Transcript Stalin Part II

STALIN
&
his policies
You will learn :
How Stalin turned the USSR
into a socialist state through
his economic and political
policies
We are fifty years behind the advanced countries. We must
make good this lag in ten years. Either we do it or they
crush us.
Damn, I want to make the USSR into a true socialist state.
Then we can become richer and stronger. I want the USSR
to be the most powerful country in the world. Yes, let the
dogs out!
STALIN’S fIve yeAr pLANS
• Stalin’s Five Year Plans were
government targets for huge
increases in production to be
achieved in 5 years
• There were 3 Five Year Plans :
1928, 1932 and 1938
• Each plan covered agriculture
and industry :{
STALIN’S fIve yeAr pLANS
• Stalin’s main concern : To
develop USSR’s industry
• So his FYPs called for a
programme of rapid
“industrialisation”
• Main idea : to turn an
agricultural country into an
industrialized country :{
Turn the Soviet Union into an industrialised country?
How the #$%@@#$%#$@ am I going to do that? I’ll
need to pray to the Communist God for inspiration!!
STALIN’S fIve yeAr pLANS
First, methods of farming had to
be changed
1. Improved farming methods
means that fewer people are
required to look after the land
• Excess can then work in
factories
2. Efficient farming methods might
imply surplus crops for export
• Will help to pay for new
factories :{
INDUSTRY
• Stalin’s main interest : develop the heavy
industries of coal, iron and steel
• Magnitogorsk – largest steel factory in USSR in
the 1930s
• This was the type of industry Stalin wanted to
create
• Steel used for building tractors, railways and other
industrial products
• See table for the increase in steel production :{
http://www.macalester.edu/COUR
SES/GEOG61/aritz/industry.html
Industry in Magnitogorsk centers around the world’s largest single steel milling and
shaping factory. The five mills at the plant produced the steel for half of all of the
Russian tanks during WWII. This historically military emphasis is typical in the Stalin
Era city and is commemorated in a statue of the personified Soviet Worker handing
the sword that he has forged to the Soviet Soldier.
Source :
http://www.macalester.edu/COURSES/GEOG61/aritz/industry.html
Mine on Magnetic Mountain in Magnitogorsk
PHOTO-TOUR OF MAGNITOGORSK TODAY
http://www.mgn.ru/magnitogorsk/Photos/Postcard/1989/List_1989.htm
PHOTO-TOUR OF MAGNITOGORSK TODAY
PHOTO-TOUR OF MAGNITOGORSK TODAY
Industrialisation - Dam
This impressive dam was completed under Stalin's Five Year
Plan for modernizing Soviet industry
Production in million tons
INDUSTRY
35
30
25
20
Oil
Steel
15
10
5
0
1928
1931
1937
1940
INDUSTRY
• The steel industry consumed vast amounts of
energy
• Thus a key component of the Five Year Plans was
coal and oil production, and the development of
electricity
• Coal and electricity production increased 5
times between 1928 and 1940
• Oil production more than doubled
• See table :{
Production in million tons
INDUSTRY
35
30
25
20
Oil
Steel
15
10
5
0
1928
1931
1937
1940
Production in million tons
INDUSTRY
180
160
140
120
100
COAL
80
60
40
20
0
1928
1931
1937
1940
COMMUNICATIONS
• Rapid industrialization and modernization of agriculture
must go hand-in-hand with ‘communications’
• Goods must be transported quickly and cheaply from one
place to another
• USSR was a huge country
• Lines of communication were vital
• Thus, an important part of the FYP was the building of
roads, canals and railways
• To link mines with factories; factories with centres of
population
• Also easier to transport food from countryside to towns :{
COMMUNICATIONS
Major projects
• Moscow-Volga Canal
• linking Moscow with the Black Sea
• Turkestan-Siberia Railway
• Building it without modern equipment
• Thosands of labourers involved, mostly
prisoners of the state
AGRICULTURE
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Most people in Russia still worked on the land
In 1929, Stalin created a new system of farming
Make farming more efficient. HOW?
Group small farms into larger units called ‘collective
farms’- small farms in a village were joined together into
one big farm, owned and worked by all
Run by party officials each collective farm 50-100 families
Most of the production were sold to the state at a low
fixed price about 90% according to one source
The rest divided among workers
This policy was known as “COLLECTIVISATION” :{
COLLECTIVISATION
A programme introduced by
Stalin to increase agricultural
production for two purposes:
1.
To support his industrialisation
programme by reducing the
numbers required in the
agricultural sector through
modern farming methods so that
excess labour can be re-deployed to the
industrial sector
2.
To export surpluses to raise
funds which would be invested
into industry :{
COLLECTIVISATION
HOW COLLECTIVISATION WORKED
• Small farms were merged into large
farms owned by peasants
• Wages were paid according to the
time spent working
• Govt supplied the new farms with
seed, tools and modern machinery
• In return, the products were sold to
the state at low prices
• Greater use of machinery helped
reduced the labour needed on farms
• Excess labour redeployed to various
industries :{
COLLECTIVISATION
A staged photo (`1921) extolling the virtues of agricultural
collectivism .
