1. The USSR 1928-1953

2. Stalinism – key themes Industrialisation through 5 Year Plans Collectivisation of Agriculture Extension of central control Use of Terror Cult of Personality

3. How much was inherited from Lenin? Use of Terror (Red Terror from 1918) Ambition to industrialise Ending of dissent within the Party Exploitation of the Peasantry Control of the Arts for propaganda

4. What changes did Stalin introduce? NEP abandoned after 1928 Collectivisation introduced + First 5 Year Plan Terror organised on far greater scale Opposition destroyed – many Old Bolsheviks were early victims

5. Romanoff Tsars vs ‘Red Tsars’ Both use centrally directed drive for industrial expansion Both exploited the peasantry Both used terror as means of control In both systems the leader was virtually worshipped Stalin referred to as “The Red Tsar”

6. Collectivisation (1) Plan was to replace 25 million peasant households with collective farms These would yield profits to finance industrial expansion More efficient farms would be created Countryside would be ‘socialised’

9. Collectivisation (2) Kulaks seen as the enemy Pressure to join collectives applied 1929- 30 Began to liquidate kulaks- by 1935 2.5 million arrested or deported By 1931 over 50% peasants collectivised

10. Consequences of collectivisation Peasants showed opposition by killing livestock & neglecting fields Peasants rioted & killed farm officials - in effect a civil war existed in the countryside Famine in 1933 was man-made – 4.2 million deaths in 1933, between 10 & 15 million throughout the 1930s

11. Success or failure? It “destroyed the structure of the traditional Russian village in almost all areas and bequeathed a demoralised rural population and a permanently unproductive agricultural system”(Hosking)

12. The Five Year Plans (1) “The history of old Russia consisted, among other things, in her continually being beaten for her backwardness … We are fifty or one hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in 10 years. Either we do it or they crush us.”

13. The Five Year Plans (2) Stalin established a command economy Targets were set for increased production Gosplan oversaw the Plans Industrialisation = Socialism

14. Targets set in advance – reward for success & punishment for failure Emphasis was on coal, iron, steel, electricity, engineering & oil

15. How did the people react? Some were inspired like A Stakhanov Others had to be coerced Workers were under strict control Dissidents sent to Gulags Forced labour used

16. How successful was the policy? Targets not met but had been too high Productivity did increase in some areas Living standards for workers appalling Russia remained mainly rural Difficult to measure industrial expansion against British or American economies