Transcript The Five Year Plans - BTHS World History

Collectivisation
In the late 1920s, Russia suffered a food crisis. To feed starving workers,
Stalin ordered the seizure of grain from the farmers. But, just as happened
under War Communism, the peasants hid food or produced less. In 1929
Stalin announced the collectivisation of farms.
The most common was the Kolkhoz in which land was joined together
and the former owners worked together and shared everything. Stalin
persuaded peasants to join by attacking the Kulaks, peasants that had
grown as a result of the NEP.
Collectivisation had limited success and a terrible human cost, between 10
to 15 million people died as a result. Between 1931 and 1932, there was a
famine in Russia as not enough food was being produced. By 1939,
Russia was producing the same amount of food as it had in 1928.
Collectivisation was clearly a disaster and the problem was even worse as
its population had increased by 20 million - all of whom needed feeding.
Stalin’s Economy: Revolution
From Above
• Late 20’s Stalin imposes crash program of economic
reform
– One goal: Modernize the Economy
– Two Methods:
• Collectivization and Industrialization
– Leads to 2nd Revolution from above
• Right Communist views like Bukharin now discarded
• Can’t let the economy develop at its own pace
• Political advantage for Stalin as well, the hard line
approach cements his control of the Party
• Not all political, he does believe the USSR must modernize to survive
• To oppose the plan now is to oppose national survival
Stalin’s Economy: Revolution
From Above
• Why end the NEP
– NEP recovery from War Communism had stalled by
1926
– Lenin had always said NEP is temporary
– United opposition was eliminated by 1926
– Scissors crisis 1927-28
• Revives forced requisitions
– Method to eliminate Kulaks
– Peasants always luke-warm to Communists
Stalin’s Economy: Revolution
From Above
• Collectivization
– Group 50 to 100 peasant holdings into one farm
– Believe large farms more efficient
– No more individual profit, all efforts are pooled and they are
simply paid a wage
– Two types Collective Farms (owned by the group) and State Farms
• Little difference between the two, state controls everything
– Also pool equipment and machine tractor stations set up and
tractors shared between farms
– Efficiency will free workers for industrial work in the cities
Stalin’s Economy: Revolution
From Above
• Collectivization
– Step One = Eliminate Kulaks
• Supposedly the Kulaks hold back voluntary collectivzation,
Stalin claims most peasant are eager to collectivize
• Kulak class is a fraud
• Kulaks accuse as Petty-bourgeoisie
• Does eliminate opponents, warn other peasants
• Problem is they kill or deport the most efficient farmers
• Creating the Kulak class does help split the Peasants as the
loose definition can be used to eliminate any rivals (jealousy)
• peasants can settle old scores
• Squads seize land of better off peasants, beat them
Stalin’s Economy: Revolution
From Above
• Collectivization
– Step Two Overcome Peasant resistance
• Peasants do resist with arson (30,000 incidents), slaughtering
animals, riots, hiding grain
• Women are prominent, attack collective granaries and stables
demand food and animals back
• Lay down in front of trucks, tractors
• It is believed they are less likely to be arrested or tried
– Ultimately resistance fails
– Use of OGPU (CHEKA)
Stalin’s Economy: Revolution
From Above
• Collectivization
– Use of OGPU (CHEKA)
• 1.5 million deported, arrested, killed by 1930
– Brief Halt in 1930
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Stalin blames chaos on over zealous officials
Resume 1931 but permit private plots and some livestock
Goes slower
Late 1930’s almost all is collectivized
(Historiography debate Traditional v. Revisionist Lynn Viola)
– Traditional is this pause is Stalins cynical attempt to get 1930 harvest
delivered
– Viola; Stalin lost control of local officials and needed to restore order
– National famine 1932-33= 4 - 6.5 mi. die
Stalin’s Economy: Revolution
From Above
– National famine 1932-33= 4 - 6.5 mi. die
• Peasants despair and stop producing
• Flee to towns in huge numbers
• Stalin wants them in towns but numbers are so huge they have
to create internal passports to restrict movements
• Stalin denies a famine exists
– Protects Stalin’s reputation but worse no corrective measures can be
taken to fix a problem that doesn’t “exist”
• Stalin is indifferent: 2 million peasants exiled as
slave labor, .5 die of exposure or starve
• Is there any benefit to this program?
Stalin’s Economy: Revolution
From Above
– USSR did have rural population crisis and this program
eliminates it
• Wrong thing for right reason? Did Stalin succeed?
– YES!
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Party gets control over peasants (New serfdom?)
Grain procurements rise from 15% to 35% by 1933
Able to feed industrial workforce after 1935
Massive increase in urban workers 12 mi.
– No! : Grain production only rises from .5 tons per peasant to .57
• No incentive to work hard, have to buy grain by 1960’s
• Massive decline in livestock
Stalin’s Economy: Revolution
From Above
– Stalin declares “war” on past industrial failures and
claims he is preparing Russia for war v. Capitalism
– Focus is Steel, iron and oil, heavy industry
– Industrialization and 5 Year Plans
• 15th Party Congress sets Industrial targets and CC
picks the highest in1928 (NEP Ends)
• Quotas not methods
• Propaganda “Build a better world”
• GOSPLAN runs it, OGPU ‘motivates” i.e. terrorizes
workers
5 Year Plans
– 1st
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5 Year Plan 1928-1932 (1-5YP)
Set of targets and quotas not a plan
Managers falsify production figures to meet quotas
Seeing initial good reports Stalin revises targets UP
Eventually produce 64 mi tons of coal, 21.4 mi. of
oil, Iron 12.1 mi, Pig Iron 6.2 mi.
