Stalin's Economic Policies

Joseph Stalin abandoned the NEP and introduced a series of Five Year Plans starting in 1928:

• Set ambitious targets for industrial and agricultural production
• Focused heavily on developing heavy industry
• Implemented forced collectivization of agriculture
• Achieved rapid industrialization but at enormous human cost

Quote: "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." - Joseph Stalin, 1931

Impacts of Stalin's policies:

• Dramatic increases in industrial output
• Severe agricultural disruptions and famine
• Millions of deaths due to repression and harsh working conditions

Highlight: While Stalin's economic policies transformed the USSR into an industrial power, they came at a tremendous cost in human suffering.

Political Changes and Opposition

Throughout the period, Russian leaders generally resisted significant political reforms:

• Tsars maintained autocratic rule with limited concessions:

  • Alexander II introduced local zemstvo councils
  • Nicholas II established the Duma in 1905, but limited its powers

• Communist leaders centralized power:

  • Lenin established one-party rule
  • Stalin further consolidated his personal dictatorship

Opposition groups faced severe repression:

• Pre-1917:

  • The People's Will and other revolutionary groups threatened tsarist rule
  • Workers' strikes, like the 1905 upheavals, challenged the regime

• Post-1917:

  • Stalin eliminated political rivals within the Communist Party
  • Peasant resistance to collectivization was brutally suppressed

Example: The 1962 Novocherkassk protest against poor living conditions resulted in 20 workers being killed by Soviet forces.