History samenvatting H 8 + 22
Stalin and Russia 1938-1939
Russia in 1928: Joseph Stalin had complete control of Russia, and most Russians were peasants again. The farms were small and their methods old-fashioned.
Five-Year plans: Stalin wanted to modernise the Russian industry, and he reasoned that a modern industry also needs a lot of food to feed its workers. Therefore, Stalin wanted to change both agriculture and industry, and he wanted to do it fast.
Gosplan: a central planning office that designed the Five-Year plans and laid down production targets for each industry to meet by the end of the five years.
Five-Year plans industrial sector: not in all industries the targets were reached, but still the increase of production in the industrial sector was huge. The 1932 figures were an enormous advance on the 1928 figures.
Kulaks: some better-off peasants that did quite well under the NEP.
Collectivisation: as part of the first Five-Year plan for agriculture, Stalin put collectivisation into practice. This involved combining all the farms in a village into one large units. This way the fields were larger, so it was easier to use modern equipment like machines and artificial fertilizer.
Motor Tractor Stations: tractors from an MTS could go out to work in a group of collectives. Each MTS was lead by a committee of which the chairman was always a Communist Party member. The deputy director of every MTS was a member of OGPU (secret police).
Kolkhoz: The most common type of collective where villagers pooled their land, animals, tools and machines. They worked on the fields and were paid a share of the profits in return.
Disadvantages collectivisation: The collective farms were set up at a great speed, and collectivisation meant a great extension of state control and Communist Party control over the life of every Russian peasant. Each collective had to supply a certain amount (a quota) of its crop to the state regardless of the harvest, and because of this the peasants often didn’t have enough food for themselves.
Chaos, panic and disorder. I see my work is done here.
22 maart 2012 - 16:47
Ledecky
