Alex Gosek 17 September 2019

Stalin

Stalin’s Five Year Plan

Stalin’s five year plan was instituted in order to dramatically improve the Soviet

economy through an intense overhaul of industry and collectivization of agriculture. In the years

leading up to Stalin’s first Soviet five-year plan, the Soviet Union had been facing numerous

threats. Strained relations with western powers like Great Britain were worsening, creating the

fear of a potential invasion. There was also a gradual downturn in the Soviet economy that began

after the start Bolshevik rule that threatened to weaken the Soviet Union to a point of collapse in

the future. Stalin, much like Lenin, acknowledged industrial growth as the best way to catapult

Russia into the technological future. The second major goal of the first five-year plan, where he

differed from Lenin’s New Economic Plan, was the collectivization of agriculture. The

previously privately owned farms were replaced with farms owned by the state and the

machinery introduced through Soviet industrial progress meant that more people could live in

cities rather than work in the fields. These newly established state farms had quotas set by

officials that meant that the workers had to produce enough food to satisfy the state before they

could get food themselves. Stalin’s five-year plan was a success in terms of advancing the Soviet

Union’s overall technological development, but it also fully transitioned into a communistst

state.

Stalin’s five year plan intended to change the established Soviet state by changing what

previous governments instituted. Following the overthrow of the Russian Provisional

government by the Bolsheviks, Lenin established the New Economic Policy. The New Economic

Policy primarily focused on how agricultural was handled in the Soviet Union. When Lenin rose
to a leadership position, he understood that economic conditions were dire. This lead him to

opening markets to more free trade. Farmers were given the opportunity to sell portions of their

crops to the government in exchange for monetary compensation. This in turn stimulated

economic growth. Factories raised prices and the cost of consumer goods also increased. The

increase in consumer pricing meant peasant farmers had to yield more crops in order to afford

these consumer goods, which increased supply. Industries, banks, and financial institutions were

still owned and run by the state. He justified the incorporation of capitalism insisting that it was a

different type of capitalism, one that was intended to further the power and unity of the Soviet

Union: “In accomplishing these tasks, the trade unions are to act not as a self-contained and

organizationally isolated force, but as a component part of the basic machinery of the Soviet state

under the leadership of the Communist Party” (Vladimir Lenin, The Role of the Trade Unions

under the Proletarian Dictatorship). Under Lenin, the agricultural sector became partially reliant

on privately owned farms. Lenin considered the agricultural decisions made under his New

Economic Policy as a deviation from socialism for the sake of economic stability. Stalin, though

initially receptive of Lenin’s shift toward an economy with more free-market elements, he later

changed his opinions to suit the strictly socialist economic viewpoint. Following Lenin’s death,

Stalin switched his opinion on how the economy would function and began to institute his 5 year

plan.

The outlook on agriculture differs wildly between Lenin’s New Economic Policy and

Stalin’s five-year plan. Lenin inclusion of free-market ideas was intended to stimulate a rapidly

decreasing economy, while Stalin wanted to control the farms under the rule of the state. His

plan of centralized agriculture ruined the wealthy peasants who once earned their money from

farm ownership and management. This meant that the farm workers were poor slaves who, rather
than produce their own food, would have to satisfy state-established quotas and give up a

majority of their yeild, “which, to tell the truth, was done at the right time: in the winter, that is,

and not in the fall, - it was discovered that the peasants, even those who had sheep, could not

furnish their quotas” (P. Siropotinin, Our Rural Reporter). Though Stalin often reported this new

system of collective farming as a success, it was overall under-planned and lacking in realistic

goals. This lack of solid foundation resulted in famines, namely one in Kazakhstan. Kazak

farmers did not agree with Stalin’s efforts to collectivize farming and protested. Stalin proceeded

to raise quotas as a means of forcing the peasants to work or else they themselves will be starved

because of them not fulfilling their duty. Not giving up grain were considered breaking Soviet

law, which caused Soviet representation to try them as criminals. Death rates from this event are

estimated to be between 6 - 7 million. Lenin had to adjust his agricultural policies in order to

save the dying economy, but Stalin wanted to focus on making it run through the State––in line

with the ideas of socialism. Stalin’s failures in the agriculture of the Soviet Union was offset by

his success in overhauling its industry. While Lenin’s goal through the New Economic Policy

was to repair a broken economy, Stalin wanted to launch his Soviet Union into the modern

world. Many of the new industrial complexes were based on and partially constructed with

assistance from western capitalist industry. The industry Stalin created was much more

successful than his efforts in agriculture.

Stalin’s five year plan, unlike the plans of regimes that came before him, was focused on

modernizing the Soviet Union, rather than keeping it from potential collapse. Stalin’s brutal rule

and demands meant that the Soviet population was brought up to a different standard of work––

one not brought about by personal gain but by work for the state. The evidence of how successful

Stalin’s five year plan can be found in the rapid increase in Russia’s industry, and even though it
came at a cost to the Soviet population, it still impacted the Soviet Union’s development in a far

different way to the other past Russian governments.