Topic 2 Flashcards
(57 cards)
1
Q
What did Stalin call the ‘Great Turn’?
A
the second revolution
2
Q
Why did Stalin implement the ‘Great Turn’?
A
- increase military strength
- ideological reasons
- self-sufficiency
- increase grain supplies
3
Q
Increase military strenth
Reasons for the Great Turn
A
- an industrialised country could manufacture huge quantities of weapons and munitions.
- allowed USSR to be well-equipped to fight a modern war.
- late 1920s-30s, S increasingly convinced USSR would be attacked
4
Q
Ideological reasons
Reasons for the Great Turn
A
- Marxism: socialism could only be achieved in a highly industrialised state where most of the population were workers.
- Only ≈20% of the population were workers.
5
Q
Self-sufficiency
Reasons for the Great Turn
A
- wanted USSR to be less dependent on manufactured goods from the West
- strong industrial base required to produce goods people needed
6
Q
Increase grain supplies
Reasons for the Great Turn
A
- wanted to end dependency on a ‘backwards’ agricultural system
- didn’t want a new socialist state to be at the mercy of the peasantry
7
Q
Gosplan
A
- State Planning Committee
- set ambitious production targets for every part of the economy in 1928
- expected input to double in most in most industries
- many targets not met
- target for steel in 1932 was 10.4m but only 5.9m was achieved
- target for wool cloth was 270m but only 93.3m was achieved
8
Q
Reasons for the Five Year Plans
A
- economic reasons
- fear of invasion
- ideological reasons
- political reasons
9
Q
Economic Reasons
Reasons for the Five Year Plans
A
- 1928, Soviet economy had almost recovered to pre-1914 levels
- USSR was economicall far beind other nations
- performance of NEP was disappointing
- NEP needed to be replaced with rapid industrialisation
10
Q
Ideological Reasons
Reasons for the Five Year Plans
A
- communisms appealed to workers but peasants made up most of the population
- peasants could be turned into industrial workers under the FYPs
- large-scale nationalisation and state control would get rid of NEPMEN - ‘enemies of communism’
11
Q
Political Reasons
Reasons for the Five Year Plans
A
- rapid industrialisation would divide political opponents on the right of the Party (Bukharin)
- S called it ‘the second revolution’, placing him alongside Lenin who led ‘the first revolution’ in Oct 1917.
12
Q
Fear of Invasion
Reasons for the Five Year Plans
A
- fear of invasion from the West (especially Germany)
- help provided to the Whites in the Civil War showed the West wanted to destroy communism
- Churchill - “strangling Bolshevism in its cradle’
In 1927:
- Pyotr Voykov, Soviet ambassador to Poland assassinated
- Communists led by Mao Ze Dong attacked be Nationalists in China
- Britain cut diplomatic ties with Russia after accusations of spreading revolutionary Soviet propaganda
13
Q
What was the focus of the first FYP?
A
heavy industry
14
Q
What was the focus of the second FYP?
A
making machinery
15
Q
What was the focus of the third FYP?
A
heavy industry for armaments
16
Q
First FYP
Strengths
A
- 1500 enterprises opened
- number of industrial workers doubled
- electricity: 500m-1.34b kWh (nearly trebled).
- coal: 35.5-75m tonnes (doubled)
- oil: 11.7-22m tonnes (doubled)
- steel production increased by a third.
- huge industrial complexes, like Magnitogorsk, began to be built.
17
Q
First FYP
Weaknesses
A
- decline in consumer industries
- lack of skilled workers = job instability
- many targets nnot met
- decline in living and working conditions
18
Q
Second FYP
Strengths
A
- enormous growth in industries of chemicals and metallurgy
- rapid growth of transport & communications
- advances in heavy and chemical industry
- USSR virtually self-sufficient by 1937
19
Q
Second FYP
Weaknesses
A
- limited growth of of oil
- consumer goods still lagged
20
Q
Third Five Year Plan
Strengths
A
- more attention to producing weapons due to the growing threat of war.
