Jake Cowley
L6 IB History
Assess the successes and failures of Stalin’s Economic Policy

After Stalin had become the sole leader of the Soviet Union in 1929, he saw the need to introduce two new major economic policies, collectivization, and a series of five year plans. Both of these new economic plans were designed to boost Russia’s agriculture and industrialization within a short period of time, to catch up with the world leading powers, which were essentially Britain and the United States at the time. Stalin strongly believed that it was necessary to go to any lengths, which would soon include killing off thousands of peasants, to reverse the backwards economy of the time, to eventually overtake that of other countries. As the economy of Russia at the time, was in quite a terrible state. He believed he could do this by heavily focusing on agriculture and industry, to prepare Russia for a new age. Stalin’s new economic policies would soon prove to be a mix of successes and failures for both the economy and the people of Russia, each to different extents. Stalin’s first economic policy of the 1930’s was collectivization. This was the joining of private plots which had been previously divided amongst the peasants by the Tsar, in order to increase the amount of output production altogether. Although this might have seemed like a good idea to Stalin at the time, this economic policy proved to have more failures than successes. The collectivization of grain meant that the state was now in charge of how much you produce, how much it can be sold for, and how much of it you are actually allowed to keep to feed yourself. Although the image of collectivization was meant to eventually help the peasant population of Russia, behind the curtains, collectivization actually had more of a negative impact, for almost everyone. 4.5 million Peasants died due to famine caused by an imbalance of grain distribution as well as a poor harvest especially in the 1932-1934 years. Because the state was taking most of the grain harvested for itself, there was hardly anything left for the peasants that farmed it. Peasants also received a lower procurement price for their harvest, and therefore had less money to buy food to feed their families with. Productivity came to a low, as many peasants, especially Kulaks, resisted to the collectivization. Some refused to give up their private land, and killed their livestock or hid their grain to keep for themselves. Additionally, and rather ironically, Russia still had to import grain from other countries, because not enough grain was being produced to be able to satisfy the needs of the population. In fact, between the years 1913-1937 grain production in Russia had only increased marginally. Yet the intent of collectivization and Stalin’s goal was to massively boost production. This can be regarded as a massive failure to Stalin’s original goals. However, collectivization can also be regarded as a success to some extent. The implementation of collectivization meant the party had greater control over the work and peasants in the country side and rural areas. The party was no more easily able to regulate what the peasants were farming, how much of it, and how much money they would receive for their harvest. The party now extended its reach to even the more remote places in Russia. Furthermore, the urban population in Russia’s cities had almost doubled from 1932-1934, as more and more peasants were moving from the countryside, in attempt to rid themselves of the collectivization plan. This allowed for a lot more jobs in the city, increasing the productivity on the industrial side of Stalin’s plans. On the other hand, this could also be regarded as a failure, because this meant that there would be less peasants in the rural areas, to farm grain and such. Measures would eventually be taken by the state to ensure that peasants don’t leave their duties in the collectivized farms to escape to the cities. Lastly, collectivization could also be regarded as a success because more and more produce, grain especially, was now in the hands of the state. While this may seem as a failure at first, this actually meant that Russia could increase its exports, and earn a lot more through trade. The second economic policy to be introduced by Stalin was a series of five year plans. These five year plans were designed to rapidly industrialize and collectivize Russia, to propel it into economic greatness. Following the first five year plan of mass collectivization, Stalin turned his attention to the second plan, mass industrialization. Stalin believed that mass industrialization was key to economic improvement and success. Starting from 1933 (the official start of the second plan) entire towns, factories, power plants and railways were built for the industrialization effort. Thousands were recovered from unemployment during this plan, and put to work in all of these new establishments, further increasing output and productivity, this also gave many a steady income to many workers. 8,000 new enterprises were also created during this plan. This allowed for thousands of jobs, as well as a mass of production of goods to export or use in country. It was no wonder the peasants from the countryside were moving into the cities in search of work. The USSR was now to become the 2nd largest industrial power, behind the United States, and would come to have the highest growth rate of any country. Industrialization was happening at a very fast rate in Russia during this five year plan. Some historians actually argue that Russia would not have survived the Second World War, without this scale of industrialization. However this five year plan also came with some failures. The massive loss of life continued throughout many of the five year plan periods. There was still famine in the country side due to collectivization. Many peasants across Russia were still starving. In addition, for those working in the factories, life was not too pleasant either. Work expectations were quite strict, and there was hardly any room for error. Workers would receive pay punishment or worse, would get fired for not being on time and punctual to work. Because most of the workers in establishments such as factories were from the country side, they were not exactly accustomed to working in a factory with high end machinery. There were often accidents which would slow down the production process, which would reduce productivity. This caused the production levels to not be as high as they could have been with properly trained workers. Workers that worked hard and that showed up on time, would be rewarded with higher pay, and would be known as “Stakhanovites”. Which, while drives workers to work harder, on the other hand defeats the purpose of communism all together. Stalin’s economic policies proved to have both successes and failures, as well as positive and negative effects on Russia. One thing was certain though, the economy of Russia was dramatically changed, for better or worse. Through mass industrialization and collectivization, Stalin was able to create more for Russia, but at the same time, took a lot from it. Millions starved as the iron fist of industry pursued through the Russian economy. Russia would come to need all it had built up under Stalin, as WWII would prove to challenge all that Stalin had built. Russia’s economy would continue to expand through these plans over the next few decades. Stalin’s economic plans would continue to be more or less followed up until the fall of the Soviet Union itself.