Modernizing Russia

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

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

Industry & the Five-Year Plans S ended L’s NEP GOSPLAN set overall target for an industry Created 5-Year Plans to modernize (R) Plans created by GOSPLAN (State planning org set up by L in 1921 Set ambitious production targets in vital industries (coal, iron, oil, electricity) Detailed, down to the individual worker Each region was told its target Region set target for each mine, factory, etc. Manager of site set target for each foreman Foremen set target for shifts, each worker

S ended L’s NEP

Created 5-Year Plans to modernize (R)

Plans created by GOSPLAN (State planning org set up by L in 1921

Set ambitious production targets in vital industries (coal, iron, oil, electricity)

Detailed, down to the individual worker

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)

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)

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 increased dramatically 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

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 increased dramatically

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

Were the Five-Year Plans A Success? Criticisms A lot of inefficiency Duplication of effort & waste Enormous human cost (you’ll see!) Positives 2 nd & 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

Criticisms

A lot of inefficiency

Duplication of effort & waste

Enormous human cost (you’ll see!)

Positives

2 nd & 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

Were the Five-Year Plans A Success? 31.6 1.3 - Tractors (thousands) 10.9 - - Plastic (million tons) 3.2 .1 0.07 Fertilizers (million tons) 3.4 0.3 0.02 Gas (billion m 3 ) 1940 1928 1913

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 Actual 13.4 Actual 36.2 Target 17.0 Target 38.0 35.4 Actual 64.3 Actual 128.0 Target 68.0 Target 152.5 11.7 Actual 21.4 Actual 28.5 Target 19.0 Target 46.8 3.3 Actual 6.2 Actual 14.5 Target 8.0 Target 16.0 4.0 Actual 5.9 Actual 17.7 Target 8.3 Target 17.0

Were the Five-Year Plans A Success?

Propaganda Every increase in production used for propaganda S wanted USSR to be beacon of socialism There is evidence that he [Stalin] exaggerated Russia’s industrial deficiency in 1929. The Tsars had developed a considerable industrial capacity … in a sense the spadework had already been done and is not altogether surprising that Stalin should have achieved such rapid results. Historian S J Lee, The European Dictatorships: 1918-1945 , published in 1987

Every increase in production used for propaganda

S wanted USSR to be beacon of socialism

There is evidence that he [Stalin] exaggerated Russia’s industrial deficiency in 1929. The Tsars had developed a considerable industrial capacity … in a sense the spadework had already been done and is not altogether surprising that Stalin should have achieved such rapid results.

Historian S J Lee, The European Dictatorships: 1918-1945 , published in 1987

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) From 1930 gov’t 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’ Cover of Time magazine Dec 16, 1935

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)

From 1930 gov’t 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’

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 strikes the visitor to the Soviet Union more forcibly that the lack of fear. No fear of not having enough money at the birth of a child. No fear for doctor’s fees, school fees or university fees. No fear of underwork, no fear of overwork. No fear of wage reduction in a land where none are unemployed Dr Hewlett Johnson, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, visiting USSR in 1939

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 strikes the visitor to the Soviet Union more forcibly that the lack of fear. No fear of not having enough money at the birth of a child. No fear for doctor’s fees, school fees or university fees. No fear of underwork, no fear of overwork. No fear of wage reduction in a land where none are unemployed

Dr Hewlett Johnson, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, visiting USSR in 1939

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 … without sufficient labor, without necessary quantities of the most rudimentary materials. Brigades of young enthusiasts arrived in the summer of 1930 and did the groundwork of the railroad and dam … Later groups of peasants came … Many were completely unfamiliar with industrial tools and processes … J Scott, Behind the Urals , 1943

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 … without sufficient labor, without necessary quantities of the most rudimentary materials. Brigades of young enthusiasts arrived in the summer of 1930 and did the groundwork of the railroad and dam … Later groups of peasants came … Many were completely unfamiliar with industrial tools and processes …

J Scott, Behind the Urals , 1943

Workers: The Ugly Prison labor used for Massive projects Dams & canals built by soviet citizens imprisoned for being political opponents, suspected political opponents, kulaks, Jews, workers who had accidents or made mistakes on the job (charged w/ sabotage) Estimated 100,000 died on Belomor Canal

Prison labor used for Massive projects

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

Estimated 100,000 died on Belomor Canal

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 made what 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

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 made what 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

Activity ‘ The Five-Year Plans brought glory to Stalin and misery to his people.’ Is that a fair view of Stalin’s industrialization program? In pairs discuss this question. Make sure you look at all the evidence and information before you make up you mind. Let’s vote (something we couldn’t do in the USSR) True statement! False statement!

‘ The Five-Year Plans brought glory to Stalin and misery to his people.’ Is that a fair view of Stalin’s industrialization program?

In pairs discuss this question. Make sure you look at all the evidence and information before you make up you mind.

Let’s vote (something we couldn’t do in the USSR)

True statement!

False statement!

