'The Five Year Plans brought glory to Stalin and misery to his people.' How valid is this judgement?

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‘The Five Year Plans brought glory to Stalin and misery to his people.’

How valid is this judgement?

1) There are many reasons why Stalin wanted to industrialise Russia so quickly. Stalin who came to power after Lenin was determined to make Russia a successful country by rapid industrialisation. Rather than borrowing money from other countries in order to help Russia, Stalin wanted Russia to do it on its own accord and let the Russian people earn what they got.

It was the five-year plans that moved Russia towards becoming a stronger country than it was. Although it may just be seen as a glory hunting phase to make Russia an economic power, it was said by Stalin that, 'We are 50 to 100 years being the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in 10 years. Either we do it or we shall be crushed.' And Stalin was very right in saying this. Stalin embarked on these five-year plans because he did not want his home country to fail and fall to many of the Western countries and ideas that threatened it. He launched three Five Year Plans, the first ran from 1928 – 1932, the second ran from 1933 – 1937 and the third plan ran from 1938 till 1941. hotmail password: rupermaya

For each Five Year Plan there was an emphasis on what had to be achieved. The first plan wanted to equip Russia industrially for the second and third plans. It’s emphasis was on heavy industry, controlled by a sate-owned and state-directed economy, therefore private trades and businesses were swept away.  The emphasis of the second plan was to create better living standards, such as communication, and living aspects. Moscow Metro was built, industrial buildings such as the Magnitogorst. The final plan was mainly cantered around going to war with Germany. He launched these Five Year Plans for a number of reasons.

One of the reasons why Stalin launched the Five Year Plans and why he wanted to industrialise Russia was to increase military strength. Stalin knew that if a country wasn’t industrialised it would be a weak country therefore he had a fear of foreign invasion. Russia in the 1920’s was a backward country compared to other countries such as France, Britain, US and Japan. Stalin knew that countries such as France who were producing more coal and steel and thus if there was an attack on Russia from the leading powers, Russia would need a much more powerful industrial base to manufacture the huge quantities of weapons and munitions needed to fight a war.

This proved to be true in 1927 when a series of events were seen as evidence of an impending attack on the Soviet Union. In different parts of the world there was many attacks. In 1927 there was a raid by the British government on the Soviet trade mission in London; in China, communists were attacked by the Kuomintang forces of Chiang Kai Shek, also a Soviet diplomat was assassinated in Poland.

All of these events brought fear into the mind of Stalin that Russia would be attacked upon. As the government believed this was a sign of anti – Russian conspiracy. Therefore one of the main reasons why he wanted to develop industry so quickly was to have a strong industry capable of producing armaments so that Russia could defend itself from attack and be on the same level as world heavyweights. He needed to industrialise to complete his cry for 'Socialism in One Country'. Also, as the Wall Street crash had led to the rise of the anti communist Hitler in Germany, Stalin very much needed to prepare Russia for what was to come. He needed to industrialise and be ready for whatever the West had to throw at him and Russia.

Trade with the rest of the world declined since Russia was under the communist revolution. Some people did think that Stalin was not a true communist as he brought many western ideas into Russia in terms of industry and farming, however it was these ideas that lead to Russia becoming stronger. He relied heavily on manufactured western goods, this had to change and Stalin knew it they had to become self-sufficient. Stalin knew an industrial base was needed to produce goods to their people, to become self-sufficient. By raising Russia's economic and political power, he could gain ground on the rest of the world and try and spread communist ideas everywhere. This would make Stalin seem very bold and true communist at heart and would make people see him as though he had gone where other communists had never gone before. In this way, the five year plans did being glory to Stalin and made him seem a visionary in the ways of communism.

