How did the rule of Stalin affect the Soviet Union?

Fezan Shakir 11SNR

Joseph Stalin was born in Georgia in 1879. Stalin was educated in a religious college but was expelled for revolutionary activities. He then became a member of the Bolshevik Party, he used to organise bank robberies and was jailed a few times. After the November revolution Stalin was given more power and was promoted by Lenin. Stalin was a good organiser and would get jobs done. Lenin then made Stalin General Secretary of the Communist Party. Stalin became very powerful. After Lenin’s death there were two sides competing for leadership of Russia, Stalin presented himself in the middle, but he then joined the ‘Right opposition’ and defeated their rivalry. Stalin then stabbed them in their back by turning against them; they were expelled from the government. Stalin now was in complete control.

Before Stalin came to power Russia was in a terrible state, there was a huge problem of feeding the Russian people. When Lenin was in charge he set up the New Economic Policy, this made small factories being able to be privatised (controlled by the owners, not the government), but the government controlled important industries such as coal and steel. Peasants had to give a fixed amount of what they grew to the government, the rest they could sell to make a profit. Now more food was being produced because peasants had an incentive to grow more. But the prices of food fell as more was produced. Prices of industrial goods rose so therefore the peasants selling food wouldn’t be able to gain much money to buy goods; they’d be better off keeping the food for themselves. The peasants then began to produce less food, and Russia’s problem worsened.

When Stalin came to power he believed that the N.E.P. should be abandoned and industry and agriculture should be taken under direct government control. He wanted to have complete control of everything. Stalin wanted to turn Russia from a backwards agriculture country to a heavy industrialised super power. Stalin said ‘we are 50 to 100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in 10 years. Either we do it or shall be crushed’.

Stalin believed that the New Economic Policy should be abandoned and industry and agriculture should be taken under direct government control.

Stalin wanted a great increase in industrial production. To do this it was essential for Stalin to supply food to his workforce. Also he wanted to sell grain abroad in order to earn foreign currency to buy modern machinery. Stalin didn’t want to be in a position that the peasants could threaten Russia’s food supply. Like when in the late 1920s the peasants under the NEP stopped growing food because money, which they gained, was of no use to them since there was nothing to buy. So most of the peasants just grew enough for themselves. The government responded to this action by seizing the peasant’s grain, this was called the ‘Urals-Siberian method’. Stalin wanted to have complete control over the peasants, make farming more efficient and increase production.

The solution to this problem was that peasants should be persuaded to join their small farms to create large farms where modern machinery and advanced agricultural techniques are used. Therefore more food would be produced. The government encouraged the peasants to join and later forced them to join the Kolkhoz (the collective farms). In the beginning the government persuaded the peasants by offering them incentives, such as free housing and seeds. Also local hospitals were provided to them. However the peasants still resisted collectivisation. Eventually the government became more ruthless. The government then began killing the richer peasants, who resisted collectivisation. Many of the kulaks slaughtered their livestock so they wouldn’t go to the collective farms.

The kulaks were the richer peasants. The kulaks owned their own land. They often employed the poorer peasants to work on their land for them. The kulaks didn’t suffer as much as poorer peasants, if a bad harvest happened. Many peasants envied the kulaks. The kulaks had the most to lose under collectivisation, so they rejected it. They even slaughtered their own livestock instead of giving it to the collective farms.

Stalin despised the kulaks and described them as ‘enemies of the collective farm’. The communists would gather groups of bedniak (poor peasants) and used them to drive out the kulaks in the villages.

About 1.5 million kulaks were sent to Siberia and central Asia, many were worked to death. The kulaks that refused to go were shot or imprisoned. It is believed that in 1929 there were 4.5 million people in kulak families and 3 million of them died because they were deported. The rest probably died as well. The mass slaughter of livestock had a devastating affect on Soviet agriculture. In 1928 there was a population of 70 million cattle in Russia, in 1933 it was 38 million. The pig population fell from 26 million to 12 million and the sheep population fell from 146 million to 50 million. The Soviet Union was unable to get over these tremendous losses until the 1950s.

Livestock (Million herd)

The lives on the Kolkhoz didn’t change very much. Most of the peasants lived in wooden huts and owned the same amount of land as before. The peasants had no incentive to work harder. An example of this problem was in western Russia where it took 50 days to have a wheat harvest whereas before it only took 15 days. Private plots of land were given to workers so they could grow fruit and vegetables. Also in 1935 a family could have one cow and all of its offspring, one sow and its piglets and as many rabbits and poultry desired. Some of the poorest peasants who entered the kolkhoz were now better off than before. The produce of the small plots of land was greater than on the state farms. To solve this problem the government made peasants work a minimum number of days per month, so that the peasants wouldn’t spend too much time on their private plots.

