Impact of Stalin’s Rule

Stalin voted third-best Russian

• Joseph Stalin came third in a poll held by a TV station to find the greatest Russian. (2008)

Legacies of Stalin’s rule

• Industrialized the backward USSR into modern power

• Defeated Nazi Germany in WW2

• Annihilated millions in political purges and the forced collectivisation of farms

• Millions more perished in the slave-labor camps of the Gulag

What was the economic impact of Stalin’s rule?

• Stalin aimed to modernize the Soviet Union into a great country, more powerful than Britain and the USA.

• Two measures:– Rapid industrialization.– Collectivization of agriculture.

What is industrialization?

• Development of industries with advanced technology to produce goods on a large scale

Why industrialisation??

• To strengthen USSR so that it can defend itself against capitalist countries

• To give all Russians a higher standard of living• To demonstrate supremacy of communism and

gain personal glory for Stalin

Stalin in a 1931 speech to factory managers explaining the need for industrialization

“Russia suffered many defeats because of her backwardness. All those countries defeated her because she was weak. This is why we must no longer lag behind…

We are 50 to 100 years behind the advanced countries. We must catch up in 10 years or they will crush us.”

How was industrialisation implemented?

• Three Five -Year Plans • Focused on production of heavy industries

such as coal, oil, steel, and iron• Many new factories and industrial cities were

built• Transport and communications networks were

also improved

Positive impact of industrialization

• Transformation of Soviet Union into a modern industrial power

created vast number of jobs for the Soviet people

strengthened the defence capacity of Soviet Union

First Five-Year Plan First Five-Year Plan (1928–1932)(1928–1932)

• Focused on heavy industries, especially iron and Focused on heavy industries, especially iron and steel.steel.

• Output was to be doubled for iron and steel Output was to be doubled for iron and steel production and in electricity, chemicals and production and in electricity, chemicals and engineering.engineering.

• After some early success, targets were increased After some early success, targets were increased and this Five-Year Plan was ordered to be and this Five-Year Plan was ordered to be completed in four years instead of five.completed in four years instead of five.

Second Five-Year Plan Second Five-Year Plan (1933–1937)(1933–1937)

• Set new targets for heavy industries.

• More attention given to industries that produced goods such as clothing.

• From 1934 onwards, priority was given to military production as the Soviet Union anticipated another war.

• Factories were built to the East of the Ural Mountains, beyond the reach of Western invaders.

• Transport and communication networks were greatly improved.

Third Five-Year PlanThird Five-Year Plan(1938–1942)(1938–1942)

• Emphasis on industries related to military production.

• Disrupted when the Soviet Union was invaded by Germany in 1941.

• From then on, all resources were focused on military production and defeating the Germans.

Results of First and Second Five-Year Plans

1927

(base year)

1932

(1st FYP)

1937

(2nd FYP)

Oil 11.7 21.4 28.5

Steel 4.0 5.9 17.7

Coal 35.4 64.3 128.0

Stalin speaking about the first Five-Year Plan in 1932

What are the results of the Five-Year Plan in four years? We have accomplished more than we ourselves expected. We did not have an iron and steel industry. Now we have one. We did not have a machine tool industry. Now we have one. We did not have a modern chemicals industry. Now we have one. We did not have a big industry for producing agricultural machinery. Now we have one. And we have created these new industries, on a scale and in dimensions that eclipse the scale and dimensions of European industry

A steel production factory in Magnitogorsk.

Many of the new towns and industrial cities were to be built in the East, beyond the Ural Mountains.

The strategic location of these industrial cities would place them beyond the reach of Western invaders.

