Why did Stalin want to destroy Lenin’s New Economic Policy?

* He believed that Soviet industry & agriculture were 100 years behind the West
* He believed Russia needed to catch up as soon as possible because he distrusted the West since Britain, France and USA had intervened in the Russian Civil War and he suspected they were supporting Hitler against him
* He hated the Kulaks and wanted to destroy them because they were a class that owed him no allegiance and were therefore beyond his control
* He wanted to increase his control over the Soviet peoples
* He believed that, if Communism was to survive it must be absolutely secure within the Soviet Union = Socialism in One Country

Why did Stalin introduce collectivisation?

1. Because of the food crisis of the late 1920s (in 1928 and 1929 bread and meat had to be rationed in the cities.)
2. Despite good harvests between 1925 and 1928 the peasants were holding back grain because the price the state paid for it was low.
3. Stalin blamed the Kulaks for hoarding grain.
He was tired of the yearly struggle to get grain and desperately needed to feed the workers and to help pay for industrialisation.
It would be easier for the state to get grain from collectivised farms than from individual peasants.
4. Collectivisation meant that old traditional methods of farming (strip farming) could be changed. Collectives made it easier to introduce modern machinery, especially tractors, and new methods of farming which would produce more food.
5. Also more efficient mechanised agriculture would require fewer peasants to work the land and release the labour need for the growing industries.
6. Collectivisation was the Socialist way to farm land. It would help replace capitalist attitudes with Socialist attitudes of cooperation and sharing.

What was the success of collectivisation up to 1941?

By 1932 62% of farms were collectivised
By 1940 400,000 farms had been set up

Amount of grain produced increased:
1921 36 million tons
1933 69 million tons
1940 95 million tons

Easier for state to take grain - see figures for grain taken by the state:
1929 12 million tons
1930, 1931, 1932 - 22 million tons each year.
Stalin achieved what he set out to do - to destroy the Kulaks
this gave him complete control over the peasants who made up more than half the population of the Soviet Union

What were the key features of the Five Year Plans?

KEY FEATURES:
Gosplan (the State Planning Agency) set production targets to be met by factories.
Called for doubling of coal production and iron and steel output and threefold increase in electricity generated
Declared state ownership of industry (private trade and profit was made illegal in 1930)

1928: Plan 1 - emphasis on heavy industry (coal, iron and steel, electricity) to lay the foundations for future industrial growth, plus the building of new towns

1938: Plan 3 - more resources put into developing armaments, tanks, planes and weapons. (cut short by German invasion of 1941).

How did industry change? (1928-41)

1. Mention Gosplan again - state ownership of industry and production targets..
2. Specialists were brought in from other countries to help develop industry (eg supervision of Dneiper dam, Soviet asbestos industry and car industry)
3. Single managers (directly responsible for the targets they had to fulfil) were introduced to run state enterprises and factories instead of workers’ control.
4. Incentives were introduced to encourage workers to work harder eg mention
5. Social security benefits were introduced for industrial workers
6. Skilled workers were given higher wages (3X unskilled)
7. Work books were introduced for workers to record their productivity
8. A policy of payment by piecework was introduced
9. Medals and honours were introduced for those who worked exceptionally hard
10. 1932 the very short food supplies were put under the direct control of the factory managers through the introduction of a kind of truck-system for allocation to workers on the basis of their performance.
11. ‘Shock brigades’ were used (part of Stakhanovite movement) - specially trained workers showed how ideas such as mass-production could be put into practice
12. Tighter controls on workers were introduced eg mention that
* Workers could only change jobs with government permission
* Internal passports were introduced to prevent free movement around country
* Absence from work was punishable by imprisonment
* Skilled workers were moved to remote areas
* Trade Unions were controlled by Communist Party
* Death penalty was enforced for the theft of state property
* One days absence led to instant dismissal
* Food was rationed - the unemployed could not get ration cards, or a place to live.
13. Critics of Stalin were herded into Labour Camps and forced to work on construction projects - many engineers, technical experts and skilled 14. Workers were arrested (eg Donbass area half of engineers and skilled Workers were arrested by 1931 in so called Skakhty Trial)
15. Production rose: eg coal from about 40m. to about 132m tons; steel from about 4.9 m. to about 18 m tons; oil from about 13.8 m. to about 32.2 m. tons