Stalin's control of ideas had many short and long-term effects. The short-term effects of Stalin's control of ideas were that he was glorified and made into an icon. This was done through propaganda such as posters, speeches and even places e.g. Stalingrad. Lenin's cult was encouraged because is emphasised how close Stalin was to Lenin. In 1926, Stalin created a new constitution in which people were given the freedom of speech and votes. However, this was only a cosmetic measure as only Communist Party candidates were allowed to stand in elections. Stalin used censorship and propaganda to control what the people were able to read and see. Only approved newspapers and magazines could be published. Stalin even controlled arts and sciences. Writers, composers and artists were seen as potentially dangerous. No criticism of Stalin's rule was allowed. A poet such as Osip Mandelstam was sent to a labour camp for criticising Stalin. All the artists must conform to Socialist Realism. The workers who enjoyed their work were the heroes; all art must be patriotic. Anything else was Bourgeoisie. Education was controlled by the state. History was rewritten to suit Stalin e.g. old Bolsheviks who had been killed were no longer mentioned. Children were encouraged to join the Young Pioneers/Komsomol. Finally, there attacks on the church. People were encouraged to worship Stalin as opposed to a God. Atheism lessons were even compulsory in school. Members of religious groups were persecuted and 'The League of the Godless' attacked churches.
The long-term effect of Stalin's control of ideas was that people looked to Stalin as a God like figure even after his death. Important figures in history were just wiped out, purely because Stalin did not want them to be taught about. People became accustomed to life with only one political party and with no criticisms whatsoever of this 'great' leader. All music or pieces of writing were controlled meaning everything in your life was pro-Stalin. This 'Cult of Stalin' meant that certain things he did such as the Purges were looked upon to be down to someone else rather than Stalin himself being responsible. People could see no flaws with him and if they did, they had no opportunity to voice it. Due to events such as the Purges, now the second raters were left at the top and Stalin, in effect, had killed of creativity and originality. Russia was full of conformity. Even after his death, there was still a sense of control by Khrushchev but its severity had decreased. However, after Stalin's death Khrushchev made a secret speech in which he criticised Stalin and in 1956, he even released a 'de-Stalinisation' programme.
Collectivisation was another policy launched in 1929, to ensure the enormous changes of the Five-Year Plans were successful. In the short-term, many peasants ostracized the policy. It involved individual farms being closed and replaced by large joint farms in which the peasants would have to put their land together. During 1932-1933, 5 million people had been forced into collectives. If any peasants refused to join the collectives, then they would be labelled as kulaks and shot, deported or sent to labour camps. Sometimes, whole villages were deported as a lesson to others. The main consequence of collectivisation was the class war on the kulaks. Stalin strongly believed in 'Dekulakisation', which was central to the collectivisation process. It was important to have a class enemy. Soviet propaganda tried to turn the people against the kulaks. Kulaks were arrested and sent by the thousand to labour camps or were forced onto poor quality land. Some peasants refused to hand over their animals, preferring to slaughter them and eat or sell the meat. They burnt crops, tools and houses rather than hand them over to the state. There were also riots and armed resistance. Cattle had gone from 668 to 353.5 million. Sheep had decreased from 114.6 to 36.5 million. During 1933, the million head of cows and pigs was at its lowest between 1913-1940 but then at its highest in 1940.
Due to the disruption cause to agriculture, there were severe food shortages. When added to the disastrous harvest in 1932, the result was an unimaginable severity of famine from 1932-1933. The state never admitted that a famine was taking place so no international aid was received. Indeed, food was still being exported from the USSR to other countries. Stalin even sent out requisitioning hangs to seize what little grain there was. Grain was held in stores that were 'almost bursting', and even left to rot in the open while people nearby starved to death. Another short-term result was that by 1933 there were 200,000 tractors in the machine-tractor station and over 25,000 combine harvesters. Also, Stalin's wife even committed suicide. Nadia Alliluyeva saw the hardship that the peasants were made to endure and could no longer deal with it so took her own life.
The main long-term result of collectivisation was that an estimated 13 million peasants, and possibly more, died. This was mainly due to the dreadful famine that there was during those years. Also, the figures show that the harvest did improve gradually after the famine. By 1940, the production was back to how it was. The lives of many peasants had been improved. They were given access to schooling, theatres, concerts and many other luxuries. There was increased literacy and even electricity. The kulaks were wiped out entirely as a class and by the end of the 1930's there were none of them left. They had either been killed or sent to labour camps. Before collectivisation, Russia was an agricultural society. Now it had been turned into a major industrial power. Mechanisation on the farms enabled many peasants to be drawn into the cities.
The policy that went hand-in-hand with collectivisation was industrialisation - mainly the Five-Year Plans. Central planning played a large part in the Five-Year Plans and they were drawn up by the GOSPLAN, which Lenin had set up in 1921. This plan consisted of each person being told what they were going to do with the factories and managers being set targets of what they should be producing. The short-term effect of these plans was that production of the heavy industry increased. Electricity, coal, oil and pig iron production had nearly all doubled from 1927-28 (before the Five-Year Plans) to 1933 (the end of the first Five-Year Plan). Particularly oil, which had even exceeded its target. This was a real achievement considering Stalin set the targets ridiculously high that they were unachievable. The Five-Year Plans were used very effectively for propaganda purposes. Stalin had wanted the Soviet Union to be a beacon of socialism and his publicity machine used the successes of industrialisation to further that objective. Posters were used to try to make industrialisation sound as effective as possible and the only way forward for Russia. The workers were constantly bombarded with propaganda, posters, slogans and radio broadcasts. One of the methods of propaganda used was the famous worker Alexei Stakhanov. In 1935, he managed to cut an amazing 102 tons of coal in one shift - 14 times the average for a shift. Stakhanov became a 'Hero of Socialist Labour' and the propaganda machine encouraged all Soviet workers to be Stakhanovites. Another short-term effect of the Five-Year Plans was that capitalist methods were brought into play. The harder you worked and the more you achieved, then the more you would be rewarded with. This could be described as a 'carrot and stick' approach. The stick would be a fine for not reaching targets and loss of rations, or the threat of labour camps. The carrot being the reward for working hard such as better living conditions or even medals gained for significant amounts of work done.
