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Did Stalin's domestic policies strengthen the USSR, 1928-1953? (Yes…
Did Stalin's domestic policies strengthen the USSR, 1928-1953?
Yes
Five Year plans, build up of industry, S's determination to achieve in 10 years what had taken other societies one hundred
even though exaggerations and targets improbable to reach, give some figures
1st and 2nd plans v successful, emphasis on building up new soviet society, making it strong and able to withstand enemies, life still hard though
stalin was paranoid, but there were enemies of the USSR, think of Chamberlain, would have been alarmed by communism, threat to capitalism, armaments needed to defend the still young revolution
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From a military POV, USSR got stronger, Red Army (although dealt a hard blow w/ Purges)
Stalin's social impact
Looking at Purges, couldnt just use terror to keep people in line, also held out carrot of promise of better future, communism and equality
Improved education, compulsory primary education and secondary more widely available. 75% population illiterate in 1917, but by 1941 that was rare. Improving social conditions, was able to say in 1936 that life was becoming easier
1940: 70,000 public libraries
Historiography
McCauley: one may dismiss S as a tyrant, but it is possible to argue that he rendered the Soviet people a service, w/out Stalin, they would have succumbed to 1941 German attack --> can use this for collectivisation and five year plans.
Stalin did immense cruelties, but there is this qualiier
No
Historiography
Ulam: a different regime could also have strengthened USSR, regime didn't need to be so harsh, could have gone at a gentler pace and outcomes would be the same
Collectivisation weakened USSR, production went down, millions went to Gulags or dies in famine (famine in Russian civil war, and again in 1930s, was a man-made famine due to Stalin)
Collectivisation meant to promote industrialisation, but few resources went to the industries
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The Purges
Kirov murdered, after that purges of the Party, clearly dissatisfaction in it - collectivisation and life in the cities hard
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75 of 80 man Supreme Military Council executed, at a dangerous time for USSR, fascism on the rise, hated communism
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Deutscher: purges created a grotesque fear of initiative and responsibility in all grades of the administration which took generations to cure
Resources for industrialisation generated within USSR, but it was the Russian people who had to pay the price in terms of terror, famine and living conditions, Nove says it was the most precipitous decline in living standards known in recorded history
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