Stalin

Stalin industrialism research 1. “Save as” this document in your own documents. Please type all the answers onto the sheet and then print it out for your notes at the end of the lesson.
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What was the Stakhanovite campaign? (recap)
The Stakhanovite movement began during the second 5-year plan in 1935 as a new stage of the socialist competition. The Stakhanovite movement was named after Aleksei Stakhanov, who had mined 102 tons of coal in less than 6 hours (14 times his quota). However, his record would soon be "broken" by his followers. On February 1, 1936, it was reported that Nikita Izotov had mined 607 tons of coal in a single shift. The Stakhanovite movement, supported and led by the CPSU, soon spread over other industries of the Soviet Union. The initiators of the movement were Alexander Busygin (automobile industry), Nikolai Smetanin (shoe industry), Yevdokiya and Maria Vinogradov (textile industry), I.I.Gudov (machine tool industry), V.S.Musinsky (timber industry), Pyotr Krivonos (railroad), Pasha Angelina (glorified as the first Soviet woman to operate a tractor), Konstantin Borin and Maria Demchenko (agriculture) and many others.
What was Magnitogorsk?
Magnitogorsk ( roughly translated as magnet-mountain city) is an industrial city in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located on the eastern side of the extreme southern extent of the Ural Mountains by the Ural River. The rapid development of Magnitogorsk stood at the forefront of Joseph Stalin's Five-Year Plans in the 1930s. It was a showpiece of Soviet achievement. Huge reserves of iron ore in the area made it a prime location to build a steel plant capable of challenging its Western rivals. However, a large proportion of the workforce, as ex-peasants, typically had few industrial skills and little industrial experience. To solve these issues, several hundred foreign specialists arrived to direct the work, including a team of architects headed by the German Ernst May. It was named for the Magnitnaya Mountain that was almost pure iron, a geological anomaly. It is the second largest city in Russia that does not serve as an administrative center of either a federal subject or an administrative division. The largest iron and steel works in the country, Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, is located here. 2. Go to http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/heroesvillains/g4/ read the front page and the background. Make a note of any key words and their definitions that you are unsure of below.
Collectivisation

To achieve the enormous feat of industrialisation, Stalin had to modernise agriculture. There had to be enough food, not only to feed the workers in towns, but also for export. Selling grain abroad would raise the money needed to invest in industry.

Stalin decided to take control of all farms and make them much larger and more productive. The farmers were not compensated. They were expected to work with other farmers and hand over most of their produce to the government. In return, they would be supplied with tools, tractors and taught how to produce more.

The policy of collectivisation was not popular with the peasants. Many refused to give up their land or to give the government the crops that they had grown. Instead, they preferred to slaughter their animals, burn their crops and destroy their farm machinery. Stalin ordered the army to liquidate them. Uncooperative peasants were forcibly evicted from their farms, sent to labour camps in the Urals and Siberia and worked to death. Millions starved to death or were killed.

Activate: Why did Stalin industrialise the USSR?

Choose what you think are the 3 most important reasons for the rapid industrialisation led by Stalin. Explain why you think each reason was important. Can you find evidence in the original sources (on the right hand side of the home page) to back up your argument?

You can choose from this list or you can think of your own reasons: * To become very strong in order to defend the USSR against capitalist countries * To make products to sell to other countries * To gain personal glory for Stalin * To give all Russians a higher standard of living * To make communism very popular in the USSR * To help the country recover from wars and revolutions * To control those in the USSR who were against Stalin * To make the USSR less reliant on imports of manufactured goods from other countries

Reason | Why it is important | 1.To control those in the USSR who were against Stalin | Because it would assert his leadership over the population so no one would attempt to take over the country. | 2.To help the country recover from wars and rebellions | The country’s economy was in disarray so they needed the industrialisation to help the economy survive so they would be a wealthy country and could become a world superpower | 3. To make communism very popular in the USSR | Stalin needed to make communism popular as otherwise there could be another revolution, and Stalin also wanted communism to spread to other countries. |

The five year plans Production targets | | 1935 | 1936 | % increase | Grain | 90 | million tons | 102.9 | million tons | 14% | Sheep & goats | 58 | million | 62.0 | million | 6% | Coal | 108 | million tons | 135 | million tons | 20% | Sugar beet | 15.7 | million tons | 25.4 | million tons | 62% | Cotton | 1.7 | million tons | 1.9 | million tons | 12% | Rubber | 25 | thousand tons | 42 | thousand tons | 68% | Automobiles | 96.7 | thousand | 161.5 | thousand | 67% | Railway freight | 390 | million tons | 457 | million tons | 17% | Petrol | 30 | million tons | 30 | million tons | 0% | Flax fibre | 550 | thousand tons | 780.0 | thousand tons | 42% | Horses | 16.3 | million | 17.1 | million | 4% | Cattle | 50 | million | 54.1 | million | 8% | Pigs | 23.3 | million | 31.3 | million | 34% | | | 1. What were the production targets for 1936? Add these to the table. | | 2. What are the percentages of increase between 1935 and 1936 targets? | (The first one is done for you, using this formula: ((1936 figure / 1935 figure) – 1) x 100 | | 3. Create a column graph to show the percentage increases using the excel chart wizard. | First select all the figures you want to show in your graph. | Click on the chart wizard button on the menu bar (it looks like a graph). | Then step by step create your graph. | | 3. What is the item with the lowest percentage increase? Why such a low target?The one with the lowest percentage increase was petrol which stayed the same, this could be because it was impossible to produce anymore. | | 5. What 3 items have the next lowest percentage increases? | Why do you think these have low targets?Horses, sheep & goat, cattle these have low targets because they may only have one offspring at a time which means it will take longer to increase the percentage. | | 6. What is the production target for automobiles in 1938? | Why might cars and trucks be important for Stalin’s economic plans?67% this could be because he recognised that they could be important in the future. | | 7. The target for sheep and goats in 1936 is 62 million. | What was the actual number of sheep and goats in 1928? (Clue: look in case study 3) | How can you explain the difference between the two figures? |

Demonstrate: Assess the results
Some of these statements are about successes, some are about failures and some are about the costs of collectivisation or industrialisation.

* The USSR could defend itself in World War 2. * Millions of kulaks died. * Many useful public works were built. * Peasants who became factory workers didn’t know how to use new equipment. * The countryside was 75% collectivised. * The USSR became the second most powerful nation in the world. * There was famine in 1932-33. * Millions of political prisoners went to labour camps. * The output of heavy industry rose. * There were very few consumer goods for people to buy. * Agricultural output initially decreased. * People worked under strict discipline. * 1. Identify which are costs, which are failures and which are successes. Sort the statements into the correct columns on the recording sheet below. (If working on a computer, use ‘cut’ and ‘paste’ to move statements from above into the table below.) 2. What sources from case study 3 give evidence to support your choice? Note these in the relevant column on the recording sheet. 3. Are there any more points that you can add to the ones we’ve listed? Add at least 3. 4. Which policy do you think was more successful: collectivisation or industrialisation? * Industrialisation | Collectivisation | Costs * Millions of kulaks died. * People worked under strict discipline. | Costs * There was famine in 1932-33. * Millions of political prisoners went to labour camps. * There were very few consumer goods for people to buy. | Successes * The USSR could defend itself in World War 2. * The USSR became the second most powerful nation in the world. * The output of heavy industry rose. | Successes * Many useful public works were built. * The countryside was 75% collectivised. | Failures * Peasants who became factory workers didn’t know how to use new equipment. | Failures * Agricultural output initially decreased. |

Well done