Grain Production

Grain harvests and grain taken by the state (procurements) in millions of tonnes.

The results show that the grain harvest became smaller and smaller, except in 1930. As the grain harvest decreased the government took more grain from the peasants.

Collectivisation didn’t increase the output of grain in the short term but in 1937 we see out put increased.

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Grain Production

Grain harvests and grain taken by the state (procurements) in millions of tonnes.

The results show that the grain harvest became smaller and smaller, except in 1930. As the grain harvest decreased the government took more grain from the peasants.

Collectivisation didn’t increase the output of grain in the short term but in 1937 we see out put increased.

In 1930 Stalin got rid of collectivisation for 1 year because it was making the situation worse. Stalin blamed the party workers for the devastation of the mass slaughter of animals and all the problems including the peasant resistance. Stalin blamed the party workers in the article called ‘Dizzy with Success’.

In 1930 the production of grain went up, the peasants grew more because they thought they’d be able to keep the grain for themselves.

The State grain procurements rose even though the Grain Harvests kept on decreasing. This lead to famine. This greatly affected the Ukraine and as many as 5 million starved to death in the Ukraine. Another cause of the famine was that Stalin exported a lot of grain, however the world depression meant that Stalin could get little for his grain and so this worsened the problem considerably. Stalin imported a vast amount. Stalin caused this famine to break the peasantry resistance to collectivisation; Stalin’s agent Khatyevich even said that ‘it took a famine to show them who is master here’. In total 7 million people were victims of famine.

The collectivisation in the Soviet Union was one of the greatest self-inflicted catastrophes in Russia’s history. It is possible that 5 million people died due to collectivisation. Collectivisation failed to provide enough grain to the government for industry. Soviet agriculture still was inefficient and was unable to feed the population; therefore Stalin had to import a lot of grain making the situation worse. The Soviet Union lost its best workers the Kulaks due to the persecution of them. Due to this persecution the kulaks killed all of their livestock rather than hand their animals to the collective farms. This was one of the world’s greatest massacres of livestock; it took Russia many years to recover from this disaster. The only thing, which Stalin achieved, was that all the peasants were under party control. When Germany invaded in 1941 many people welcomed them, if it wasn’t for the harshness of the Nazis they would have joined them to fight against Stalin. Grain production did not reach 1914 levels until 1939; this shows that collectivisation was a catastrophe.

Stalin wanted ‘socialism in one country’ he wanted to concentrate on developing industry only. Stalin said ‘we are 50 to 100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in 10 years. Either we do it or shall be crushed’. Stalin believed that is the Soviet Union didn’t concentrate on heavy industry that they’d be invaded by western capitalist nations such as Germany. He wanted to build new towns, to improve transport and communications and build modern factories. Stalin felt the need to industrialise because the NEP was making such small progress.

Stalin’s solution of dramatically increasing industrial production was the five-year plans. GOSPLAN, the state planning commission, set targets for each industry. These targets were ridiculously high and very ambitious; they expected industrial production to double in just 5 years.

The first five-year plan was to concentrate on heavy industry, such as coal, iron, oil and steel; it also concentrated on making capital (machinery). The second five-year plan was more concerned with consumer goods. The third five-year plan was more concerned with producing weapons.

1st Five-Year Plan

Results:

Stalin ended the first five-year plan one year ahead of schedule because he knew that he wouldn’t reach the targets and didn’t want people to think the five-year plan was a failure.

The only target that was met was for oil. But that doesn’t mean that the five-year plan was a failure. This massive increase in industrial production was a big achievement for the Soviet Union. There were still factories and power stations being built and oil wells being sunk and mine shafts being made, this shows that production could have risen even more.

The government thought the first five0year plan would add on 800,000 workers to the industrial labour force of 3 and a half million, instead the workforce increased to 6.5 million. Approximately 13 million people were added to Soviet Union towns and cities, such as Moscow, Leningrad, Gorki and Kazan. Some of the successes of the five-year plan are as follows:

A dam was built on the river Dnieper, this made possible a hydroelectric station at Dniepropetrovsk.
1500 huge power stations, factories and metal working complexes were built.
Factories, which made tractors, were set up in Stalingrad.
The Trans-Siberia railway was a single track, it was doubled and new railways were laid.
Oil out put at the Causcaus wells increased greatly.
Coal out put at Kutnesk increased greatly.
New industrial towns were built in the Urals, Siberia and the Far East. Many people were forced to move to these towns, e.g. Karaganoa, Magnitgorsk.
No unemployment.

