Industrilization+and+Stalin's+five+year+plan

Industrialization and Joseph Stalin's Five Year Plan
 * The Early Stages: **

The economy was failing and civil war was tearing the country apart. Other than the lack of food to feed it's citizens, the USSR was also weak on the basis of business, industry, and manufactured goods compared to the country's rivals to their east. In attempt to bring the country up to a proud world power, Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Staling gained power and changed the infrastructure of the government of Russia that allowed them to become a huge force during World War II.

**Goals of the first five year plan: (October 1, 1928 – December 31, 1932)** Increase the industrial production by 250 percent and increase the increase the Agriculture Production by 130 percent. The main focus was on increasing the production of coal, iron, and power supplies.**[3]**

**Goals of the second five year plan: (1933-1937)** Build infrastructure for roads, and trains, also increasing the supply of water.

**Goals of the third five year plan: (1938-1941)** The third Five Year Plan was to continue to increase the production of consumable goods for the country’s citizens but the country’s involvement in World War II made it more for development for weaponry. **[4]**

**Implementation of the three Five Year Plans for Industrialization:**
 * Collectivization- Stalin decided that in order to modernize the industry faster he had to nationalize all businesses and factories. This was the idea of socialism by equalizing prices and providing a low standard of equality for all. **[1]**
 * Most workers right were revoked **[1]**
 * Workers could not look for other better, higher paying jobs **[1]**

Creation of the Gulag Slave Labor Camps-
 * They were created to the hold the alleged peasant farmers who were weakening the USSR economy. **[1]**
 * Mostly consisted of the Kulaks those were arrested for crimes against the government. **[1]**
 * Most were either killed or died of the harsh working conditions of the slave labor camps. **[1]**
 * The harsh and unfair working conditions lead to the heavy increase in most industries. **[1]**



Kolmya Goldmine- http://gulaghistory.org/nps/onlineexhibit/stalin/work.php

The Conditions in the slave labor was unbearable for millions of people forced into work for a communistic government. Every able bodied man, women, and child were put to work to build the vision of their tyrant leader. Those who opposed the new regime were instantly killed and that fear allowed the government to keep the people in check. The most rebellious were the Kulaks, who were a more wealthy farmers and resisted the seizure of their land and property. In wake of these rebellions, Joseph Stalin decreed the mass killing of anyone who apposed his rule.

“The result of the ensuing war-like operation of the government against its citizens was an estimated 10 million men, women, and children gunned down, and 10 to 11 million more transported to North European Russia, Siberia, and Central Asia, where a third went into concentration camps, a third into internal exile, and a third were executed or died in transit” **[1]**

**Positives of industrialization:**
 * National income reached unprecedented heights
 * “Russian manufacturing boomed during the great depression” ** [8] **
 * The Russian national income nearly quadrupled in the wake of two five year plans
 * "Russian national income rose from 24.4 to 96.3 billion rubles.”**[8]**
 * “coal output increased from 35.4 to 128 million tons”**[8]**
 * “Steel production increased from 4-17.7 million tons”**[8]**
 * “Electricity output increased 700%”**[8]**
 * “Machine tool production 20000%”**[8]**

“Photograph above: The shell-shop of the Putilov works, St Petersburg 1903” []

Negatives of Industrialization
 * Roughly 25,000,000 small peasant farms had been transformed to 57,000 collective farms **[5]**
 * 25 million peasants were forcibly relocated. They were made to trade their rural jobs, which they had known their entire lives, from harsh factory jobs

The above photograph depicts all the many people that may have worked on one collectivization farm.

