Collectivization: Collectivization means “The setting up of farms operated by groups of people who

Stalin’s policy priorities were not building a ‘worker’s paradise’ or a classless society, but protecting Russia from war and invasion. In 1928, Stalin launched the first of two ambitious five-year plans to modernize and industrialize the Soviet economy. These programs brought rapid progress – but also significant death and suffering. Stalin’s decision to nationalize agricultural production dispossessed millions of peasants, forcing them from their land to labor on gigantic state-run collective farms. Grain was sold abroad to finance Soviet industrial projects, leading to food shortages and disastrous famines in the mid-1930s. Soviet Russia was dragged into the 20th century, transforming from a backward agrarian empire into a modern industrial superpower – but this came at extraordinary human cost.

Once eliminating Trotsky, Stalin’s idea of, “socialism in our country,” inevitably meant that Russia needed strength. The productions in the USSR had almost reached pre-war levels by the mid-1920s, but the population of Russia had also increased by 20 million people. No matter, Stalin assured that maximum efforts and resources would be given to the expansion and strengthening of Russia herself rather than an effort to start a revolution elsewhere. This is explained in his famous 1931 speech, gaining power for himself. The people had nowhere else to turn to and needed a leader. Stalin was there and knew what to do to make the people interested in his ideas, thus acquired their trust and control. From these ideas, he created his first

Stalin wanted communism, power, and glory. He would do anything to get what he wanted. For people to obey and follow his rules he would do anything. Even killing people and their family. Stalin was a ruthless man with no remorse. He demanded respect and obedience from his people and anyone who turned against him were killed. No doubt about getting killed or sent to gulags if you wanted to disobey Stalin. If anyone wanted to rebel against Stalin’s orders then he would order his soldiers to kill them. No one got away with talking bad about Stalin or disobeying. Stalin would find out and would kill them. Soon the whole Soviet Union wanted to rebel against Stalin but he was too powerful to stop.

These effects however were more severe under Lenin and Stalin as they sought to increase grain production by coercion. While Lenin under War communism used grain requisitioning to forcefully collect peasant surpluses from them Stalin used collectivisation to force peasants to collaborate to produce as much food as possible. Similarly in both cases the peasants refused to conform; knowing that any surplus would be confiscated the peasant produced the barest minimum to feed themselves and their family and even less food was available for Russia. One of the greatest impacts were the famines that occurred in 1921 under Lenin where the grain harvest produced less than half the amount gathered in 1931 and Russia had international help from countries such as the USA. However these impacts were the greatest under Stalin. The amount of bread produced fell from 250.4 (kilograms per head) in 1928 to 214.6 in 1932. The impacts of collectivisation were at its worst in 1932-32 when occurred what many people describe as a self-made national famine. Stalin’s ‘’official silence’’ of the situation meant it wasn’t addressed and thus collectivisation killed between 10-15 million peasants and failed to increase agricultural output. Though a similar devastating famine occurred under

Collectivization was peasants being forced to give up their goods to the government. Collectivization started at the end of 1929 by Joseph Stalin. He began collectivization as part of the 5 year plan because he feared the invasion from the Allied countries in the west. He increased industrialization so he could earn more money just in case there was a war. This impacted the peasants of Ukraine because majority of the farmers had their own land it was their only way of income. They became slaves for the government which they now had no way to make money or eat which began famine.

Stalin was economically significant because he aimed to transform the USSR into a modern industrial nation. He needed to provide machinery to mechanise farming so that he could produce more food and increase production levels. He wanted to have a strong industry capable of defending itself if they were under threat. Stalin turned to rapid Industrialisation and Collectivisation in order to modernise the USSR in a significant

The difference between Lenin and Stalin was that Stalin wanted this all done in ten years so he was more drastic than Lenin. Peasants were not at all pleased because they liked how they were prospering before, so to retaliate they burned their crops and slaughtered their livestock as to sabotage what the central government was trying to do and how they were trying to get it done.18 The slaughter of livestock and burning of crops led to the famine of 1931-1932 that caused the death of five to seven million people.19 The Ukraine was especially hit hard by famine it was not unusual for families to starve and stay alive for as long as they could then they would just die.20 The famine caused so many deaths that trains were needed to collect corpses from peasant villages who had died from starvation .21 In extreme cases, although not too uncommon, families would turn to cannibalism to stay alive. Some families even murdered their children and would eat them in order to continue on living.22 In order to get the actual work done Stalin made changes in society. One change was the conditions of labor, now forced labor was the norm and it was always intensely disciplined.23 There were life and death incentives to having a job. If someone was fired from their job then they were

Similarly, agriculture illustrates Stalin’s furthering of Lenin’s initial policies. Lenin’s policy ‘the decree on land’ consisted redistribution which was the taking of land form the aristocracy and allowing the peasants to distribute it amongst themselves. However, it can be argued that this act was simply to gain popularity amongst the peasants. The Bolsheviks’ support base was mainly working class, Industry workers and countries peasantry made up most of it’s population therefore needed their support especially in 1917 where their authority was still under treat. During the civil war and under ‘War Communism’ the peasantry could no longer make a profit off their crops, the state took the crops to supply the army and Industry workers with food.

