Collectivisation

CollectivisationCollectivisation

In the late 1920s, Russia suffered a food crisis. To feed starving workers, Stalin ordered the seizure of grain from the farmers. But, just as happened under War Communism, the peasants hid food or produced less. In 1929 Stalin announced the collectivisation of farms.

The most common was the Kolkhoz in which land was joined together and the former owners worked together and shared everything. Stalin persuaded peasants to join by attacking the Kulaks, peasants that had grown as a result of the NEP.

Collectivisation had limited success and a terrible human cost, between 10 to 15 million people died as a result. Between 1931 and 1932, there was a famine in Russia as not enough food was being produced. By 1939, Russia was producing the same amount of food as it had in 1928. Collectivisation was clearly a disaster and the problem was even worse as its population had increased by 20 million - all of whom needed feeding.

Stalin’s Economy: Revolution From Above

• Late 20’s Stalin imposes crash program of economic reform– One goal: Modernize the Economy

– Two Methods:• Collectivization and Industrialization

– Leads to 2nd Revolution from above• Right Communist views like Bukharin now discarded

• Can’t let the economy develop at its own pace

• Political advantage for Stalin as well, the hard line approach cements his control of the Party

• Not all political, he does believe the USSR must modernize to survive

• To oppose the plan now is to oppose national survival


• Why end the NEP

– NEP recovery from War Communism had stalled by 1926

– Lenin had always said NEP is temporary

– United opposition was eliminated by 1926

– Scissors crisis 1927-28

• Revives forced requisitions

– Method to eliminate Kulaks

– Peasants always luke-warm to Communists


• Collectivization– Group 50 to 100 peasant holdings into one farm

– Believe large farms more efficient

– No more individual profit, all efforts are pooled and they are simply paid a wage

– Two types Collective Farms (owned by the group) and State Farms

• Little difference between the two, state controls everything

– Also pool equipment and machine tractor stations set up and tractors shared between farms

– Efficiency will free workers for industrial work in the cities


• Collectivization

– Step One = Eliminate Kulaks• Supposedly the Kulaks hold back voluntary collectivzation, Stalin

claims most peasant are eager to collectivize

• Kulak class is a fraud

• Kulaks accuse as Petty-bourgeoisie

• Does eliminate opponents, warn other peasants

• Problem is they kill or deport the most efficient farmers

• Creating the Kulak class does help split the Peasants as the loose definition can be used to eliminate any rivals (jealousy)

• peasants can settle old scores

• Squads seize land of better off peasants, beat them



– Step Two Overcome Peasant resistance • Peasants do resist with arson (30,000 incidents), slaughtering

animals, riots, hiding grain

• Women are prominent, attack collective granaries and stables demand food and animals back

• Lay down in front of trucks, tractors

• It is believed they are less likely to be arrested or tried

– Ultimately resistance fails– Use of OGPU (CHEKA)



– Use of OGPU (CHEKA)• 1.5 million deported, arrested, killed by 1930

– Brief Halt in 1930• Stalin blames chaos on over zealous officials• Resume 1931 but permit private plots and some livestock• Goes slower• Late 1930’s almost all is collectivized• (Historiography debate Traditional v. Revisionist Lynn Viola)

– Traditional is this pause is Stalins cynical attempt to get 1930 harvest delivered– Viola; Stalin lost control of local officials and needed to restore order

– National famine 1932-33= 4 - 6.5 mi. die


– National famine 1932-33= 4 - 6.5 mi. die • Peasants despair and stop producing

• Flee to towns in huge numbers

• Stalin wants them in towns but numbers are so huge they have to create internal passports to restrict movements

• Stalin denies a famine exists– Protects Stalin’s reputation but worse no corrective measures can be

taken to fix a problem that doesn’t “exist”

• Stalin is indifferent: 2 million peasants exiled as slave labor, .5 die of exposure or starve

• Is there any benefit to this program?


– USSR did have rural population crisis and this program eliminates it

• Wrong thing for right reason? Did Stalin succeed?

– YES!• Party gets control over peasants (New serfdom?)

• Grain procurements rise from 15% to 35% by 1933

• Able to feed industrial workforce after 1935

• Massive increase in urban workers 12 mi.

– No! : Grain production only rises from .5 tons per peasant to .57

• No incentive to work hard, have to buy grain by 1960’s

• Massive decline in livestock


– Stalin declares “war” on past industrial failures and claims he is preparing Russia for war v. Capitalism

– Focus is Steel, iron and oil, heavy industry

– Industrialization and 5 Year Plans

• 15th Party Congress sets Industrial targets and CC picks the highest in1928 (NEP Ends)

• Quotas not methods

• Propaganda “Build a better world”

• GOSPLAN runs it, OGPU ‘motivates” i.e. terrorizes workers

5 Year Plans

– 1st 5 Year Plan 1928-1932 (1-5YP)• Set of targets and quotas not a plan• Managers falsify production figures to meet quotas• Seeing initial good reports Stalin revises targets UP• Eventually produce 64 mi tons of coal, 21.4 mi. of oil, Iron 12.1 mi, Pig

Iron 6.2 mi.– This less that half the revised targets

• Propaganda targets young– Create a Soviet “man/woman”

– Sacrifices for the good of all

– Plan is defense v. capitalists

– Opposition = sabotage (miners tried for example for low production)

• Giganto-mania• Local levels try to meet goals but no central plan

5 Year Plans

• Propaganda targets young– Create a Soviet “man/woman”

