Evaluate the impact of Stalin's domestic policies on the Soviet people between 1928 and 1945.
Evaluate the impact of Stalin’s domestic policies on the Soviet people between 1928 and 1945.
By 1928 Stalin had become the undisputed leader of the CPSU. With his power of appointment as general secretary, the majority of members owed their position to Stalin. Stalin’s agricultural, industrial and social policies between 1928 and 1940 turned Soviet Russia into the second largest economy in the world, but at the expense of living standards. Under Stalin, the working class of Soviet Russia found themselves living under a totalitarian state, with little to no freedom.
Stalin’s agricultural policies had woeful results both practically, and for the peasants. Collectivisation was Stalin’s program of utilizing the factors of production more effectively in agriculture. In Stalin’s Great Turn he announced that the rich peasants or kulaks would be exterminated, as they were seen as class enemies. The policy of dekulakisation led to the persecution of millions of innocent peasants. The term itself was extended to all resistors of collectivisation. The excesses of dekulakisation led to the butchery of millions of peasants, and Stalin himself admitted to local officials becoming “dizzy with success”. The alarming aspect of collectivisation was the food shortages of the peasants. Millions of cows and horses were eaten upon the eve of collectivisation. Such was the resentment to Stalin’s agricultural policy.
