Assess the relative importance of the following factors in contributing to Stalin's decision to take the Great Turn in 1927-28: (a) Condition of agriculture and industry (b) Communist ideology (c) Political control (d) Fear of invasion.

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Aruni Mukherjee U6 MVW

Assess the relative importance of the following factors in contributing to Stalin’s decision to take the Great Turn in 1927-28:

  1. Condition of agriculture and industry
  2. Communist ideology
  3. Political control
  4. Fear of invasion

The ‘Great Turn’, in this case points towards the decision Stalin made that would determine the destiny of the Soviet economy and its people in 1927-28. It was a sudden and vigorous change of plans from the half-capitalist NEP, introduced by Lenin to stem the downfall of the Russian economy, to a more radical policy of wholesale industrialisation and collectivisation. There have been speculations by many historians about the reasons behind this decision. However, the question remains still largely unanswered. Roman Brackman and Harold Shukman in their ‘The secret file of Joseph Stalin’ argue that it is impossible that only one factor was behind this decision and the ‘Great Turn’ of 1927-28 was, most likely, as a result of certain factors behind it. To arrive at an approximately conclusive decision we need to analyse them carefully judging the strength in each argument.

                Left wing historians have argued that the Soviet economy needed the radical measures Stalin took in 1927-28. Lenin, when introducing NEP argued that since Russia had huge masses of agricultural lands that could be cultivated collectively more efficiently through mechanised methods and for that purpose Russia needed 100,000 tractors. By 1927 there were only 28,000 tractors and industrialisation was a genuine necessity for the economy to develop and compete with other competitors who were, at this point in time, far ahead of Russia. Germany’s grain yield was double the amount yielded by Russia. This is not surprising considering the fact that in 1928 74% of the grain was hand sown and 44% hand reaped. Historians have also linked his decision with the grain procurement crisis that prevailed in Russia in the few years after Lenin’s death. There were certain rich peasants called the kulaks who were accused of hoarding grain until the prices went up. Thus it was hard for grain to come to the cities where it was needed very badly. Thus it could be argued that to solve this fundamental error of the economy, it was necessary to collectivise the small farmers into state owned farms and with the state officers collecting grain from them after a certain amount of time, there would be a certain amount of grain supplied to the city on a regular basis. Moreover the state would determine the prices of the grains to ensure that their level is considerably low. However, James Miller has argued that this crisis could have been solved by simple price adjustments. The Soviet economy, under the NEP, was only exporting 2m tons of grains in 1927 whereas its Tsarist counterpart had been exporting 10m tons. This could also be another factor which could have influenced his decision. It is beyond doubt that the small capitalist kulaks and the nepmens, who were also claimed to be corrupt in the way they operated, created extreme discontent amongst the left-wingers of the communist party as they pressurised Stalin to replace the NEP for something more radical as they thought it to be a drift from the paths shown by Marx.

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                It could also be argued that Stalin made this decision in 1927-28 irrespective of the economic factors but more depending on communist ideology. The Communist party was largely urban as only 7.6% of the party members were from the peasantry. Thus there was the issue of modernising the country, which the left wing of the party supported. The party looked at NEP as a capitalist encirclement of the economy. The party and Stalin saw their goal as defending the Revolution from capitalist blood thirsty vampires-referring to the kulaks. This had been the opinion of Lenin as well and thus there ...

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