– Sacrifices for the good of all

– Plan is defense v. capitalists

– Opposition = sabotage (miners tried for example for low production)

• Local levels try to meet goals but no central plan– It is a gigantic achievement despite failures to meet targets

– Living standards actually decline

5 Year Plans

• Any who resist are branded “wreckers”– Shakhty Show Trials brand resisters as saboteurs

– Skilled workers (so-called bourgeois experts) are targetted to intimidate the

– Focus is on quantity not quality (Gigantomania)• Big to Stalin equals success and progress

• Result is unskilled often damage machines or whole factories

• OGPU and Party blame all failures on saboteurs and terroize workeers

• Something as simple as misplacing a tool is sabotage

– Local managers have to come up with strategies to meet quotas with no real plan and are put on trial if they fail

5 Year Plans

– 2- 5YP 1933-37• 1934-35 successful because factories built under 1-5YP

• Goals more realistic and food rationing ends

• Still no coordination, lack raw materials, spare parts

• Hoarding to ensure meeting targets, no cooperation

• Fear of failure if officials share supplies

• Successes that do occur are still only in heavy industry

– 3- 5YP 1938-41• Purges under way, everyone afraid to point out errors, so faults create huge

failures (scapegoating follows)• Stakhanovites disrupt production• Labor discipline code• Conditions terrible, worker material interests ignored

5 Year Plans

– Successes 1927-40• GDP triples 1928-30, industrial output passes Britain, Germany,

France in1940• Coal up 500%. Steel 600%, Oil 200%, Electric 500%• 8000 new factories, 70,000 libraries, literacy rises from 51% to

81%, Tech. Colleges graduate 300,000 engineers

– Failures• Only heavy industry = giganto-mania (Belomar Canal)• Unbalanced economy, lousy quality, still can’t compete with

modern economies• Food shortages drain scarce capital, industry eventually

stagnates and tech. collapses

5 Year Plans

• Incentives; Higher pay for skills or exceeding quotas

• Propaganda: “Heroes of Socialist Labor”, Socialist Realism, KOMSOMOL

• Negatives: iron discipline, internal passports, Gulag, Show trials (wreckers), forced resettlement

• Money sources: seize more grain, high taxes, drive down living standards (56 mi. industrial workers)

• Historiography: Could Ind. Rev. occur w/o Stalin’s methods?

– NO: Wouldn’t have caught up, survived Hitler, Bukharin methods won’t work, did it w/o foreign investment

– Yes: NEP showed similar growth, too centralized, “storming” lowers productivity, Purges destroy, managers, engineers + starvation

5 Year Plans

• Historiography: Could Ind. Rev. occur w/o Stalin’s methods?

– Alec Nove: Stalin’s Economic program is foolish, misery for peasants, chaos, workers living standards in 1953 same as 1928, peasants are lower than 1913

– Robert Conquest; “Stalinism is one method of attaining industrialization just as cannibalism ia one way of attaining a high protein diet”.

– Leonard Shapiro: if the industrial growth rate under the Tsar’s had been maintained the output would have been the same as Stalin’s terror achieved by 1941

– Norman Stone: Without the Tsar’s industrial structures 5YP’s would not have reached growth rates they did

5 Year Plans

• Historiography: Could Ind. Rev. occur w/o Stalin’s methods?– Sheila Fitzpatrick: Gigantomania distorts economy that needs proper planning and

investment, but he was trying to bring stability

– Dmitri, Volkogonov: Stalin’s goal is removing all opposition by making economy a loyalty test, growth is only a secondary goal

– Peter Gattrell: Stalin harsh and destructive but he built economy that survived 4 brutal years of WWII, this system may have been the only way Russia could modernize

– David Hoffman disputes Gattrell arguing millions killed and Stalin only breeds hate, distrust and division

– Terry Martin: Stalin’s program is not advancement, he creates the same the Tsarist economy

– Robert Service: Stalins program pays off with a modern industrial state, however this was not the case for millions of his victims

Grain

1928 = 73.3 million tons

1934 = 67.6 million tons

Cattle

1929 = 70.5 million

1934 = 42.4 million

Pigs

1928 = 26 million

1934 = 22.6 million

Sheep and goats

1928 = 146.7 million

1934 = 51.9 million

The Five Year PlansThe Five Year Plans

Stalin believed that industry could only develop through state control. Under GOSPLAN, three Five Year Plans set targets between 1928-1941 to increase production.

Russian industry changed enormously. New towns such as Magnitogorsk grew up and large projects such as the Dnieper hydroelectric dam were developed. The USSR became a major industrial country.

The human cost was high. Forced labour killed millions, working conditions were poor and hours of work were long.

We are 50-100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make up this gap in ten years. Either we do it or they crush us.

Stalin 1931

The effects of Stalin’s rule on men and womenThe effects of Stalin’s rule on men and women

Millions of people suffered in Stalin’s purges – workers, peasants and members of the Communist Party itself.

There was brutality, persecution, executions and forced labour. Millions died of starvation and over-work. The shops were empty ; clothes were dull and badly made and household items difficult to find. Although the USSR was a Communist state, the dictatorship of Stalin was just as complete, and in some ways even more bloody, than that of Hitler.

But despite these appalling tragedies, there were some positive aspects to Stalin’s rule.

For example schools were built and social insurance schemes were introduced. Russia became a modern industrial country.

Documents

Collectivisation