1. Fear and Forced Labour

2. Methods used
Stalin said that to be backward was to be defeated and enslaved, ‘but if you are powerful, people must beware of you’
Severe punishments for the most minor mistakes
Fear used to ensure highest production
Cheap and forced labour to complete the worst jobs
It did not matter if workers died, as long as the job as completed
Government exercised tight control over the labour force

3. Did the workers support the Five Year Plans ?
Working classes and young people were quite optimistic with the new plans. There were motivated by the revolution and were eager to build a better society.
They also believed they would better off with the new plans. Since their wages didn’t really increase during the N.E.P, and unemployment was relatively high during the late 1920’s.
To solve unemployment, Forced Labour was introduced by the government.

4. Effects on workers Life was harsh Harsh factory discipline
Severe punishments
Prison labour used for massive projects
Cheap labour
Worst jobs, worst conditions
High death toll

5. Labour shortages were solved by using forced labor
The Baltic-White Sea Canal was built by the prisoners of GULAGS (camp that housed criminals and political prisoners, the kulaks)
All criminals were then sent to labour camps to do cheap labour
Crimes such as theft, government jokes and absence from work without approval could send people to the labour camps
These labour camps had to be self-supporting

6. Lumber camps were set up to provide the country with timber
Timber was exported to help raise money for industrial investment
The number of forced labour camps increased when the Great Purge (a series of campaigns of political repression coordinated by Stalin)
More than 14 million people were sent to GULAGS to be forced to labour

7. In relation to the 5 Year Plans
Punishment was used for those who were not working hard enough
The fear of the labour camps was usually enough to get people working hard
All workers had to carry labour books which stated whether you had worked hard or not
Those that failed to reach the required targets were publicity criticized and humiliated
Absenteeism from work was punishable by being fined or having your ration book taken from you.

8. Was it successful? Anyone seen as a threat to Stalin were arrested
Fear forced people to work harder
An effect would be the human cost
Labour camps allowed cheap labour and ensured there were no shortages of workers anywhere
However, many of the structures were not well built (such as the White-Sea Baltic Sea Canal)

9. Conditions
Working and living conditions varied, depending on the time and place (WW2, famines, sudden increase in prisoners)
Tools and machinery used were short in supply, as civilians needed them
Guards were positioned in towers that were hidden from the prisoners
If any prisoner tried to escape, the guards were allowed to shoot them, as they were rewarded

11. “Gulag prisoners could work up to 14 hours per day
“Gulag prisoners could work up to 14 hours per day. Typical Gulag labour was exhausting physical work. Toiling sometimes in the most extreme climates, prisoners might spend their days felling trees with handsaws and axes or digging at frozen ground with primitive pickaxes. Others mined coal or copper by hand, often suffering painful and fatal lung diseases from inhalation of ore dust. Prisoners were barely fed enough to sustain such difficult labour.”

12. "Half a billion cubic feet of excavation work
"Half a billion cubic feet of excavation work ,000 tons of structural steel ... without sufficient labour, without necessary quantities of the most rudimentary materials. Brigades of young enthusiasts arrived in the summer of 1930 and did the groundwork of the railroad and dam ... Later groups of peasants came ... Many were completely unfamiliar with industrial tools and processes ...“ – J.Scott 1943