Effects-collectivism&industrialisation-Soviet people 1930
'How did collectivism and industrialisation affect the lives of the people in the Soviet Union during the 1930's?' Stalin's approach 'socialism in one country', created a great need for developing the industrial and military might of the Soviet Union. However his plan to industrialise Russia could only be carried out if they were able to import machinery from the West. This capital would have to be paid for, so it was decided funding would be generated by the exportation of one saleable item the country possessed at the time, food. In order to collect enough capital to engage in his speedy industrialisation plan, Stalin brought in the three five years plans in which collectivisation occurred in the first. Collectivisation, caused by the need for rapid industrialisation put enormous pressures on the Soviet people, and had catastrophic effects for them. In 1928, famine threatened the people of the Soviet Union once again. The production of food was not keeping up with the population's demand and Stalin's industrialisation programme for the country could only be carried out if it were able to import machinery from the west, in effect squeezing investment capital out of the peasantry. Partly because of the weather and part
If production was low, the quotas still had to be met and the people were met with little or nothing, however if they were, the peasants could sell the surplus on the free market for whatever amount they could receive, or barter for it. These decisions had enormous effects on the Soviet people. To discourage the starving peasants from stealing their own grain, which was being stored for the towns or foreign export, the death penalty was extended to theft, and not surprisingly, for three decades after 1929, the Russian diet remained deficient in protein. As a result of the almost impossible state quotas each collective had to meet, malnutrition and starvation were prevalent, and many millions perished. Peasants received no wage, but at the end of the season the profits from the farm were divided among the peasants in proportion to the workdays they had worked. As Stalin strived for Russia's equality as a nation, as it was very backwards in development compared to many other countries, he decided that industrialisation must be achieved mostly from domestic sources and as rapidly as possible. Not only the peasants winter supply, but also portions of seed grain were seized, and unfortunately due to the iron curtain shielding communist Russia from the rest of the world at the time, foreign aid was unable to intervene, due to lack of knowledge, despite the agricultural glut which the capitalist world was enduring at the time. The scale of the opposition shown by the peasants was of an over-whelming size and an unexpected shock to the government. However Stalin shiftily received some help from the US and paid for their help partly in grain, at the time large numbers of Russian's were starving. Stalin allowed two kinds of farming institutions to develop, one was the state farm, known as the sovkhoz in which the workers received wages paid by the state, the other, more common type was the collective farm, or kolkhoz where land was seized from it's owners and divided up, and granted to approximately 50-100 families who were to work on it and fulfil a weekly state quota. Their stockpiles were sold to the state at very low prices, who then went on to sell it in towns for inflated amounts. The speed in which the changes were to be underwent, also increased the pressures of the people, both stress wise and physically, through brutal methods of repression, because more capital for investment had to be squeezed out of consumption, and in effect out of their living standards, in a shorter time. The effects of collectivism and industrialisation on the Soviet people in the 1930's were brutally harsh, and unfair. The affects of Stalin's desire for 'socialism in one country' proved to be devastatingly immeasurable for the peasants, who were its greatest victims. This produced a dramatic decrease in the production of consumer goods, which, once again, disadvantaged the Soviet people considerably, whom this process was meant to benefit.
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