Negative impact of industrialization

• Harsh working conditions

• Neglect of consumer goods

• Poor coordination and planning

Restrictions placed on workersRestrictions placed on workers

1929 All factory workers had to work seven days a week.

1930 Workers were not allowed to move around the factories during working hours.

1931 Workers would be sent to prison if they broke any rules in the factories.

1932 Workers could be transferred from one place of work to another without their agreement

Workers would be sentenced to death for stealing things from the factories

Negative Impact of Industrialisation (short-term: early 1930s)

1. Poor working conditions, strict discipline and severe punishments

2. Unbalanced economic development due to focus on heavy industries production of consumer goods neglected food, clothes and shoes were in short supply decline in living standard in the early 1930s

Positive Impact of Industrialisation (long-term: late 1930s)

1. Transformation of Russia from a backward country into a modern industrial state enabled Russia to face German threat in WW2

2. Created job opportunities and enhanced literacy and skills many workers obtained well-paid, high-skilled jobs by late 1930s

what is collectivisation?

• The grouping of small private farms into large modern state-owned farms

• Crop distributed by state – the government took 90 per cent of production and left the rest for the people to live on

why collectivisation?

• To make farming more efficient so that more people in countryside can work in factories

• To export more crops to other countries to raise funds for industrialization

• To obtain a secure food supply for factory workers in cities

• To abolish private land ownership and complete communist revolution

Negative impact:resistance and famines

• Most peasants (especially kulaks) burned their crops and killed their animals rather than hand them over to the state

• Drop in food production led to severe famines in the early 1930s, resulting in deaths of millions.

• Stalin blamed the kulaks, who were executed or sent to the gulag.

Peasant women in Ukraine gathering spilled kernels

Positive impact

• Cheap and regular supply of crops

• feed industrial towns

• raise funds for industrialization

• More manpower were freed from the countryside to work in the factories to support industrialization.

Past year question

‘Stalin’s industrial and agricultural reforms were a total success.’ How far do you agree with this statement? EYA. (2005 ‘O’ Level)

What was the political impact of Stalin’s rule?

• Establishment of dictatorship through:

(i)Purges – Great Terror (25:30-42:00)

(i)Propaganda – personality cult (42:00-48:00)

How Soviet Union is ruled

• One-party rule; no free elections

• Party Congress brings together thousands of delegates across the country. Its function is to "elect" a Central Committee which runs the Communist Party.

• The Central Committee's main job is to elect a Politburo which decides government policies.

The Purges (1934-38)

• Murder of Kirov – Stalin used this as an excuse to carry out a series of purges from 1934-38 to remove opposition to his rule.

• Millions lost their lives – “The Great Terror”.

• Video (25.30 to 42.00)

Victims 1: Communist Party

• political rivals like Kamenev, Zinoviev and Bukharin were put on show trials at which they confessed to being traitors before being executed

• 500,000 party members were arrested on charges of anti-Soviet activities and either executed or sent to gulags

What does this source tell you about the “confessions” that were made at Stalin’s trials?

“Kamenev and Zinoviev were kept in heated cells, at the height of summer and worn down by continuous questioning. They were told that their families would be killed if they did not cooperate.”

Party leaders who had been purged were removed from photographs

Victims 2: Armed Forces

• Stalin was suspicious of the Red Army because of its loyalty to Trotsky

• Most senior commanders and officers (25,000) were accused of treason, tortured into confession and shot

Victims 3: Ordinary people

• By the end of 1930s, the purges had spread to the people – university lecturers and teachers, miners and engineers, factory managers and ordinary workers.

• Some 20 million ordinary Russians were sent to forced labour camps (gulags); half of them died from overwork and ill treatment.

Arrests and Interrogation

• The secret police (NKVD) had a quota system for arrests

• People were forced to inform against their friends and family who voiced opposition against Stalin

• Arrests took place in the middle of the night; physical and psychological torture to break the victims

What does this source tell you about the life for the Russians in the 1930s?

“At 4 am, there was a knock on the door of the house. Everyone leapt out of the bed, but none dared open the door. The knocking grew louder. Finally, one of the tenants took courage and opened the door. He was heard whispering for a few moments and then came back to his terrified fellow tenants with a smile. He said, ‘nothing to worry about comrades, the house is on fire, that’s all.”

photos of victims of the purges

Impact of Purges?

