How far do you agree that the collectivisation of agriculture made an essential contribution to Stalins transformation of the Russians economy?

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How far do you agree that the collectivisation of agriculture made an essential contribution to Stalin's transformation of the Russian's economy?

In 1928 Stalin was firmly established as the leader of the USSR. Despite the efforts of Lenin and the limited move towards a limited degree of private enterprise in the New Economic Policy (NEP) The Soviet Union was still relatively economically underdeveloped compared with the main economic powers of Western Europe. Her industrial development level lagged far behind that of its western neighbours particularly Germany. The farms were still not producing sufficient food to feed the country. Stalin needed to find a way to improve Russia and catch up with the West, and become more independent. Russia needed more modern machinery, especially tractors to mechanise farming and produce more food. If a strong industry was built then Russia could invest on producing manufactured goods and armaments. To complete this aim Stalin made the Soviet state take over the running of the nation's economy and he introduced two essential methods: collectivisation and industrialisation. But realistically, both these elements can be summarised as being that Russia had to modernise, in speeches Stalin noted that Russia was behind the advanced countries