• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Russian Best

Russian Life & People Digest

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Questions and Answers
    • History and Politics
    • Culture and Science
    • People and Language
    • Lifestyle and Attributes
    • Russian Sports
    • Food and Drinks
    • Traveling Russia
    • Economy and Geography
    • Russian Military
    • Books & Movies
Browse: Home / Economy and Geography

How did Stalin affected Russia Economic movements?

Question by : How did Joseph Stalin affected Russia Economic movements in the first half of the 20th Century?
How did Joseph Stalin affected Russia Economic movements in the first half of the 20th Century?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Spellbound
You do mean the whole of the USSR, not just the Russian part of the country?

Stalin began the Five Year Plans, to rapidly industrialise the Soviet Union, as Stalin was concerned that the country’s backwardness would lay them open to invasion.

The first FYPs were an ideological response to the previous policy of NEP. NEP allowed small businesses to operate and was creating a middle class. The Communists were never happy with this policy as Marx stated that communism could only happen when the workers owned the means of production. The FYPs, as the state was a “workers state” saw the workers – i.e. the state own all the means of production. This changed the country from having private enterprise (albeit at a small level) as the main economic driving force, to having the state – and its planning arm – Gosplan as the main driving force.

Positives: Transformed the country – much of the country was electrified, huge civil engineering works and massive new factories brought change in the way that people worked. Agriculture was transformed from an inefficient peasant based and labour intensive activity to an inefficient, worker (collective farm workers received wages) based and more mechanised activity. It also solidified the gains of the revolution – the revolutionary elite can, after the first FYP really be called the political class. This means they can start to act like a political elite – not like an underground movement.

Negatives: The kulaks – richer peasants – were deported to Siberia and the Kazakh steppe. This ideological decision rooted out the most efficient, often the most educated and the most entrepreneurial farmers and destroyed them.
The civil engineering works were completed with little regard to quality – the Belomor canal, dug at huge cost in human life (prisoners, both criminal and political were used to dig it) but it was not deep enough for the ocean going ships it was designed for.

Stalin used the political turmoil following Lenin’s death and the to isolate, eliminate and to, on occasion, to execute his rivals. The political elite lived lives of fear – fear that a misplaced word or an ill-conceived look could lead to a knock on the door in the middle of the night.

See:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSfive.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/russia/stalinfiveyearplansrev1.shtml

Read all the answers in the comments.

Give your own answer to this question!

See other posts in Economy and Geography, History and Politics

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Popular Posts

Pushkin's Tatiana writing a letter to Onegin

Onegin’s Tatiana Was Only Thirteen?

Russian shashlik

My Favorite Russian Food

Dacha – Home Away From Home

Subway Dog

Subway Dogs of Moscow

Cape Cod on the Rocks

What is a cocktail with vodka and cranberry juice called?

Categories

Recent Comments

  • Pat on What does Nazdrovia actually mean?
  • Ted on Where can i send free SMS messages to Russian mobiles?
  • PutinPow on What does Nazdrovia actually mean?
  • bigdogg on What does Nazdrovia actually mean?
  • HAMISH A McDONALD on What Russia would be like today if Nicholas II had not been executed?

Copyright RussianBest.com © 2025 · About · Privacy Policy · Disclaimer: RussianBest.com is an informational website, and its content does not constitute professional advice of any kind.