What were the 6 reasons for Stalin's economic policies?
- 1. Increase Military strength
- 2. Achieve Self-Sufficiency
- 3. Increase Grain Supplies
- 4. Move towards socialism
- 5. Establish his credentials
- 6. Improve standards of living
What did Stalin say about the war scare and the need to industrialize?
“We are fifty to a hundred years behind the advanced countries. Either we make good this difference in ten years or we shall be crushed”
In 1928, what percentage of the population were workers, which saw the need for industrialisation?
How much grain did Russia export in 1913? What was this compared to the NEP?
1913, Russia exported 12m tons of grain, in best years of NEP, amount never exceeded 3m.
How much had Grain procurement declined from 1926-7?
How did foreign trade decline in 1926-7? (relate the the export levels in relation to levels of 1913)
- exports at 33% and imports at 38% of 1913 levels due to decline in exports.
- USSR couldn’t bring in technology needed for industrial expansion.
Agriculture was background in before rapid industrialisation. What evidence is there to support this?
1927, 5m inefficient wooden ploughs still used
When was grain requisitioning?
Jan 1928 - 1929
How did welfare decline with the NEP?
- -real income decreased. higher prices for food
- -high unemployment. women forced out
- -workers complained of social gap
- -crime in cities
- -workers lived in overcrowded cities
In Smolensk 1929, what did the factory committee of cement works comment on the living standards during the NEP?
“Every day there are many complaints about apartments: many workers have families of six and seven people, and live in one room.”
When and what was the Great Turn?
Dec 1927 15th party congress, announcement of five year plans marked end of NEP
How had international relations deteriorated in 1927?
relations with France and Poland deteriorated, Britain broke off diplomatic relations, and there were suspicions of Japanese intentions.
How did collectivisation grow from 1929-30?
- Mid 1929, less than 5% peasants on collective farms
- Mar 1930, 60% farms collectivized.
When did Collectivisation start? What percentage of grain producing areas were to be collectivised?
- Jan 1930, Stalin announced that 25% grain
- producing areas to be collectivized by the end of the year.
Name the three types of Collective farms. Which was most favoured in contrary to Stalin's aims?
- Toz, Kolkhoz, Sovkhoz
- Kolkhoz, but the aim was to create more Sovkhoz.
What percentage of vegetables, fruit, meat and milk/butter/honey/wool were produced from private plots during collectivisation?
52% vegetables, 57% fruit, 70% meat and 71% milk as well as butter, honey and wool.
How many Machine and Tractor collective stations (MTS) supported collective farms, maintaining and hiring machinery?
When did Stalin decide to 'liquidate the Kulaks'?
Jan 1930, 2 years after grain requisitioning.
As a result of dekulakisation, what percentage of livestock were slaughtered?
When did Livestock levels of 1928 recover?
- 25-30% of cattle, pigs and sheep (most eaten by peasants). Raids to recapture animals
- had been taken into collectives.
- Livestock levels didn’t recover to 1928 levels until 1953
V. Krachenko was a communist who later fled the USSR, Describe what he witnessed in the round up of Kulaks.
- “So this was ‘Liquidation of the kulaks as a class!’
- A lot of simple peasants being torn from the native soil..."
- He describes a woman who burned her house
- along with a sheaf of grain in protest saying ‘We worked all our lives for our house. You won’t have it. The flames will have it!’
L.Kopelev was an activist who went into exile. His is quoted by R. Conquestion. Why did he contribute in the liquidation of kulaks? Quote him.
He believed it was good for the peasants but he witnessed the famine in 1933 “Nor did I lose my faith. As before, I believed because I wanted to believe.”
Describe the eating of cattle of the kulaks through Mikhail Sholokov's witness.
“Kill, it’s not ours any more…Kill, they’ll take it for meat anyway…Kill, you won’t get meat on the collective farm…And they killed. They ate until they could eat no more.”
What laws punished peasants if they stepped out of the collective farm line?
Cite some letter quotes that was unpublished in a peasant newspaper that referred to the peasant resistance towards collectivisation.
Ivan Trofimovitch “they did not want serfdom”
Pyor Gorky compared collective life to “eternal slavery, but we don’t want to leave our good homes. It may be a poor little hut, but it’s mine, a poor hose, but it’s mine”
Unnamed peasant “only 25 per cent signed it[register]…If anyone spoke out against it, he was threatened with arrest and forced labour…”
When was the famine caused by caused by the first five year plan?
How much grain was exported during the famine?
1932, the continued export of grain to other countries during the famine was 1.73m tons
In the Ukraine famine, how many people died?
According to Robert Conquestion, 7m
Ukraine was targeted for its nationalism and opposition to collectivisation. What was Ukraine's quota for grain procurement in 1931-2?
over 7m tons a year
What and when was the 'law of the seventh eighths'?
- 7 Aug 1932.
- ten year sentence for 'stealing' collective crops
- internal passports to avoid people fleeing famine
Name 3 of the regions most hard hit by the famine of 1932
Ukraine,north Caucasus, Kazakhstan
At the end of 1934, how many households were collectivised? How about in 1936?
when did grain production recover to pre-collectivisation levels?
Even if there was a huge amount of grain procured, what was the problem with selling it for armaments?
‘great depression’ forced down world grain prices
What percentage of land did Kulaks own?
90% of fertile land
What did R.Service suggest about the success of collectivisation?
According to him, how did grain procurement increase in 1928-32
“From collectivization he acquired a reservoir of terrified peasants who would supply him with cheap industrial labour…the state’s grain collection rose from 10.8 million tons in 1928-9 to 22.8 million tons in 1931-2.”
How and when did Stalin attempt to justify the excesses of Collectivisation?
“Dizzy with success” article in Mar 1930 blamind over enthusiastic officials
How did the number of collectivised farms fall in 1930? And when did it rise again (to what figure)?
- fell from 60% to 20% by end of 1930.
- It rose to 70% in 1931
In the case of Smolensk, when were activists sent to the region for dekulakisation?
How many chairman and partysecretaries of village soviets were murdered?
- Sep 1929
- In Oct 1929, 10 chairmen and 8 party secretaries
How did Smolensk carry out dekulakisation?
brigades of urban workers the 'twenty-five-thousanders' were used
In Smolensk, after Stalin's "Dizzy with Success" article in March 1930, when did Dekulakisation continue?
March 1931, one year later
By the end of the 30s, what percentage of Smolensk households were collectivised?
In Smolensk, there was antagonism towards collectivisation. What was one such attack on a collective farm, When and how many peasants were attacked?
Sep 1929 (when activists sent out), 200 peasants attacked a kolkhoz, destroying equipment and clothes.
Quote an ambitious school chant about the five year plans.
- “Five in Four,
- Five in Four,
- Five in Four,
- And not in five!”
When and why was the Gosplan purged?
purged at the end of the 20s, because it wasn't optimistic enough. Statisticians with low targets replaced.
In the First Five Year plan, there was competition for the plans between the Gosplan and the Vesenkha. When were the two plans produced?
In the chosen plan, what was the target for coal and iron ore?
- coal up from 35 to 75 million tons
- iron ore from 6 to 19 million tons
Name 3 spectacular projects created by the five year plans.
- Dnieprostroi Dam 1932 in eastern Russia was world’s largest construction site for 2 years and increased electric power output
- Moscow – Volga canal
- Moscow metro with elaborate stations and high vaulted ceilings
- Truksib Railway opened in 1930
Give 3 examples of foreign contribution in Russian’s economy.
Henry Ford: develop car industry. Engineers trained by Ford in the USA. Ford designed cars produced at the plant in Gorky
Colonel Hugh cooper (American): engineer in charge of Dnieprostroi Dam project
A. Ruckseyer (American) behind huge growth in the asbestos industry at the Urals
Thousands of skilled workers came because of unemployment in the west. Great depression convinced many people that capitalism was in its death throes
What did S.Kotkin say about the mentalism of Magnitogorsk workers on the five year plans?
“Everyone...felt that Magnitogorsk was making history, and that he, personally had a considerable part in it...even by the exiled kulaks”
When was the First Five Year Plan?
Oct 1928-Dec 1932
When was the Second Five Year Plan?
Jan 1933-Dec 1937
When was the third Five Year Plan?
jan 1938-Jun 1941
How many enterprises were opened in the first and second five year plans?
- 1500 in the 1st
- 4500 in the 2nd
How much of investment did the first five year plan account for?
what are the production success/failures of the first five year plan?
- Electricity – production trebled
- Coal and iron – output doubled
- Steel – increased by 1/3
- chemical targets not achieved
In the early 30s, trials of professionals and specialists held in cities to encourage productiveness in factories for the Five Year Plans. Give 3 examples
- March 1928, show trial accused managerial and technical staff of counter-revolutionary activities at the Shakhty coal mine in Don Basin. 5 executed. the rest given long sentences
- Nov 1930, the ‘Industrial Party’ (made up) show trial - they were supposedly organizing a sabotage of the Five year plan.
- 1933 Metro-Vickers trial, British specialists found guilty of sabotage.
What did Alex Nove say about the practicality of the First Five Year plan?
"Needless to say the new targets were far beyond practical possibility…Naturally, supplies of materials, fuels, goods wagons, fell short of requirements.”
According to Alex Nove what did an old oil expert write to the central committee?
"The figure of 40 million tons I consider to be purely arbitrary. Over a third of the oil must come from unexplored areas…"
Outline briefly, the successes and failure of the first five year plan.
- Some targets fulfilled
- Engineering - increase of machine-tools, turbines etc.
- New complexes (industrial)
- Huge new tractor works built in Stalingrad, Kharkov
- Over-ambitious - overproduction (Wastage & sub-standard)
- Too much priority on Heavy Industry
- Great depression drove down price of grain and raw materials
- Investment drained by Collectivisation
- Materials in short supply (corruption)
- Inadequancy of transport system
- Lack of Specialist involvement
outline success and weaknesses of second five year plan
- Heavy industries benefitted from plants set up during first plan
- 1937, USSR self-sufficient in machine-making and metal-working
- Growing Industries (electricity, chemical)
- Metallurgy developed (copper, zinc and tin) mined for the first time
- Transport and communications grew rapidly
- Lower Targets
- Training schemes for workers
- As plan progressed, resources again diverted to heavy industries
- Oil production didn’t make expected advances
- Under/over production continued at lesser scale
Outline the successes and weaknesses of the third five year plan.
- Heavy industry continued to grow (but some didn't)
- Defence and armaments grew rapidly
- Failing Industries (steel, iron, oil)
- Shortage of materials
- Disruption of WWII
- purges created shortages of qualified personnel who linked industries and government
In the third five year plan, how did industries fail?
- Steel and iron output virtually stopped growing
- Oil production failed to meet targets and led to fuel crisis
- Consumer industries once again took a back seat
Alec Nove blames the failure on the great purges. Quote him.
“…the deportation of many thousands of engineers and technologists to distant concentration camps represented a severe loss…the simplest thing to do was to avoid responsibility…to obey mechanically…”
How did Stakhanov come to be known? Outline his story.
Petrov (party organizer at the Don Basin) lagged behind quota and propped up ideal conditions for Stakhanov’s work.
30 Aug 1935, Alexei Stakhanov, a pneumatic pick operator cut 102 tons of coal in 5 hours (16x the norm of 6.5 tons per shift).
- Barely 2 hours after Stakhanov finished, Stakhanov was acclaimed for his world record
- Stakhanov received 200 roubles (instead of normal 30 roubles), a bonus equal to a month’s wages. An apartment reserved for technical personnel and
- other luxuries.
How was Stakhanovite commended in the Pravda? What did the commissar for Heavy Industry say about Stakhanov?
- Ordzhinikidze, the commissar for Heavy Industry, had Stakhanov, the ‘Soviet Hercules’ put on the front page of Pravda.
