Stalin

Good... but...

1. Brilliant speaker & writer but arrogant

2. One of the parties' best political thinkers but offended other senior party members

3. Hero of civil war & leader of Red Army & man who organised Bolshevik revolution + negotiated peace for Russia w/ Treaty of Best Litovsk

The bad bits

1. He failed to take opposition seriously

• Made little effort to build up support in the ranks of the party
• Failed to take opposition seriously 

2. Frightened many people in the USSR : believed in worldwide Communism 

• Many worried Trotsky would involve USSR in further conflicts 

1. Clever politician : planned his bid for power carefully

• Made great efforts to associate himself with Lenin
• Took on boring but important jobs ( E.g General Secretary) & used these positions to put his supporters in important positions

2. Ruthless in picking off his rivals one-by-one 

3. His policies received more favour than Trotsky's 

• 'Socialism in one country' rather than worldwide revolution

4. Seemed to be a straightforward Georgian peasant 

• 'Understood the feelings of the Russian people' 

1. To increase the USSR's military strength 

• WW1 showed Russia that it required industries to produce weapons & equipment needed to be able to fight a modern war

2. To rival the economies of other Capitalist countries

• Stalin wanted to make USSR self-sufficient 
• Wanted to improve standards of living in Russia so people would value Communist rule

3. To increase food supplies 

• Stalin wanted more workers in industries, towns & cities
• Also wanted to sell grains abroad to raise cash to buy industrial equipment > fewer peasants would have to produce food > farming would have to be reorganised 

4. To create a Communist society 

5. To establish his reputation: as an even greater leader than Lenin by bringing about even greater changes

• Focused on Major industries

• Most targets not meet up achievements still staggering 
  • USSR increased production & created a foundation on which to build the next Five-Year plans

• USSR was rich in natural resources but many of them were in remote places (E.g Siberia)
  • Whole cities were built from nothing
  • Workers taken out to new industrial centres 

• New huge steel mills were built

• New Dams & hydro-electric power fed industry's energy requirement

• Built on the achievements of the first
  • Heavy industry was still a priority 
  • Other areas also developed 

• Mining for lead, tin, zinc & other minerals intensified as Stalin further exploited Siberia's rich mineral resources

• Transport & communications were also boosted & new railways + canals were built
  • E.g Moscow underground railway

• Stalin also wanted industrialisation to help improve Russia's agriculture
  • Production of tractors & other farm machinery increased dramatically

• Some factories were to switch to the production of consumer goods 

• This plan was disrupted by the Second World War

• There was much criticism of the Five Year Plans 
  • There was a great deal of inefficiency, duplication of effort & waste

• evidence does show that the Soviets learnt from their mistakes in the 2nd & 3rd Five Year Plans

• There was enormous human cost

• However, by 1937, the USSR was a modern state 
  • It was this that saved it from defeat when Hitler invaded in 1941

• The Five Year Plans were used very effectively for propaganda purposes 
  • Stalin wanted the Soviet union to be a 'beacon' of Socialism
  • His publicity machine used the successes of industrialisation to further that objective

AIMS

• To feed the growing population of industrial workers
• To export any surpluses to raise each for investment in industry

How collectivisation worked

1. Peasants had to give up their land & join other family on large farms

2. New farms supplied by the state w seed, tools, tractors & other machinery 

3. Most of the produce went to the govt.

Opposition to collectivisation: Kulaks

They did not want to give up their land

• By 1941 almost all land in USSR collectivised 

• Huge propaganda campaign launched to persuade peasants to modernise 

• Kulaks murdered or put in labour camps

• Much of countryside devastated by struggled btwn. Stalin's agents or Kulaks

• Food production fell dramatically
  • Grain production: 73 million tons (1928)> 69 million tons (1933)

• Long term result: Peasants battled into submission