This huge increase in industrial production was achieved by the following:

Foreign experts and engineers were brought into Russia.
The government charged the peasants for use of government equipment.
Exporting grain.
Universities expanded to supply skilled workers and engineers.
In the factories the workers got paid different, skilled workers were paid more; this was used to encourage the workers to work harder.

There is no doubt that the 1st five year-plan was successful but it was at the expense of the people’s lives.

The citizens found work very difficult. Factory discipline was very harsh. If a person failed to go to work they could have been executed. Workers had no say in what job they did. If targets were not met the consequences were very harsh, the managers could have been sent to labour camps or be imprisoned.

The government used propaganda to encourage workers to work harder. An example of the propaganda used was the Stakhanovite movement, which was started in September 1935. It was named after a miner called Aleksei Stakhanov from Donbass coalfield, he was supposedly to have dug 14 times the amount of coal that what usually done in one shift. He became nationally famous and was used to encourage workers to work harder. The government would reward good workers with higher wages and pensions, better housing and awards. Workers who achieved mass production such as ‘Aleksei Stakhanov’ were called ‘Stakhanovites’. Workers were able to speak out concerning working conditions and able to criticise their managers. Stakhanovites caused tremendous pressure in the industries to exceed targets. Some workers disliked the pressure on them to become Stakhanovites.

The first five-year plan only dealt with capitol industries, mainly goods such as coal, cement, steel and machine tools were being produced. These products were needed to build up industry. So there was a shortage of consumer goods such as clothes, furniture and radios. The consumer goods, which were available, were usually at very high prices, ordinary people didn’t have enough money to buy these goods so did without. The government told the workers they’d have to make sacrifices now to have a better future.

Life was very hard for the women because there was a shortage of workers, women were expected to work full time and also look after their homes.

The goods that were produced were often of poor quality; factory managers were only concerned of how much was being made not the quality. The quantity produced was more important that the quality of the goods. Soviet goods where not as good as the western ones. Also the quality suffered because the majority of the workforce were unskilled and poorly trained.

It is safe to say that the five-year plans were highly successful but at the cost of the peoples lives. The government were only concerned about the mass production of goods not the quality. Stalin turned Russia from a backward agricultural country to an industrial super power in less than 10 years; this was a huge achievement for Stalin. Stalin was able to run Russia’s industry far better than her agriculture. A lot of lives were lost in industrialising Russia, but this industrialisation saved many more lives when Germany tried to invade the Soviet Union. Overall I feel that Stalin’s five-year plans were successful in industrialising Russia, but other less ruthless methods could have been used to achieve that success.

Stalin used political terror with his economic policies. The aim was to get rid of people who disagreed with Stalin and to frighten people to be loyal to him. The secret police known as the O.G.P.U., job was to supervise the people, annihilate opposition and terrorise people to be obedient. People who opposed Stalin were shot or sent to gulags (labour camps) in Siberia.

In December 1934, Sergei Kirov the chief of the Leningrad Communist Party and a member of the Politburo was assassinated. Kirov that year at a congress of leading party members was seen to be very popular, rumours were going around that many in the communist party wanted Kirov to replace Stalin as leader of the USSR. Later that year he was assassinated; the murderer wasn’t put on trial and Kirov’s bodyguard later died. There was strong suspicion that Stalin had arranged for Kirov to be killed because Stalin was threatened that Kirov would be his rival. Stalin used this as an excuse that there was a conspiracy against the party and began arresting and killing many senior communists.

He even arrested people outside the communist party, anyone who was seen as a threat or looked suspicious were arrested. The secret police used torture, false promises of mercy and threatened their family members to convince the prisoner that they were guilty and admit to crimes they hadn’t committed. Some people accused other people as enemies of the state to prove their loyalty to the Soviet Union so they wouldn’t be arrested next. Some people even accused others as opposition to Stalin to settle feuds and old scores. The majority of the people arrested received no proper trial; they were either immediately executed or sent to labour camps in Siberia and the Soviet Arctic.

