In this lesson, we looked at the impact that Stalin had on the Soviet Union after he had taken over. We started out by considering his economic impact, which focused on his Five Year Plans.
3. What did Stalin do after he took control?
What was Stalin’s Soviet Union like?
4.
5. Lack of food
Lack of industry (i.e. backward farming country)
Isolated by the rest of the world because of its
Communist government
6. An extract from an official Soviet document in the
1920s
The revolution’s goal is to make men brothers. The
revolution wants to build big houses where the kitchen,
dining room, laundry and nursery would be built
according to the latest scientific methods and serve
all the residents of the house-commune, who would
live in comfortable, clean rooms with running water
and electricity.
7.
8. Five Year Plans
Nationwide policy to rapidly develop the USSR
Set ambitious targets
11. Collectivisation
Merger of small farms owned by individuals
INTO
A single large farm owned by the state (called a
kolkhoz)
Collectivised farms owned by the State
State provided machinery (e.g. tractors) for farming
State set high targets for crops produced
Working hours & wages were also fixed by the state
Harsh punishments were given out to those who were
absent or could not meet targets
12. Impact?
Wealthy farmers (called kulaks) strongly opposed
collectivisation
Many of them preferred to burn their crops and kill
their animals rather than hand them over
Grain harvest fell significantly Great Famine
(1932-3) where millions of peasants died
however…
Increased manpower for industrialisation as
peasants moved to the cities
14. Rapid industrialisation
Create factories and jobs in the cities
Wanted to mechanise farming
Production of farming equipment like tractors
Hoped that fewer people would be needed to farm
More people would be available to work in factories
15. Rapid industrialisation
Hundreds of new factories built
Increase in workforce
Emphasised the development of factories that produced
Coal
Iron
Steel
Electricity