Mrs. Dedrickson
Honors English 9
21 March 2013
Stalin’s Five Year Plans Around 60 million people died in World War 2 (World War par.1). In the end, the Allied Powers won. What would have happened if America had lost? In August of 1939, Russia and Germany signed a nonaggression pact that kept Russia from entering the war on either side. It was not until June 22, 1941 that German forces invaded Russia. Russia almost fell to the Nazis and if such a thing had occurred the result of the war could have been very different. The Nazis quickly claimed crucial victories when they invaded Russia. It was the harsh winter that stopped the army right before they entered Moscow. In that time, the armies of Russian soldiers fought back and were able to protect the capital (Nor 5). Twenty years before Russia was a severely agrarian society. They farmed on outdated equipment and did not have sufficient factories to have ever supported the manufacturing of weapons and supplies for a whole army. In 1928, Joseph Stalin rose to the significant power of second only to Vladimir Lenin, who later died. When Lenin died Stalin eliminated his rivals and was the uncontested leader of Russia. When he rose to power, he saw that “…Russia was far behind the west and that she would have to modernize her economy very quickly if she was to survive” (Stalin par. 2). So, he created several effective and ruthless five year plans to industrialize Russia. Stalin’s five year plans industrialized Russia in 15 years although it took other countries 100; changed an agrarian society into an industrial one; and raised the economic stand of the country enough to protect it from the outside forces that threatened it. Stalin’s first of three five year plans was the collectivization of all private farms and lands. Those lands were then given to the government. It was the beginning of the Bolvestic kleptocracy in Russia. Anyone who expressively defied the collectivization was killed. In