Most of the charges against the defendants in the show trial were that they had been involved in ‘the united centre’, this was a conspiracy against Stalin and the Soviet Union started by Trotsky. These trials were held in public, to show the soviet people Stalin was making Russia better. In 1936 and 37 show trials were held in Moscow and were well publicised. Old Bolsheviks stood in court and were forced to ‘confess’ to their crimes. In 1936 Zinoviev and Kamenev were tried in public, also Bukharin and Rykon were tried publicly in 1938. Tomsky committed suicide in 1936. After Lenin’s death of the 7 man Politburo only 3 escaped death. Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico. The police chief Yagoda and Yezhov were executed. Local party officials went missing by the thousands; in 1934-38 one and a half million party officials were purged. One fifth of the red army officers were killed. Most of the admirals, three of the five marshals, many of the senior officers and about 50% of the officer corps were all purged. They were supposedly involved in a plot to overthrow Stalin, their leader being Marshal Tukhachevsky, who was murdered in 1937. There was now no one left who would question Stalin’s authority.

In the 1930s massive labour camps were set up in remote areas of the USSR. People who criticised the Soviet Union were sent here, also peasant who resisted collectivisation, soviet citizens who lives abroad, religious groups especially Jews and writers were sent to these camps. Stalin said that these prisoners would be used for the benefit of the Soviet Union and would be turned into dedicated communists. Prisoners were made to work, building roads and canals, mining and working in agriculture and industry. This inexpensive workforce was a key part for the success of the five-year plans.

Many people died of hunger and cold or were worked to death. Thousands of people died and many more suffered terribly in the harsh camps. Prisoners had to work up to sixteen hours a day to earn a food ration. The people who were sick were given less food; this made their chance of recovering very low so therefore many of them died.

An account of what life was like in the labour camp is as follows:

‘It was one metre in width and less than two in length. An enormous latrine bucket without a cover and almost overflowing before my arrival stood in front of me with strings of woodlice over it and the walls. The floor was covered in human excrement. There was no air whatsoever none, only unbearable stench stifling my throat. Breakfast was bread and a mug of very hot water to wash in and drink’ from Maria Joffe, a journalist who was imprisoned between 1929 and 1957. This is a description of solitary confinement.

The victims of Stalin’s terror included the majority of the most gifted and able Soviet Unions. Many engineers, scientists and factory managers went missing; this was a tremendous loss to the Soviet Union and reduced the success of the third five-year plan substantially. The development of science was resisted because Stalin murdered scientists who didn’t agree with the communist views and promoted scientists such as Lysenko who views agreed with communism. Also writers such as Isaac Babel and Osip Mandelstam were executed because of Stalin’s terror. Many senior officers were killed. This led to an inexperienced army to face the Germans in 1941. But even though the army was weakened the soviet soldiers still resisted the Germans with great courage. The writer Shatunouskaia ‘suggested that between 1935 and 1941 almost 20 million people were arrested, of whom 7 million were shot’.

The communist party wanted to abolish religion from Russia because the communists felt that religion took away peoples attention from more important thing such as work. Marx an atheist called religion the ‘opium of the people’ because he felt that priests taught people to except the miseries of life and to look forward to the after-life. In the civil war religious groups faced persecution, priests were killed and religious buildings were destroyed. During the NEP there was a reduction of attacks on religious organisations, but the government tried to split up the Orthodox Church and arrested priests who didn’t obey the government. In 1929 a new law was passed, it was now illegal to engage in religious activities outside the religious buildings, only licensed people were allowed to meet for worship.

When Stalin began collectivisation there was a huge increase of attacks on religious buildings and believers. In the 1920s the Muslim population suffered less persecution than other religious groups. Stalin banned the Islamic law. Women were encouraged not to wear the veil, praying and fasting was strongly condemned and in 1935 to carry out the pilgrimage to Mecca was forbidden. Also Jews were persecuted and faced anti-Semitism among party leaders.

Many religious believers were persecuted due to Stalin’s terror. More than 5 million league of Militia atheist members spread ant-religious propaganda and tried to stop people from going to their religious buildings. In 1939 12 out of 163 bishops had escaped arrest. In 1939 there were only a few hundred churches left throughout the whole of Russia. Even though the Communists put so much pressure on the religious believers there faith never disappeared. In 1937 a census of 50 million Russians said they still had religious beliefs. Stalin was unable to wipe religion completely out of Russia. Even though most people cooperated with Stalin, a large amount of believers met in secret. Baptists met in secret in homes or the outdoors. In the Northern Caucasus and in Central Asia the communists faced Islamic resistance and also many Muslims prayed in secret. Stalin’s terror was not able to get rid of religious believers but in 1941 stopped the persecution of religious groups because Stalin had to unite the whole of Russia to fight against the German invasion.

