Preview

How Did Stalin Affect The Union

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
925 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Did Stalin Affect The Union
As mentioned in the opening paragraph Stalin’s reputation is often stained with false information from western propagandists and his enemies within the party. As such, his impact on the Union is often blotted out, so what are his achievements exactly?
Stalin implanted a successful system of collectivization in the agricultural which lead to the modernization of the sector. Collectivization is a policy in which instead of many small farms run by rich peasants, they are collectivised into huge farms run by the state. Other people will say that Stalin’s policies were not successful at all and lead to crippling famines, some of which was man made in order to suppress the population. These people will also claim that in Ukraine the peasants refused
…show more content…
[4] It is, however, true that some peasants did revolt against the government. These people were most a class of richer peasants called “Kulaks”, these peasants are petty capitalists who own a piece of land, and they hired poorer peasants to work on the land. In order to make a profit they paid the workers less than their worth in addition, this wasn’t a very efficient system and gave power to greedy capitalists. Collectivization is bad for the kulaks since it took away their workers and land, therefore taking their power away. Obviously, they resisted the state and hoarded grain to sell it at higher costs, many kulaks attempted to sabotage the efforts of the state by burning crops and slaughtering livestock. [6] Foreseeing their resistance to the state, Stalin ordered for …show more content…
These plans rapidly industrialised Russia allowing it to thrive in the ashes of world wars, a civil war and a huge economic recession. What is unique about Russia’s modernization is how quick they could do it, being able to produce 15 million tons of pig iron in 1938 were a decade before there wasn’t an iron industry in Russia at all. To compare in 1938 Great Britain produced 7 million tons of pig iron.[4] In addition to Iron, coal production was multiplied by 10, steel output by 18; engineering and metal industries by 150; total national income by 10; industrial output by 24; annual capital investment by 57. During the First Five-year Plan, 51 billion rubles were invested; during the Second, 114; and during the Third, 192. The USSR made great leaps in other industries under Stalin as well in all sectors of their economy. From the book “Soviet Politics, Mr.Shuman says the following “ Between 1913 and 1940, oil production increased from nine to 35 million tons; machine tools from 1000 to 48,000 units, tractors from 0 to over 500,000; harvester combines from 0 to 153,500; electrical power output from two billion kWh to 50 billion; and the value of industrial output from 11 billion rubles to more than 100 billion by 1938. If the estimated volume of total industrial production in 1913 be taken as 100, the corresponding indices for 1938 are 93.2

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Stalin Dbq Research Paper

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages

    There were several reasons. Stalin sought to reorganize the Soviet Union via his Five Year Plans, which called for a radical industrialization as well as collectivisation to increase agricultural production and efficiency. This increased agricultural output was necessary to support the rapid industrialization he espoused; how else could the workers be fed? Many peasants who had been awarded or taken their land...to liquidating the kulaks as a class" (Document 5.3 Collectivisation 181). Millions were sent to labor camps, deported and died. The impossible demands made on the peasant farmers of increased production, only to turn everything over to the state, resulted in peasants that remained on the land at first hiding, then burning their crops/killing their animals rather than give them up "Stock was slaughtered every night..." (History in Quotations #5). An infuriated Stalin sent industrial workers into the country to show the peasants 'Bolshevik firmness' "without any rotten liberalism...[or] bourgeois humanitarianism...[and with]extreme measures" to get the grain. (Document 5.4 Horror in the Village…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Soviet Union DBQ

    • 840 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Stalin was a part of the Bolsheviks which was the communist party of the Soviet Union. The Kulaks were the wealthy landowners and they were capitalists and did not approve of Stalin’s beliefs and methods. One of the changes Stalin implemented in order to achieve his one of his many goals, was to collective farms. Collectivization is the act of seizing land from the wealthy (which in this case were the Kulaks) and using it for communal use. This means that the Kulaks’ farms would get broken up to little parts and given to the peasants. In document 4, an excerpt from a speech that Stalin delivered in 1929 he says, “The socialist way, which is to set up collective farms and state farms into large collective farms, technically and scientifically equipped, and to the squeezing out of the capitalist elements from agriculture.” Stalin was determined to remove any and all capitalist that were not in his favor. Another change Stalin implemented was to stop feeding the livestock with the wheat being grown. In document 5, there is a graph showing the declination of the livestock in the first and second five year plan. In a total of 10 years, the amount of livestock was virtually cut in half! In comparison, the wheat production increased significantly in the ten years in which the livestock was cut in half. The wheat being…

    • 840 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Joseph Stalin Dbq Analysis

