Stalins 5 Year Plans

8/11/2019 Stalins 5 Year Plans

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Modernizing Russia


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The Situation Stalin took over a country in which:

Almost all industry was in a few cities Workers were unskilled & uneducated Many regions as backward as they were

100 years before


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First Five-Year Plan (1928-1933) Focused on major industries

Targets not met, but still impressive Created industrial foundation for further

5-Year plans Whole cities built in remote areas where

resources were Workers moved into new cities to work New steel mills, dams, & hydro-electric

power fed industry/energy requirements New industries in previously undeveloped

regions (Uzbekistan & Kazakhstan)


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Second Five-Year Plan (1933-1937) Built on achievements of 1 st 5-Years

Heavy industry still priority Other industries developed

Lead, tin, zinc mines in Siberia Transport & communication Railways & canals Moscow underground railway (spectacular!)

In agriculture production of tractors &other farm machinery increaseddramatically

Third Five-Year Plan launched in 1938 Some factories were to switch consumer

goods (radios, refrigerators, cars, etc.) WWII interrupted this plan Communist (R) would never produce large

#s of consumer goods


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Were the Five-Year Plans A Success? Criticisms

A lot of inefficiency Duplication of effort & waste Enormous human cost (youll see!)

Positives 2nd & 3 rd 5-Y Plans learned from errors in 1 st

5-Y Plan By 1937 USSR was a modern industrialized

state W/o this industry (G) defeats USSR in WWII


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Were the Five-Year Plans A Success?

1913 1928 1940Gas (billionm 3)

0.02 0.3 3.4

Fertilizers(milliontons)

0.07 .1 3.2

Plastic(million

tons)

- - 10.9

Tractors(thousands)

- 1.3 31.6


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Were the Five-Year Plans A Success?Production in 1927-28 Five-Year Plan 1933 Five-Year Plan 1937

Electricity (billion Kw hours)

Coal (million tons)

Oil (million tons)

Pig Iron (million tons)

Steel (million tons)

5.05 Actual13.4 Actual36.2Target17.0 Target38.0

35.4Actual64.3

Actual128.0

Target68.0

Target152.5

11.7Actual21.4

Actual28.5

Target19.0

Target46.8

3.3Actual6.2 Actual14.5Target8.0 Target16.0

4.0Actual5.9

Actual17.7

Target8.3

Target17.0


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Were the Five-Year Plans A Success?

0

510

15

2025

30

35

40

45

1929 1932 1935 1937 1938

USSR GermanyEnglandUnited States


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Propaganda Every increase in production used for

propaganda S wanted USSR to be beacon of socialism

There is evidence that he [Stalin]exaggerated Russias industrial deficiency in1929. The Tsars had developed aconsiderable industrial capacity in asense the spadework had already been doneand is not altogether sur pri sing that Stali nshould have achieved such rapid r esul ts.

Historian S J Lee, The Eur opeanDictatorshi ps: 1918-1945 , published in1987


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From 1930 govt drafted women workers 1000s of day-care facilities set up By 1937 women 40% of industrial workers Between 1932-37 80% of new workers were

women

Most famous worker: Alexei Stakhanov Mined 102 tons/coal in one shift (14x avg!) Became Hero of Socialist Labor Propaganda told workers to be Stakhanovites

How Was Industrialization Achieved? All extreme programs have costs:

The workers paid the price Foreign experts & engineers marveled @ (R)

workers for their toughness Workers bombarded w/ propaganda (posters,

slogans, radio broadcasts, etc)

All had strict targets to meet (fined if missed)

Cover of Time magazine Dec 16, 1935
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/0,9263,7601351216,00.html


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Workers: The Good By late 1930 many workers lives better

Some had well-paid skilled jobs Some earned bonuses for meeting targets Unemployment almost nonexistent By 1940 USSR had more doctors than (E)

Education free for all Training programs in colleges & work places

Nothing str ikes the visitor to the Soviet Uni onmore forcibly that the lack of f ear. No fear ofnot having enough money at the bir th of a chi ld.

No fear for doctors fees, school fees oruniversity fees. No fear of underwork, no fearof overwork . No fear of wage reduction in aland where none are unemployed

Dr Hewlett Johnson, Dean of Canterbury

Cathedral, visiting USSR in 1939


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Workers: The Bad On other hand, life was harsh under S

Factory discipline harsh, punishment severe Lateness, absences punished by sacking Sacking meant losing apartment/home Internal passports/Checka prevented free

movement of workers within USSR Half a billion cubic feet of excavation work

25,000 tons of structural steel withoutsuf f icient labor, without necessary quanti tiesof the most rudimentary mater ials. Brigadesof young enthusiasts arr ived in the summer of1930 and did the groundwork of the rail roadand dam Later groups of peasants came M any were completely unfamil iar withindustrial tools and processes J Scott, Behind the Ur als , 1943


