Collectivisation was the new policy for agriculture. In the Bolsheviks' point of view, private farming was not efficient. So how did collectivisation work?
- Seperate pieces of land were merged together to form collective farms
- Peasants were placed to work on the collective state farms
- They were told what to grow based on orders from the central committee
- Each household also had one acre of private land where they could grow what they wanted
- Workers did not have wage, but instead recieved a percentage of the farm's total profit by the end of the year
- However, few farms profited and when some didn't profit, the people got no pay
- Therefore, private land was very important to make profit, and it was estimated that 70% of meat in Russia came from these plots of private land
The benefits of this were that
- Bolsheviks could control production
- Kulaks, those in a wealthy peasant class created by Stolypin's reforms, stopped being created
- Peasants could work together
- This policy backed up communism beliefs
- This allowed the use of big machinery which would not be used in smaller farms
- The government could ensure that large amounts of grain were produced so that it could be exported to pay for technology imports and feed the population
The failures were that
- Many rejected this dramatic change and did not want to give up their land
- There was no choice for the people, this change was forced by the army
- The kulaks were blamed for the poor production in the past
- A bad harvest and the fact that kulaks destroyed crops and killed animals caused a great famine
- People also did not like the fact that party officials controlled the farms.
The Five Year Plans
The 5 year plans were 5 year plans with goals set for industrial production within each time frame
- Gosplan, the central state planning commission, set goals for production of heavy industry
- These goals were passed on to regional administrators, to the who passed them the directors of the industrial enterprises (eg. factory owners)
- This allowed the government to control the amount of certain resources to produce
Reasons for the introduction of the Five Year Plans
- The NEP was a retreat from communism to survive the Civil War. This objective had been achieved. Stalin now wanted to more tightly control economy to develop the economy quickly
- Wanted a focus on heavy industry to defend against foreign threats
- Industrialisation was aimed to be a tool to create a Marxist worker's state, which the NEP did not do. Furthermore, the NEP was unpopular as it was not communist in principle
- Wanted to rapidly develop industry, and confront those who wanted a gradual approach and did not favour Stalin's policy of "Socialism in One Country"
- Stalin wanted rapid industrialisation to be an opportunity for Russia to become a developing superpower
Changes of the Five Year Plans
- First Five Year Plan
- The production of electricity tripled
- The production of coal and iron doubled
- Tractor works were being built
- There was a lack of skilled workers
- The production of consumer goods fell
- Second Five Year Plan
- Chemical industries grew
- Railways were built
- Russia was self-dependent in making machines by 1937
- Oil production did not reach the goal
- Consumer goods were ignored
- Ice cream production was severely lacking
- Third Five Year Plan
- Heavy industry grew
- Focus now on weaponry and defence
- Steel and oil production fell
- Consumer goods ignored
Success of the economic changes
Industry
- Between 1928 and 1940...
- Coal output increased from 35M to 150M tons
- Steel output increased from 3M to 18M tons
- Oil output increased from 12M to 26M tons
- By 1940, Russia produced 20% of world manufacturing output
Agriculture
- 0.03 million tonnes of grain were exported for sale in 1928
- 1.69 million tonnes were exported by 1933
General Successes
- 1.69 million tonnes were exported by 1933
- The plans also built industry in safer areas deep inside, which meant that German invasion would not take over key production
- It is also believed that the harsh conditions gave the people a stronger mentality which prepared the people for the losses in the war
- Russia had great developments (eg. education programmes in the collective farms, more urbanisation, better quality of life for some)
- New chemicals were used for farming and new machines for industry, which showed a development in technology
Overall Failures
- 5 million died because of famine caused by collectivisation
- 10 million were exiled and imprisoned for not complying
- An estimated 40 million died because of poor living conditions due to the plans
- Quality of products was lowered as quantity was prioritised
- Productivity was low, and labour was very tough on the workers
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