How successful were Stalin's economic policies?

Stalin introduced the Five Year Plans and collectivisation as his economic policies to improve Russia's industrial backwardness. Collectivisation consisted of state controlled farms, as 90% of the produce would go to the state. The peasants would join their small individual plots to form communal farms, leading to larger amounts of food. The five year plans were aimed at industrial improvements in agriculture and factories. In purely economic terms, his policies were a success they provided a number of solutions to problems like the state's inability to afford to pay high prices for grain.

The Five Year Plans built vast factories in places like Stalingrad, Leningrad and other cities across Russia. These improved the production output a lot with coal production jumping from 35.4 million tonnes in the 1927-1928 years to 128 million tonnes in 1937. Hydro-electric dams, canals, railways and other infrastructural projects took place, aiming to modernise Russia. This also helped Russia catch up with countries like Britain, USA and and Germany. As Stalin had warned in February 1931 "We are 50-100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this lag in ten years. If we don't do it, they'll crush us!". Other than act as propaganda for the Communists by suggesting they could be crushed by foreigners it shows that Stalin's polices were a success in industry terms. Russian life had drastically changed from living in wood huts and medieval farming to electricity in city apartments and the creation of tractors all in the space of ten years. Most importantly, these changes provided the economic, political and social conditions that allowed the country to absorb the Nazi assault beginning in 1941, and eventually being able to push them all the way to back home to Berlin.

However, with all the wonderful successes came great human cost leading to a total death toll of 14.5 million across the industrialisation of the 5 year plans and collectivisation. Industrialisation was harsh - being late for work was an offence worthy of being arrested and many were arrested of sabotage or 'wrecking' e.g when a machine got broken by somebody. Political prisoners were often used on the large scale infrastructure projects, notably the White Sea Canal leading to 25,000 deaths.

Collectivisation was also a success. Collectivisation was the socialist way to farm the land, replacing the capitalist attitudes with socialist attitudes of co-operation and sharing. There three main aims of collectivisation which were; to create a rural working class - peasants were also paid wages (lower than the urban workers) and to also introduce more efficient ways of farming the land with tractors. The new ways of farming led to a surplus of grain which then could be sold off to other countries giving money to the state to invest in more factories. It also meant less people were needed to farm which meant the extra workers could go to the city to work. It was also designed to break the peasants as a political force, as they were seen a threat to Stalin's regime. Finally, like the Five Year Plans, the policy fulfilled its goals, providing a solution to the shortage of food in the cities.

However, like the Five Year Plans it had a great human cost. Collectivisation led to a number of famines, most notably the Holodomor - a Ukrainian famine that led to 2.5 million deaths. As the food was sent to the cities and not left in the countryside. Complaining about having land taken from them could lead to arrest, deportation or even death. It also caused conflict in the villages as children were encouraged to report on their parents, neighbours wanting to settle old scores on each other, and kulaks not sharing equipment. This process was called Dekulakisation set up by Stalin for him to blame the failings of his policies. He also encouraged hate for the Kulaks as they went against Communist ideology and that they should be abolished as a class.

In conclusion, Stalin's policies were very successful as they made Russia a modern and industrialised country that could keep up with the war and defend itself against Germany but most importantly it changed Russia for the good however great the human cost.