Stalin Economy Versus People Essay
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Hypothesis.
Stalin s economic achievements were remarkable form a purely material point of view but occurred with absolute disregard for the welfare and wishes of its subjects.
During Stalin s command of the USSR, his economic achievements were nothing short of remarkable. Rapid industrialisation and restructuring of agricultural arrangements was the basis of his own economic revolution for the Soviet Union in which the formerly technologically backward and economically inefficient nation would become a world superpower. However, during the quarter of a century of Stalin s dictatorial rule (between 1928 and 1953), the hundreds of millions of people whose lives he dominated in the Soviet Union were forced to suffer the many dire consequences of this success: famine in the Ukraine; squalid living conditions accompanied overcrowded urban centres; and an effectively complete lack of freedom (in terms of migration and in terms of private ownership of land) was in place for almost all of the population.
In 1928, following a turbulent decade of revolution, war and the instigation of a completely new political and economic system, Joseph Stalin came to power. He was forced to contemplate how to create a strong, self-reliant Russia. His answer was the policy of Socialism in one country , that is the development of socialism within and the strengthening of Russia before advancing to other countries (Cowie: 1993, 159). The main emphasis being on the development of a self-sufficient state, that is independence of international factors and an equal level of technological advancement. The Soviet Union was to achieve this through rapid expansion of industry, particularly heavy industry, and increased efficiency of agricultural enterprises.
The reason for rapid industrialisation was that Russia, according to Stalin, (quoted by Bucklow: 1991, 233), was fifty to a hundred years behind the advanced countries and that they had to make good this lag in 10 years or they (the capitalists) will crush us. With this, an emphasis was placed upon the speed at which the allocated tasks were completed; The five year plan in four was one slogan to be used (Morcombe: 1998, 204) as well as being one aim to be reached. The push for the swift completion of projects was a powerful one and can be seen by the fact that the targets, as set out in the five-year plans were almost always close to being reached. What made this achievement so remarkable was that, by evaluating the different sections of Stalin as a totalitarian leader, these targets can be interpreted as being unattainable goals, merely there to keep the general population ignorant/distanced from other events that might provoke controversy. The fact that the workers were able to nearly attain the unattainable is testament to either the phenomenal work rate of the workers or the incompetence of Gosplan, the central planning committee responsible for the setting of the targets. Either way, the end result of the five-year plans (by 1939) was a massive increase in several key areas of heavy industry (vital with its ability to create and maintain infrastructure) including coal, oil and pig iron (360%, 244% & 453% increases in output respectively (Morcombe: 1998, 205)). This was arguably the most important and most successful part of Stalin s plan for creating a strong USSR through economic achievement and was further assisted by Stalin s plans for agricultural development.
Collectivisation of farms was a major step towards the Soviet ideal of state farms, which operated like factories with wage labour (Britannica: Soviet Planning) in an attempt to increase efficiency. It was a revision of the previous policy, the NEP, where private trade and the sale of peasants produce was allowed, and another step towards the socialisation of the Russian economy.
The reason for this required increase in efficiency was that the ever-expanding towns and cities were requiring more and more food and Stalin saw the farms as merely a source of cheap food and materials for the cities (Britannica: Soviet Planning). This was not the thinking of the peasantry and there was some dissent amongst them, especially the Kulaks, due to the idea that the communist ideal revolved predominantly around the urban worker and therefore was not relevant to them (Baker: 1990, 38).
The emphasis placed upon agricultural progression was not remotely near to that of industry and it is shown in the respective statistics. Although the results may not have been spectacular, in some instances certain sectors actually dropped, the overall effect of collectivisation in terms of economic benefit was a positive one. The reduction in output of certain sectors can be attributed to both the period of the Kulak liquidation, where huge numbers of livestock were slaughtered and produce destroyed in protest, (Baker: 1990, 41) as well as the Ukraine famine where along with the upwards of eight million dead, a large percentage of livestock and produce perished (Morcombe: 1998, 212). Regardless of the human suffering and lack of progress compared to industry, Stalin s plan of collectivisation was one of success. The aim of asserting control over the politically recalcitrant peasantry (Britannica: Joseph Stalin) had been achieved and this provided benefits in that the government and Stalin had more control over the production levels of the collectives.
This control was not restricted to that of the rural peasantry and was a lasting remnant of Stalin s time as dictator, in fact it left a legacy of remembered fear so extreme as to render post-Stalin restrictions tolerable to the population (...
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