Although the agriculture was efficient, Stalin did not want the peasants in control of whether they give the grain to the government or even grow the grain so therefore he introduced the idea of collectivisation. This was put into practice in 1929.
Collectivisation brought many things to Stalin’s regime that were desperately needed. Firstly he had complete control over the peasants. There were not many freelanced peasants around has over 90% of them had join collectivisation. Also the agricultural section of Russia had been modernised with the coming of collectivisation. There were now tractors and machinery. This increased the amount of grain harvested. As a whole this benefited the Soviet Union as there was enough food that it was possible to exchange some of the excess grain for foreign currency, thus this was invested into the industry. It was also a great achievement that the Russians alone could fend for themselves, producing enough food for the whole of Russia AND being able to export. While the western capitalist countries had to import and export a lot as they could not produce enough food for themselves. Extreme communists and Marxists were greatly impressed in the idea of collectivisation. It was communism in action, many numbers of people working together, and living in the same conditions to create a greater Soviet Union.
Whilst having a dramatic impact on Russia as a whole, the peasants in some way had to benefit to keep them happy. On the large collectivisation farms, hospitals and schools were introduced. Additionally, if more grain was created than there would be more surplus food for the peasants to share around and keep. Many peasants were illiterate, this was seen as a problem as Stalin did not need a stupid workforce so therefore they were quickly trained to read and write. The ways of collectivisation were being introduced to vast agricultural workforces throughout the 1930’s in Russia. As there was machinery being introduce there were fewer farmers being needed so there during this period, many farmers had converted to going to the cities and working in the new factories.
Within ten years, the Russian state went from being a mainly agricultural country, full of farmers to a quite an advanced industrial nation. As the first Five year plan was introduced, the targets were quite high but they were not yet the same standard of the Western countries. A further two more Five Year plans were to be introduced till the invasion of Russia by the Germans. As a state, the Soviet Union managed to survive the Second World War and come out if as one of the great super powers of the World. Stalin knew this invasion was going to come but still came as a shock to him but all the work that had been done with the last ten years had helped the Russian state prepare for such an invasion.
Many cities were set up in the 1930’s in the central/eastern parts of Russia. These new industrial cities were in the Siberian part of Russia, where it was difficult for anyone to go through. This area was a complete waste land but within 10 years, millions of people were living in this region as industrial workers. For instance one city, ‘Magnitogorsk’ was an industrial city for Iron Ore extraction and the making of Iron. Another ‘Tankigorsk’ was a city mainly built for producing tanks, they were so efficient that at one point they were making a tank per minute!
A great benefactor for Russia was that throughout the period of the severe depression in the Western countries, where there was mass unemployment and food shortages. Russia was flourishing. There was no unemployment! The USSR was completely self efficient with everyone having a part to do for there country. This again was communism in action, where the people were working for a greater Russia and everyone living the same standards of life.
While the workers worked long shifts they still felt they were doing something for their country. Picking the old backward Russia and making it a super power. Also women were involved; in many countries at this time women were known to just stay at home and clean the house and look after the children. However the Russians used the women as they were using their men. Many women were having children and having a job at the same time. They were also given benefits for doing this, free day care etc.
Also the workers were being given new housing in the new cities. More schools and hospitals were being built for them. The children were being made to go to school as Stalin did not want an illiterate Russia. At this point Russia was blooming.
However it was not all flowers and sunshine. In 1929, when the idea of collectivisation was introduced, there was a large negative response. The richer farmers were very reluctant and this caused huge problems. At that time the richer farmers were known as Kulaks. They were very unwilling to give up there land and cows. They knew the government was going to force it from them so therefore they killed there animals and burned their crops. This led to the large massacre of Kulaks being killed or sent to the remotest part of Siberia and they were used as slaves.
As the Kulaks were a very re advisers had set the new group of peasants were far too high. This resulted in the peasants losing the crops that were going to be used as seeds for next years harvest, creating more problems for the Russian future. The government continued exporting grain while there was not enough food to feed the Russian people.
More problems immerged; the promised hospitals and schools took too much time to build. This caused unhappiness within the agricultural workforce. Also the large majority of the peasants had lost their own individual bits of land, they had the sense that they were losing their own individuality as they lost pretty much all that belong to them and were placed on a large amount of land with other peasants that were in the same situation, working through fear.
As for the industrial aspect, there were many unskilled workers in the workforce. The safety regulations were virtually non-existent. Many soviet workers died due to the fact that they did not know how to work the machines properly. The majority of these workers had just come from the countryside and were from a agricultural background and knew nothing about the new machinery that had just been introduced to the large workforce. Another upset was the amount of hours the soviet workforces were putting in and how much there income was. The got paid the very minimal amount of money which was not exactly a moral boost. Another problem which can be related to the collectivisation farms is the fact that the schools and hospitals promised took a huge amount of time to be completed.
As a whole the quality of the finished products coming out of the Russian factories was of a very low standard as the factory managers were more obsessed with hitting the production targets rather than caring about the quality of the end product.
Life in the Soviet Union was actually quite good for some. Succesful workers that produced a lot more than there targets were greatly rewarded. Also Communist Party members had good benefits, getting promotions quicker than anyone else. Woman had more freedom in Russia than they did have in places like Germany and Italy. They were able to do jobs that they had never thought of doing, working in factories etc. The literacy of children greatly improved in the 1930’s, the majority of children had to go to school and they came out of school able to read and write, they were also taught the Communist ways and the Communist history. This was to be Russia’s future workforce and they had to be literate, respectable people.
However some social classes and groups were very badly affected. Religious groups were persecuted. There was no religion in a perfect communist society so therefore the Religious groups had no part to play in the USSR. Non-Russians were also badly affected; they were not given higher jobs and usually stayed within the industrial workforces or the peasants. As been told earlier one social class had got wiped out, the kulaks.
The lack of freedom of speech was another bad side of a totalitarian state; usually the secret police would get hold of any political parties or anyone that is speaking against the word of Stalin. The purges were also used to terrify the citizens, in the purges many people died, usually being higher ranked officials that Stalin did not trust.
The living standards generally rose in the 1930’s despite the obvious problems with food production and shortages elsewhere. Some people did very well out of the system especially party officials and skilled factory workers. Health care was greatly expanded. In the past, the poorer people of Russia could not have expected qualified medical help in times of illness. Now that facility was available though demand for it was extremely high. The number of doctors rose greatly.
Every Russian was entitled to have a holiday each year; this had been unheard of in the tsar’s days. Clubs, sports facilities etc. were provided by the state. The state also controlled the cinema, radio etc. but an emphasis was placed on educating yourself via the media as it was then.
So therefore I believe that as a whole Russia was better off in 1941 than it had been in 1928 as the country did become a major industrial nation by 1939 and her progress was unmatched in the era of the Depression in America and Western Europe where millions were unemployed. Those workers who did not offend the state were better off than under the reign of the tsar. Russia’s military forces were benefiting from her industrial growth.
However millions had died in famine after the failed experiment of collectivisation. Russia’s agriculture was at the same level in 1939 as in 1928 with a 40 million increased population, (the amount of food being produced in 1928 was not a great deal, so therefore with a 40 million population increase there would be future problems). Many groups/classes had been persecuted or wiped out completely because they did not ‘fit in’ with the communist way of life.
Also 25 million Russian lives had been sacrificed in the Second World War but Russia as a state had survived the invasion, while her people were left for dead. So thus, a minority of Russian civilians benefited significantly during the 13 years while most of the Russian lives stayed the same if not worse.