Modernizing Agriculture: Collectivization Fact File: Peasants were to put their lands together to form large joint farms (kolkhoz) but keep small plots for personal use Animals & tools to be pooled together M otor T ractor S tations ( MTS ), provided by gov’t, made tractors available 90% of kolkhoz produce to be sold to state 10% kolkhoz produce kept to feed peasants

Fact File:

Peasants were to put their lands together to form large joint farms (kolkhoz) but keep small plots for personal use

Animals & tools to be pooled together

M otor T ractor S tations ( MTS ), provided by gov’t, made tractors available

90% of kolkhoz produce to be sold to state

10% kolkhoz produce kept to feed peasants

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 S’s 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 all citizens of USSR 1929: Stalin announces 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 S’s 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 all citizens of USSR

1929: Stalin announces collectivization

Modernizing Agriculture: Collectivization The govt’s hard sell: Offered free seeds & perks Peasants always suspicious of gov’t (what had (R) gov’t ever done to build trust?) Peasants disliked farms being under control of local Communist official Peasants told to grow cash crops instead of grain to feed themselves S was telling peasants to abandon the one way of life they and their ancestors had known for over 1000 years What is the way out [of the food problem]? The way out is to turn the small and scattered peasant farms, gradually but surely, into large farms based on common, co-operative, collective cultivation of the land. There is no other way out. Stalin in a speech in 1927

The govt’s hard sell:

Offered free seeds & perks

Peasants always suspicious of gov’t (what had (R) gov’t ever done to build trust?)

Peasants disliked farms being under control of local Communist official

Peasants told to grow cash crops instead of grain to feed themselves

S was telling peasants to abandon the one way of life they and their ancestors had known for over 1000 years

What is the way out [of the food problem]? The way out is to turn the small and scattered peasant farms, gradually but surely, into large farms based on common, co-operative, collective cultivation of the land. There is no other way out.

Stalin in a speech in 1927

Forced Collectivization Kulaks resisted Simply refused to hand over their land & produce Soviet propaganda tried to turn Russians against Kulaks Requisition parties took all food>starvation 1000s arrested & sent to labor camps where they were worked to death ( Ivan Denisovich ) Kulaks retaliated by burning crops & slaughtering all their animals (If we can’t have it, nobody can!) 1932-33: Food production fell Millions starved in Ukraine (best farm land in USSR!) When (G) first reached Ukraine in 1941 they were welcomed as liberating heroes! Despite famine S did not ease off. By 1934 there were no more kulaks. By 1941 almost all farm land was collectivized. S had achieved his aim of collectivization.

Kulaks resisted

Simply refused to hand over their land & produce

Soviet propaganda tried to turn Russians against Kulaks

Requisition parties took all food>starvation

1000s arrested & sent to labor camps where they were worked to death ( Ivan Denisovich )

Kulaks retaliated by burning crops & slaughtering all their animals (If we can’t have it, nobody can!)

1932-33: Food production fell

Millions starved in Ukraine (best farm land in USSR!)

When (G) first reached Ukraine in 1941 they were welcomed as liberating heroes!

Despite famine S did not ease off. By 1934 there were no more kulaks. By 1941 almost all farm land was collectivized. S had achieved his aim of collectivization.

Forced Collectivization ‘ How are things with you?’ I asked one old man. He looked around anxiously to see that no soldiers were about. ‘We have nothing, absolutely nothing. They have taken everything away.’ It was true. The famine is an organized one. Some of the food that has been taken away from them is being exported to foreign countries. It is literally true that whole villages have been exiled. I saw myself a group of some twenty peasants being marched off under escort. This is so common a sight it no longer arouses even curiosity. Reporter writing for the British newspaper Manchester Guardian , 1933 Why do you think the reports of the famine came only from Western journalists? Stalin, ignoring the great cost in human life and misery, claimed that collectivization was a success; for, after the great famines caused at the time … no more famines came to haunt the Russian people. The collective farms, despite their inefficiencies, did grow more food that the tiny, privately owned holdings had done. For example, 30 to 40 million tons of grain were produced every year. Collectivization also meant the introduction of machines into the countryside. Now 2 million previously backward peasants learned how to drive a tractor. New methods of farming were taught by agricultural experts. The countryside was transformed. Historian E Roberts, Stalin, Man of Steel , published in 1989 According to Roberts, what advantages did collectivization bring? Do you agree that these advantages outweighed the human cost? Why did Stalin need to change farming in the USSR? Why did the peasants resist?

‘ How are things with you?’ I asked one old man. He looked around anxiously to see that no soldiers were about. ‘We have nothing, absolutely nothing. They have taken everything away.’ It was true. The famine is an organized one. Some of the food that has been taken away from them is being exported to foreign countries. It is literally true that whole villages have been exiled. I saw myself a group of some twenty peasants being marched off under escort. This is so common a sight it no longer arouses even curiosity.

Reporter writing for the British newspaper Manchester Guardian , 1933

Why do you think the reports of the famine came only from Western journalists?

Stalin, ignoring the great cost in human life and misery, claimed that collectivization was a success; for, after the great famines caused at the time … no more famines came to haunt the Russian people. The collective farms, despite their inefficiencies, did grow more food that the tiny, privately owned holdings had done. For example, 30 to 40 million tons of grain were produced every year. Collectivization also meant the introduction of machines into the countryside. Now 2 million previously backward peasants learned how to drive a tractor. New methods of farming were taught by agricultural experts. The countryside was transformed.

Historian E Roberts, Stalin, Man of Steel , published in 1989

According to Roberts, what advantages did collectivization bring?

Do you agree that these advantages outweighed the human cost?

Why did Stalin need to change farming in the USSR?

Why did the peasants resist?

Focus Task: Stalin’s economic policies: success or failure? 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? The human cost of the policy Failures of the policy Successes of the policy Measures taken to enforce the policy Reasons the policy was adopted Collectivization Industrialization

Fin!

PSDs of Stalin Throughout history Russia has been beaten again and again because she was backward … All have beaten her because of her military, industrial and agricultural backwardness. She was beaten because people have been able to get away with it. If you are backward and weak, then you are in the wrong and may be beaten and enslaved. But if you are powerful, people must beware of you. It is sometimes asked whether it is not possible to slow down industrialization a bit. No, comrades, it is not possible … To slacken would mean falling behind. And those who fall behind get beaten … That is why Lenin said during the October Revolution: ‘Either perish, or overtake and outstrip the advanced capitalist countries.’ We are 50 to 100 years behind the advance countries. Either we make good the difference in ten years or they crush us. Stalin, speaking in 1931 What are the results of the Five-Year Plan in four years? 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. Stalin speaking about the first Five-Year Plan in 1932

Throughout history Russia has been beaten again and again because she was backward … All have beaten her because of her military, industrial and agricultural backwardness. She was beaten because people have been able to get away with it. If you are backward and weak, then you are in the wrong and may be beaten and enslaved. But if you are powerful, people must beware of you. It is sometimes asked whether it is not possible to slow down industrialization a bit. No, comrades, it is not possible … To slacken would mean falling behind. And those who fall behind get beaten … That is why Lenin said during the October Revolution: ‘Either perish, or overtake and outstrip the advanced capitalist countries.’ We are 50 to 100 years behind the advance countries. Either we make good the difference in ten years or they crush us.

Stalin, speaking in 1931

What are the results of the Five-Year Plan in four years? 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.

Stalin speaking about the first Five-Year Plan in 1932

PSDs of Stalin We got so dirty and we were such young things, small, slender, fragile. But we had our orders to build the metro and we wanted to do it more than anything else. We wore our workers’ overalls with such style. My feet were size four and the boots were elevens. But there was such enthusiasm. Tatyana Fyodorova, interviewed as an old lady in 1990, remembers building the Moscow underground As usual, at five o’clock that first morning call was sounded by the blows of a hammer on a length of rail … the sound penetrated the window panes on which the frost lay two inches thick … [Sukhov] remembered that this morning his fate hung in the balance: they wanted to shift the 104 th from the building shops to a new site, the ‘Socialist Way of Life’ settlement. It lay in open country covered with snowdrifts, and before anything else could be done there they would have to dig pits and put up posts and attach barbed wire to them. Wire themselves in, so they couldn’t run away … Alexander Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich , published in 1962. Solzhenitsyn was probably the most famous dissident in Stalin’s USSR. He spent many years in labor camps. He was exiled in 1974. He lived for the next 20 years in the USA but in 1994 returned to Russia after the fall of Communism.

We got so dirty and we were such young things, small, slender, fragile. But we had our orders to build the metro and we wanted to do it more than anything else. We wore our workers’ overalls with such style. My feet were size four and the boots were elevens. But there was such enthusiasm.

Tatyana Fyodorova, interviewed as an old lady in 1990, remembers building the Moscow underground

As usual, at five o’clock that first morning call was sounded by the blows of a hammer on a length of rail … the sound penetrated the window panes on which the frost lay two inches thick … [Sukhov] remembered that this morning his fate hung in the balance: they wanted to shift the 104 th from the building shops to a new site, the ‘Socialist Way of Life’ settlement. It lay in open country covered with snowdrifts, and before anything else could be done there they would have to dig pits and put up posts and attach barbed wire to them. Wire themselves in, so they couldn’t run away …

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich , published in 1962. Solzhenitsyn was probably the most famous dissident in Stalin’s USSR. He spent many years in labor camps. He was exiled in 1974. He lived for the next 20 years in the USA but in 1994 returned to Russia after the fall of Communism.

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. In order to turn peasant society into an industrialized country, countless material and human sacrifices were necessary. The people had to accept this, but it would not be achieved by enthusiasm alone … If a few million people had to perish in the process, history would forgive Comrade Stalin … The great aim demanded great energy that could be drawn from a backward people only by great harshness. Anatoli Rybakov, Children of the Arbat , 1988. A Russian writer presents Stalin’s viewpoint on the modernization of Russia PSDs of Stalin

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.

In order to turn peasant society into an industrialized country, countless material and human sacrifices were necessary. The people had to accept this, but it would not be achieved by enthusiasm alone … If a few million people had to perish in the process, history would forgive Comrade Stalin … The great aim demanded great energy that could be drawn from a backward people only by great harshness.

Anatoli Rybakov, Children of the Arbat , 1988. A Russian writer presents Stalin’s viewpoint on the modernization of Russia