COLLECTIVISATION
What would
you do if you
were Stalin?
• Opposition by kulaks – remember them?
• Collective farms deprived kulaks of their
land
• They would rather destroy animals and
crops than hand them over to the
Bolsheviks
• Only 3% of the agricultural land was
collectivised by 1928 because of the kulaks’
objections :{
COLLECTIVISATION
• Stalin was furious – demonstrated his ruthlessness
• Stalin considered the kulaks an obstacle to the
success of his plans
• Millions were killed, deported to labour camps
“Gulags” or allowed to starve to death
• This was kept secret from the rest of the world
• Most farms were collectivised by 1936 25 million peasant
farms into 400,000 collectives :{
COLLECTIVISATION
Whoever heard of such a thing – to
give up our land and our cows and
our tools and our buildings, to
work all the time and divide
everything with costs? Nowadays,
members of the same family get
in each other’s way and quarrel
and fight, and here we, strangers,
are supposed to be like one family
One peasant’s reaction to the idea of
collectivisation
COLLECTIVISATION
Millions of peasants, rather than give
them up to the collectives, killed
their cows, sheep and chickens.
For a short while, the Russians ate
more meat than they had for a
decade. Then they went on a
vegetarian diet.
An American newspaper report from
1930
COLLECTIVISATION
Why was collectivisation unsuccessful in the early
stages?
1. One reason was the opposition of the kulaks
2. Peasants resented forced collectivisation
•
•
they also burned their crops and killed their livestock
Worked slowly and badly to ensure little surplus
3. Insufficient new machines in the collectives
4. Many peasants did not know how to use the
machines :{
COLLECTIVISATION
Short-term effect of
collectivisation
• Harmful effect on farming in the short term
• Agricultural sector collapsed; famine across
southern USSR in 1932-33
• Estimated 7 million died
• Agricultural production plunged
• Did not recover until 1936-37 when he
allowed peasants to own land again
• But then the population had increased by
some 20 million :{
Homeless, starving children during the famine of 1932-33
140
120
100
80
Cattle
Pigs
Sheep
60
40
20
0
1928
1930
1933
Number of livestock in the USSR (millions)
COLLECTIVISATION
Long-term effect of collectivisation
• Collectivisation made it easier to introduce modern
farming methods
• Use of tractors and combined harvesters
• These eventually helped to make farming more efficient
• One effect : Fewer people required to work on farms
• Freed up people to move into cities to work in factories
• Many peasants were better off the state provided, to some extent,
health care, education, homes, fuel for collective workers
• Trade-off – less freedom of action; they worked for the
state and were accountable to it :{
COLLECTIVISATION
A tractor on a collective farm
EFFECTS OF THE FYPs
1. Turned USSR into a modern, industrialized
country with much better communication
•
•
•
By the end of the 1930s, the Soviet Union had become the second
industrial power in the world after the USA
Made it easier for the development of other industries
Helped make Russian people better off in some areas
2. Made USSR a more powerful country and one
better able to fight a long war
•
•
Iron and steel factories – make weapons, tanks and aeroplanes
One reason why USSR was able to defeat Germany in WWII
EFFECTS OF THE FYPs
3. Jobs for everyone, thanks to industrialization
•
•
Roads, canals, railways, factories, mines etc
Unlike Britain, France & US where large numbers were unemployed
because of the Great Depression
4. People were worse off in the short term
•
•
•
Pay was low; basic goods in short supply
Std of living dropped
On average, people were worse off than before the revolutions of 1917
5. FYP concentrated on heavy industry; no focus on
consumer goods
•
•
Clothing was in short supply
Unsuitable clothes and poor housing/heating made for very miserable
winters
EFFECTS OF THE FYPs
6. Workers were treated harshly
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
In factories, mines and big construction projects
Punished if work targets not met
Meant losing the jobs, and housing and food ration cards too
There were rewards for those who exceeded targets – higher pay, extra
food, special holidays
Alexei Stakhanov – “Stakhanovite”
Such people were not popular. Why?
