How far did the achievements of Stalin's economic modernisation programme justify the costs?

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Nicholas Williams

How far did the achievements of Stalin’s economic modernisation programme justify the costs?

Stalin once said the USSR was fifty to a hundred years behind the west: either the USSR caught up or they would be crushed. As a consequence an extremely rapid economic modernisation programme was introduced. Stalin succeeded brilliantly turning the USSR from a backward country to the leading world power. However this came at a severe cost of millions and millions of lives, at the outset it may seem clear that the achievements of modernisation do not justify the costs for the Soviet people. However without it the Allies might have lost the Second World War.

The main attribute of the economic modernisation programme was Stalin’s five year plans. The first one began in December 1927 after the end of Lenin’s New Economic Policy (N.E.P.). This point is known as the start of the great turn where the direction of the Soviet economy changed towards a central planning ‘Command economy’. Many historians maintain that this is the point where communism ‘went wrong’ and that they now only left themselves to rule by tyranny and totalitarianism and where they would have been better off to continue with the N.E.P. Stephen Cohen suggests the USSR would have done better with the limited market economy of the 1920s, they accept the pace would have been slower but far fewer waste would have been produced. However this view is contradicted by R. W. Davies who suggests that N.E.P had limitations such as “serious unemployment and an unfavourable effect on other sectors of the economy, such as education and the railways” Davies believed that decision to begin a rapid industrialisation programme was made because of the political judgement of how essential it was for the USSR to increase their defences and establish a heavy industrial sector.

Targets for the plans were set for industrial enterprises and were backed by law so failure to meet them was treated as a criminal offence acting as a very effective motivator. The first plan’s main emphasis was on heavy industry with electricity production trebled, coal and iron output doubled, steel increased by a third, huge new industrial complexes and tractor works were built. Stalin’s overall aim was to increase heavy industry by 300%! However, many historians have questioned the reliability of Soviet statistics.

There was such fierce pressure on plants that managers were known to hi-jack lorries of materials destined for other plants so they would have the resources to meet targets. Also mistakes were covered up under the mass of paperwork because the only thing managers cared about was showing they met targets even if this was untrue; this led to the system showing that it was working where in fact this was not the case. The scapegoat for these shortcomings was the ‘bourgeois specialists’. They were accused of deliberately holding up supply and causing breakdowns. After many had been imprisoned and put on show trials it was apparent that the loss of so many valuable workers caused so many problems that Stalin ordered the offensive to be dropped. Overall though not all targets were met mainly because they were far too unrealistic, massive growth was achieved in certain sectors which led the way for further growth in Soviet Union. To add to this the western capitalist countries were suffering the effects of huge unemployment and economic recession. 

The second five year plan was planned a lot better to ensure that the problems of shortages and miscalculations didn’t happen again. There were still many problems with it involving shortages and wastage but not anything like on the scale as the first plan. The second five year plan concentrated mainly on new industries such as communications and transport which grew rapidly however did still include some heavy industries. By the end of the second plan in 1937 the USSR was almost self sufficient in machine making and metal work. In the years 1934-36 known as the ‘three good years’ there was less pressure of industrialisation, and families had more disposable income.

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The third five year plan started in 1938 when the Soviet Union was experiencing a ‘slowdown’ in the economy where heavy industries almost stopped growing. It ended after only three and half years because of the German attack on the USSR. The main area focused on was armaments and defence with the increasing out look of the USSR being invaded. The other problems with the third five year plan were the shortage of qualified and experienced workers for the Gosplan because many had been killed due to the Purges. Overall the economic situation after the interruption of the third ...

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