How the Soviet People Were Better off in 1941 Rather Than in 1928

How the Soviet People Were Better off in 1941 Rather Than in 1928

The Soviet Union suffered a huge amount of Russian lives through

1928-1941. However this great cost was to be outweighed to how

superior the Russian state was from 1941 and onwards, having a huge

amount of stable resources and in addition having enough food to feed

its people and to export grain. I firmly believe that Russia as a

country came out of 1941 as a superpower and it was much better off

than in 1928; however this had caused millions of Russian lives.

In the Soviet Union many people were in a better position than they

had been in 1928. However entire classes had been made extinct and

many individuals were worse off under the new communist regime than

they had been in the late 19th century, early twentieth.

In the 1920's the Soviet Union had just come out of a bloody civil war

so therefore the NEP (National Economic Policy) had been instated. The

peasants had their own bits of land and could sell the excess grain

that was left from what the government required. This way of life had

created a new class of rich pheasants called the Kulaks who had large

pieces of land and had poor pheasants working for them. The way the

countries agriculture was running the peasants were not producing

enough food so therefore there was a case of famine in the towns. The

new NEP system was seen by extreme Marxists as a capitalist idea and

not a communist thought, causing much distress within the extreme left

groups. However the amount of food being produced was higher than it

had been during the civil war.

The Soviet Union's industry in 1928 had been higher than it was during

...

... middle of paper ...

...ry forces were

benefiting from her industrial growth.

However millions had died in famine after the failed experiment of

collectivisation. Russia's agriculture was at the same level in 1939

as in 1928 with a 40 million increased population, (the amount of food

being produced in 1928 was not a great deal, so therefore with a 40

million population increase there would be future problems). Many

groups/classes had been persecuted or wiped out completely because

they did not 'fit in' with the communist way of life.

Also 25 million Russian lives had been sacrificed in the Second World

War but Russia as a state had survived the invasion, while her people

were left for dead. So thus, a minority of Russian civilians benefited

significantly during the 13 years while most of the Russian lives

stayed the same if not worse.