Industralization

in the

USSR

Purpose and aims of

Industrialization

• The purpose was to catch up with the western economy

• The aim was to modernise Russia

How did he put it into practice?

• Enforced Rapid industralization

Gosplan

Important actions of Gosplan

1920 194

51925

1930 193

5

1940

1960

1950 195

5

Gosplan created:February 1921

Economics and financial experts were instructed to create a plan. (1927)

Five-Year Plan created. (1928)

“Control numbers” (1925)

Was split into 2 comissions: USSR Council of Ministers State Commission for Perspective Planning and USSR Council of Ministers Economical Commission for Current Planning of State Economy. (1955)

USSR Council of Labour and Defense established. (1923)

Five-Year PlanAim:

Transformation from agrarian into industrial country.

In each of the areas (industry, agriculture, education, etc.) targets were set.

Motives:• In 1927 there was a ‘war scare’• In 1928 countries were paying

saboteurs to ruin the USSR’s coal mines.

Actions:October 1928. Heavy

industries needed to triple their output and light industry needed to double there output. Electrical energy was needed to be rise 6 times it was.

Failure of the target given could be punished as disloyalty.

But Stalin after watching the effort of the workers ordered that the targets will be done in 4 years instead of 5.

Results of Five-Year Plan

After the First Five-Year Plan finished the second Five Year Plan was created.

Output of heavy industry in millions of tonnes 1927-8 1932-3 1932 (planned) (actual)Oil 11.7 22.0 21.4Steel 4.0 10.4 5.9Coal 35.4 75.0 64.3

1932 1937 1937 (planned) (actual)Oil 21.7 46.8 28.5Steel 5.9 17.0 17.7Coal 64.3 152.5 128.0

Problems:Industrial workers

doubled from 11.3 million to 22.8 million. The basic services were overcrowded.

Light Industry “The manufacture of small or light articles”

Shoes, Clothes, Electronics, etc. Stalin was concentrated on developing,

heavy Industry and producing food H.I.: Machines for Industries, Artillery for the

army Stalin was focusing in the obvious and

ignoring things such as clothes. Very important in winter, cold weather.

Life in the industrial cities• Factories were built in vast, reachable

and desertic places with a good sources of water near it.

• Houses were built last, what mettered was the factory. Workers slept in tents

• You couldn’t be late to work without a good excuse or else you’ll be punished

Work was very estrcit and people often left town looking for better conditions. This is why the internal passport was invented by the secret police. This way they could control the population that could only get out of town with their permission.

The pioneers were the unexpirienced people that first moved this heavy industry into the virgin lands.

Main industrial cities

Magnitogorsk Sverdalovsk

Located in the Ural Mountains

Sorounding countires hated

communism, and later attacked starting here.

(Romania, Iran, Finland and

Poland

Magnitogorsk

Ural River

factoriesMagnitanaya Mountain: pure iron producer

Houses

Sverdalovsk• This place was rich in many metals and minerals like iron, copper,

gold, talcum, ect. • biggest industrial city in Russia at that time

This place was also located in the Ural Mountains . It has long cold winters and short hot summers . Workers had to suffer in the cold beause like the other industrial cities, there were no houses

• All the metals produced here, will later be used for the train railways needed in the second World War.

Stakhanovite Movement

• On the 31st of august, 1935 Alexey Stahanov was caught and reported that he had mined about 103 tonnes of coal in less than six hours which was about 14 times more than he was allowed to mine.

• This act started a so called Stakhanovite Movement to rise the productivity of the workers by mastering some new equipment and techniques on mining.

Alexey Stakhanov • Stakhanov was born in Russia on January

1906

• He became a miner in the soviet union and he was hailed as a pioneer for having such great working method

• after he became the spotlight of a propaganda campaign he was considered a role model for many russians because he was motivating the workers.

Problems of industrialization

Serious problems soon arose because of Stalin’s unrealistic production goals. With the greatest share of investment put into heavy industry, extensive shortages of consumer goods occurred, and inflation grew.

At the same time, many of the workers were slave workers and kulaks from the gulag (this was in collectivization). Strikers were shot, and wreckers (slow workers) could be executed or imprisoned. Thousands died from accidents, starvation or cold. Housing and wages were terrible, and no consumer goods were produced for people.

After two years people ignored his idea of Stalin to voluntarily unite their farms into one collective farm (collecticization) and there had been a famine (shortage of food) so Stalin decided to make collectivization compulsory. The peasants hated the idea, so they burned their crops and killed their animals rather than hand them over to the state. There was another famine in 1930.

Perhaps 3 million kulaks were killed, there were famines in 1930 and 1932 – 33 when 5 million people starved to death.

Almudena UrangaLia Rizo Patron

Gabriela Arregui Camila Salas

Alessandra RoncalMariajose Domenack