- He said ‘In our country, under socialism, heroes of labour must become the most famous’.
What did Ordzhinikidze, the commissar for Heavy Industry say about Stakhanov? How did he promote the movement?
- ‘In our country, under socialism, heroes of labour must become the most famous’
- He had Stakhanov, the ‘Soviet Hercules’ put on the front page of Pravda.
V.P. was the second highest earning worker in magnitogorsk. What was he rewarded?
motorcycle and a house with a garden. 70% paid by the factory. Before the revolution, only a factory owner could’ve afforded this.
What evidence was there that the Stakhanovite movement was successful in motivating miners?
Dec 1935, the records achieved in heavy industry alone filled two volumes.
What evidence was there that implied that the Stakhanovite movement went further than expected?
5 Sep, when 2 miners managed to beat the record, others were warned ‘All those who try to slander Stakhanov and his record will be considered by the party committee as the most vile enemies of the people’.
How much did norms increase as a result of Stakhanovism?
workers resented the increased norms (went up by 30% in some enterprises)
In the coal industry, how often did an average worker move jobs a year?
In magnitogorsk, What did S.Kotkin write about the length of stay of a worker?
- In the coal industry in 1930, the average worker moved jobs three times a year.
- S.Kotkin “In 1931 the average length of stay for a worker was 82 calendar days. Magnitogorsk became a revolving door.”
Peasants were the main cause for the quicksand society. What proportion of the population were exiled peasants?
1933, about one-fifth (40,000)
At Magnitogorsk, what proportion of the workers were unskilled and illiterate?
Jan 1932, 50%
What proportion of the population was skilled in 1931 and 1933?
- 1931, it was estimated that less than 7% of workforce were skilled.
- Survey in 1933 showed that only 17% of those recruited to industry had any skills.
What one such case demonstrated the lack of skilled workers in Elektrozacod?
a $25,000 lathe from the USA lay unused for want of a minor repair which workers were unable to perform.
What did Ivanov, first director of the factory, write that supported the lack of resources for workers?
Ivanov asked a young man grinding sockets how he measured "he showed me how he used his fingers. We had no measuring instruments!’
When was Egalitarianism abandoned to create incentive for workers?
as early as 1931
When were labour books introducted to workers for discipline?
1938, 2nd five year plan
When was absenteeism made a crime?
1940, two offences bringing a prison sentence
How many worked on the White Sea Canal?
Around 300,000 prisoners worked on the Baltic-White Sea Canal, many were arrested kulaks.
According to J. Scott what were the wage differentials of 1933?
- the average monthly wage for:
- unskilled worker - 100 roubles;
- skilled workers’ apprentice - 200
- skilled worker - 300;
- an engineer with experience - 600 to 800; administrators, directors etc. - 800 to 3000
According to J. Scott, how was the incentives for workers successful (in reference to Magnitogorsk)?
"Magnitogorsk night schools of 1933 …willing to work eight, ten or even twelve hours on the job under the severest conditions…"
According to M. Lewin, who worked for the Soviet Union, what did he observe of the quicksand society?
"people adopted the habit of leaving in good time, before they were penalized"
What did S.Kotkin comment about the construction of a dam which proved the rush of the projects?
"the dam was built in a record 74 days, well ahead of schedule…But it was not deep enough and the water froze, there was a chronic shortage of water"
What was the purpose of Prison camps? Quote the slogan
Arbeit macht frie – work makes you free
How many people did the prison camps hold in 1931? How many died under unnatural causes?
- 1931, prison camps held 2m people.
- Up to 20 million died with unnatural causes.
Terror of prison camps was used to discipline people. What was one such reputed labour camp?
The Solovetsky islands (phenomenally cold place)
State one case in which proved that labour managed to reeducate people.
Naftaly Frenkel sentenced 10 years labour for smuggling. 1925, He ran economics department of prison and guarded camps
What did N.Mandelstam, a surviving poet in the 20s say about the effect of the great purges on the worker's incentive to work?
