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Stalins Forced famine
Stalins Forced famine
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During the 1920s, the Soviet Union was facing many economic problems. In attempt to fix them, Stalin proposed the idea of collectivization. This policy required individual farms to become united into large collective units.
By doing this, he believed that the food production and the use of modern technology would increase and that industrialization could be achieved. In addition, he wanted to created a more socialist nation, especially in the rural areas, and have complete control of the peasants. Stalin also wanted to get rid of his political rivalries and prove to the world that communism is a success. However, this policy didn’t achieve most of his goals, which is why it was not completely successful. In fact, many people would consider
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This called for meetings in villages that asked for peasants to locate the kulaks, which was difficult, due to the fact that the term did not have a clear definition. The people, who were considered to be kulaks, were forced to confiscate all of their extra grain and meet their quotas. However, if they fail to do so, they were punished severely. Due to this, riots and unrest were created throughout the nation. Crops were destroyed, and livestock was either eaten or killed. As a result, government officials were sent to arrest millions of people, who were executed, placed in labor camps, or deported out of the country. This caused the productivity of the work force to declined, which lead to famine and …show more content…
By promoting fear, the number of collective farms increased, which helped him achieve his goal. Also, the food taken from the Ukrainians were given to foreign trade, which allowed Stalin to buy machinery used to increase production. This helped modernize farming methods and equipment, which made it more efficient. In addition, many of the people in Ukraine were forcibly removed from their homes and placed into factories. This increased industrialization in the Soviet Union. Due to this, the Ukraine genocide was considered to be a success for
The first five-year plan, approved in 1929, proposed that state and collective farms provide 15 percent of agriculture output. The predominance of private farming seemed assured, as many farmers resisted collectivization. By late 1929, Stalin moved abruptly to break peasant resistance and secure the resources required for industrialization. He saw that voluntary collectivism had failed, and many “Soviet economists doubted that the first plan could even be implimented.”1 Stalin may have viewed collectivization as a means to win support from younger party leaders, rather than from the peasants and Lenin’s men. “Privately he advocated, industrializing the country with the help of internal accumulation” 2 Once the peasantry had been split, Stalin believed that the rural proletarians would embrace collectivization . Before this idea had a chance to work, a grain shortage induced the Politburo to support Stalin’s sudden decision for immediate, massive collectivization.
Some countries were well behind others in industrialization, such as Russia. Rapid industrialization was necessary in Russia, and Joseph Stalin tried to change their circumstances, he introduced two five-year plans, which increased Russia’s industrial production, their heavy industry improved, the output of iron, steel, electricity, oil, and coal rapidly increased, opportunities were given to women and they could start working as doctors and scientists etc. Although Stalin did industrialize Russia, he did it forcefully and through terror. Millions of people died from famine, others were sent to camps, which were horrific, he took away the lands and farms that were given to the peasants by Lenin. Anyone who did not 100% support Stalin was considered an enemy, and anyone who was a potential enemy, such as Trotsky, was exiled. Trotsky was a member of the central committee just like Stalin, he was another candidate for Lenin’s replacement, and he was well suited for that position, but Stalin rose to power quicker and gained power by
The 5 year plan that was imposed on the USSR from 1928 until 1932 was implemented in order to achieve the rapid industrialization of Russia. Collectivisation was part of the five year plan and the aim was that it should modernize agriculture so that more peasants could instead work within industry. However, the collectivisation proved to be a failure since passive resistance broke out, the goals of grain production were not met and decreased, and modernization of farming proved unattainable. The statement that “The price was awful” therefore does apply to an extent, however it is important to consider perspectives as shown by different sources.
Stalin made a great impact on the people and population distribution of Europe and Russia today. Stalin forced many people out of their home countries, some things were appealing, and some things people had to just deal with. Once they moved to their new land, there were many things that came as a challenge to the immigrants such as their struggle trying to recover from the discrimination and hardships of the forced migrations. In the end millions of people would be affected by the many migrations that Stalin created in order to create a pure Russian culture.
While discontent increased during the 1900s three major philosophies were established. The three major philosophies that were established were socialism, communism, and fascism. Socialism was never officially promoted, but the Bolsheviks, the elite group when Lenin was in power in Russia, thought socialism could be achieved by moderate reforms such as higher wages, increased suffrage, and social welfare. Communism was promoted by Lenin, his successor, and Stalin. Lenin developed the New Economic Policy, or NEP. Lenin just saw the New Economic Policy as a temporary retreat from communism. His successor put the Soviet Union back on the road to “pure” communism. Stalin developed Five-Year Plans while the Soviet Union developed a command economy, where the government made all basic economic decisions. A command economy is communist. Fascism was promoted by Mussolini and Hitler. In 1919 Mussolini organized discontent Italians into the Fascist Party. Mussolini quickly gained power, by 1925 he had taken the title II Duce, “The Leader.” Mussolini preserved capitalism and created his “corporate state,” where representatives of business, labor, government, and the Fascist party controlled industry, agriculture, and trade. Hitler made Germany become Europe’s second fascist state. Mussolini and Hitler were allies. Stalin relied on Lenin to further implement communism and the Soviet Union because they both shared the same goal, to generate worldwide revolution that Marx had predicted and Hitler relied on Mussolini to further implement fascism by copying Mussolini’s idea of preserving capitalism.