- ⅓ of government investment was spent on defense and the start of a powerful defense industry by 1940
- 9 new aircraft factories were established
21
Q
Third FYP
Weaknesses
A
- hampered by Pirges
- June 1941 Nazi Incasion cut short the plan
22
Q
Overall Positive Economic Effects of the FYPs
A
- six-fold increase in coal production
- four-fold increase in steel production
- large indusstrial centres / complexes built
23
Q
Overall Positive Social Effect of the FYPs
A
huge growth in the number of industrial workers
24
Q
Overall Positive Political Effects of the FYPs
A
- CPs control strengthened through organisation of industrial workers
- S’ position as leader strengthened
- removal of capitalist classes
- central planning through the Gosplan expanded the government’s role in the economy
25
Overall Negative Economic Effects of the FYPs
- increased corruption
- neglect of consumer industries
- decline in textile production
26
Overall Negative Social Effects of the FYPs
- decline in working conditions
- low levels of pay
- worker discontent at poor condiitons
- use of slave labour to overcome labour shortages
- internal passports prevented workers leaving jobs
27
Stakhanov Movement
- Alexei Stakhanov shifted 102 tonnes of coal in one shift (14x average)
- government later admitted it was fake
- clever propaganda campagin
- encouraged people to work harder
- Stakhanovites entitled to better housing, free holidays and cash prizes
- unpopular with workers before they pushed up the production norm (on which wages were calculated)
- other workers didn't like the pressure put on them to work harder
28
What were Stakhanovites entitled to?
- better housing
- free holidays
- cash prizes
29
How could Stakhanovites have been problematic in the workspace?
workers trying to set records disrupted normal working patters and managers had to spend extra time dealing with attempts to set new production records
30
When did Magnitogorsk become closed to foreigners?
1937
western workers expelled
31
Magnitogorsk
- esigned as Stalin’s industrial showpiece
- railroad to complex completed in June 1929 leading to an influx of workers
- 750k workers arrived voluntarily
- 40k political prisoners used for construction
- harsh living conditions
- average workers stayed for only 82 days
32
Awards + Honours
- those who worked harder could receive awards and honours.
- Stakhanov movement
- hard workers were entitled to better housing, free holidays and cash prizes.
33
Wages
- calculated on production output.
Skilled workers could earn 4x more than unskilled
- managers earned even higher wages
- foreign workers & Stakhnovites received better treatment
- contradicted communist ideals
34
Punishments
- absenteeism punished by fines, loss of ration cards or dismissal
- 1940, absenteeism became a crime and prison sentence fo second offences
35
Forced Labour
- a large proportion of the workforce consisted of forced labour
- much of construction was completed by those held in labour camps - Stalin’s opponents: kulaks, factory absentees and members of religious organisations
- forced to work hard by compulsion, fear of physical punishment or being denied food
36
Sovkhoz
- state farm
- larger than collective farms
- peasants treated as outdoor workers and paid a fixed wage
37
When did Stalin announce Collectivization?
winter of 1929-30
38
What did a typical Kolkhoz look like?
- 50-100 families
- run by a chairman who was a member of the CP
- hours, jobs and crops grown were set by the state
- peasants not allowed to leave for the cities
- produce taken by state for a low price; peasants paid badly
- after 1935, peasants given a small area of land to farm for themselves as well as some animals
39
How may kolkhozes had been created by 1940?
240k
40
How much land had been collectivzed by 1937?
90%
41
Reasons for introducing collectivization
- economic reasons
- political reasons
- ideological reasons
42
Economic Reasons
| Collectivization
- agriculture still backwards
- little machinery like combine harvesters and tractors
- few collective farms - these were much more efficient and productive
- agriculture was unable to produce enough surplus grain to support further industrial and urban growth - grain procurement crisis in 1927-28: the government could not buy enough grain to feed the workers
- agriculture was unable to produce enough to export in large quantities. This foreign capital was needed to buy modern machinery from abroad for FYPs and Collectivisation
43
Political Reasons
| Collectivization
- S was aware that food shortages in the cities contributed to the collapse of the Tsar and the PG
- S also realised that the peasants had nearly destroyed Lenin during war communism
- Collectivisation would also give Stalin the upper hand in the power struggle against Bukharin
44
Ideological Reasons
| Collectivization
- S wanted to eliminate Kulaks and NEPMEN
- S believed the capitalist values of the NEP were a threat to communism
- Collectivisation would help extend socialism into the countryside
- peasants had started to hide their grain; food had to be rationed in the cities in 1928-29
45
Impacts / Effects of Collectivization
- famine
- elimination of the Kulaks
- fall in production
- (political) control of the peasants
- helped FYPs
46
Famine
| Effect of Collectivization
- peasants killed their animals and produced less grain - led to famine (esp. in Ukrain)
- 4-5 million people died
- people resorted to eating earthworms, mice, ants and tree bark. - some even went as far as to eat human flesh despite the Soviet regime printing posters declaring “to eat your own children is a barbaric act”, where 2.5k people were convicted of cannibalism
- in Ukraine, the famine was known as the Holodomor
- by the end of the 1930s, estimates say 13 million people died because of the collectivisation process.
- significant human cost.
47
Elimination of the Kulaks
| Effect of Collectivization
- in 1929, Stalin gave the order to “Liquidate the kulaks as a class”. He meant anyone opposed to collectivization
- Kulaks were forbidden from joining collective farms and rounded up by dekulakization squads
- thousands were shot on the spot; 2 million were sent to Siberian labour camps; others exiled to land too poor to farm
- by 1934, all of the kulaks had been removed
48
Fall in Production
| Effect of Collectivization
- grain production in 1928 was 73m tonnes but by 1934 it was at 67m - this was a result of strong resistance and opposition, especially in Kazakhstan, the Ukraine and the Caucasus: they had slaughtered their animals and set fire to their farms rather than hand over grain
- population of farm animals fell by 50% within the first 3 years of collectivization as peasants slaughtered their animals rather than hand them over; this loss would only be recovered by 1953.
- 14m cattle were slaughtered in 1930 alone; this led to a meat and milk shortage
- in 1930, Stalin called a temporary halt to collectivisation to collect the grain because opposition was so severe
49
Helped FYPs
| Effect of Collectivization
- by 1940 240k Kolkhozes had been created and 90% of farmland had been collectivised
- this guaranteed a supply of grain to the cities. By 1934 the rationing of bread and other foodstuffs ended
- surplus could be sold abroad to pay for new industrial equipment
- 19 million peasants moved to the cities to work in the factories
50
Political Control of the Peasants
| Effect of Collectivization
**MTS**
- principal instrument of control in the countryside.
- each MTS had a political department to spread communist propaganda; this department was given full control of the farms and significant local political influence.
- trouble-makers could be arrested on the spot.
51
When was the Great Famine?
1932-33
52
What does 'Holodomor' mean?
extermination by hunger
53
The Great Famine
- man-made tragedy.
- deliberately caused by S for political purposes, e.g to punish the Ukrainian peasantry for heavy resistance to collectivization and to break the spirit of the Ukrainian people who wanted independence from the Soviet Union
- military checkpoints set up to prevent starving peasants from leaving famine hit areas
- S refused to admit there was a famine and refused foreign aid
54
Causes of the Great Famine
- Collectivization (creates situation)
- Opposition (exacerbates situation)
- Export of Grain
55
Collectivization
| Causes of the Great Famine
- 24 million peasants placed in 240k Kolkhozes (collective farms)
- produce was taken by the state for a low price; peasants paid badly
- by 1937, 90% of farmland had been collectivised
- implementation was chaotic - especially in the Ukraine
- peasants hid their grain, killed animals, experienced farmers were deported, collective farms badly run and peasants put little effort into their work - such as sowing seeds in the Spring
- grain harvest fell from 83 million tonnes in 1930 to 68 million in 1933
- S increased grain quotas to unrealistic levels and officials seized all of the grain they could find, leaving none for the peasants
56
Opposition
| Causes of the Great Famine
- heavy resistance to collectivisation, particularly in the Caucasus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Peasants set fire to farms and slaughtered animals rather than hand over grain.
- farm population fell by 50% in the first three years as peasants killed livestock rather than hand it over - in 1930 alone 14 million cattle were slaughtered - this led to a shortage of meat and milk.
- early opposition was so fierce that Stalin temporarily called a halt to collectivisation in 1930. Once the harvest was collected he resumed the process and opposition continued.
57
Export of Grain
| Causes of the Great Famine
- S prioritised the export of grain for foreign capital to buy machinery from abroad for the FYPs
- while Ukrainians were dying, the Soviet state took over 4 million tonnes of grain from Ukraine, enough to feed at least 12 million people for an entire year.
- Soviet records show that in January of 1933, there were enough grain reserves in the USSR to feed well over 10 million people
- central authorities ordered local officials to extract more of the grain from villages despite being informed of the dire situations. Millions starved whilst the USSR sold Ukrainian crops abroad
