11 Great Turn, 1927-29

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11Great Turn, 1927-29
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Overview

1. Main Themes
2. Why the Great Turn?
3. Industrial Miracles
4. Agricultural Crisis
5. Culture Revolution and Counter-Revolution
6. Conclusions

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A. Main Themes

1. Industrial miracle phenomenal early gains of
   first five-year plan raised expectations
2. Agricultural crisis grain delivery shortfalls as
   economic and political threat
3. Party radicalized, frightened, but holds little
   power over village
4. Intensification of the class struggle
   perception, policy, Stalinist rationale
5. Cultural Front conflict and confrontation

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B. Why the Great Turn?

• Structural Fundamental contradictions of NEP
• Triggers
• Grain crises of 1927-8, 1928-9
• Party transformation
• War scare of 1927
• The Great Turn Denials

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C. Industrial Miracles

1. Toward a planned economy
2. Growth problems low labor productivity, inept
   party management, rural crisis
3. Miracles on the industrial front
4. Western counter-model from prosperity to
   depression

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D. Agricultural Crisis

• Causes
• Land settlement of 1917-8
• Family partition (semeinyi razdel)
• Market productivity disincentives
• Village Power
• Marxist sociology of the village
• State Policy Shifts
• Grain crises, 1927-29
• Great leap Ural-Siberian Method,
  self-taxation, production campaigns
• Peasant resistance

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Stalin, 14 January 1928 Telegram to Kosior

• Many communists think that one cannot touch
  speculators and kulaks, since this will alienate
  the middle peasant. This is a rotten way of
  thinking up the rotten thought that some
  communists have in their heads. It is just the
  opposite. In order to establish our price policy
  and achieve a decisive turnaround in
  procurements, it is necessary to strike a blow at
  speculators and kulaks right away.

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Stalin, 18 January 1928 Telegram to Novosibirsk
Party Committee

• The only way one can make up for lost time is
  with brutal pressure. . . . We want to kill the
  seredniaks faith in the prospect of a rise in
  grain prices. How? Article 107 on speculation
  and hoarding. . . . How does the middle peasant
  think? He thinks It would be good if they paid
  more, but here is a murky business. Petrushka is
  in jail Vanushka is in jail theyll put me in
  jail too. No, its better to sell the grain. You
  cant ignore Soviet power.

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Kulaks and Speculators Arrested (January-June
1928)
Category Number Arrested
Speculators (art. 107) 8,685
Kulak hoarders (art. 107) 6,211
Kulak counter-revolutionaries 3,383
Total 18,279
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Peasant Protests Proclamations and Resolutions
Year Number of Proclamations and Resolutions
1928 945
1929 2,391
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Peasant Protest Proclamation (1928)

• Comrade Party Members! You are torturing the
  people, the Cossacks, and now the poor and middle
  peasantsthey are NOT kulaks. Soviet power was
  created for proletarians. But you dont see this,
  and you rob the unhappy poor and force them to
  pick up stakes and take back the bread and money
  from your pockets. You dont treat us well you
  rob us. If you dont stop treating the poor this
  way, youll not rule for long. If you dont stop
  the requisitions, well have to pick up our
  stakes and fall upon the Communists.

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Forms of Peasant Resistance
Year Mass Disorder Arson Terrorist Act Total
1925 902 902
1926 31 71 640 742
1927 32 78 823 933
1928 709 307 1,153 2,169
1929 1,307 1,604 4,458 7,469
1930 13,793 6,324 7,469 27,586
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E. Culture Revolution and Counter-Revolution

1. Cultural Construction Books, Press, Kino
   (film)
2. War on specialists
3. Anti-religious campaigns
4. Indigenization (korenizatsiia) and Nationalism

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Shakhty Trial DefendantsMay 1928
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Shakhty Tribunal Announces Sentences (1928)
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Enemies of the Five-Year Plan1929 Poster
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Sergeiev-Posad Destruction of Church Bells (1930)
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Protests against Church Closings
Year Protest Resolutions Khodoki (Reps sent to Moscow)
1925 1,506 500
1926 1,248 600
1927 2,840 616
1928 2,861 946
1929 5,242 1,800
1930 17,637 6,029
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F. Conclusions

1. Industrial surge gains of first five-year plan
   and higher expectations
2. Agricultural crisis grain delivery shortfalls as
   economic and political threat
3. Party radicalized, frightened, but little power
   over village
4. Intensification of the class struggle
   perception, policy, and Stalins mantra
5. Cultural Front construction, anti-religious
   campaigns, and nationalism