By the late 1930s, many Soviet workers had improved their conditions by acquiring well-paid skilled jobs and earning bonuses for meeting targets. Unemployment was almost non-existent. In 1940, education became free and compulsory for all and Stalin invested huge sums in training schemes based in colleges and in the work place. But, on the other hand, life was very harsh under Stalin. Factory discipline was strict and punishments were severe. Lateness or absences were punished by sacking, and that often meant losing your flat or house as well. Workers were made to carry labour books. To escape the hard work and hard discipline, some workers tried to move to other jobs, so the secret police introduced internal passports, which prevented free movement of workers inside the USSR.
Another legendary short-term effect was Magnitogorsk. Here was where foreign observers marvelled at huge new steel mills. Whole cities were built from nothing and workers taken out to the new industrial centres. However, working conditions for the workers in Magnitogorsk were extremely difficult. Food was scarce and working was dangerous with poor facilities. Nevertheless, foreign workers particularly were amazed that such a policy was taking place and wanted to contribute in the process of making Russia a modernised country. Also, Komsols wanted to make a contribution to this great policy. On this great engineering project, many of the workers were prisoners who had been sentenced to hard labour for being political opponents, or suspected opponents, of Stalin, or for being kulaks (rich peasants) or Jews. Many other prisoners were simply unfortunate workers who had accidents or made mistake in their work but had been found guilty of 'sabotage'. The final short-term effect of the Five-Year Plans was the lack of consumer goods. Stalin had decided to concentrate on building industrial towns, building new transport facilities and concentrating on their heavy industry during the first and second plans. He did not consider consumer goods a priority. When it came to the third plan, some factories were to switch to the production of consumer goods but this was disrupted by the Second World War.
There is much that could be and was criticised in the Five-Year Plans. Certainly there was a great deal of inefficiency, duplication of effort and waste, although the evidence shows that the Soviets did learn from their mistakes in the second and third Five-Year Plans. There was also an enormous human cost. But the fact remains that by 1937, the USSR was a modern state and it was this that saved it from defeat when Hitler invaded in 1941. This was a long-term effect of the Five-Year Plans. Without the industry and the Plans, the USSR would not have been able to resist invasion from Hitler. They were already weakened by the state of their army after the Purges so this industrialisation in effect, saved their country. Russia had gone from an agricultural, backward society to an industrial, modernised society. They had even become one of the 'Superpowers' of the world meaning that just due to their industrialisation they had gained even more power as a country and were even in the same league as America.
There was an improvement for some in living conditions e.g. party workers, skilled workers, and managers. There were flats with running water and heating. More people could read and write. By 1938, in Magnitogorsk, there were 50 schools, 3 colleges, 2 theatres and 17 libraries. By 1940, bread rationing had even ended but by this time, no peasants were able to own land after collectivisation. Also, Stalin opposed single managers and workers did not control the industry. Following capitalism, wages and even living conditions were linked to skills.
Finally, Stalin played a large part in improving daily life for the Russian people after the Five-Year Plans. Living standards had risen in the mid 1930s. However, there were still shortages of food and other goods. Particular Russians were doing well in the new system such as the party workers etc as they could get high prices for food growth on their private plot. There was a great difference between their wages and the wages of the peasants. A lot of resources were put into building a health service but this was very rigid with people being forced to do as they were told. With housing, there was little overall improvement, especially for peasants. Even sport and fitness were encouraged to improve the general health of Soviet men and women. Every worker was entitled to take a holiday each year - this was completely unknown before the Revolution. Trade unions and collective farms played a big part in providing sports facilities, clubs, film shows, festivals and general entertainment. However, for some people in collectives - the peasant - life was not that much better. There were few consumer goods and people were living in fear. For those in the labour camps, life was no better.
In particular, there was a changing role of women in the mid 1930s. The State encouraged families to stay together through propaganda and divorces and abortion was made harder. There was child allowance for married couples and new crèches and day-care centres so women were able to work. By 1937, women were 40% of industrial workers (compared to 28% in 1927), 21% of building workers and 72% of health workers. Four out of five workers new workers recruited between 1932 and 1937 were women.
The longer-term impacts of this were that generally living conditions improved for most Russians, although not all. Life was getting better until the German invasion when things were put on hold, as factories' priorities were making machinery etc to use in the war. The magnificent town built that was Magnitogorsk became renown for being a symbol of Russia's modernisation. Here, once everything was finished, there were a large number of theatres, schools and hospitals. There were all things that contributed to improving the general living conditions of Russians. Even the peasants were given access to education.
In conclusion, Stalin played a very big part on the impact on Russia and the Russian people. This was through his variety of different policies and events. His main impact was saving Russia from invasion by Hitler amongst other important factors. After industrialisation and the Five-Year Plans, he managed to improve the lives of the people and the conditions they lived in and worked in. He not only managed to improve the peoples lives but the status Russia had as a country - it had now become a industrialised, modernised country.