Preview

What was the short term significance of stalin an the 5 year plans

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
494 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What was the short term significance of stalin an the 5 year plans
What was the short-term significance of the 5 year plans?
Joseph Stalin gained the effective leadership of Russia in 1929. Stalin's time, as leader of Russia, was to gain fame for three reasons; 1.The Five Year Plans 2.Collectivisation 3.The Purges. This essay will look at the short-term significance of Stalin’s 5 year plans. Stalin introduced the Five Year Plans as he realised that if Russia was to become a key player within the global market then the country needed to industrialise rapidly and increase its production. This brought all industry under state control and all industrial development was planned by the state. The state would decide what would be produced, how much would be produced and where it should be produced. An organisation called Gosplan was created to plan all this out. The first five year plan was from 1928 to 1932.The second five year plan was from 1933 to 1937 and the third five year plan was from 1938 to 1941 when the war interrupted it.
The five-year plans had a social impact. One example of this is the harsh living conditions. The demands which were placed on the workers, in Russia at the time, meant that millions of workers lived in harsh conditions, working on the vast projects on the interior of Russia. At the time the large emphasis on the heavy industries meant that the consumer goods were high in demand. Shops were empty, clothing was in short supply and many household items were not available. One example of the lack of consumer products is that of the fall in the standard of living due to the huge influx of people leaving the cities for the countryside. There were insufficient medical facilities, houses and schools. A second example is the propaganda that the industrial workers were encouraged to work hard by. The propaganda bombarded the workers in all directions and it played on the belief that if most workers did it then the rest would follow on as they did not want to be seen as different. A third example is that of the harsh

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • 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

    In the period before 1941, Stalin was able to institute his economical policies of Collectivization and the 5-year plans. ‘Backwards was to be defeated and enslaved’. Russia had to make up for 100 years of lost time for fear of being consumed by the western world. Stalin, sole leader of the Bolsheviks by the late 1920’s, believed that Russia could modernize their Agricultural and Industrial sectors through his policies.…

    • 1040 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Josephe Stalin DBQ

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Stalin launched his first Five-Year Plan in 1928 by setting up a command economy. The purpose of the Five-Year plan was to create a road map for Stalin’s great goals of industrialization and the development of the Soviet Unions (OI.) Specific goals were set in the areas of electricity, coal, oil, pig-iron, and steel (DOC 2.) The Five-Year plan resulted in strengthening the Soviet Unions economic position and turned it into a powerful industrial state. In an excerpt from The Land of the Soviets its stated, “The rate of industrial growth in the USSR considerably exceeded that of the capitalist countries.” (DOC 8.) This is proven in several charts showing the rapid growth in farming and industrialization (DOCS 2, 3, 4.) Stalin said, “To slow down would mean falling behind. And those who fall behind are beaten. But we do not want to be beaten! One feature of the old Russia was the continual beatings she suffered for falling behind, for her backwardness….” (DOC 1.) This momentum helped arouse Russian pride to motivate the people. Stalin’s method of motivation imposed the people to come together as one and get ahead in order to dodge falling behind or any kind of harm to their country (OI.)…

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Stalin Dbq

    • 887 Words
    • 4 Pages

    To modernize the economy, Stalin came up with Five-Year Plans, which were plans that would rapidly develop the economy over a five-year period by setting up high production goals for heavy industry. In 1928, Stalin gave a speech before launching the first Five-Year Plan. Stalin said that they were falling behind other nations. ”We lag behind the advanced countries by fifty to a hundred years” “And those who fall behind are beaten”, he told the people “you must end our backwardness”. In 10 years, he thought the technological gap between the Soviet Union and the more advanced nations would be filled. He used this speech as a method of motivating the Russian people into participating and supporting his Five-Year Plan. “Either we do it, or we shall…

    • 887 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The five-year plan Stalin became famous for was a stamp on Russia’s history in economics. Granted Stalin did yield some output from the plan, but nothing close to what he had originally intended. With outrageous quotas set for people to meet, and mass shortages occurring, Russia was plagued by incompetent and reckless Stalinist behavior, which he became so famous for. Khrushchev would end up in the same hole, making similar mistakes by trying to outpace America by adding two years to Stalin’s plan and making grain their central icon for output. Khrushchev would implement the virgin land scheme, a gamble with the northern part of Kazakhstan’s barren land for farm development. Because the agricultural development of Russia had never stabilized…

    • 192 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    PAPER

    • 265 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Stalin made several changes in the Soviet Union. He did this by modernizing the economy by setting up the Five-Year Plan. In document 1, Stalin's speech uses nationalistic pride to motivate the people. Stalin was trying to push the people so they can be an advanced country. He wanted to make up the difference between the advanced countries and Russia in 10 years. He said, "Either we do it or we will be crushed." Stalin's Five-Year Plans set high production goals for heavy industry and transportation.…

