Collectivization and Industrialization – First Steps to Independence

Joseph Stalin adopted a new economic policy of an attempt to produce the material basis of communism quickly under unfavorable conditions. It was called "socialism in one country", which favored concentrating on economic development of the country. In that respect, he also favored extensive exports of grain and raw materials; the revenues from foreign exchange allowing the Soviet Union to import foreign technologies needed for industrial development.

At the 15^th Communist Party Congress in December 1927, Joseph Stalin abandoned the NEP. Warning delegates of an impending capitalist encirclement, he stressed that survival and development could only occur by pursuing the rapid development of heavy industry. Joseph Stalin remarked that the Soviet Union was "fifty to a hundred years behind the advanced countries" such as the United States, France, Germany, Great Britain, and thus had to narrow "this distance in ten years". Joseph Stalin declared, "Either we do it or we shall be crushed". This new policy became the key turning point in the Soviet history, establishing central planning geared toward rapid heavy industrialization as the basis of economic decision-making. This new policy aimed at an incredible and rapid process of transforming a largely agrarian nation consisting of peasants into an industrial superpower.

The new economic system put forward a complicated series of planning arrangements. The first Five-Year plan focused on the mobilization of natural resources to build up the country's heavy industrial base by increasing output of coal, iron, and other vital resources. At a high human cost, this process was largely successful, forging a capital base for industrial development more rapidly than any country in history.

Exercise № 72. Answer to the following questions according to the text above.

1. At the time of industrialization there was insignificant gap between the Soviet Union and the advanced countries, wasn’t it?

2. The Soviet economy aimed at extending the distance between the Soviet Union and advanced countries, didn’t it?

3. What was put forward by the new economic system?

4. What was the NEP focused on?

Collectivization and industrialization in practice

Restructuring of the Russian economy started immediately. The process of collectivization aimed at forcing peasant to give up their private plots of land and property, to work for collective farms, and to sell their produce to the state for a low price set by the state itself. Naturally, peasants bitterly opposed this process and in many cases peasants slaughtered their animals rather than gave them to collective farms. Despite the expectations, collectivization led to a drop in farming productivity.

However, the mobilization of resources by state planning augmented the county's industrial base. Pig iron output, necessary for development of nonexistent industrial infrastructure rose from 3.3 million to 10 million tons per year. Coal, the integral product fueling modern economies and Stalinist industrialization, successfully rose from 35.4 million to 75 million tons, and output of iron ore rose from 5.7 million to 19 million tons. A number of industrial complexes such as Magnitogorsk and Kuznetsk, the Moscow and Gorky automobile plants, the Urals and Kramatorsk heavy machinery plants, and Kharkov, Stalingrad and Chelyabinsk tractor plants have been built or under construction.

Based largely on these figures the Five Year Industrial Production Plan had been fulfilled by 93.7 percent in only four years, while parts devoted to heavy-industry part were fulfilled by 108%. Joseph Stalin in December 1932 declared the plan a success to the Central Committee, since increases in the output of coal and iron would fuel future development.

While undoubtedly marking a tremendous leap in industrial capacity, the Five Year Plan was extremely harsh on industrial workers; quotas were extremely difficult to fulfill, requiring that miners put in 16 to 18-hour workdays. Industrialization had strict regulations. Failure to fulfill the quotas could result in treason charges. Working conditions were poor, even hazardous. Nevertheless, the people went through this stage with tremendous success.

Joseph Stalin's industrial policies largely improved living standards for the majority of the population. Employment, for instance, rose greatly; 3.9 million per year was expected by 1923, but the number was actually an astounding 6.4 million. By 1937, the number of in-work rose yet again, to about 7.9 million, and in 1940 it was 8.3 million. Between 1926 and 1930, urban population increased up to 30 million. The mobilization of resources to industrialize the agrarian society industrial created a need for labor, meaning that the unemployment went virtually to zero. Several ambitious projects were begun, and they supplied raw materials not only for military weapons but also for consumer goods.

