Stalin's Consolidation of Power - page 2
Keywords: 1920, Russia, Stalin, Power, Consolidation, USSR, Soviets
By Richard on 26/09/2008
Level: GCSE Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11)
Page Number: 2 of 3 pages: 1 2 3
five year plans were brought about not only because Stalin wanted Russia to be able to defend itself but also because many people thought that capitalist powers would win over the public by saying that communism only controlled weak countries, so all the communist powers in Russia worked for it to become as powerful as all capitalist countries. Also collectivisation meant that farmers could up the efficiency of there farming and therefore support the revolution. Though this was a bad time for Stalin as some of the farmers did not want to work for the State, they wanted to work for themselves. Stalin gave them the option of joining the State or going to work camps, where they were most likely to die. Of course there were revolts and this caused a huge famine as farmers refused to farm. Though it did not help the farmers, as Stalin made sure that the cities got food so it was actually the farmers starving themselves. Even though this meant the farmers would give in it made collectivisation look like a failure. This was bad news for Stalin but he wriggled himself out of the problem by blaming all the problems on the Kulak’s, which were the rebel farmers. He made sure that everyone who supported him hated the rebels and would not feel angry if Stalin made new camps called Gulags for the rebels. They also did not know what went on in the camps. OF course this was just like free labour for Stalin and all of the prisoners would help to further Russia’s economy.
It was after he had created collectivisation that he started his first five-year plan. It had extremely ambitious aims but this was only because every time they got close to completing one task others were added. The five-year plans changed Russia into a major power though many targets were not reached. In some cases huge feats were finished, for instance they turned large industrial centres into whole cities. This helped build up the industrial production rate, which helped support, the massive building frenzy. As was said in paragraph 2 everyone was told that Russia needed to defend themselves. This meant that many people worked harder, but some did not and they thrown in work camps and worked to death. The first five-year plan built up Russia’s industry. The second in 1933-37 built up Russia’s natural resources. This
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