Download Stalin Changes USSR

Stalin Transforms the USSR
Stalin & the Economy
• Lenin’s NEP was a mixture of capitalism and state control.
• Stalin pursued a Command Economy:
– An economic system where government makes ALL decisions
• 1928 Stalin started his first 5-year Economic Plan
– Outlined steps for rapid economic growth
– Industrial growth
– Agricultural growth
Industrial Revolution
• Drastic steps to increase growth & improve National Defense.
• Unrealistic Quotas
– Quotas = specific target number each factory had to produce
• Reduced production of consumer goods
– Military goods became the focus…
• Shortages emerged in housing, clothing, etc….
Agricultural Revolution
• Seized 25 million privately owned farms
• Established: Collective Farms
– Peasants resisted fiercely:
– Stalin responded with TERROR
Year
– 5-10 million peasants died!
No. of collective
farms in 1,000's
Sown area of collective farms, mill. h/ares
% of collective sown area
serviced by MTS
1929
57.0
4.2
-
1930
85.9
38.1
27.4
1931
211.1
79.0
37.1
1932
211.1
91.5
49.3
1033
224.6
93.6
58.7
1934
233.3
98.6
63.9
1935
245.4
104.5
72.4
1936
242.2
110.5
82.8
1937
243.7
116.0
91.2
1938
242.4
117.2
93.3
1939
241.1
114.9
94.0
1940
236.3
117.6
94.5
Primary Source
• Stalin on Industrialization (1928)
Weapons of Totalitarianism
• Police Terror
• Propaganda
• Religious Persecution
Police Terror
• Used tanks & armored cars to crush riots
• Monitored telephone lines, read mail and planted
informers….
• Arrested & executed “traitors” of the state
The Soviet system of forced labor camps was first established in 1919,
but it was not until the early 1930s that the camp population reached
significant numbers
The Gulag
Propaganda
• Promoted the ideas of communism
• Soviet newspaper and radio GLORIFY the achievements
of Communism
• censorship was common
Religious Persecution
• Attempted to replace Religion with Communist teachings
• Russian Orthodox Church main target of persecution
• Spread propaganda calling religion “superstitious”