    • 1113 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Joseph Stalin established a modern totalitarian government in Soviet Russia. He is known as the “Man of Steel”. A totalitarianism is a type of government that takes total, centralized, state control over every aspect of public and private life of their people. His rule had changed the people of his empire in numerous ways. Stalin had total control over economic needs. According to document 6 “By 1940 Russia produced more pig iron than Germany, and far more than Britain or France. Numbers of cattle grew in the 1920s, but fell increasingly during the collectivization of agriculture after 1929, and by 1940 hardly exceeded the figure for 1920. Since 1940 the industrial development of the Soviet Union has been impressive, but agricultural production has continued to be plumiding”. The document illustrates how pig iron had significantly increased as a result of the “Five Year Plan”, however heavy industry led to expense of food supplies. This would cause limited production of consumer goods. It caused a step back because of the severe shortages of housing, food, clothing as well as other necessary goods. The Five Year Plan didn’t help much to excel their economic as Stalin hoped, it impacted by creating famine. Stalin rising to power promised an economic boom for Russia however, in that process many people suffered and died of starvation. According to document 5, “The purge began its last,…

    • 1113 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Collectivization was designed to modernize Russia’s agriculture by merging farms and placing them under state control. In the short term, this policy resulted in famines and Stalin’s ‘war’ against the Kulaks; wealthy peasants who opposed communism. By 1935, 5 million people had died from starvation and all 7 million Kulaks had been liquidized, through shooting or the labour camps or ‘Gulags’. However, by 1939, Collectivization was working efficiently with 99% of land merged and 90% of peasants living ¼ of a million Kolkhoz. Although at a heavy price, the exports needed to obtain the capitol for industrialization had been acquired.…

    • 1040 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Josephe Stalin DBQ

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Stalin presented himself as if he were greater and more powerful than everyone else (DOC 10.) Unfortunately for him the people of Russia didn’t see this characteristic; Stalin’s methods damaged the Russians. His act of collectivization was found to be extremely unfair and hurtful. Numerous actions were taken place…

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Stalin imposed collectivism, which took all the farm land from the Kulaks, leaving them homeless and unemployed It was forbidden to give aid to the Kulaks, and eventually they were forced in to slavery to survive, and any Kulak who refused slavery was deported Forced Famine under the rule of Joseph Stalin By 1932, 75% of all farmland had been acquired by Stalin’s regime and he was exporting so much food from this region, there was no food left to feed the Ukranian people (Trueman, 2013) The Ukranian Communist party reached out for support from the Soviet Communist party and were soon stamped out by Stalin’s loyal soldiers, sent to subdue the Ukranians Starvation was so prevalent that people fled the country side to larger cities, only to find starvation there as well, with bodies of the dead lining the streets Forced Famine under the rule of Joseph Stalin…

    • 1348 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Stalinism, the term used to embody the form of government experienced by the Soviet Union under Stalin’s rule, had a significant and lasting impact on the USSR. Stalinism impacted on several aspects of life. Collectivisation was introduced which assisted in the funding of industrialisation, terror was used to create a communist state. Stalin centralised every aspect of life, from the single leadership of Stalin himself to party control of the state and its functions. Free will disappeared and service to the state was expected. Consequently a Stalinist state which had a major impact on the USSR was created.…

    • 1443 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Joseph Stalin forced the Ukrainian famine in order to undermine the nationalistic pride of the Ukrainians. Vladimir Lenin’s actions to resolve the resentment in Ukraine were unacceptable to Stalin. Lenin stopped exporting a large amount of the country’s grain and also encouraged a free-market way of exchanging goods. Lenin’s relaxed rule renewed the people’s interest in celebrating their language, customs, poetry, art, music and Ukrainian Orthodox religion. The Ukrainians’ independent spirit made them a threat to Joseph Stalin. When he wanted to build a strong industrial base, the Ukrainians did not stray from their peasant traditions. When Stalin wanted to abolish private ownership of land, the people refused to give up their land. On December 27, 1929, Joseph Stalin announced his plan to force the remaining Ukrainian peasants onto government-owned collective farms. In order to destroy the people seeking independence from Soviet rule, Stalin deprived the Ukrainians of their own food supplies (The History Place-…

    • 1914 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Stalin was determined to exterminate Ukraine’s farmers for two reasons. First, the Ukraine had the potential to rise up and resist against the Communist regime. Second, he needed more money to industrialize the country, and the…