**Animal Farm parallels**:
 * Animal farm || Historical events ||
 * // Building of the windmill **[9]**(pg 40) //

|| Just as the windmill was a monumental undertaking for the animals,so was industrialization for the workers of Russia. In both cases, they endured great hardships, but only the heads of the governments reaped any of the benefits. ||
 * // Attempted to build the windmill three times **[9]**(pg 50) // || This represents the implementation of the three different five year plans. Just as each time the windmill was destroyed the animals built it again in a slightly different way, each of the plans were slightly different from each other. ||
 * // Fear of the dogs by the working animals **[9]**(pg 41 ) // || The communist government used fear as well as a variety of other factors to keep industrialization on pace. The mass killings, deportations to concentration camps and labor camps, and starvation kept the people in line and working toward Stalin's great dream of industrialization.**[1]** ||
 * // Boxers loyalty, mentality **[9]**(pg 43) // || Stalin wanted to reward those who worked with the most dedication and desire. Ultimately, this inspired people to work harder because some wanted to please him and get the higher wages and bigger houses for themselves.**[1]** ||
 * // Snowball offered voluntary labor on Sundays, yet the animals had to work or their rations would be cut **[9]**(pg 42) // || After some time, Stalin gave the peasants a choice of working on the collective farms, however due to imposed fines and compulsory sales of property forced certain people back into the collective life. **[5]** ||
 * // “The harvest was a little less successful than in the previous year" **[9]**(pg 42) // || “While the first year of the plan was a success, the second was disappointing to the communists.” **[6]** Overall, their industrial production increased, but it was not the same quality. ||
 * // Slow pace of work on the farm during the building of the windmill. **[9]**(pg 43) // || The windmill represents factories and industrialized processed and freequently, the peasants resisted the notion of collective farms by working at an intentionally slow pace.**[5]** ||
 * // Placing the blame on snowball for the destruction of the windmill **[9]**(pg 49) // || Joseph Stalin blamed the leaders and the organizers of the slave labor camps because the goals of production were not met **[1]** ||
 * // Insufficient rations **[9]**(pg. 51) // || Due to the implementation of his five year plans, food become scare in Russia. “Stalin…trying to industrialize Russia has led to great hunger and suffering.” **[6]** ||
 * // Hens resisting and breaking their eggs**[9]**(pg. 53) // || The uprising of the hens represents the uprising of the peasant farmers against the industrialization imposed by the communistic government. Also the breaking of the eggs represents the killing off of the livestock because the farmers disagreed with what the government wanted them for. **[1]** ||
 * // Napolean's treatment of Boxer **[9]**(pg 83) // || Boxer represents the working class and what Napoleon did to him was a common practice during Stalin’s reign. One sign of faltering a man was out of a job. “ a workman is dismissed if he arrives a minute late…. and health insurance benefit is refused on the slightest pretext.” **[7]** ||

References

1. Atkins, W. A. (2004). Forced Labor: USSR. In N. Schlager (Ed.), //St. James Encyclopedia of Labor History Worldwide// (Vol. 1, pp. 325-329). Detroit: St. James Press. Retrieved February 7, 2012, from http://ic.galegroup.com:80/ic (n.a)

2. Five-Year Plan. (2006). In J. Merriman & J. Winter (Eds.), //Europe Since 1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of War and Reconstruction// (Vol. 2, pp. 1097-1101). Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons. Retrieved February 7, 2012, from http://ic.galegroup.com:80/ic

3. Lilleker, D. G. (2004). Five-Year Plan. In N. Schlager (Ed.), //St. James Encyclopedia of Labor History Worldwide// (Vol. 1, pp. 314-317). Detroit: St. James Press. Retrieved February 7, 2012, from [|http://ic.galegroup.com:80/ic]

4. //Five year plan //. (2012). Retrieved February 7, 2012, from BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/

5. Siegelbaum, Lewis. (2012). //1929: Collectivization. // Retrieved from: http://www.soviethistory.org.

6. Jones, Gareth. (1931, April 11). //Communist’s Five Year Plan //. Retrieved from: http://www.garethjones.org/soviet_articles/mixture_of_successes.htm.

7. Marxist Internet Article. (2007). //The Class Struggle In Soviet Russia.// Retrieved from: http://www.marxists.org/archive/hardcastle/russia_struggle.htm.

8. Mayer, Dr. E. (n.d). //Stalinism as a development policy. //Retrieved from: []

9. Orwell, George. (1946). //Animal farm.// New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company