Module 3 of 3 · Text
Introduction
- Once power had been established, the Bolsheviks aimed to modernise the economy of the Soviet Union in order to unleash the potential of Russia's resources for the benefit of its people.
- Under Lenin, the government experimented with a mixed economy of private and state-owned sectors, known as the New Economic Policy (NEP).
- This compromise was swept away by Stalin's Five-Year Plans from 1928.
- State control was tightened over all aspects of production, with the aim of catching up with the rest of the Western World.
- Economic growth was impressive during the 1930s and played a key role in ensuring the Soviet Union could defeat the Nazi invasion of 1941.
- The Great Patriotic War (1941-45) wreaked enormous destruction on the Soviet Union, but state direction ensured rapid reconstruction and recovery after 1945.