Their targets used as an excuse to increase other workers’ targets
No proper tools and equipment
Most unable to meet targets, let alone exceed them
POLITICAL FEATURES
1. Dictatorship
• Use of secret police to remove his opponents
and terrorise all Russians into obedience
2. Purges
• 1930s : Started a campaign of purges to
eliminate those critical of his policies
• We shall see more of this
3. Propaganda
• Cult of Stalin
• Education and culture :{
STALIN’S PURGES
• Stalin determined to let no one undermine his
power
• Completely ruthless in dealing with his opponents
• 1936-1938 – Stalin’s dreaded “PURGES”
• Aim was to remove (read eliminate!) anyone
critical of him and his policies
• Thousands of people were identified as ‘traitors’ or
“enemies of the state”, arrested and thrown into
prison
• Some who admitted their guilt were allowed to
survive
• But just as many were executed or exiled :{
STALIN’S PURGES
• Former Party leaders etc arrested and forced to
confess to crimes that they did not commit, found
guilty and shot
• These “show-trials” were filmed and shown to
others as a deterrent
• Many victims of his purges were innocent
• Apart from being accused, people were tortured,
kept in prison without trial or sent to work in
labour camps where conditions were so bad that
huge numbers died :{
STALIN’S PURGES
STALIN’S PURGES
• No one was safe
• About one million were executed
• Difficult to give an exact figure
because of the secrecy with
which such killings were carried
out
• Over 10 million sent to labour
camps :{
STALIN’S PURGES
An abandoned guard tower in one of the hundreds of
gulags in the Soviet Union
STALIN’S PURGES
EFFECTS OF STALIN’S PURGES
1. Stalin became more
powerful than before
•
•
•
•
No one dared to challenge him
Even when the USSR were badly
defeated by the Germans in
WWII, there was never any
possibility that he would be
replaced
Contrast this with Tsar Nicholas
II
On the reverse side, his
reputation was further damaged;
hated by the people :{
STALIN’S PURGES
EFFECTS OF STALIN’S PURGES
2. Severely damaged USSR by removing many of its
ablest people
•
•
•
•
Esp the purge of the Red Army
1937-38 : over half the Red Army officers and all admirals in
the Navy were purged
USSR was much weaker in early WWII because of this
Industrial expansion affected by purge of scientists and
engineers
3. Biggest effect – the misery and suffering by
millions of Russians
•
•
Both relatives and the victims themselves
Many simply disappeared and were never heard of again :{
PROPAGANDA
•
•
•
•
The cult of Stalin : Pictures and
statues of Stalin everywhere
Portrayed as the leader and
saviour of Russia
Newspapers, posters and films
were controlled by the state
They gave the impression that
Stalin was a great hero whom all
should love and obey :{
PROPAGANDA
This famous photo shows a little
girl clinging to a “fatherly”
Stalin. Stalin had the child’s
father shot later.
PROPAGANDA
Stalin with industrial workers
PROPAGANDA
PROPAGANDA
PROPAGANDA
Doctoring of Photographs :
The disappearance of Trotsky and Kamenev
EDUCATION & CULTURE
•
•
•
Stalin introduced education to
eliminate illiteracy
Tried to control the minds of
younger Russians through
education
Teachers forced to teach children
to be loyal communist citizens
•
•
•
Taught the communist version of
history
Only one fair and effective way of
running the country – the communist
way!
Writers and artists had to show
how happy people were under
communist rule :{
PROPAGANDA
Happy and well-fed peasants in a propaganda poster
PROPAGANDA
CONCLUSION
•
•
•
Stalin’s dictatorship is difficult to
understand
Many of his policies were cruel
and inhumane but he believed
they were necessary to ensure
Russia’s survival in a hostile world
How different was Communist
Russia from Tsarist Russia,
especially where the people were
concerned?
•
•
•
•
•
Change in the form of government
Different economic focus
Individual freedom restricted
Reign of terror
Standard of living did not improve for
many
CONCLUSION
•
•
•
Stalin did improve the status of
the Soviet Union
To some extent, his policies were
successful; he did turn the USSR
into a powerful industrialised
nation
Could he have achieved this
without resorting to his dictatorial
policies such as collectivisation
and the purges?
CONCLUSION
Image: When Lenin died, Stalin ordered the best doctors and scientists to come up with a scheme whereby they could
preserve Lenin's body. This scheme was successful and Lenin's mummy was placed in a specially constructed crypt on
Red Square. Lines of people came to view the body. When Stalin died, his body was also preserved and he was placed
in the crypt alongside Lenin. Later during a period of de-Stalinization undertaken by Krushchev, Stalin's body was
removed under cover of night and buried in a modest tomb alongside the Kremlin wall. Krushchev ordered thick layers
of concrete to be placed over the tomb so that Stalin could never rise again. The Lenin mausoleum is still open today
but since the fall of communism there is much discussion about whether to dismantle it and bury Lenin's corpse in a
less conspicuous tomb. (credit: Pictorial Parade)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Information and image sources
– Moreira J., World in Transition – Perspectives on
Modern World History, Singapore : SNP Education Pte
Ltd, 2000.
– Kelly N. and Shuter J., As It Was Lived – A History of the
Modern World, Singapore : Pearson Education Asia Pte
Ltd, 2000.
– Lim S H, Tham Y P, Wang Z and Yeo L, Inroads – Modern
World History, Singapore : Oxford University Press, 2000.
– Tate N., A History of the Modern World, Singapore :
Federal Publications, 1995.