Stalin's Economic Policies with Sources

1. Stalin’s Soviet Union

2. Stalin’s Legacy
‘Brutal Soviet dictator
Josef Stalin was voted
Russia’s third most
popular historical figure
in a nationwide TV poll.’

3. Stalin’s Legacy

4. Stalin’s Legacy
 Video
◦ Euronews
http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=kJdXHvW5sZ
E

5. Stalin’s Legacy
 What do these tell us about how Stalin
is remembered?

6. Stalin’s Legacy
 Dictatorship
◦ rule by a dictator : rule, control, or
leadership by one person with total power
◦ Can you think of a modern day example?
 Devastate
◦ to destroy much or most of (something) :
to cause great damage or harm to
(something)
 The war left the country devastated.

7. Lesson Objectives
 Introduction to Stalin’s Economic
Policy: Collectivisation and
Industrialisation
◦ Aims
◦ What was done?
 Group work (Impact of policies)
◦ Source Discussion
 Summary/Conclusion

8. Stalin’s Aims
‘ ...we had no fatherland, nor could we
have had one. But now that we have
overthrown capitalism and power is in
our hands, in the hands of the people,
we have a fatherland, and we must
uphold its independence. Do you want
our socialist fatherland to be beaten and
to lose its independence? If you do not
want this, you must put an end to its
backwardness in the shortest
possible time and develop a genuine
tempo in building up the socialist
economy.’
Joseph Stalin, in a speech to industrial

9. Collectivisation
Stalin speaking to Communist Party
members in 1927
“What is the way out? The way out is to
turn the small and scattered farms into
large united farms ... The way out is to
unite the small and dwarf farms slowly
but surely, not by pressure but by
example and persuasion into large
farms… There is no other way out.”

10. Collectivisation
 The merging of small individual farms
of the Soviet Union into collective
farms, or kolkhozy (singular ‘kolkhoz’)

11. Collectivisation
 Kulaks
◦ Kulaks were wealthy farmers who owned
their own independent farmland

12. Why Collectivisation?
 It was believed that larger units of land
could be farmed more efficiently
through mechanisation
 Why was mechanisation wanted?
i) Greater productivity = more grain
ii) Fewer people needed to work on
farms – more could work in the
industries

13. Why Collectivisation?

14. Why Collectivisation?
 In line with ‘Peace, Land, and Bread
for all people’
 Support rapid industrialisation
◦ Food for workers
◦ Free up manpower for industrial work
◦ Export crops to other countries to raise
funds for industrialisation

15. Why Industrialisation?
 Stalin realised that if Russia was to
become a self-sufficient and
militarily strong socialist state, the
country needed to industrialise rapidly
and increase production.

16. Industrialisation Measures
 The Soviet Union’s economy became
a planned economy — the
government had complete control. A
new government department was
formed to:
◦ set targets in each industry.
◦ plan the locations of new towns and
industrial cities like Magnitogorsk.

17. Industrialisation
Magnitogorsk

18. 3 Five-Year Plans
Second Five-Year Plan
(1933–1937)
• Set new targets for heavy
industries.
• But it also gave more attention
to industries that produced
goods such as clothing.
• From 1934 onwards, priority
was given to industries related
to military production as the
Soviet Union anticipated
another war.
• Transport and
communication networks
were greatly improved.
Third Five-Year Plan
(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.
First Five-Year Plan
(1928–1932)
• Focused on heavy
industries, especially
iron and steel.
• After some early
success, targets were
increased and
this Five-Year Plan was
ordered to be
completed in four years
instead of five.

19. Industrialisation Measures
 System of incentives/punishment
◦ Workers in factories had to work
seven days a week
◦ Workers could be dismissed if they
missed a single day of work.
◦ The more a worker produced, the
more he earned.
◦ Hard work was rewarded with
medals and the opportunity to go on
a holiday at a discount.

20. Industrialisation Measures
 Training
◦ Campaign to teach the Russian workers
new skills so as to tackle the problems
posed by an uneducated labour force.
 New colleges, schools and universities
were built.
 Primary education was made
compulsory.
 Thousands of teachers, scientists and
engineers were trained

21. Extent of Industrialisation

22. Sit in your assigned groups!

23. QUIZ TIME
You have 4 minutes to complete the quiz!

24. Group Activity
 Study the sources (10mins)
◦ Think about the impact of Stalin’s
economic policies
 Think about what’s in the source and where it is
from. Use guiding questions to help you!
◦ Fill in the blank columns in the Graphic
Organiser (Appendix C) where
appropriate
 Present your findings to the class
◦ Select a representative!

25. Source A

26. Source B
 A historian writing about the impact of
collectivisation, 1997.
Conditions in the countryside were so dire after
collectivisation that the state had to pump
additional resources into the country in order to
maintain the new way of allocating grain. Yet
Stalin could draw up a balance sheet that, from
his standpoint, was favourable. Above all, he put
an end to the recurrent crises faced by the state
in relation to urban food supplies as the state’s
grain collections rose from 10.8 million tons in
1928-9 to 22.8 million tons in 1931-2. After
collectivisation it was the countryside, not the
towns, which went hungry if the harvest was bad.

27. Source C
A historian writing about the impact of collectivisation.
Peasant resistance, especially from the kulaks, to
collectivization took many forms: slaughter of livestock,
theft and destruction of collective farm property, and,
perhaps most widely spread, an intentionally slow pace
in carrying out directives of the kolkhoz administration.
The tremendous loss of livestock through slaughter,
inadequate food for the livestock, and simple neglect
made it almost impossible for kolkhozes to fulfill their
quotas for meat and dairy products ... In 1932, farms in
parts of the Soviet Union were hit by a poor harvest,
leading to famine conditions. Blaming shortages on
kulak sabotage, authorities favoured urban areas and
the army in distributing what supplies of food had been
collected. The resulting loss of life is estimated as at
least five million. To escape from starvation, large
numbers of peasants abandoned collective farms for

28. Collectivisation: Negative
Results
i) Peasant resistance
◦ Many, especially the kulaks, killed their own
animals, burnt their grain and produce, and
hid or buried their crops in the ground to
prevent them from being taken over by the
state
ii) Drop in grain harvest
◦ Dramatic drop between 1931 and 1934
iii) Great famine of 1932-1933
◦ Bad harvest led to deaths of millions of
peasants
iv) Loss of animal population (cattle, pigs
and sheep)
◦ Not recovered until after WW2

29. Collectivisation: Positive
Results
i) State managed to collect the grain it
needed to feed the industrial towns
and export them to buy equipment
ii) Manpower for new factories were
found as peasants left the
countryside

30. Source D

31. Source E

32. Industrialisation: Results
 Poor coordination and planning
◦ Underproduction
 Factories were sometimes held up by shortages of
materials
◦ Overproduction
 Due to desire to exceed targets  wastage!
 Quality of products suffered
# better planning and coordination during the 2nd and
3rd Five-Year Plans
 Little growth in consumer industries
◦ E.g. house-building, woollen textiles,
fertilisers

33. Industrialisation: Results
 Changing living conditions
◦ The production of basic goods was initially
neglected
 Shortage of basic goods such as food, clothes
and shoes. These items were rationed.
After 1935, the situation began to improve…
 Production of basic goods increased and more
supplies became available to the people.
Rationing ended in 1936.
 Workers received cheap meals and free
uniforms.
 Free education, subsidised health care and the
provision of leisure facilities, such as cinemas,
public parks, sports fields and gymnasiums,

34. Industrialisation: Results
 Helped to propel the Soviet Union
forward to become an industrial base
for powerful arms industry by 1941
◦ Soviet Union: from a largely backward
and agricultural society to a modern,
industrially-developed country

35. Recap
 Aims of Stalin’s economic policy
 Measures: Collectivisation and
Industrialisation
 Impact of Economic Policies