    • 1486 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Remember, Lenin had taken land from wealthy landowners and had given the peasants their own small farms. In 1928, Stalin announced that all family farms would be abolished. They would be replaced by collective farms, or large farms worked by hundreds of families. The government expected that these collective farms, with the help of modern technology, would produce more food with fewer workers. The members of the collective farm worked the land together. They owned the machinery together. They divided what the collective farm produced according to the work each had done. The Communists liked the collective farms. The government could control the peasants better on collectives than on millions of small farms. The Communists also thought the family farms were too small and poor to use machinery. On the collective farms people were supposed to have tractors and machines. Fewer people could do more work and produce more food. This would free up people to work in the new mines and…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Eight Steps of Genocide

    • 2212 Words
    • 9 Pages

    * Such was also the case with the strong resistance of the Ukrainian farmer to Stalin’s program of collectivization in 1931-32 coupled with the threat of Ukrainian nationalism to communist control. Thus, when what would have been a mild famine hit the region in 1932, Stalin magnified the famine many fold by seizing food and its sources (livestock, pets, seed grain, shooting birds in the trees, etc.) and boycotting the import of food taken away from them before they entered the Soviet Republic. About 5 million Ukrainians were starved to death.…

    • 2212 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    As Orlando Figes states in ‘The Whisperers’, “ Collectivization was the great turning point in Soviet history.” Stalin put in place collectivization in order to increase agricultural output and also more importantly the state would have control over the agriculture. As 80% of the Soviet Union population were peasants, they would be seen to be a force not to be reckoned with. However the will of the state will crush and bend the peasants. This succeeded in happening through the establishment of the “Kolkhozi” in 1929. This was a collective farms establishment to replace the individual farms owned by the peasants. Many peasants disagreed and refused to give up their land, when they did this they were branded ‘Kulaks’ and were then severely punished. For Stalin there were several successes to collectivization such as the USSR has an agrarian economy as most of its people lived in the countryside and worked the land, so collectivization gave state control to the main source of national wealth. Another is that agriculture would “pay tribute” to industry and cheap food could feed the cities and also be exported to finance the purchase of machinery from abroad.…

    • 1634 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    After 250 years of living under Russian Tsarist rule, the Ukrainians became part of the Soviet Union in 1922. Farmers thrived, economic freedom was permitted, and private enterprise was allowed. Among these, writers, artists, and scholars grew. Stalin, in 1924, took over Russia after the previous leader, Vladimir Lenin, died. Later, in 1928, Stalin launched a plan to force farmers into giving up their private land, livestock, and farms. Joseph Stalin felt he could not trust the Ukraine peasantry; he believed that the upper class farmers, or kulaks, were holding crops. Stalin took all the grain from the peasants. He had his men search for any hidden grain and Stalin analyzed fecal matter to see if the Ukrainians had stolen ‘government property’ and eaten the grain themselves. It was because of Stalin that many starved and resorted to eating anything. They drank water to fill their empty bellies. Small children perished first, then the elderly, followed by the men, and soon after, the women. Up to twenty-five percent of the population died because Stalin took all of the food.…

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Stalin’s plan for the industrialisation of the Soviet Union was carried out through a series of Five Year Plans consisting of government set projected goals and quotas for economic growth. The first Five Year Plan (1928-1933), in particular, was as much political rhetoric as economic planning, which hampered efforts to meet its goals of economic progression. A consistent flaw in the implementation of the polices was the disregard for adequately encompassing human and material resources resulting in constant confusion and work stoppages. Stalin’s policies exercised harsh penalties, even executions, for the failure to meet their quotas, thus providing strong incentive to fabricate figures. The result of Stalin’s Five Year Plans was whole new cities and infrastructure that never existed, drastic increase in oil,…

    • 1112 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Stalin

    • 596 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Under Stalin's rule, the concept of "socialism in one country" became a central tenet of Soviet society. He replaced the New Economic Policy introduced by Lenin in the early 1920s with a highly centralised command economy, launching a period of industrialization and collectivization that resulted in the rapid transformation of the USSR from an agrarian society into an industrial power.[2] However, the economic changes coincided with the imprisonment of millions of people in correctional labour camps.[3] The initial upheaval in agriculture disrupted food production and contributed to the catastrophic Soviet famine of 1932–1933, known as the Holodomor in Ukraine. Altogether Stalin's economic and political policies resulted in the deaths of up to 10 million peasants during 1926-1934. Between 1934 and 1939 he organized and led a massive purge (known as "Great Purge") of the party, government, armed forces and intelligentsia, in which millions of so-called "enemies of the Soviet people" were imprisoned, exiled or executed, in a period that lasted from 1936 to 1939, Stalin instituted a campaign against alleged enemies within his regime Major figures in the Communist Party, such as the old Bolsheviks, Leon Trotsky, and most of the Red Army generals, were killed after being convicted of plotting to overthrow the government and Stalin.[4]…

    • 596 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics