Industrialisation of the USSR under Stalin
Stalin stated“…those who fall behind get beaten. But we do not want to be beaten. No, we refuse to be beaten! One feature of the history of old Russia was the continual beatings she suffered because of her backwardness. She was beaten by the Mongol khans. She was beaten by the Turkish beys. She was beaten by the Swedish feudal lords. She was beaten by the Polish and Lithuanian gentry. She was beaten by the British and French capitalists. She was beaten by the Japanese barons. All beat her because of her backwardness, military backwardness, cultural backwardness, political backwardness, industrial backwardness…” (Internet Site 3). If Joseph Stalin had not introduced measures to rapidly industrialise Russia before Nazi Germany invaded in June 1941, Russia would have completely defeated and its army swiftly destroyed as it would not have had the military weaponry or hardware to fight back against the superior Wehrmacht. Historians argue that if Stalin, the brutal leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, had not of implemented serve industrial reforms to dramatically bring Russia from a mainly agrarian market to an industrial power, Nazi Germany would have inflicted a severe defeat on her in World War 2. Therefore, S
“We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or we shall be crushed” (Internet Site 3).When Stalin came to power, Russia was almost completely an agrarian economy or an economy totally driven by agriculture. Stalin realised this and became infatuated with transforming Russia into an industrial super power as he was certain the western nations in the next decade would attempt to destroy the Soviet Union. “Joseph Stalin, in 1928, launched the first Five-Year Plan; it was designed to industrialize the USSR in the shortest possible time... The plan, put into action ruthlessly, aimed at making the USSR self-sufficient” (Internet Site 5). Stalin modernised industry through a system called the Five Year Plans. Millions of Russians set to work to build new cities, dams, transport and communication facilities, railway lines including the Moscow underground, farm machinery and power stations to increase electricity. The first Five Year Plan ran from 1928-33, but was officially declared over in 1932. The second Five Year Plan ran from 1933-37 and the third Five Year Plan continued from 1938 but was interrupted by the invasion of Nazi Germany. “By 1939, Russia had passed Britain as an industrial nation and was bettered only by the USA and Germany” (Mills, 1986, p108). Industrial output was massive during the Five Year Plans such as coal, increasing from 35 million to 145 million tonnes, Oil, increasing from 12 million to 40 million tonnes and Pig Iron, Increasing from 6 million tonnes to 32 million tonnes (Mills, 1986. p109)(see Appendix A). Thus the Five Year Plans Stalin introduced to modernise Russia, created the industry possible to create mass amounts of armaments to engage in a war and fight against the invasion of the German forces. “In 1941, Hitler unleashed the might of the German
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Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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