“Stalin’s revolution” is a term signifying the drastic increase in power experienced by the bureaucracy during the 1930’s. The First Five Year Plan incorporated policies which furthered mass production. The goal was to increase industrialization in order to reconstruct the Soviet Union into a utopian and powerful nation. The politburo, titled “nashi vozhdi”, was determined to create a nation which worked as a single, mass-producing machine. Everyone was under constant watch and expected to work in a “campaign style,”—“...In short, hectic bursts of concentrated attention to particular tasks, not through routine, incremental activity. This made life at the factory resemble life at the front…” (32). Efficient and vigourous production was key to reconstructing the Soviet Union into an industrialized and socialist state.

Stalin’s number one goal was to transform the Soviet Union into a powerful industrial state. Eventually, he put his first five-year plan into action. The plan included two main goals included: growth of very heavy industry and increased farm production through agriculture. In a launch of five-year plans, Stalin used the nation's resources to build steel mills, electric power stations, and other industries needed in a strong and wealthy modern state. He also made millions of poor people to give up their land and work on collective farms. Collective farms are large, government-run enterprises. Many poor people was against the change, and millions died in Stalin's rampage. To conquer his goals, Stalin used a new kind of approach, today called totalitarianism. Stalin eventually wanted a dictatorship that controlled every inch and aspect of the lives of his citizens. Individual rights count for nothing. Citizens had to obey Stalin’s demands without question, and critics were soon silenced. Stalin also supported extreme nationalism. Stalin used propaganda, censorship, and terror to get into the minds of the simple Soviet people. Government newspapers were amazed by work and Stalin himself. Secret police kept a close eye on citizens, and anyone who refused to bow down to Stalin’s regime and the state faced very severe punishment, even death. Both Lenin and Stalin supported the idea of the world being a communist revolution and even supported communists in other countries. In the 1920s, when some communist uprisings sparked in Europe, they were quickly put to an

To consolidate his power in the communist government, Stalin launched the five-year plans with a mission to increase the total industrial output by 250 percent and agricultural production by 150 percent. His government thought that economic development will help U.S.S.R to catch up with the West. As part of this economic program, he ordered the collectivization of agriculture. His order led to an economic disaster and shortage of basic necessities as "large numbers of peasants opposed to the change slaughtered their animals and burned the crops rather than turn them over to the state." This resulted in a severe decrease in agricultural output throughout the years. (A History of Western Society: The Five-Year Plans, p. 903) To strengthen his position and solidify his control in the Communist Party,

The soviet government forcefully confiscated land, livestock and grouped the farmers in what is known as collective farming by which everything is owned and run by the state. They also increased Ukraine’s grain production quotas to such an extent were it was not possible to reach. There were also arrest, deportations and execution of lower class peasant and their families. This event was suppressed

The Bolsheviks believed they had to industrialise to achieve national strength and maintain independence. This was a shared view of non-Bolshevik predecessors such as Count Sergei Witte a former Russian minister. The Soviet Union needed a modern industry, especially a heavy industry, as there was the idea that they had to defend the revolution. They believed the Russian revolution was in constant danger from capitalist countries, which were militarily and technically far stronger than them. Then there was the belief that the building of socialism or communism involved industrialisation, and that a proletarian dictatorship was insecure so long as it ruled in an overwhelmingly peasant environment . Industrialisation was introduced to eradicate the backwardness that had plagued the country for so long so they could rise and defeat capitalism. In his speech in 1931 Stalin stated ‘we are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or we shall go under’ and that ‘it is the jungle law of capitalism. You are backward, you are weak - therefore you are wrong; hence you can be beaten and enslaved. You are mighty - therefore you are right; hence we must be wary of you. This is why we must no longer lag behind’ . These show the need for the Soviet Union to advance and become stronger than capitalist countries. Industrialisation also allowed the Soviet

After World War I the economy in the USSR was failing, they were producing very little and were hit hard economically. Stalin developed many economic policies for three main reasons. The first was that he wanted to turn the USSR into a modern world power; he wanted it to be self-sufficient and to have a strong military. Secondly, he wanted to show the eminence of communism over capitalism by proving that a modernized USSR can overtake the capitalist countries. Lastly, he wanted to improve the livelihood of all the Soviet citizens. In order to do this, his main goal in order to do that, he made sure the agriculture section of the economy was productive. The first policy that Stalin created was collectivization. By 1928, the grain produced was insufficient to feed the people. Stalin addressed this issue and took action by joining small farms and making a collective group called Kolkhoz. This policy was unsuccessful. The one good side was that farmers received a wage from

Once in control, Stalin's first major achievements were the Five Year Plans for industry. Russia had not yet had their industrial revolution and were far behind the other powers of the world. The first Five Year Plan worked as far as industrial output was concerned, but it was at much cost to the people of Russia. Once the Five Year Plans started to roll, Stalin decided to make some agricultural changes to support the industrialization. In April, 1928, Stalin presented the draft of a new land law. Although the draft failed to become a law, it showed a couple of Stalin's objectives. One was the rapid and forcible collectivization of the peasants in order to industrialize the country quickly. The other was the liquidation of the kulaks as a class. Kulaks were seen as industrious or prosperous peasants who were not enthusiastic about the policies of the communist party.