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
- Did not use machinery, farms were tiny and could only
- 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