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Workers: The Ugly Prison labor used for Massive projects

Dams & canals built by soviet citizensimprisoned for being political opponents,suspected political opponents, kulaks,Jews, workers who had accidents or mademistakes on the job (charged w/ sabotage)

Estimated 100,000 died on Belomor Canal


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Industrialization Comes at a Cost Few comforts:

Almost no consumer goods Severe overcrowding in apartments Families of ten typically had two rooms Wages actually fell between 1928 & 1937

In 1932 a husband & wife working madewhat just one worker made in 1928

S destroyed ways of life Islam prevalent in Central Asia Between 1928 & 1932 Islam repressed Muslim leaders imprisoned Mosques closed Pilgrimages to Mecca forbidden


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Activity The Five -Year Plans brought glory to Stalin and misery to his

people. Is that a fair view of Stalins industrialization program? In pairs discuss this question. Make sure you look at all the

evidence and information before you make up you mind. Lets vote (something we couldnt do in the USSR)

True statement! False statement!


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Modernizing Agriculture: Collectivization

Fact File: Peasants were to put their lands together to

form large joint farms (kolkhoz) but keepsmall plots for personal use

Animals & tools to be pooled together M otor T ractor Stations ( MTS ), provided by

govt, made tractors available 90% of kolkhoz produce to be sold to state 10% kolkhoz produce kept to feed peasants


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Modernizing Agriculture: Collectivization

S needed to modernize agriculture By 1928 USSR 2 million tons short

of grain needed to feed workers S needed foreign cash and got it by

selling grain abroad

NEP system not geared for Ss needs Most peasants either laborers w/o land or

rich kulaks Farms too small to afford/make use of

tractors, fertilizers, economies of scale Most peasants were content to grow enough

food for themselves, not enough to feed allcitizens of USSR

1929: Stalin announces collectivization


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Modernizing Agriculture: Collectivization The govts hard sell:

Offered free seeds & perks Peasants always suspicious of govt (what

had (R) govt ever done to build trust?) Peasants disliked farms being under control

of local Communist official

Peasants told to grow cash crops instead ofgrain to feed themselves S was telling peasants to abandon the one

way of life they and their ancestors hadknown for over 1000 years

What i s the way out [of the food problem]? The way out i s to turn the small and scatteredpeasant farms, graduall y but sur ely, into lar gefarms based on common, co-operative,collective cul tivation of the land. There is noother way out.

Stalin in a speech in 1927


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Focus Task: Stalins economic policies:success or failure?

Industrialization Collectivization

Reasons the policy was adopted

Measures taken toenforce the policy

Successes of the policy

Failures of the policy

The human cost of the policy

Working w/ a partner, fill out the table w/ details from your notes.

Using the notes in the table, are you able to write an O or E essay?


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Fin!


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PSDs of Stalin Throughout h istory Russia has been beaten again and again because she was

backward All have beaten her because of her military, industrial andagricultural backwardness. She was beaten because people have been able to getaway with i t. I f you are backward and weak, then you are in the wrong and maybe beaten and enslaved. But i f you are powerful , people must beware of you. I t issometimes asked whether it i s not possible to slow down industr iali zation a bit.

No, comrades, it is not possible To slacken would mean falling behind. Andthose who fall behind get beaten That is why Lenin said during the October

Revolution: Either perish, or overtake and outstrip the advanced capitalistcountries. We are 50 to 100 years behind the advance countries. Either we makegood the dif ference in ten years or they crush us. Stalin, speaking in 1931

What are the resul ts of the F ive-Year Plan in f our years? We did not have an ironand steel i ndustry. Now we have one. We did not have a machi ne tool industry.Now we have one. We did not have a modern chemicals industry. Now we haveone. We did not have a big industry for producing agr icultur al machinery. Nowwe have one. Stalin speaking about the first Five-Year Plan in 1932


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We were led down to the communal kitchen in the basement My sectionconsisted of a packing case and two reeki ng kerosene stoves. On these I was

expected to cook, boil up washi ng and heat water for an occasional bath taken i na basin in the room above The room was good for Moscow we were assured.At least we would not have to share with another famil y. Betty Rowland, Caviar for Breakfast . The novelist describes her experiences of

Russia in the 1930s.

I n order to tur n peasant society into an industri alized country, countl ess mater ialand human sacri f ices were necessary. The people had to accept this, but i t woul dnot be achieved by enthusiasm alone If a few million people had to perish inthe process, history would forgive Comrade Stalin The great aim demanded

great energy that could be drawn f rom a backward people only by greatharshness. Anatoli Rybakov, Childr en of the Ar bat , 1988. A Russian writer presents Stalins

viewpoint on the modernization of Russia

PSDs of Stalin

Stalins 5 Year Plans

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