Also, Stalin had mane a few but very important changes to control over better the USSR. Maybe one of the most important ones was the creation of a new constitution. In 1936 he created a new constitution which gave freedom of speech and free elections to the Russian people. Only Communist Party candidates were allowed to stand in elections, and only approved newspapers and magazines could be published.
By 1941, Stalin’s control over the USSR was extraordinary. This is shown in many different ways. One of them is that by 1937, the USSR was a modern state and it was this that saved it from the defeat when Hitler invaded in 1941. Also, many soviet workers had improved their conditions by acquiring well-paid skilled jobs and earning bonuses for meeting targets. Unemployment was almost non-existent; and in 1940, the USSR had more doctors per head of population than Britain. Education became free and compulsory for all. But Stalin’s control was also harsh at the same time. Factory discipline was strict and punishments were hard. To escape the hard work and hard discipline, some workers tried to move to other jobs, so the secret police introduce internal passports, which prevented free movement of workers inside the USSR. But, anyway, in my opinion Stalin had dominated and controlled effectively the USSR left by Lenin.
- What was the impact of Stalin’s economic policy?
- Why did Stalin introduce the Five-Year Plan?
- Why did Stalin introduce collectivisation?
- How successful were Stalin’s economic changes?
- How were the soviet people affected by these changes?
Stalin ended Lenin’s NEP and set about achieving modernisation through a series of Five-Year Plans. These plans were drawn by GOSPLAN, the state-planning organisation that Lenin set up in 1921. They set ambitious targets for production in the vital heavy industries. The Five-Year plan worked this way: the GOSPLAN set overall targets for an industry, each region was told its targets, the region set targets for each mine, factory, etc., the manager of each mine, factory, etc., set targets for each foreman and finally, each foremen set targets for each shift and even for individual workers. The USSR increased production greatly. The first three Five-Years Plans, Russia improved in all kinds of ways. But later on, this plan was disrupted by the Second World War.
Stalin introduced the collectivisation in order to turn a peasant society into an industrialised country. It was not easy at all to modernise agriculture, as many peasants (the kulaks principally - prosperous peasants who owned small farms) opposed to the change. But Stalin thought that collectivisation was necessary, more than necessary, vital, because the population of the industrial centres was growing rapidly. Stalin had a difficult time convincing the peasants about collectivisation. Collectivisation became a war of words, which soon turned into violence. Soon after, the countryside was in chaos. Even where collectivisation had been introduced successfully, peasants were unfamiliar with the new ideas and methods. Despite the famine, Stalin did not ease off. By 1934 there were no kulaks left, and by 1941 almost all agricultural land was organised under the collective system. Stalin had achieved his aim of collectivisation.
In my opinion, all that Stalin wanted had been achieved. He proposed to introduce collectivisation, and he did it successfully. The Five-Year Plan, had given the results he expected, although they were not as successful as he thought. Those changes are the ones related to the economic ones. But there is another, very important though, that is the creation of the new constitution, where he gave freedom of speech and free elections for the Russian people, made him, in certain way, much more popular. The Communist Party saw him as a winner and Soviet citizens saw him as a “dictator of the people”. The Soviet people sincerely believed and trusted in Stalin.
By the late 1930s many Soviet workers had improved their conditions by acquiring well paid skilled jobs and earning bonuses for meeting targets. Unemployment was almost non-existent. In 1940, the USSR had more doctors per head of population than Britain. Education became free and compulsory for all. But Stalin’s control was also harsh. Factory discipline was strict and punishments were hard. To escape the hard work and hard discipline, some workers tried to move to other jobs, so the secret police introduce internal passports, which prevented free movement of workers inside the USSR. That’s why I can say that the economic changes brought uo by Stalin had both affected and benefited the Russian people.