The revolution caused disturbance in education. Young communists called the ‘Komosomo’ beat up teachers and richer students. Many teachers lost their jobs. School taught social and political work and got rid of tests; the students would assess their own progress. This created disobedient and poorly disciplined children, which lacked the necessary skills needed to contribute to the five-year plans.

In 1931 the central committee wanted education to change to traditional schooling where a fixed curriculum was present and pupils would be assessed by formal tests. Teachers were expected to teach only communist ideas. School uniforms were brought back in 1939. Students had to learn rules off by heart, for example the following quotation is a school rule, which had to be learnt by students ‘It is the duty of each school child to acquire knowledge persistently so as to become an educated and cultured citizen and to be of the greatest possible service to this country’. Now children were able to pay fees for advanced secondary education. Lots of children were influenced to join the communist party youth movements, children aged 8-11 joined the Young Ostobrists, 11-16 year olds were called the pioneers and young people over 16 were called the Komsomol.

Before Stalin came to power in 1919 a women’s department of the central committee called the Zhenotdel, it encouraged free abortion, female literacy, made it easier for women to get a divorce and have more women working. This gave women more freedom and rights.

This policy was highly resisted; many party officials disliked what the Zhenotdel did and faced huge resistance in the rural areas, especially in Muslim communities.

When Stalin came to power he got rid of the Zhenotdel in 1930, he claimed that it had achieved its aims. Stalin encouraged women to work but wanted their family lives to be traditional.

The amount of women workers rose from 3 to 13 million. This increase in workers certainly contributed to the five-year plans success. Most women had traditionally ‘female jobs’, for example in the textile industry. Some women took on jobs such as construction, steel making and engineering, which before were only done by the men. Women still got paid les than men and were not as likely as men to receive a promotion. Since there was a shortage of workers women had to work long hours.

In most parts of the USSR there was a breakdown in family life because of the trouble ‘caused by collectivisation and relaxed sexual relations’. This led to gangs of unwanted children being a big problem in cities. Some of the children were beggars and others were violent thieves. Stalin now designed policies to preserve family life, such as abortion, contraception and divorce being restricted. Women were encouraged to have more children because there was a shortage of workers. A large family would receive special awards and benefits; this was an incentive for people to have lots of children.

Many writers and artists thought that the revolution in 1917 was a liberating force. But the communists were keen to use the arts for propaganda. In the 1920s there was an outbreak of experimental artistic creativity in all of the arts, such as muss, art, design and literature. But in the 1930s there was a huge reduction in creative freedom. Creativity was used to serve the government; the government decided what artists could do. ‘Socialist Realism’ had begun. All art had to have a political purpose, which had pro-soviet messages. All creative artists were supposed to be loyal to Stalin. Andrei Zhdanov, a member of the communist party who succeeded Kirov told the artists what they had to do. People who wanted to publish literature had to belong to the Union of Soviet Writers, which was established in 1932. In its congress in 1934, Zhdanov told the members to only create Socialist Realism art. These were paintings, poems, plays and novels about ordinary people and about working lives. This type of art was optimistic and showed happy workers. Artists weren’t allowed to use fantasy. Sculptors and painters were expected to only produce socialist realism art, for example statues of muscular men, women working and painting of peasants joining the collective farms. Stalin and Zhdanov despised modern music because it was too complicated for peasants to understand. They didn’t like foreign music and composers had to produce music which followed rules set by the government, so that ordinary peasants would be able to understand the music. Stalin only played optimistic, cheerful and patriotic music. Stalin used socialist realism to brain wash the soviet citizens to work, be determined and be optimistic.

Overall I feel that Stalin achieved most of his goals, industry had more than doubled, most of the soviet people were under government control and Stalin’s enemies were annihilated. Stalin failed to reach the five-year plans targets, but this does not mean that the five-year plans were a failure because Stalin dramatically increased industry. This massive industrial increase enabled the Russians to beat the Germans in the war. However there was a tremendous loss of life due to Stalin’s purges. But I believe that Stalin saved more lives by industrialising Russia because if the Germans had invaded Russia there would have been more lives lost. Even though there was a big loss of life, casualties would have been expected for such a huge operation like this to be carried out. The following quotation aggress with my view: ‘Stalin transformed Russia from a backward country into one of the two greatest Powers in the world, with its industrial and intellectual resources multiplied many times over. He brought it safely through a terrible war. It is hard to say the same result could be achieved at less cost. But the cost was certainly exorbitant…’ from the obituary in The Guardian newspaper published in England on 6 March 1953. I think that Stalin could have used a less brutal way of achieving this success of turning backward Russia into an industrial super power.