– This less that half the revised targets
• Propaganda targets young
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Create a Soviet “man/woman”
Sacrifices for the good of all
Plan is defense v. capitalists
Opposition = sabotage (miners tried for example for low
5 Year Plans
• Propaganda targets young
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Create a Soviet “man/woman”
Sacrifices for the good of all
Plan is defense v. capitalists
Opposition = sabotage (miners tried for example for low
production)
• Local levels try to meet goals but no central plan
– It is a gigantic achievement despite failures to meet targets
– Living standards actually decline
5 Year Plans
• Any who resist are branded “wreckers”
– Shakhty Show Trials brand resisters as saboteurs
– Skilled workers (so-called bourgeois experts) are targetted to
intimidate the
– Focus is on quantity not quality (Gigantomania)
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Big to Stalin equals success and progress
Result is unskilled often damage machines or whole factories
OGPU and Party blame all failures on saboteurs and terroize workeers
Something as simple as misplacing a tool is sabotage
– Local managers have to come up with strategies to meet quotas
with no real plan and are put on trial if they fail
5 Year Plans
– 2- 5YP 1933-37
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1934-35 successful because factories built under 1-5YP
Goals more realistic and food rationing ends
Still no coordination, lack raw materials, spare parts
Hoarding to ensure meeting targets, no cooperation
Fear of failure if officials share supplies
Successes that do occur are still only in heavy industry
– 3- 5YP 1938-41
• Purges under way, everyone afraid to point out errors, so faults create
huge failures (scapegoating follows)
• Stakhanovites disrupt production
• Labor discipline code
• Conditions terrible, worker material interests ignored
5 Year Plans
– Successes 1927-40
• GDP triples 1928-30, industrial output passes Britain,
Germany, France in1940
• Coal up 500%. Steel 600%, Oil 200%, Electric 500%
• 8000 new factories, 70,000 libraries, literacy rises from 51% to
81%, Tech. Colleges graduate 300,000 engineers
– Failures
• Only heavy industry = giganto-mania (Belomar Canal)
• Unbalanced economy, lousy quality, still can’t compete with
modern economies
• Food shortages drain scarce capital, industry eventually
stagnates and tech. collapses
5 Year Plans
• Incentives; Higher pay for skills or exceeding quotas
• Propaganda: “Heroes of Socialist Labor”, Socialist Realism,
KOMSOMOL
• Negatives: iron discipline, internal passports, Gulag, Show trials
(wreckers), forced resettlement
• Money sources: seize more grain, high taxes, drive down living
standards (56 mi. industrial workers)
• Historiography: Could Ind. Rev. occur w/o Stalin’s methods?
– NO: Wouldn’t have caught up, survived Hitler, Bukharin methods
won’t work, did it w/o foreign investment
– Yes: NEP showed similar growth, too centralized, “storming”
lowers productivity, Purges destroy, managers, engineers +
starvation
5 Year Plans
• Historiography: Could Ind. Rev. occur w/o Stalin’s methods?
– Alec Nove: Stalin’s Economic program is foolish, misery for
peasants, chaos, workers living standards in 1953 same as 1928,
peasants are lower than 1913
– Robert Conquest; “Stalinism is one method of attaining
industrialization just as cannibalism ia one way of attaining a high
protein diet”.
– Leonard Shapiro: if the industrial growth rate under the Tsar’s had
been maintained the output would have been the same as Stalin’s
terror achieved by 1941
– Norman Stone: Without the Tsar’s industrial structures 5YP’s
would not have reached growth rates they did
5 Year Plans
• Historiography: Could Ind. Rev. occur w/o Stalin’s methods?
– Sheila Fitzpatrick: Gigantomania distorts economy that needs proper planning and
investment, but he was trying to bring stability
– Dmitri, Volkogonov: Stalin’s goal is removing all opposition by making economy a
loyalty test, growth is only a secondary goal
– Peter Gattrell: Stalin harsh and destructive but he built economy that survived 4
brutal years of WWII, this system may have been the only way Russia could
modernize
– David Hoffman disputes Gattrell arguing millions killed and Stalin only breeds
hate, distrust and division
– Terry Martin: Stalin’s program is not advancement, he creates the same the Tsarist
economy
– Robert Service: Stalins program pays off with a modern industrial state, however
this was not the case for millions of his victims
Grain
1928 = 73.3 million tons
1934 = 67.6 million tons
Cattle
1929 = 70.5 million
1934 = 42.4 million
Pigs
1928 = 26 million
1934 = 22.6 million
Sheep and goats
1928 = 146.7 million
1934 = 51.9 million
We are 50-100 years behind the
advanced countries. We must make up
this gap in ten years. Either we do it or
they crush us.
Stalin 1931
The Five Year Plans
Stalin believed that industry could only develop through state control. Under
GOSPLAN, three Five Year Plans set targets between 1928-1941 to increase
production.
Russian industry changed enormously. New towns such as Magnitogorsk
grew up and large projects such as the Dnieper hydroelectric dam were
developed. The USSR became a major industrial country.
The human cost was high. Forced labour killed millions, working conditions
were poor and hours of work were long.
The effects of Stalin’s rule on men and women
Millions of people suffered in Stalin’s purges – workers, peasants
and members of the Communist Party itself.
There was brutality, persecution, executions and forced labour.
Millions died of starvation and over-work. The shops were empty ;
clothes were dull and badly made and household items difficult to
find. Although the USSR was a Communist state, the dictatorship
of Stalin was just as complete, and in some ways even more
bloody, than that of Hitler.
But despite these appalling tragedies, there were some positive
aspects to Stalin’s rule.
For example schools were built and social insurance schemes were
introduced. Russia became a modern industrial country.