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To What Extent Was Stalin’s Collectivization Successful?

Decent Essays

Plan of investigation

This investigation seeks to evaluate the extend of the success of Stalin’s collectivization in Russia during 1928 and 1940.Collectivization was one of the most important economic policies introduced in Russia because it can be described and evaluated from different angles, economic growth on the one hand,and the social cost of the policy,on the other. The main body of this investigation outlines Stalin’s aims, when and how the policy was implemented and whether it was a successful policy or not. To achieve my aim, I am going to consult a series of sources and later analyse them by doing an overall evaluation. I will use primary and secondary sources. Two of the five sources used in this research, “Dr Kiselev’s …show more content…

Evaluation of sources

The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine was published in 1986 and was writen by Robert Conquest, a British historian and veteran of World War Two. Conquest became well-know as writer and researcher on the Soviet Union with the publication of his book “The Great Terror” in 1968. His stated purpose for this book was “ to register in the public consciousness of the West a knowledge of and feeling for major events, envolving millions of people and millions of deaths, which took place within living memory” . The value of this book is related to the date of publication. His viewpoint has the advantage of time and hindsight and should be more balanced. The limitations are that it may not be totally objective. It has been written in 1968 and is a compilation of other material, which means that a selection process has taken place, which may have omitted other details. It is not written by any single person, or there is no way of determing this. What’s more, his opinion on collectivization ca be influence by who he was. In 1937, Robert Conquest joined the Communist Party in Oxford. At the end of the Second World War, he witnessed the gradual rise of Soviet Communism in Bulgaria, becoming completely disillusioned with communist ideas in the process. After leaving the country in 1948, Conquest then joined the

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