The Peasant Problem

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The Peasant Problem

• Peasants were the biggest benefactor of the
  revolution ? land reform had little interest in
  socialism
• Even with NEP, grain production still lower than
  1913 levels
• Crisis in 1927 grain prices fall peasants sell
  ½ as much to state agencies as in 1926 not
  enough to feed the cities
• Government blames NEP
• Stalin orders draconian requisitioning methods

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The Great Turn (The Second Revolution)

• Definition The radical change in economic policy
  in 1928/1929 which ?
• Abandoned the New Economic Policy (NEP) and
  accelerated collectivization.
• The term was taken from Stalin's article "Year of
  the Great Turn" published on November 7, 1929

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The Great Turn (The Second Revolution)

• Why did Stalin support the Great Turn?
• 1) 1927-1928 Stalin feared attack from Britain,
  France, Poland (Japan?)
• Need for strong industry to combat West
• 2) A growing proletariat would broaden support
  for communism in Russia
• 3) Saw himself as a modern Ivan the Terrible or
  Peter the Great who would modernize Russia ?
  Great Power

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The Great Turn (The Second Revolution)

• Why did Stalin support the Great Turn?
• 4) A successful Russian economy would impress
  workers around the world increase the appeal
  of communism
• 5) Many party members supported the
  modernization of the Soviet economy
• Significance of the Great Turn policies brought
  great change to the Communist Party the
  relationship between Party people
• Is this where the Soviet Union went wrong?

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The First Five-Year Plan (1928-1933)

• Fifteenth Party Congress ? 1st FYP
• Official end to NEP
• Aim To industrialize the USSR
• Goals
• 250 increase in industrial production
• 150 increase in farm production
• Detailed targets produced for all industry but
  in reality there was little planning from the
  top government used terror ? increases
• Planning occurred _at_ the local regional level to
  make sense of the instructions they were given

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Propaganda (First Five Year Plan)
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Collectivization

• Why did Stalin introduce collectivization?
• Need for capital to finance industrialization
  farm exports ? revenue
• The existing system was unlikely to produce more
  food peasant farms too small to utilize modern
  equipment
• Unless change was implemented, Stalin would face
  annual grain crises and/or be held ransom by
  peasants kulaks (who had little sympathy with
  communism)
• Collective farms would use less labor modern
  techniques release people ? cities

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3 Main Types of Collective Farm

• Toz peasants owned their land but shared
  machinery cooperated in activities (sowing
  harvesting)
• Sovkhoz owned run by the state peasants paid
  a wage (like a factory worker)
• Kolkhoz land was held in common and run by
  elected committee 50-100 households put
  together all land, tools livestock pooled
  farmed the land as one unit but retained 1 acre
  of private land a cow, a pig, a fowl

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Soviet propaganda poster "Comrade, come and join
the kolkhoz!"
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Collective Farm
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War on the Kulaks

• Voluntary collectivization was unsuccessful
• By 1929, 90 of peasants did not join collective
  farms
• 1928-1929 Grain ? cities lower than ever
• Stalin
• 1) forced 25 million peasants to form 240,000
  collective farms
• 2) kulaks were to be destroyed
• Dec. 1929 mass collectivization
  dekulakization began met with violent
  opposition (esp. Ukraine) opposition crushed
• NKVD Red Army troops surrounded towns used
  machine guns to force surrender (transported
  survivors to remote areas where many died of
  starvation disease

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War on the Kulaks (contd)

• March 1930 ½ of the peasants joined collective
  farms productivity destroyed
• Many slaughtered animals instead of giving them
  to collective farms
• Many collective farms were hopelessly
  inefficient crop yields plummeted
• Faced with famine, Stalin back-tracked
• Dizzy with Success article published

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Dizzy with Success

• This is a reference to an article published in
  Pravda (March 1930) that suggested
  collectivization had been pushed ahead too
  quickly by party officials who were dizzy with
  success
• The pace needed to be slowed so houses, small
  plots and animals would no longer be
  collectivized
• Peasants left collective farms _at_ an alarming rate
  planted the spring wheat
• Once this happened, Stalin resumed
  collectivization (summer 1930)

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Collectivization

• 1935 94 of crop land was collectivized
• See A plan of a collective farm page 161 in SHP
  CRULS

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Rate of population decline in Ukraine and South
Russia. 1929-1932
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• Victims of the Famine (Holodomor)

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The Famine 1932-1933.
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Results of Collectivization

• Stalin achieved his aims
• Farming ? mechanized
• 1930 25,000 tractors 1,000 combines
• 1940 525,000 tractors 182,000 combines
• 1940 wheat crop 80 higher than in 1913
• Growing towns had a regular supply of food
• Grain exported
• Labor released for industry
• Life in the countryside closer to communist
  ideals

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Results of Collectivization

• Stalins policies can be seen as disastrous
• Human cost 1931-1933 10 million died of famine
  (esp. Ukraine) some parents even killed ate
  their children
• Stalins wife ? suicide in 1932 blamed him for
  the misery in the USSR
• By 1933 livestock production fell to the 1928
  level
• Collective farms inefficient
• Government interference lack of worker
  incentive mechanization slow to arrive peasants
  poorly paid the promised schools clinics
  rarely materialized

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Industrialization

• The First Five Year Plan
• Top priority was given to heavy industry
• (iron, steel, chemicals, electric power, etc.)
  focus on production of weapons military
  improvements
• Low priority to light industry (consumer goods)
  enough to provide people with minimal living
  conditions
• The State Planning Commission (Gosplan)
  determined all economic matters (wages,
  factories, products, etc.)

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• Poster from 1930, translation reads We Will
  Turn the Five Year Plan into a Four Year One

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Industrialization

• (1st FYP) To achieve production goals, the
  Communists
• 1) used propaganda ? better days ahead
• Many young workers formed shock brigades
• 2) rewarded outstanding workers with pay
  differentials social approval
• 3) punished unsuccessful plant managers by
  demotion arrest as saboteurs
• Note treat all statistics from this time with
  caution

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Industrialization

• Weaknesses of the 1st FYP
• 1) quantity put _at_ the expense of quality
• 2) living standards remain low (no priority to
  consumer goods)
• 3) people could lose their jobs if they were
  sick simple errors accidents were labeled as
  sabotage
• 4) factory managers under enormous pressure, may
  be declared an enemy of the state
• 5) secret police deployed in the factory