Stalin

Samenvatting blz. 100 t/m 108

Once in power, Stalin wanted to modernise the USSR. When he took over all the industry was in just a few cities and the workers were unskilled and poorly educated.
Stalin ended Lenins NEP and started the Five-Year Plans. These were organised by GOSPLAN (see schedule page 100)
- The First Five-Year Plan (1929-1933) focused on the major industry. Most targets weren’t met, but still the USSR increased production. The USSR had lots of natural resources, but they were in remote places like Siberia. That’s why lots of industry was created from scratch in previously undeveloped areas.
- The Second Five-Year Plan (1933-1937) was built on the achievements of the first. Transport, communications, new railways and canals were built. The most spectacular showpiece was the Moscow Undergrounds. Also the production of tractors and other farm machinery increased.
- The Third Five-Year Plan (1938-1943) The aim was to get full control over the economic process. Some factories switched to the production of consumer goods, but this plan was disrupted by WW2.

There was some criticism on the Five-Year Plans:
- inefficient
- lots of waste
- enormous human cost (= lots of deaths)
- duplication of effort
But the Soviets did learn form their mistakes (as you could see in the second and third Five-Year Plan). Also by 1937 the USSR was a modern state and that is what saved it from defeat when Hitler invaded in 1941.
The Five-Year Plans were used for propaganda purpose. Stalin wanted the Soviet Union to be a beacon of Socialism and he used the successes of industrialisation to further that objective.

In the USSR the costs of these plans were paid by the workers. They were bombarded with propaganda, posters, slogans and radiobroadcasts. They had to meet targets and they were fined if they didn’t.

With the First Five-Year Plan there was a shortage of workers, so from 1930 women were put into industry. By the 1930s unemployment was almost non-existent. Education became free and compulsory for all.
But on the other hand life was very harsh under Stalin’s control. Factory discipline was strict and punishments were hard. Workers tried to change job, but the Secret Police introduced internal passports which prevented free movement of workers inside the USSR.
With the projects of building dams and canals many workers were prisoners. They were:
- political opponents of Stalin
- suspected opponents of Stalin
- Kulaks (rich peasants)
- Jews
- or they had made a mistake in their work or an accident but had been found guilty of sabotage.

There were many deaths and accidents with these projects. Most people lived in a small flat or house provided by the State. And between 1928 and 1937 the wages also fell. Stalin was prepared to destroy the way of life of the Soviet people to help industrialisation.
Stalin needed to modernise Russia’s agriculture, to let the Five-Year Plans be successful. The farmers had to feed the workers and Stalin wanted to raise money by selling food abroad. The problem was that farming wasn’t organised to do this. Under the NEP most peasants were:
- agriculture labourers (with no land)
- or kulaks (owned small farms)
These peasants had enough to eat and saw no point in increasing production to feed the towns. To get round these problems Stalin set out his ideas for collectivisation in 1929. (What is collectivisation??? See fact file page 104!)
The government tried to sell these ideas to the peasants. But they were concerned about he speed of collectivisation and about the fact their farms were under control of the local Communist leader. The kulaks refused to give up their land and production.

Soviet propaganda tried to turn people against the kulaks. Quickly it turned into violence. Kulaks were arrested and sent to labour camps. In revenge, many kulaks burnt their crops and killed their animals so the Communists couldn’t have them. Because of all this chaos there was a famine in 1932-1933. Despite the famine Stalin didn’t ease off. By 1934 there were no kulaks left. By 1941 almost all agriculture land was organised under the collective system.

The really terrifying period in Stalin’s rule (known as the Purges) began in 1934 when Kirov (the leader of the Leningrad Communist Party) was murdered. Historians suspect that Stalin arranged for Kirov’s murder to five himself an excuse to clear out his opponents in the Party. Not only leading figures but also normal Party member were executed or sent to labour camps because of anti-Soviet activities. Also army officers, university teachers, miners, engineers, factory managers and ordinary workers disappeared. Victims were rarely told what they were accused of. By 1937 about 18 million people had been transported to labour camps. 10 million died. (when Hitler invaded, the Red Army had a great lack of good-quality and experienced officers).

In 1936 Stalin created a new constitution which gave freedom of speech and free elections. But only Communist Party candidates could stand in elections and only approved newspapers and magazines could be published.

Nowadays, Stalin Purges is looked back on as a time of terror and oppression. However at the time, for most Soviet citizens Stalin wasn’t a tyrant, he and his style of government were popular. The history of the Soviet Union was rewritten so that Lenin and Stalin were the only real heroes of the Revolution.
At school children weren’t allowed to think independently, but to Stalinist propaganda. Every city had a Stalin Square or something and a statue of him. Religious worship was banned because Stalin didn’t want anyone to worship anybody else than him. People had to believe in Communism and the words of its leaders.