Negative Effects Of Stalin On Russia

Life in Russia was hard, but with Stalin in control it got a lot harder for the people. Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the Soviet Union in Russia from 1920-1953 until he died. Stalin was known for his views of industrialization and wanting a socialist economy. He had a goal of making the Soviet Union one of the most powerful industrial countries ( 5 year plan notes). To get to his goal he made a 5 year plan that resulted in many positives and negatives. A few of the positives that came out of his plan were, in 1928 and 1939, the large factories and industrial complexes rising up against the Soviet Union, new railroads were built and put in and oil, coal, and steel production expanded (5 year plan results notes). A few of negatives that came
A lot of the people's main sources that they use in their everyday life such as transportation and water were all severely limited. One of the reasons all the necessary services were demanded so much was the sudden growth of the population(Everyday Stalinism #9 and 10). In a district center outside of Moscow called Liubertsy, there was not even one bathroom for there 65,ooo population(Everyday Stalinism #10). This was only 1 of many places that had limited amounts of bathhouses for its thousands of people that live there. Another city that got affected badly was Dnepropetrovsk a industrial city in the Ukraine. Dnepropetrovsk was located in a very agricultural land and by 1933 they had no sewage system with a population of close to 400,000 people living there(Everyday Stalinism #10). Just like a lot of the other cities they lacked important things like public transportation, lights, and running
In many Russian cities people would wait in line for a loaf of bread for them and their families. The lack of bread for so many people was due to the harvest failure in the winter and spring(The Great Famine 5th paragraph). People would sit in a line in front of bread shops from 2am below freezing weather until they finally got some bread to help their families (A letter a woman wrote to her husband In Everyday Stalinism #2). People waiting in line in the terrible weather conditions died from standing outside freezing to death. Peasants and others seeking food to help their hunger would walk hundreds of kilometers due to their village or the nearby villages running out of grain. Bread wasn't the only highly wanted product to have a short supply of. Meat, milk, butter, vegetables, salt, soap, fish, and matches were also highly requested things the people wanted but could most likely not be able to find. So many Russian people forgot what it was like to want something and you can't just get up and go get it (Everyday Stalinism, Hard Times