Stalin's Economic Policies

Why did Stalin end the NEP?
1. It had allowed the economy to recover from war however thereafter economic growth slowed down
2. Lenin presented it as a temporary retreat from Socialism and communists were impatient to pursue a more ideal socialist economy instead of continuing this compromise with capitalism
3. Growing anti-communist violence in Poland and China highlighted the need for Russia to catch up in industrial terms with the West and for that to happen Stalin argued the modernisation of agriculture was also essential
  1. Stalin speech - "we are fifty or a hundred years behind the advance countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or we shall be crushed"
4. Food shortages as a result of the government cutting the price they paid for peasants' grain to find resources to invest in industrial expansion necessitated improvements in agriculture
  1. Stalin responded to the 'grain procurement crisis' by implementing forced grain requisitioning
5. Collectivisation was seen as a means of eliminating class enemies, the kulaks and rich, who exploited peasants. It was also consistent with Marxist-Leninist principles as private ownership is replaced.
6. Believed collective farms would be more efficient and more grain would be grown, of which some could be exported to earn foreign currency to buy machinery needed to equip Russia's factories
7. Collectivisation enabled peasants to be much more firmly under the Party's control
Collectivisation
1. Consisted of a revolution in the countryside, forcing 25 million peasant households into 240,000 collective farms.
2. Was launched by attacking the kulaks or anyone who resisted forced collectivisation. Aimed to liquidate the kulaks as a class. Implemented by urban activists, the Red Army and the NKVD.
  1. Attacks on kulaks was a further step towards the creation of a classless society and served as a warning to peasants of not co-operating with the party
3. A temporary halt was called in 1930 by Stalin as he announced it had to be voluntary and the force being used was excessive.
  1. Some say this is a ploy to encourage the peasants to co-operate
  2. Others, Lynne Viola, argue that collectivisation did get out of control and Stalin was trying to reassert central control
4. Forced collectivisation was reinstated in 1931 accompanied by limited concessions to the peasants, could retain small plots of land and some livestock
  1. Peasants paid a quota to the government, and any surplus could be kept, and they also had to pay the Motor Tractor Stations
5. The famine of 1932-33
  1. 4 to 6.5 million people died due to resistance and transition disrupting output and the state taking a far higher percentage of the harvest leaving the peasants to starve.
6. Did Stalin achieve his aims in collectivising agriculture?
  1. Yes
    1. The party now had much greater control over the peasants and countryside
    2. Most importantly, the state now had greater control over the grain supply. Procurements had risen from 15%, peaking in 1933 at 40%
    3. Enabled the state to feed an expanded industrial workforce after 1935. (Beforehand food rationing in towns existed). Higher procurement also meant more could be exported to purchase machinery to equip factories.
    4. Led to a massive increase in urban population which grew by 12 million in the first five years, providing the workforce for the Five Year Plans
  2. No
    1. Grain production and overall agricultural productivity increased only marginally from 0.5 tons per head to 0.57 (1913-37). Peasants lacked the incentives to work on land that wasn't theirs
    2. Livestock levels in the USSR fell massively due to the slaughter in protest. By the early 1930s, peasants had slaughtered 65% of their sheep and 46% of their cattle
Rapid Industrialisation
1. First Five Year Plan
  1. The Gosplan set targets for industrial expansion, a total industrial output increase of 236%. Targets set for industries and individual factories
  2. It was chaotically managed with targets being constantly revised upwards. Many of the workforce were unskilled peasants
2. Second Five Year Plan
  1. To some extent the Communist leadership learnt from its mistakes the first time around. Moreover, it saw great success as many of the factories built the first time around were now up and running and workers had been trained
  2. Stakhanovite movement worked to maximise production but often led to broken machinery and worker exhaustion
  3. Food rationing ended in 1935.
  4. Stalin's purges from 1936 onwards led to hundreds of thousands of skilled workers being sent to labour camps or executed
3. Third Five Year Plan
  1. Focused on industries linked to rearmament due to increasing fears of an attack by Hitler's Germany. Was cut short by the Nazi invasion of June 1941
4. What methods were used to achieve industrialisation
  1. Fear and strict control
    1. Workers were threatened with harsh punishments for missing quotas or absenteeism
    2. Internal passports were reintroduced which made it difficult to switch jobs or move from town to town
    3. Prisons camp labour, Gulags, was widely used . 70,000 prisoners died constructing the Belomor Canal
    4. 'Show trials' made examples out of people, terrorising the workforce into compliance with the state's demands
  2. Encouragement + incentives
    1. Higher wages were introduced for skilled workers and for exceeding targets. Non-Marxist.
    2. Propaganda eg. Stakhanovite movement encouraged workers to smash targets. Reward with medals and dubbed 'heroes of socialist labour'.
    3. Komosol (Young Communist League) activists voluntarily contributed to some key projects
5. How it could be achieved
  1. Taking more grain from peasants in order to buy foreign machinery
  2. Heavy taxation
  3. Driving down living standards
  4. Massively increasing the industrial workforce, urban workforce doubled. Peasants fleeing collectivisation and more women used.
6. How successful were the Five Year Plans (1927-39)
  1. However, it is difficult to know exact statistics as they were often inflated for propaganda purposes and to avoid punishment for non-fulfilment of targets
  2. Coal (millions of tons) rose from 35 to 145. Pig iron (millions of tons) rose from 12 to 40
  3. Successes
    1. USSR's GDP tripled. Growth rate huge comparative to any other country.
    2. Moved from fifth largest industrial producer to second. Without this expansion victory over Nazi Germany wouldn't have been possible
    3. Fourfold increase in coal and electricity and a sixfold increase in steel
    4. Huge projects like the Dneiper Dam and Moscow Metro were completed
    5. Became an industrial society in terms of increase in Urban population from 26 to 56 million
    6. As a more educated workforce was needed, literacy rate increased from 51% to 81%
  4. Failures
    1. Quality was far inferior to the West as workers were 'completely unfamiliar with Industrial tools and processes' (Scott)
    2. Stalin was obsessed with huge projects many of which were poorly constructed
      1. Belomor canal was too shallow to take the warships for which it was designed
    3. Expansion was highly focused on heavy industry thus shortages in consumer goods were common and in this respect the USSR did not catch up with the West
    4. In the long term the Soviet industry stagnated and the technological gap with the West widened
Could industrialisation have been achieved without Stalin's methods
1. No
  1. The state of the economy necessitated Stalin's brutal methods and unslackening pace in order to catch up with the West and survive Hitler's invasion
    1. HISTORIAN
2. Yes
  1. Similar industrial growth rates to those of the 1930s could have been achieved through continuing the NEP, Stalin's methods were often counter-productive and his other policies undermined the Five Year Plans eg. purges and famines
    1. HISTORIAN

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