The Great Turn (1927-9)

?
  • Created by: NHow02
  • Created on: 23-03-19 12:45

Economic Factors

Causes:

- by 1927, the NEP was failing to produce the growth that leading communists expected

- grain crisis in winter of 1927-8 (purchased grain was 25% down on the previous years total)

- agriculture was primitive and led to the need for further Collectivisation (by 1927, 5 million wooden ploughs were still in use)

1st 5 Year Plan:

- aimed to boost overall production by 300% (therefore there was an increase in the need for food supplies via Collectivisation to support expansion of industrial workforce)

- Stalin aimed to make the USSR economically self-sufficient and less reliant on foreign imports (however, by 1932 46% of total Russian imports came from Germany)

1 of 3

Social Factors:

Causes:

- unemployment during the NEP increased to 1.6 million in 1929

- Collectivisation under Lenin was unproductive as less than 5% of peasants were working on collective farms by 1928

Collectivisation:

- in 1929, Stalin announced compulsory collectivisation enforced by the army (peasants burned their crops and barns, and killed their animals)

Kulaks:

- whole families/ villages of Kulaks were deported or sent to Gulag camps in punishment brigades (by the end of Collectivisation up to 10 million were in camps or deported)

- However, vilagers were still unwilling to identify Kulaks as many were friends and relatives who lent peasants animals to plough the land

2 of 3

Political Factors:

Causes:

- the NEP had compromised the communist ideology by introducing 'bourgeois' aspects such as private trade (most communist leaders wanted 'true socialism' + state control)

Aims:

- Stalin did not want to rely on the private grain of peasantry to finance industrialistion

- Stalin wanted to establish his credentials as an equal successor to Lenin (Rapid Industrialisation would lead to Socialism and establish his historic importance)

- aimed to catch up with Western Society in industry and military so that Russia would be better equipped for modern warfare (war score in late 1920's meant Stalin was sure of attack)

3 of 3

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar History resources:

See all History resources »See all Russia - 19th and 20th century resources »