisation
- Grain procured was more than NEP levels - 1928 - 10.8m tons, 1933 - 22.6m tons
- Improved urbanisation - providing a workforce
What was Gosplan?
- The soviet central economic agency
- They made production targets for every factory, mine and workshop
- Soviet workers and managers were responsible for meeting these targets
What were the aims of industrialisation?
- Preparing for future war
- Catch up with the West
- Develop heavy industry
BUT
- Targets were unrealistic and poorly coordinated
HOWEVER
- Gigantomania - Moscow underground, Magnitogorsk
- Production dramatically increased
How successful were the 5YPs?
- Significant increase in production of coal, iron and steel.
- The Russian economy grew by 14% per year
- Magnitogorsk, Moscow Underground, Dneiper dam - huge propaganda successes
- Opportunities for workers - red specialists
- Some improvement in living standards for some, end to rationing and increased wages in 2FYP
- Preparation for war
Why were the FYPs unsuccessful?
- Managers lied about targets - so planning was uncoordinated, quality was often low, and scarcity of workers and parts
- Industrial production lagged behind Germany and the US.
- Living standards decreased and there were few consumer goods. (1928-1933 milk, fruit and meat consumption fell by 2/3s)
- Labour discipline and long working weeks
- Wage differentials but led to division with workers living in barrack housing and senior communists living in 14 room houses.
- 50% of work force were peasants and turnover was high
- Economy not prepared for war in 1941
- Russia did not become self-sufficient
What new centres and projects were created?
Magnitogorsk, Dnieper Dam, Belomor Canal, Moscow Metro
How were foreign industrial leaders involved in the development of Russia?
- Henry Ford
- Learnt the lessons of Western Industrialisation
- Used 1000s of engineers out of work due to the depression in USA and Europe
What was the cult of Stalin?
Stalin became and icon
His images were everywhere
Every achievement was linked to Stalin
Russians were fed a daily diet of Stalin’s achievements via Pravda
What was socialist realism?
1932 - Socialist writers were engineers of the human soul
Artists to envision where the soviet state was going and what it would be like
Artists could not show their own interests
Artists had to promote the regime and Stalin
What limits were placed on all types of literature?
1934 - Soviet union of writers formed
Had to conform to socialist realism and advance the cause of socialism
Novels glorified the ordinary worker
Some writers such as GOrky conformed, others didn’t
What happened to art and propaganda under Stalin?
1929 - Union for artists
images had to conform
1930s art = industrial workers, peasants or Stalin
1931 - union of architects - Moscow metro completed - as a series of palaces for the workers
1932 union of soviet composers - controlled all music
19302 radios popular and used to spread governemtn messages
Cinemas popular - films used to promote Stalin’s successes
What were working conditions like for industrial workers?
- Industrial projects like the Belomor canal were built by prision labour
- Shortage of trained and skilled workers particular post the purges
- Labour discipline
- In 1930 coal workers moved jobs on average 3 times to find better work and conditions
- Factories were often unsafe
What were conditions like for agricultural workers?
- Many fled in the hope of a better life in the city
- Life was hard and most did not support communism
- Peasants didn’t own their land and got little reward for their labour so little incentive to work hard
- Collectivisation process was devistating with between 9.5m and 10m exiled during the deKulakisation process
- Living standards fell dramatically
What were living conditions like for industrial workers?
- Many new houses were build without running water or connection to sewers -
- Milk, meat and fruit consumption fell by 2/3s
- Overcrowding was common
- Some new hospitals were built improving heath
- Most lived in poor conditions - little heating
- Social inequalities increased
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Why did Stalin go for Totalitarianism?
- Complete control over the economy
- Terror to eliminate opponents
- complete control of the media
- used propaganda to win hearts and minds
What was the machinery of terror?
- Frightened of his own supporters who might challenge him eg Ryutin (200 page criticism supported by Kirov), or Kirov (more votes than Stalin)
- 1935-38 The Terror was at its height and was responsible for the death of around 10m Russians
What was the NKVD and what were the early purges?
NKVD = Secret police
Often used to get rid of critics
used to enforce the purge (purge = to get rid of)
NKVD were superior to most other offices of government
What was Kirov’s murder?
Dec 1934 - used to start the terror
Kirov was shot.
Suspicions that Stalin was behind it
Kirov was Stalin’s main rival
Allowed Stalin to say there was a conspiracy against the communist party and start full terror
What were show trials?
Mainly between 1936-8
Made political oppoinets own up to accusations
Arrest, imprison, torture, put on a trial (verdict predecided) and execute
Used to get rid of the leadership rivals of the late 1920s
Ruined reputations
What was Stalin’s constitution?
1936
The most democratic constitution in the world
Gave freedom to vote, speech, religion but not upheld by law so worthless
What was the impact of the Terror?