• Consolidated Stalin’s rule

• No security of life

• Loss of able leaders and intellectuals

Propaganda: personality cult

• Stalin used propaganda extensively to build up his image as a fatherly and popular leader.

• All offices, factories and classrooms had pictures of Stalin.

• All successes and achievements of the country were attributed to him.

What can we learn from this source about Stalin?

Propaganda: personality cult

• Artists were required to praise Stalin in films, books, posters, paintings and musicals.

• Soviet history rewritten to highlight the heroic role of Stalin during the October Revolution.

• Watch video (42:00-48:00)

Impact of propaganda?

• Made people worship Stalin

• Boosted Stalin’s authority and status

What was the social impact of Stalin’s rule?

• Increased state control over everyday social life Fall in standard of living Living in fear Women’s position improved Increased literacy rates Control of education and youth Religious persecution

Fall in standard of livingFall in standard of living

• Soviet workers led very difficult lives in 1930s due to rapid industrialization.

• E.g. long working hours and poor living conditions

• E.g. lack of consumer goods such as textiles due to the focus of Five-Year Plans on heavy industries.

We were led down to the communal kitchen in the basement … ‘My’ section consisted of a packing case and two reeking kerosene stoves. On these I was expected to cook, boil up washing and heat water for an occasional bath taken in a basin in the room above … The room was good for Moscow we were assured. At least we would not have to share with another family.

– Betty Rowland, Caviar for Breakfast. The novelist describes her experiences of Russia in the 1930s.

Living in fearLiving in fear

• Fear was an aspect of everyday life

• Secret police (NKVD) had informers everywhere to keep people under constant watch

• Slightest indication of anti-Stalin sentiments could warrant an arrest by secret police

• Victims sent to forced labour camp or even killed

Position of women improvedPosition of women improved

• Stalin’s industrialization encouraged women to become productive members of economy.

• Women not discriminated or given lower pay

• State-run childcare centres were built to enable women to work in factories

Increased literacy ratesIncreased literacy rates

• There was free and universal education for all

• E.g. every child was entitled to at least nine years of free education; school attendance was compulsory

• Rise in literacy from 40 to 94 per cent among men, and 13 to 65 per cent among women.

“Stalin's policies granted the Soviet people universal access to education. For the first time ever, girls were granted adequate and equal education and women had equal rights in employment... The generation born during Stalin's rule was the first near-universally literate generation. Millions benefitted from mass literacy campaigns and from workers training schemes.”

A historian’s view about life under Stalin’s rule in USSR during the 1930s

Control of youth and education

• Stalin used education to control what people were taught.

• Lessons were loaded with communist propaganda; history was distorted to boost Stalin’s status and discredit his rivals

• Teenagers joined the Komsomol (Communist Union of Youth) – encouraged outdoor activities and indoctrinated them to be loyal to Stalin.

Religious persecutionReligious persecution

• Religious worship of any kind was banned as atheism was a key part of communism.

• ‘Religion is the opium of the people’ – Karl Marx – harmful superstition

• Places of worship were demolished; religious symbols burnt; religious leaders persecuted.

Control of the arts/ mass media

• The arts and mass media were carefully monitored by NKVD.

• Only artists who made art praising Stalin could remain in their jobs.

• Only approved newspapers and magazines could be published

SEQ Assignment on Impact of Stalin’s rule (20m)

(a) Explain how Stalin maintained control over the Soviet Union. (8m)

(b) ‘Stalin’s dictatorship in the 1930s was a disaster for the Soviet people.’ How far do you agree? Explain your answer. (12m)

- Submission deadline: 10 July 2014, Thursday

Stalin’s methods of control

- Propaganda: creating personality cult e.g. Stalin praised in films, posters, paintings

- Link to control?

- Brainwashed people into obeying and idolizing Stalin as saviour of country, which gave him better control