Also, from my own knowledge I can suggest that Stalin wanted to industrialise to be able to compete with other countries because there had always been a sense of competition with the west even pre-world war one. Much of the west was capitalist and as communism was a total opposite then there was a sense of hostility, this therefore raised fears with Stalin as he was convinced that there was going to be conflict. Many western countries also supported the Mensheviks during the Russian civil war and opposed Stalin’s Bolshevik Party, again Stalin feared this would be carried out onto a larger international scale and the USSR had to be prepared. Stalin also wanted to make the USSR a self sufficient and strong nation; previously the USSR had been agrarian country dependent on capitalist countries.
This objective was met to a large extent. I know this because the USSR had the military armaments and hardware to fight back against Germany in 1941 (as Stalin predicted an advanced country from the west). If Stalin had not implemented this industrial reform it is likely that Germany would have defeated the USSR in World War 2. Also the Soviet Union were able to construct many new cities, dams, railway lines and many signposts of Soviet achievement such as Magnitogorsk and the Turkistan-Siberian Railroad. In addition by 1939, Russia had passed Britain as an industrial nation and was only bettered by the USA and Germany; Stalin had met his objective to create an advanced USSR.
This is backed up to a large extent in Source C by the phenomenal improvements in the industrial output during the period of the first three Five-Year Plans, for example the by 1940 the amount of Coal had risen to 165.9 million tons while before in 1928 it was a mere 35.5 million tons. The Oil which was at 11.6 million tons in 1928 had risen to 31.1 million tons by 1940.
Stalin’s second objective was ideological in nature. He wanted to achieve industrialisation by driving out the class enemies of the USSR.
I know this from Source B which tells us that “Stalin presented the industrialisation drive as a class war against alleged ‘class enemies’ such as kulaks, NEP-men, private businessmen, traders and other survivors from the old regime”. This shows us that Stalin wanted to use the policy of industrialisation to drive out the class enemies and he planned to get the working proletariat on his side to drive them out. Source A also says “In 1928 Stalin declared, ‘Our class enemies still exist. They are growing and trying to take action against the Soviet government.’ This shows that Stalin was cautious and fearful of the class enemies in the USSR and potential saboteurs against his regime. Stalin wanted to stir up enthusiasm amongst the people of the USSR to help him drive out those who were looking to drive him out.
This objective was met to partial extent. I know this from my own knowledge because skilled workers (bourgeois workers) who didn’t have the drive for rapid industrialisation were ousted out of factories and replaced by red specialists. Managers of industrial factories were put under pressure to achieve higher levels of production and contribute to the cause of industrialisation. Kulaks (middle class peasants) were branded as a class and Stalin was determined to destroy them. Part of the policy of industrialisation was the strategy of the collectivisation of the farms. Stalin wanted to introduce collectivisation so that more people could leave the land and go to work in the industry, there could be more food to feed the workers in the industry and he wanted an excuse to destroy the kulaks, who believed in private ownership, not communism. Eventually Stalin was able to drive out many Kulaks and perhaps 3 million were killed.
Stalin’s third objective was political in nature. He wanted absolute political power.
I know this from Source B which tells us that “Stalin used the growing enthusiasm for industrialisation to fight the Bukharin group within the Party leadership. During the elections to become party leader after Lenin’s death, Stalin used his shrewdness and political skill to sway between many policies. Firstly Stalin defeated the left wing of the party in 1927 by supporting some right wing policies; he then turned in 1928 and used the left wing policy of rapid industrialisation which seemed popular to defeat Bukharin and other right-wing leaders.
This objective was met to a large extent. I know this because I know from my own knowledge that Stalin was able to gain absolute power and control of the party and in December 1929, Stalin became the undisputed leader of the USSR. I also know that this objective was met to a large extent because Stalin was able to introduce a somewhat authoritarian system in which he dictated the policies and procedures and directed and controlled all activities without any meaningful participation from his lesser assistants. Part of this authoritarian system was the introduction of Gosplan and state planning in which the state was able to decide what goals were to be achieved.
To conclude, by 1941 the policy of industrialisation was able to meet most of Stalin’s objectives. His objective of advancing the USSR to allow them to compete with other countries and allowing them to be strong and self sufficient was met to quite a large degree as the USSR could now be seen as an industrial nation by 1939 and could protect itself. Although his objective of driving out class enemies was met to a limited extent he managed to drive out many kulaks and potential saboteurs to his regime. His political objective; to gain absolute power was also met to a large extent as he had achieved complete power and was working towards an authoritarian system.