Social
Everyone was affected, created a climate of fear
Political
Got rid of all opposition, and secured Stalin’s power
Economic
1937 height of the purges = economic slowdown
Led to a shortage of workers, expertise and economic planning was impossible as people were terrified of telling the truth about production
What was Yezhovschina the Great Terror?
From 1937
Eliminated 1920s communists
Created a new generation of loyal communists
Established Stalin’s right to use terror
Wide ranging impact
What was mass terror and repression?
Mass terror remoed all opposition in the party and the country
1937 even the NKVD were purged losing 20,000 members
1937 the military were purged, executing 85,000 officers
HOw were minorities affected by the Terror?
Summer 1937 - National groups were purged
Koreans (conflict in Japan), Central and Eastern Europeans (potential support of the Nazis), Chinease and Afghans
What were the gulags?
Prison camps origninally started in 1918 by Lenin
1930s led to a network being built
1941 there were 8m in camps
Average sentence was 10 years
Hard labour
When did the purges end?
1939 - Yezhow arrested and shot, replaced by Beria
Signalled the end to waves of arrest and executions
What happened to Trotsky?
He was exciled in 1928
August 1940 he was exceuted in Mexico
Who was responsible for the Terror?
Stalin - paranoid and feared being overthrown
Party memebers - who saw advantages for themselves so went along with it.
Lenin - he started a purge of the party in 1918 - they were not violent at the time and used Terror on his external opponents during the Civil War
What was the difference between terror under Lenin versus Stalin?
Lenin - external enemies - imprisoned and/or killed- class warfare - isolated and reeducated
Satlin - class warfare at a whole nother level! and used it to implement economic reforms, Stalin killed and imprisoned Russians and all types of his own people.
How successful was cultural and social change?
The church
Partially
1941 - 40,000 churches and 25,000 mosques closed
in 19202 = 60,000 priests in 1941 = 5665, rest sent to Gulags
BUT 1937 census 1/2m say they are religious believers
How successful was cultural and social change?
Women
Partially
Family code 1936 - Abortion illegal, contraception banned
Birth rate 1935 - 25 per 1000, 1940 - 31 per 1000
Divorce harder, prostitution illegal
BUT divorce rate high 1934 - 37% in Moscow, 150,000 abortions per 57,000 live births and an increase in prostition
1928 - 3m workers in factories but 1940 13m, despite the fact women should be at home!
How successful was cultural and social change?
Youth
Successful
Reformed the education system - better educated and more skilled workers
1917 - 65% literacy, 1941 - 94% in cities
Komsomol membership
1928 - 2m, 1939 - 7m, 1945 - 15m However, even at the height memebrship only 30% of 15-24 year olds
How successful was cultural and social change?
Socialist man
Partially
Homosovieticus - opposition was rare, but estimated that only 1/5 workers enthusiastically supproted
Campaigns to improve men’s behaviour to women and reduce alcohol consumpton failed
Culture was enjoyed by many - 600,000 cinema tickets sold annually at Magnitogorsk and in 1936 - 40,000 books sold
But culture was often out of reach of ordinary citizens
How does Lenin compare to Stalin?
SIMILARITIES
centralised government, strict control of the party, terror for control, censorship, policies to supress the peasantry, central planning of the economy and mobilisation of workers to get things done
DIFFERENCES
Lenin - no terror against memebrs of his own party dictatorship was temporary, centralised state due to circumstances?, encouraged national minorities to stay, whereas Stalin crushed them.
What was Stalin’s view of the international situation?
He wanted collective security
What was Stlain’s policy towards Germany?
Non-agression pacts with other European nations
Why and when did Stalin join the League of Nations?
Sept 1934
For collective security
What pacts did Stalin make?
Pacts with France and the Czech republic
How did Stalin contribute to the Spanish Civil War?
Started in July 1936
He sent support to the Republicans
Finance, aid and advice
What was the Nazi-Soviet Pact?
Stalin signed this with Hitler in August 1939
It surprised Europe and enabled Hitler to start a war with France
It was a non-aggression pact
Stalin didn’t trust HItler but hoped it would buy him time
What was collectivisation?
1928-1941
Small farms merged into large collectives - ownership of famr’s land and resources - all state owned
How did they go about collectivisation?
INitially voluntary - he didn’t ropose full collectivisation but it was stepped up by 1930. Partly becuase it had support from the party. Stalin claimed that initial targets were beaten by over 100% (blaming the fierce collectivisation on overzealous party members) said they were ‘Dizzy with success’ and they needed to slow down.
This was just a distraction - famine and forced collectivisation continued hard once the harvest of 1930 was collected in
Why did Stalin favour mass industrialisation?
‘We are 100 years behind, we must catch up in 10’. He feared they would be defeated if they didn’t.
1928-1941 - 3 plans
Main aim was to industrialise
Centralised planning and investment with Gosplan
Eliminate NEPmen.
It reflected military concerns (particulalry against Germany)
Stalin wanted to assert his authority and prove himself.