“they found they could be stripped of everything in a flash…did everything demanded of them”
how many women entered the workforce?
According to Sarah Davies' survey of women workers in Leningrad 1935,
- what % city workers were women?
- what % doctors were women?
- How many were head doctors?
-How many were factory directors?
- -20 out of 328 (17 were in textile and sewing)
What did Allan Bullock say about the ambitious targets that they were useful in increasing output?
“None of Stalin’s targets might be achieved, but in every case output was raised: 6 million tons of steel was little more than half the 10 million allowed for but 50 per cent up on the starting figure.”
What did C.Ward comment about the success of the first five year plan?
“New factories materialized in the empty lands…More than half the machine tools on stream in the USSR by 1932 were fabricated or installed after 1928.”
When was the White Sea Canal Constructed?
In the Whiet Sea Canal, how many died? How many did Solzhenitsyn (Soviet Historian) estimate?
Approx. 100,000. But it is hard to estimate as about 100,000 bodies were missing from the graves.
Solzhenitsyn estimated only 10,000 died
What was the mortality rate in building the White Sea Canal?
In the construction of the White Sea Canal, what was one such terrifyingly reputed destination?
- Kolyma River - Gold mining
- destination (reputed to be winter all year round and survival was scarce). Mining coal/copper caused lung disease from inhalation or ore dust.
According to M. Lewin what strains were resulted from the lack of worker living space?
“…strained family life, destruction of privacy and personal life, and various forms of psychological strain.”
H. Eekman, Belgian diplomat, saw ordinary families in Moscow. Quote what his witnessed.
“They made pathetic efforts to isolate from their neighbours the few square feet of floor space allotted to their use,”
What did M.Fainsod say about the housing standards of worker's barracks?
What did they say about the homeless women?
And of the overdue wages?
“overcrowded and in a state of extreme disrepair with water streaming from the ceiling…
- ’Many of the women’ one female Party member
- reported ‘live practically on the street’.…
- cases where wages were not paid on time were
- on the increase. All this ‘neglect of the elementary needs of workers…’”
There was tension in workers and managers and well as pressure to reach plan quotas for managers. In Early 1936, how much did norms rise?
Labour norms increased by 10% (50% in some areas)
When did Rationing end with more expensive food and more consumer goods?
1936. Towards start of 2nd five year plan.
Quote a Memoir excerpt by Jacques Rossi which stated the working hours of a labour worker in the White Sea Canal.
“After eleven and a half hours of labor (not including time needed to assign a task, receive tools and give them back),”
What was the Kanal Imena Stalina?
1934 memorial book. It portrayed redemptive, liberating effect of labour of the White Sea Canal
Some writers of the Kanal Imena Stalina may not have been actually supported the labour. Give one case which supports this.
Victor Shklovsky probably co-operated to free brother from camps. After brother arrested again in 1937, he disappeared
A writer of the Stalina imena Stalina was a reforged worker of the Baltic Canal. Who was he?
- Sergei Alymov
- One of the editors of perekovka
State a source from the Pravda article of a reforged worker on the White Sea Canal.
B.V. Ginzburg 1933 “once a recidivist from the gutter, now shines as an example of the system of re-education.”
What was the Cultural division of the prison camps of the White Sea Canal?
- Cultural-Educative Division
- (KVO) glorified labour - also with exhibitions and theatres.
What was the camp newspaper for the White Sea Canal called? What did it mean?
“Perekovka” (meant ‘re-casting’ or ‘remoulding’)
At Magnitogorsk, what percentage of the population lived in brick buildings and individual mud huts?
- Only 15% lived in brick apartment buildings;
- 25% lived in mud huts built for themselves.
At what rate was the city population growing at?
200 thousand every month
In Leningrad and Moscow, 1928-3, how much did meat, milk and fruit consumption decline by?
There was inadequate facilities and sanitary arrangements for the population. In 1939 (start of WWII) how many public bath houses were there?
there were enough public bath houses to allow everyone to have 7 baths a year.