Economic Changes Under Stalin and Russian Economy in

the 1930s

Jessiney RegueiroDanny de la RosaAlyssa CampaRyann Puente

The state of the Russian agriculture

Russia just came out of the grain procurement crisis

There was lack of crops

NEP was hurting Russia’s agriculture

There was a demand of more grain

Stalin believed that the Kulaks were the ones hoarding the grains

Stalin enforced collectivization

Reasons for collectivization

Communist party was never chappy with private agriculture

Collectivization was meant to transform traditional agricultural and reduce the power of the kulaks.

Thought it would increase the efficiency of farming

Was part of the process to industrialize Russia quickly so cash crops were necessary

Food was needed for industrial workers

The NEP was not efficient

20 million tons of grain short to feed towns

Collectivization Process

Collectivization first allowed peasants to join voluntarily

But then peasants were forced to give up their individual farms and join large collective farms (kolkhozy)

25,000 industry workers (a.k.a. twenty-five-thousanders) were sent to the countryside to assist collectivization and improve their performance

They were frontline workers from industrial cities

Peasants destroyed their own farms and barns, and killed their animals in protest because they did not want to hand it over to the government

Impact of collectivization

Positive:

Before, agriculture was inefficient and peasant based

Modernised and mechanized Soviet agriculture

Farms sought to create surplus

Created a boost in industry

Negative:● Kulaks were deported

○ They were the better farmers● Farm was left with no good famers● Resistance meant that crops and

animals were destroyed rather than being handed over○ Caused Ukraine famine where 2.5

mil peasants starved to death

Russian Industry in 1929-Globally 1929 was a year of prosperity (before the depression)

-Marxists interpreted the economic decline in Western economy as a sign of the final collapse of Capitalism.

-In Russia, it was the first year of the Five Year Plan and the Soviet Union had regained their pre-war levels of production.

-Prior to this, the Gosplan (General Commission on Stand Planning) and the NEP commanded Russian economy

-Stalin wanted to bring Russia up to par with the rest of the world and prove that communism was the answer to any economic problems, so he decided he first needed to industrialize Russia. To Stalin, industry meant heavy industry. He believed the industrial revolutions in Western Europe and North America were based on the production of steel and iron.

The Five Year Plan(s)● Stalin’s Goal: To make the Soviet’s economy self-sufficient by increasing the output of industrial goods.

He planned to do this by emphasizing the importance of electrical power, industrial goods, and agriculture.

● So, he introduced the First Five Year Plan (1928-1933) which initiated the collectivization of agriculture and focused on rapid industrialization. Prisoners carried out much of the labor due to the fact that they were cheap and abundant.

○ Factory output soared as a result of the First Five Year Plan● The Second Five Year Plan (1933-1937) placed a lot of focus on heavy industry in order to improve the

Soviet Union’s communication systems, mainly in the form of railways. Women were encouraged to work as well.

○ New methods of increasing production levels were introduced such as incentives(which caused inequality in society), punishments, and the introduction of child care

○ As focus shifted towards military goods, the standard of living lowered. Consumer preferences were disregarded and consumer goods decreased in quality and availability

○ This plan did not achieve the same level of success as the First Five Year Plan, as oil and coal industries failed to reach production goals

The Five Year Plan Cont. The Third Five Year Plan (1937-1941) only lasted 3 years for it was

interrupted when Germany declared war on the Soviet Union during WWII. Due to the circumstances, this plan's main focus shifted from producing consumer goods and increasing the quality of life to developing military weapons and constructing military facilities.

Failed to meet their goal of producing more consumer goods( radios, bicycles etc.) as a result of the war.

Industry was directed towards defence

Rationing came to an end and free educations and medicine were made more available to the public

“With shock labor we will ensure prompt delivery of the giants of the Five Year Plan

Impact of Russian IndustrializationThese plans proved successful as the Soviet Union became one of the leading industrial nations: by 1940 12.6 million people were working in industry, construction and transport as opposed to the 4.6 million in 1928.

Collectivization: Success or Failure?Successes

Class warfare was encouraged. Although it was not as successful as hoped, the Kulak class was targeted by some poorer peasants.

By the mid 30’s, Kulaks as a class had gone. They had been shot, imprisoned, sent to Gulags, settled on poor quality land, or purely hidden or sold their possessions to avoid trouble.

The “Law of Seventh-Eighths” passed on August 7, 932 sent those to 10 years in prison for any theft of socialist property. This was later changed to the death sentence; later in 1932 decrees were passed giving 10 years imprisonment to any peasant selling meat or grain before quotas has been met. This significantly reduced sabotage and damage.

Internal passports were introduced to prevent peasants moving between rural areas or into urban areas searching for food. It was made illegal to leave a collective farm without permission from the manager. In reality, some migration did still occur, but much less with the agricultural workers than in the industrial centres of the USSR.

Following the pause in 1930, Stalin allowed peasants to have a private plot of land in the Kolkhoz, from which any produce became the private property of the individual. This was very successful and peasants made full use. Although the private plots only made up less than 4% of private land in USSR, they produced between 25 and 35% of the agricultural output, indicating how hard the peasants worked on them.

Collectivization: Success or Failure?Failures

Initial quotas of food to 1931 were met and sufficient to support industrialisation and urban construction, but various factors led to a fall in production of food after 1931.

The majority of Kolkhoz were led by Twenty Five Thousanders, activists who were willing to leave the cities to take charge of the ‐farms. 69% were members of the Communist Party, and 48% had experience of either team leadership in a factory or agricultural for 12 or more years. 9% were members of the Komsomol. However 13% had less than 5 years of any relevant experience. Some were sent on 2 3 month training courses, but most were sent to learn on the job. ‐

Population decline in western USSR between 1929 and 1933. The darker the colour, the more the population decreased.

Failure to produce sufficient foodstuffs led to a famine across much of the USSR between early 1932 and late 1934,

Deaths reached about 7 million; the inability of collectivisation to produce sufficient food was inadmissible. Further, since illiteracy was common place, few private records survive. Some historians think that Stalin allowed this to happen to ensure that the peasants were working hard.

“To what extent did the Russian people lose rather than gain from Stalin’s economic policies?”

The Russian people definitely lost a lot more than they gained.

The enactment of collectivisation caused most peasants to eat their own crops and livestock.

Not only this, but starvation was nationwide.

However, the Five Year Plans were quite beneficiary towards industrial output, but living conditions got worse and morale dropped significantly.

Also, the last two plans didn't even reach the minimum goal Stalin was hoping for.