Stalin continued even once he was successful in accomplishing those goals, as he did not stop hurting people, but if anything it gave him more power to hurt people even more. But, at the end of the day, although Lenin ruled for only a very short time, he did raise the standard of living, though there maintained a large amount of hardship. Stalin, however, transformed the USSR from a peasantry to an industrialized nation in less than a decade, he did it on the backs of his millions of victims, who died because of his harsh policies and many purges. Lenin made a series of policies throughout the beginning of the Revolution and through his short time in public office that came to be collectively known as ‘Leninism’. There were many things that influenced Leninism, such as Karl Marx.
In the beginning Josef Stalin was a worshiper of his beloved Vladimir Lenin. He followed his every move and did as he said to help establish and lead the Bolshevik party. Much of the early part of his political career was lost due to his exile to Siberia for most of World War I. It wasn’t until 1928, when he assumed complete control of the country were he made most of his success. After Lenin’s death in January 1924, Stalin promoted his own cult followings along with the cult followings of the deceased leader. He took over the majority of the Socialists now, and immediately began to change agriculture and industry. He believed that the Soviet Union was one hundred years behind the West and had to catch up as quickly as possible. First though he had to seal up complete alliance to himself and his cause.
Stalin’s hunger for power and paranoia impacted the Soviet society severely, having devastating effects on the Communist Party, leaving it weak and shattering the framework of the party, the people of Russia, by stunting the growth of technology and progress through the purges of many educated civilians, as well as affecting The Red Army, a powerful military depleted of it’s force. The impact of the purges, ‘show trials’ and the Terror on Soviet society were rigorously negative. By purging all his challengers and opponents, Stalin created a blanket of fear over the whole society, and therefore, was able to stay in power, creating an empire that he could find more dependable.
Stalin’s leadership of the Soviet Union can be best described as a period of terror and censorship. In other words, he was very strict, considering the fact that he created the totalitarian government. In order to create this type of government, Stalin used fear and propaganda. He took part in The Great Purge, which was a campaign of terror that was supposed to eliminate anyone who threatened Stalin’s power. He also relied on secret police, who would arrest and execute any traitors. The online blog, “The Reasons For the Failure of The Russian Revolution”, brings up information on how Stalin planned to rule as dictator of Russia. It has been noted, “This ‘reshaping’ had three main aspects: the elimination of all dissent; the liquidation of all forms of democracy and of working class organisation; the slashing of the living standards of the working class and the physical annihilation of millions of peasants” (Text 5). This quote explains how Stalin wanted to industrialize Russia, which includes the deaths of several peasants of Russia. The Russians did not just die from The Great Purge, but also from Stalin’s Five-Year Plan. The Five-Year Plan was an attempt to industrialize the Soviet Union. It was also a plan for increasing the output of steel, coal, oil, and electricity. He had control over economic resources, including farms and
boosted the USSR’s economy. Therefore Stalin had created a country which seemed corrupt at the time, but later on it improved by the hard work Stalin had forced upon them.
The Soviet economy was highly centralized with a “command economy” (p.1). fsmitha.com), which had been broken down due to its complexity and centrally controlled with corruption involved in it. A strong government needs a strong economy to maintain its power and influence, but in this case the economic planning of the Soviet Union was just not working, which had an influence in other communist nations in Eastern Europe as they declined to collapse. The economic stagnation led to the frustration of the workers because of low payments, bad working conditions, inefficiency, corruption and any lack of incentive to do good work. There were lots of frustrations among the workers in the working field who began to express their feelings and emotions towards the Soviet government.
In order for it to work, Russia had to become an industrial power at all costs. Stalin removed anyone he though could possibly turn against his plan and stay in the way. Over the next few years, he executed many of the old Bolsheviks who had led the revolutions as well as many military officers.
To better understand the Soviet industrialization, it is necessary for us to briefly look at the history that preceded it. When the Bolsheviks came to power, they inherited a country with economic conditions that were far from favorable. It was a country devastated by World War I as well as the civil war that followed it. For all intents and purposes, one can say that the economy of the country was in ruins, and drastic steps were necessary in order to feed the hungry population, and for the country to survive.
Through this program, he ruled the minority nations of the USSR such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan more strictly. This policy of expansion also helped Stalin seize a large portion of Poland, and it was done under the guise that it was to "enrich the nation." Stalin established a secret police force which was unyielding and went about it's business with an iron fist, bringing down dissenters, revolutionaries, and those that cheated in collectivization.
Lenin's Economic Policies in 1924 When the Bolsheviks seized power in October 1917 they inherited many of the problems faced by the old Tsarist regime as well as those of the Provisional Government after the Tsars abdication. Lenin, as leader of the Bolsheviks took many measures to try and solve these problems, each with varying degrees of success. This essay will, therefore, go on to look at and discuss the various measures that Lenin and the Bolshevik party took, and, whether these measures created more problems for Russia in the end or in fact made significant progress towards the communist society that Lenin had prophesised for Russia. In the early days of Bolshevik rule, there were many problems facing Lenin.