Economic Impact of Stalin: Five-Year Plans

Target industrial and agricultural development (5 years)

  • rapid industrialization and collectivization to work hand in hand
  • transform the Soviet Union from agricultural city into a major industrial power
  • Surplus grain could be exported to earn foreign currency to build industrial capital equipment.

Collectivization (1928 onwards)

  • Modernise farming methods so that excess labour can be re-deployed to the industrial sector and support the industrialisation programme
  • Export surpluses to raise funds to invest in industry

Plan:

  • merge small individual farms into larger collective farms (Kolkhoz)
  • believed that larger farms can farm more efficiently
  • complete reversal from Lenin's New Economic Policy (NEP)

Lenin's NEP: (aim)

  • improve Soviet Economy (from devastation after Russian Revolution & civil war)

Measures:

  • farmers allowed to possess their own land
  • can plant crops for personal use and sell for extra profit

Result:

  • new class of wealthy peasants (kulaks)
  • agricultural production increase
  • some kulaks hid and stored away crops to sell to increase profits
  • some chose to eat all than sell
    ppl in cities and towns food shortage
  • Stalin saw as form of capitalism & betrayal of communist ideals
  • Stalin implement collectivization

Stalin's Rule (Aim):

  • believe in motto: 'Peace, Land and Bread' for all ppl rather than private land ownership
  • aid overall main aim of rapid industrialization
  • promise to secure food supply for factory workers (contributing to industrialization)
  • export crops to other countries to raise funds for industrialization
  • make farming more efficient

Measures:

  • land owned by state
  • crops confiscated & distributed by state
  • quantity farmers needed to produce & working hours + wages decided by state
  • equipment (for more efficient farming) provided by state
  • farmers produce little/absent = punished
  • shock workers (ppl work in city) used to force peasants to join collective farms & remove kulaks

Capitalization: economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state

Results:

  • Kulaks killed own animals + burned own grain + hid & buried own crops to prevent from being taken away
  • bad harvest (1932-1933) led to great Famine = deaths of millions of peasants
  • grain harvest dropped drastically (1931-1934)
  • loss of animal pop (until aft WW11 - 1945)
  • state managed to collect grain needed to feed industrial towns & export to buy industrial equip
  • manpower found (peasants who left countryside)

Rapid Industrialization: to become self sufficient & military strong

  • sought to rapidly industrialize Soviet Union
  • factories to produce equipment for mechanization of farming (e.g. tractors)
  • fewer farm workers needed
  • go into city to be factory workers
  • mechanised farms = more efficiency + more grain & crops produced
  • more food supply for cities & factories
  • heavy emphasis on heavy industries e.g coal, iron steel, electricity to achieve self-sufficiency (2nd and 3rd Five Year Plan)
  • hundreds of factories built
  • industrial force expanded


Background of USSR (1928):

  • USSR was a backward agricultural country
    • Did not use machinery, farms were tiny and could only
      sustain the farmer
  • Low production from heavy industry (i.e. coal and steel)
  • Fear of invasion: Britain, France and the USA supported the Whites during the civil war of 1918-21

3 Five-Year Plans:

  • 1928-1932: Power, infrastructure, heavy industry ie. Coal, steel and iron
  • 1933-1938: Machinery and manufactured goods and militarisation
  • 1938-1941: Manufactured goods but allowed for some consumer items

2nd and 3rd experienced declining rate of growth as emphasis on taking stock of production & better planning & coordination

Evaluation of 5 Year Plans:

  • perceived as success overall
  • helped to propel Soviet Union forward to become industrial base for powerful arms industry by 1941
  • little growth in consumer industries
  • known for poor coordination and planning

Poor Planning:

  • parts of economy faced underproduction bc factories faced shortage of materials
  • other factories over produced in attempts to exceed targets
  • resulted in wastage
  • to meet targets, many products were of low quality/substandard

Building of roads, canals and railways was essential to link mines with factories and factories with centers of population

  • Goods can be transported quickly and cheaply
  • Transportation of food from countryside to towns would become more efficient

After 1937:

  • economic slowdown bc industries e.g. steel and oil stopped growing

Results from the Second and Third Five-Year Plans

Product |1932 1937 1940

Coal (million in tonnes) | 64 128 150

Steel (million tonnes) | 6 18 18

Oil (million tonnes) | 21 26 26

Electricity (billion kWh) | 13 80 90

  • Small farms were grouped into larger units, consisting of 50-100 families, run by the state
  • Stalin killed millions of kulaks and sent them to labour camps (gulags)
    Short term impact: Burnt down farms, man-made famine
  • Agricultural sector collapsed due to the loss of kulak farms; famine across southern USSR in 1932-33
  • Stalin made it worse by continuing the exportation of grain to increase income for building up industries
  • 8 million died of starvation, including 5 million Ukrainians
    after all food was taken from them to meet quotas
  • Agricultural production did not recover until 1936-37 when
    peasants were allowed to own land again
    Long term impact: Increase in agricultural production
  • Delayed the process of collectivization in 1930
  • By 1932, 62% of peasant households had been collectivised and an estimate of 93% by 1937