Assess the impact that Stalin had on Russia and on the Russian people.
Stalin gained absolute power in USSR in 1928. And from that time Stalin ruled the country until his death in 1953. This period, quarter of the century, was one of the hardest for USSR and Russian people. To assess Stalin’s impact on USSR and Russian people, I will describe some important episodes.
In 1928 USSR was mostly agricultural country. Most of the people lived in the villages and worked on the land. Stalin wanted the USSR to be an industrial country and strong against attack from the West. Because of that he introduced the Five-year Plan. The idea of the Five-year Plan was planned economy with targets for each industry, which was broken down to factories and workers. If the worker worked well he got rewards. For example some workers in favorable conditions produced huge amounts. One of them was a coal-miner called Stakhanov, who dug 102 tonnes of coal in one shift – fourteen times the usual amount. Workers like him were made heroes, with special houses, cars and honours. Those who worked not as well as others were punished. For industrialization Stalin needed a lot of new workers. Peasants were encouraged to leave the villages and work in industry. Women were recruited in large numbers, before mostly men worked. As a result of Five-year Plans industry experienced massive growth. That was really helpful to prepare for the Second World War. On the other hand the Five-year plan was a disaster for farming, because millions of people left the land. Also workers lived and worked in horrible conditions. On many schemes Stalin used forced labour by convicts in the prison camps. It wasn’t really massive opposition against Five-year Plans, but people who opposed were killed or sent to prison camp, where actually you would be dead after few months anyway.