If Stalin made Russia an economic power in the world, he would counter act many of problems that hampered Russia from the beginning. If Russia's economy was raised, not only would it prove to the world that communism really does work, it would allow Russia to stand up against surrounding threats like Poland, Japan, France, Britain and the US and it would also show that Russia did not need other countries' help to come into its own. A strong economy would also ensure provide a strong power base for Stalin, which would help to ensure his remaining in power.  As many countries from the West were threatening Russia, Stalin needed to prepare Russia for war if it was to come to that.

According to Marxist theoreticians, socialism could only be created in a highly industrialised state where the overwhelming majority of the population were workers. In 1928, only about twenty per cent of the population of the USSR were workers. Stalin followed Lenin's belief that the USSR should overtake and outstrip the capitalist countries. He believed in 'Socialism in one country' -the USSR would become strong enough to survive, then would take over the rest of the world.

To get votes before he became elected Stalin used propaganda to portray an image of himself into the minds of the public. The most extreme way he did this was to show himself as a disciple of Lenin as he was seen as a god of communism at that time. He edited pictures of Lenin and other people and stuck his face on instead so it would seem like he was very close to Lenin.  Stalin needed to prove to himself and other leading Bolsheviks that he was the successor and equal of Lenin. His economic policies were central to this. The economic transformation of the USSR, taking the revolution forward in a giant lap towards socialism, would establish him as a leader of historic importance. Soon after Lenin’s death in 1924, the slogan ‘Stalin is the Lenin of today’ became widely used by sections of the rank and file party members. His popularity was built up through propaganda, which presented endless images of Stalin as a great leader. A massive picture of Stalin was hung on every station so that the Russian people would not forget what he had achieved through the Five Year Plans. Stalin was the big hero or Vozhd        (the boss). In all his propaganda posters, Stalin is shown to be friendly to all peoples of the world and of Russia. He might be shown giving speeches to the workers or he might be shown embracing children in his arms. This gave the people of Russia a 'father figure' to look up to and admire. If all they had done before was to be ignored by their government and officials, they could relate to Stalin and it would make them think that Stalin likes us and that anything was possible.

  Another stunt he pulled in order to get himself elected was to tell Trotsky, the opposition, not to go to Lenin's funeral as Trotsky was ill. He used propaganda once again to preach the public that industrialisation was patriotic, this encouraged workers to work for their motherland and to help their motherland to come up through the ranks and be part of the industrialisation process. Stalin removed Trotsky, the Left party the Right Party were in the stronger position however they could be removed due to the NEP.  When the Five Year Plans were launched it saw the removal of all the major leaders in the Right Party, this increased Stalin’s power and strengthened his own personal power as he was the undisputed leader of USSR. I believe Stalin removed all the inspirational leaders because of his own personal glory.

In 1928 Stalin had said, "Agriculture is developing slowly, comrades. This is because we have about 25 million individually owned farms. They are the most primitive and undeveloped form of economy. We must do our utmost to develop large farms and to convert them into grain factories for the country organised on a modern scientific basis".

Such rapid industrialisation could only be achieved if agriculture was made more efficient, as sufficient food had to be produced to feed the workforce. USSR was a backward peasant based economy. Stalin wanted to end this dependency on the backward agricultural system. This was where collectivisation came in. Collectivisation was implemented in 1928 and was initially on a purely voluntary basis- at a moderate and achievable pace. In practice this wasn't the case. In a bid to increase collective membership, peasants were granted incentives to join the collectives in 1930. Stalin introduced the machine tractor station in Russia, where collectives could borrow machinery and increase their productivity in return for payment in the form of crops. Collectivisation consisted of grouping small, scattered farms in a given locality into a collective farm (Kolkhozy).

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The peasants would hand over their grain, animals, tools and labour for the utility of the entire community. The collectives had to sell most of their produce at low prices to the government. In 1929 Stalin took serious austere action, speeding up the process and making it compulsory to join collectives. Some Peasants were refusing to share their labour, whilst others took to burning their crops and animals rather than sell them to the state. As a consequence, Stalin applied force and those who did not comply were dealt with severely. This coincided with Stalin's elimination of the Kulaks, a ...

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