After the downfall of the Tsar came the new Government, the Duma. The Duma tried to set Russia as a democratic society, but they struggled, as Russia was a complete shambles since the Tsar abdicated.
Lenin and his party, the Bolsheviks, made demands to the government for the people. While there were marches for Peace and Bread, the Bolsheviks made a demand for Land for the people. This was Lenin’s way to grab attention and seize power in Russia’s government. Eventually, Lenin did come into power after seizing and ‘storming’ the Winter Palace. It wasn’t until three years later that the Bolsheviks had complete power. Lenin wanted to make Russia, a Communist country, which was a very big task. During his time, Lenin had issued the Decree on Land, which abolished all private land. In 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed. Throughout this, Lenin surrendered a lot of land to the Germans. The Church was overthrown, as Communist was very atheist. During war communism, a lot of wealthy factory owners fled away from Russia, mainly to Paris. Industry dramatically nose-dived. Agriculture was worse. The Bolsheviks accused the ‘well-off peasants’ of keeping grain for themselves instead of selling it or giving it to the government. ‘Terror Squads’ were sent to Rural Russia. By 1920-1921, there was serious famine.
Lenin decided to change policy – this is where the NEP was introduced, the ‘New Economic Policy’. This meant that peasants could sell excess crops and maybe even livestock, also small factories could sell goods on the open market. Most peasants only had a very small grain production, so Lenin pushed them to grow more so they could sell. It worked; there was a slow, but rising intake in agricultural industry.
After Lenin’s death in 1924, there was a battle for being Lenin's successor, in the end it was, of course, Stalin.
Stalin aim was ‘Socialism in One Country’, which gained a lot of support from the right wing of the party, as it fitted in with the NEP. However this was only to get supporters for the battle for the top spot. Three years later, Stalin went against this policy and promoted rapid industrialisation.
To start of this industry, Stalin started with the rural side of Russia. He started ‘Collectivisation’, which was where Stalin wanted to ‘collect’ all peasants’ farms and make one big farm, which would work together to make more crops and grain. Stalin used ‘kulaks’ which is the term he used to describe the ‘well-off’ peasants. He used these ‘kulaks’ as propaganda for industrialisation, stating that it was there fault that there is famine and that the peasants have been reduced to this. A lot of peasants did not accept this and mayhem was among the rural side of Russia. People were sent to ‘camps’. Many peasants burnt their crops and killed their livestock to stop the government from taking away what they owned. In the 1930’s, there were ¼ million people in ‘collectivisation brigades’. The result of collectivisation was a complete disaster. Stalin did halt the process for a while because of the chaos, but then restarted it. He blamed the madness on the officials sent, stating they were “Dizzy with Success”. By August 1931, collectivisation was virtually complete.
Next, Stalin started on industry. He focused on the heavy industries, such as iron, steel, etc. Russia had no problem locating the ore, but to mine it was a very big investment he made. Stalin wanted to catch up with the other western countries, which built up there industries over the last 100 years. This is where the ‘Five Year Plan’ came in. Factories were set targets that had to be maintained and the targets were set at an incredible high standard. These targets were expected to be reached without fail. Propaganda was used to encourage workers to work more and rewards of holidays were giving if people met targets. However, these targets were high, and some people did not cooperate. Some factories lied about the targets achieved, and when people saw these ‘targets’ had been achieved, they set even higher targets. To the government it looked like they were doing better than expected, but in reality, factories were struggling to keep up with the first targets. Magnitogorsk was a city built from scratch to show people what life would be like if they made the targets. Those who refused to take part were seen as sabotaging the plan and would probably be sent to labour camps.
During this time came Stakhanovism – Alexei Stakhanov was a man who mined over 14 times the amount of coal in a five-hour shift. This man was seen as the one to follow. People were inspired by him to produce more coal – this was very helpful for Russia’s economy. Stalin went moved the industry onto consumer goods, but still wanted to keep the raw material industry going. In 1934-36, these were seen as the ‘Good Years’, where the benefits came through. Agriculture rose, as did labour production. However in the harsh winter of ’37-’38, there was another shortage, this time with fuel. This caused problems with factories. Then between 1938-1942, production turned to making weapons – guns, tanks, etc – because of the threats from Nazis.
Looking at the overall picture of the economy in Russia, it can be said that Stalin did make an impact. Looking at the economy and situation of the government during the Tsar’s reign, it was really dire. Famine took over Russia and the Tsar’s decisions seemed to just make situations worse. The Duma, when in power, seemed to have to many hurdles thrown at them, to actually have a major positive impact of the economy. Once Lenin was in power, this was where you could see that the economy was changing optimistically. The NEP helped by increasing the intake of grain.
Between 1929-1940, Stalin’s contribution to Russia’s economy brought an impact to the people, in good, but mainly bad, ways. Scrapping the NEP and bringing in Collectivisation did not agree with the people – it terms of its impact to the economy, it didn’t help much at first, as people were burning crops and livestock and those unwilling to help were sent to labour camps – reducing the number of farm workers. Although after the chaos died down and famine eased in 1939, there was still not enough to feed the country and about 10-15 million peasants.
Industrialisation furthered the economy. With the rapid increase in coal, etc, thanks to Stakhanovism, the economy ascended further. However, targets were made to look like they were achieved, but in fact they weren’t. Of course, Stalin and the government were none the wiser.
So in conclusion the extent Stalin transformed the Russian economy from 1929 to 1940, was a lot. Lenin changed it from the shambles it was made by from the Duma and Tsar, and Stalin improved the economy by introducing the ‘Five Year Plan’ even though targets were lied about, Russia’s industry did make progress – the industry was more advance then it was 20 years or so ago. Industry plays a big part in getting money into the economy. Without Stalin putting his ideas into action, Russia could still be stuck in famine and probably only just beginning their industry progress.