    • 265 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Joseph Stalin took over leadership after Lenin. His rise was of terror and brutality since he was right under Lenin when he took over. For twenty years he continued a dictatorial leadership.He was not interested in ideological debates since he wanted to establish his own power within the Soviet system. Stalin had Trotsky expelled and ousted Bukharin in order for this to occur. Because of his torture technique for people to confess their crimes, about 10 million Russians were arrested in the late 1930s. Stalin even sent an assassin to kill Trotsky in 1940. In 1928, Stalin implemented the Five-Year Plan to expand Russia into an industrial nation. In order to find money for this, Stalin forced the kulaks, or wealthy peasants to work on the farms. He had people executed, exiled, or sent to kulaks. Gulags were almost exclusively political prisoners. All of this brought the Soviet Union to a major industrial power in the end of the 1930s, while all other nations were in a devastating economic depression. Stalin created some positive reforms in Russia. He influenced a strong growth in industry and promoted Russian language, history and its culture. Propaganda and art were his means of support. Communism, under his control, was supposed to be a classless society but it was not. Stalin’s reign was for the most part under the Five Year Plan. In excess of five million people died in a short amount of time.…

    • 690 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Immediately after becoming the leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin began the Great Purge to clear all other threats who could get in the way of his political power. This was the beginning of a totalitarian regime in the Soviet Union. Stalin knew that the USSR needed to improve its economy in order to keep up with all of the other countries, so he put the Five Year Plan into place. This plan at great social cost produced rapid industrialization and claimed to have eliminated unemployment. Stalin’s new ideas were working for the nation as they started to see improvement.…

    • 1084 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Rather than focusing on their economy the Soviet Union focused on the new forms of communism that the leaders created and enforced. Instead of focusing on if they are following the policies of the government, they focused on if the society was loyal. This caused the state to undergo massive amounts of civil uprising and political instability. The five year plan enforced by Stalin also lead to the downfall of the Soviet Union, this plan caused the country to go through a massive amount of change and to industrialize rapidly. The rapid industrialization puts stress on the professionals that were producing their goods and held them to a higher standard, which became unattainable due to the time restrictions. This stress on the people and the policing caused the society to become…

    • 1767 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The U.S.S.R. Under Stalin

    • 1160 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Both sources share the view that the purpose of industrialization was for the making of a war economy, “to prepare for war against the capitalist enemies abroad.” However, for Source B, the view for the Five Year Plans is that, “Essentially the Plan was a huge propaganda project, aimed at convincing the Soviet people that they were engaged in a great industrial enterprise of their own making.” It was a propaganda project promoting industrialization for the purpose of war, but the Soviet people weren't aware of the “war” part, only the industrialization. In Source E, since it is a poster that is used for the purpose of propaganda, it instead puts the Five Year Plan in a better light, showing that the Five Year Plan will be successful in the future, that it will surely benefit the U.S.S.R. in the future, and that the U.S.S.R. will be prepared to defeat its enemies abroad (the capitalist enemies) in case of future wars.…

    • 1160 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Prior to Stalin’s emergence, during the turn of the 20th century, the Soviet economy consisted of few economic targets. However, the economy, under Stalin’s five year “Gosplan,” helped in propelling the economic capabilities of Russia. Combined with an…

    • 2815 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The five year plans improved the economic conditions of the Soviet Union. By having the five year plans industrialize the USSR, there are more opportunities to find employment. After the first five year plan (1928-1932), the national income of the Soviet Union increased 85% compared to the national income of 1928 (Stalin). During the duration of the first and second five year plan, the amount of workers in different industries increased significantly. For example, the number of Soviet workers employed in industry, construction, and transport increased from 4.6 million to 12.6 million (Lynn Hunt et al.). The amount of people working in hospitals also increased from 0.1 million to 1.5 million during this time (Spulber 161). The fourth five year…

    • 310 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Russian Revolution Animals

    • 1010 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The NEP (New Economic Policy) had been a nationalistic small change to how the people’s freedom of growing food. The policy had been put in place to be able to increase the economy productions, and as well as farmers having their own surplus of food. The government still watched many businesses but it allowed farmers to grow an extra amount of food to be able to sell and support themselves. It is had also let small businesses be in private ownership. Soon after though, Lenin was coming close to his death and soon to be in power would be Joseph Stalin or Leon Trotsky. Lenin had wanted Trotsky to be in power after he passed, but Stalin had been putting his allies in high positions of power behind Stalin’s back. Lenin before he passed had noted that he had a bad feeling about Stalin rising in power, and that to lean the government system to be more open to the people and democratic. Once Stalin had been in power, the NEP had ended, and soon the Five Years Plan had started. The Five-Year Plan set impossibly high quotas, or numerical goals, to increase the output of steel, coal, oil, and electricity. To reach these targets, the government limited production of consumer goods. As a result, people faced severe shortages of housing, food, clothing, and other necessary…

    • 1010 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Another historical event is Stalin’s five year plan. In the name of communism, Stalin seized assets, including farms and factories, and reorganized the economy. However, these efforts led to huge famine swept across the country. Despite this, the results were great. However, millions died, including those who opposed to Stalin’s policies were executed as well.…

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Stalin's 5 year plan's

    • 1293 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Labour camps (for those who made mistakes) Accidents and deaths (100,000 workers died building the Belomor Canal) 1ST Five Year Plan (October 1928 - December 1932) SUCCESSES Production of raw materials increased substantially. Estimated to have caused the Russian economy to grow around 14% a year.…

    • 1293 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics