Embedded Files
When Lenin first came to power after the Russian Revolution, the Russian economy was in shambles from WWI and the ensuing civil war. He implemented his New Economic Policy, which combined aspects of socialism (state control of the economy) with aspects of capitalism, like allowing peasants to sell their produce on the market and allowing small businesses to operate through private, not state, ownership.
But communists like Stalin criticized these policies, charging that they allowed for the rise of kulaks (wealthy landowners) and NEPmen (businessmen who benefitted from capitalist policies) who continued oppressing the peasants and working class. When Stalin came to power in 1924 after Lenin’s death, he introduced his Five Year Plans to bring the economy under state control, transition to a communist society, prepare for a future war, and increase output in two ways: rapid industrialization and collectivization of agriculture. Stalin warned that without an end to economic backwardness "the advanced countries...will crush us.” In his quest to control Russia’s path to communism, Stalin often purged the Communist Party of anyone who opposed him, starting with Lenin’s former right hand man, Trotsky.
Stamp commemorating the First Five Year plan depicting a man and woman working together in a factory.
Part 1: Industrialization
Part 1: Industrialization
Consolidate all industry in the hands of the state
No private ownership
Focus on iron, coal, & steel production; transportation; and construction
Building of dams and hydroelectric plants
Gosplan: State Planning Committee that replaced the free market to distribute goods & services
Set production targets or quotas for industries
Set wages & prices
Propaganda: portrayed the need to industrialize as a “battle” workers were fighting
Workers organized into “troops” & forced to work harder than ever
Those who failed to keep up/meet quotas seen as traitors
Workers who had to be repeatedly disciplined were sent to Gulags, forced labor camps
Overall successful in promoting industrialization
Industrialization Outcomes
Industrialization Outcomes
Altogether, Gosplan launched thirteen five-year plans. Some were proclaimed successful after just a year, others took longer than 5 years , others ended without achieving their goals. Historians speculate that some of the production numbers were likely exaggerated, in part because production targets were set unattainably high. Newspapers were often told to overreport production numbers for propaganda purposes; but overall industrial capacity increased by approximately 50%. Rationing sometimes had to be implemented during food or supply shortages, and because production was controlled by the state, there was little emphasis on consumer or “luxury” goods. However, by 1938, Russia had surpassed both Britain and Germany in industrial output.
Because it was a socialist state, the Russian economy was less tied to the global economy, so it was largely unaffected by the Great Depression, leading some to believe that Marx had correctly predicted that capitalism would be crushed under its own weight. During the 1930s, there was a large increase in immigration to the Soviet Union, especially from Finland and Germany.
Outcomes: Increases in Production
Outcomes: Increases in Production
Desired vs Actual Outcomes in Production (the target columns list the goals for each year)
Desired vs Actual Outcomes in Production (the target columns list the goals for each year)
Soviet collectives
Part 2: Collectivization (collective farming)
Part 2: Collectivization (collective farming)
Collectivization refers to Stalin’s plan to shift agriculture from individual farms to large, state run farms worked by peasants. The state took over the land of individuals and entire villages, incorporating them into the state economy. As with industrialization, the State set quotas to be met by these collective farms; and in order to speed this process, they introduced modern farm equipment. Once again, the Soviet government turned to propaganda to promote collectivization and target quotas.
By 1939, more than 90 percent of the peasants had been forced to live and work on collective farms. If they resisted, they could be arrested, and many were sent to labor camps (Gulags) in Siberia. The state also targeted kulaks: affluent peasants and other landowners who had prospered under Lenin’s NEP. Stalin accused them of impeding with collectivization and labeled many of them as enemies of the state, including them in the millions sent to Gulags. There were severe punishments for anyone who tried to hoard grain, and collectives failing to meet quotas were blacklisted, meaning they might be cut off from supplies or have food confiscated.
As with the campaign for industrialization, collectivization was encouraged and idealized through propaganda.
Grain seized from “kulaks” who had hidden grain in a graveyard during the forced collectivization in Ukraine, 1933.
A "Red Train" of carts from the "Wave of Proletarian Revolution" collective farm in the village of Oleksiyivka, Kharkiv oblast in 1932. "Red Trains" took the first harvest of the season's crop to the government depots. During the Holodomor, these brigades were part of the Soviet Government's policy of taking away food from the peasants.
Ukrainians impacted by the Holodomor
Outcomes of Collectivization
Outcomes of Collectivization
While some poor peasants complied with collectivization because they had little of their own property to lose, middle-class peasants continued to oppose it, even killing their livestock rather than turning flocks over to the Soviet government. More than half the nation’s livestock was lost under collectivization in the 1930s, and the numbers did not recover until the 1950s. In some areas, spring planting did not occur due to the upheaval.
The failures of collectivization caused the deaths of millions in the Soviet Union, particularly during the Famine of 1930-33. Approximately two million died resisting or in prison, and between five and ten million additional lives were lost in a famine caused by the chaos of the process, the peasants’ choice to slaughter their livestock, and government policies that took food from the peasants. The grain-producing region of Ukraine was hit especially hard: as the Soviet Union's top grain producing state, it was subjected to unreasonably high quotas. Some officials actually went into homes and took whatever food they could find. Approximately 3.9 million (possibly even more) Ukrainians are estimated to have died in the famine (some were also murdered or deported) called the Holodomor (“death by famine” in Ukrainian). Today, Holodomor is recognized as a genocide by 34 UN member nations.
Number of people sent by the Soviet government to the Gulag, a network of prison camps set up across the USSR
Areas impacted by the Famine of 1930-33
“Down with kitchen slavery! Hurrah for the new everyday life!”
Social Outcomes
Social Outcomes
Stalin claimed that his Five Year Plans were also part of a larger effort to transform all aspects of Soviet life. One big change was in the realm of women’s rights: because communism stresses equality not only between social groups, but also between genders, more women entered the workforce, and they were encouraged to do so. By 1937 40% of the industrial workforce was women, and by 1950, 70% of doctors in the Soviet Union were women (compared to 6% in the US).
But while communism stressed equality and a move toward a classless society, inequality remained. Contrary to popular belief, everyone was not simply paid the same, and Party leaders often benefited from Soviet policies. However, the Soviet Union generally experienced less inequality than western nations.
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