Industrialization influenced on many spheres of life. The Moscow and Gorky automobile plants were producing new automobiles that the public could utilize, and the expansion of heavy plant and steel production made production of a greater number of cars possible. Car and truck production, for example, reached two hundred thousand in 1931. A large number of secondary and secondary specialized schools appeared as the industrial workers needed to be educated. In 1927, 7.9 million students attended 118,558 schools. This number rose to 9.7 million students and 166 275 schools by 1933. In addition, 900 specialist departments and 566 institutions were built and functioning by 1933.

The Soviet people also benefited from a degree of social liberalization. Females were given an adequate, equal education and women had equal rights in employment, precipitating improving lives for women and families. Stalinist development also contributed to advances in health care, which vastly increased the lifespan for the typical Soviet citizen and the quality of life. Stalin's policies granted the Soviet people universal access to health care and education, allowing this generation to be the first not to fear typhus, cholera, and malaria.

Soviet women under Stalin also became the first generation of women able to give birth in the safety of a hospital, with access to prenatal care. Education was also an example of an increase in standard of living after economic development. The generation born during Stalin's rule was the first near-universally literate generation. Engineers were sent abroad to learn industrial technology, and hundreds of foreign engineers were brought to Russia on contract. Transportation was also improved, as many new railways were built. Workers who exceeded their quotas, Stakhanovites, received many incentives for their work. They could thus afford to buy the goods that were mass-produced by the rapidly expanding soviet economy. The Soviet Union became the leading power.

Exercise № 73. Insert proper prepositions into the blanks.

Socialist competition was another form … appealing to workers' class feelings. Strenuous broadening and accelerating of socialist competition was declared. The grandiose plans were powerful stimuli … workers. Socialist competition was especially broad and multy-form since 1929.

In 1931 self-financing worker's squads began … replace communes and collectives with equalized distribution of wages. The self-financing squads made agreements with the administration that included mutual obligations of the sides. Individual payment was used, for economy of tools, raw material, and the squad received certain bonus money that was distributed … the team, considering a certain worker's qualification, quantity and quality … labor. The procedure of expelling of unsatisfactory members of the team was simplified.

Since 1935 Stakhanov movement became the main form of socialist competition (named after Aleksey Stakhanov, a coal-miner, who in August 31, 1935, with the help of two unskilled workers took 102 tons of coal, which was 14 times more as compared with the production task). On the base of Stakhanov's movement labor efficiency in heavy industry … 1936 increased 25.5% as compared … the previous year; production tasks were raised 35-45%.

In December of 1935 Plenum … the CPSU Central Committee decreed to make Stakhanov movement a movement … millions. Stakhanov shifts, days, decades, months were held, in which whole works, plants, production units participated. For the years of the second five-year plan, consumption of foodstuffs per capita began to increase. People could see that life grew better, that sacrifices were not in vain and that the Party began to settle the bills … the people's trust.

Writing practice

Working in groups of two, choose either Topic A or B.

Write a three-paragraph essay in which you discuss:

1. The conditions of the common man in the industrialized Soviet Russia.

2. The effects of the industrialization upon the nation.

Unit Six. The Rise of Industrial Giants

Brainstorming:

People always play a big role in a process of nation’s development. In groups of two, consider carefully names of people who speed up the process of your nation development. Then, using a table and a given model report to the class about these people.

Model: William Shakespeare is an outstanding English play writer. He is famous for his magnificent pieces of plays. He lived in England in the 16^th century.

Countries / Centuries	The 16th century	The 17th century	The 18th century	The 19th century	The 20th century
The USA				Thomas Edison, Alexander Bell, S. Morse, Robert Fulton	Bill Gates, Gerald Ford,
Russia			Mikhail Lomonosov	Leo Tolstoy, Peter Tchaikovsky, Mikhail Bulgakov, Alexander Popov	Stravinsky, Andrei Sakharov,
England	William Shakespeare	Isaac Newton, Milton	Thomas Cook	Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin	Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher

Exercise № 68. Vocabulary studies. Copy out these words into your dictionary, learn their spelling and make two sentences with them.