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    Causes of Stalin's Great Turn

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    Rafael REVERTER CUSTODIO
    Stalin decided to carry out rapid industrialization for several reasons: 1) NEP was not allowing Russia to industrialize fast enough to compete with Western economies; 2) there was a need to manufacture armaments due to war scares with neighboring countries; and 3) industrialization would help secure socialism by creating more members of the proletariat and bringing peasants into collective farms, allowing greater state control over the economy in line with Stalin's ideological goals.

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    Causes of Stalin's Great Turn

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    Rafael REVERTER CUSTODIO
    23 views1 page
    Stalin decided to carry out rapid industrialization for several reasons: 1) NEP was not allowing Russia to industrialize fast enough to compete with Western economies; 2) there was a need to manufacture armaments due to war scares with neighboring countries; and 3) industrialization would help secure socialism by creating more members of the proletariat and bringing peasants into collective farms, allowing greater state control over the economy in line with Stalin's ideological goals.

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    Notes on why Stalin decided to rapidly industrialise

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    Stalin decided to carry out rapid industrialization for several reasons: 1) NEP was not allowing Russia to industrialize fast enough to compete with Western economies; 2) there was a need to manufacture armaments due to war scares with neighboring countries; and 3) industrialization would help secure socialism by creating more members of the proletariat and bringing peasants into collective farms, allowing greater state control over the economy in line with Stalin's ideological goals.

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    23 views1 page

    Causes of Stalin's Great Turn

    Uploaded by

    Rafael REVERTER CUSTODIO
    Stalin decided to carry out rapid industrialization for several reasons: 1) NEP was not allowing Russia to industrialize fast enough to compete with Western economies; 2) there was a need to manufacture armaments due to war scares with neighboring countries; and 3) industrialization would help secure socialism by creating more members of the proletariat and bringing peasants into collective farms, allowing greater state control over the economy in line with Stalin's ideological goals.

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    of 1

    Why did Stalin decide to carry out rapid industrialisation?

    ‘Seldom perhaps in history has so monstrous a price been paid for so monumental an
    achievement’ E. H. Carr

    The fifteenth party Congress in December 1927, saw the introduction of the First Five Year
    Plan. This marked the end of the NEP and the move to rapid industrialisation and
    collectivisation in agriculture. Why was this?

    By introducing radical economic changes which would take the country further towards
    socialism, Stalin sought to enhance his own status as a great revolutionary leader. However,
    there were also pragmatic reasons for his decision to achieve ‘Socialism in one country’
    through rapid industrialisation. Although the NEP had brought about economic recovery and
    increased the grain supply, it was still inadequate to help Russia become an industrialised
    country. By 1926 pre-war levels of production had been achieved but figures were still well
    below the other economies of Western Europe. In agriculture, grain production was also
    inadequate; farming methods were still backwards with small peasant holdings using
    traditional methods. Despite efforts by the government to get peasants to sell more grain on
    the market they were still unwilling to sell it for money when there were so few consumer
    goods to buy; at the end of 1927, grain production was three-quarter less than it had been in
    1926. A bad harvest in 1928 meant that grain supplies to the cities fell sharply and rationing
    had to be introduced

    It was thus clear from the situation that existed in 1928 that NEP was not allowing Russia to
    industrialise fast enough. However, there was also a strong ideological purpose behind the
    Five Year Plans. For many Bolsheviks, the encouragement of private business and the
    development of the Nepmen, meant that they were failing to produce a socialist society;
    industrialisation would create many more members of the proletariat who would help secure
    the revolution. It would also bring the peasants into line; the Bolsheviks disliked the
    peasantry, particularly the wealthier peasants or ‘kulaks’, for having the power to hold back
    the grain which was so necessary for industrialisation. In this sense, the Five Year Plans and
    collectivisation can be seen as a class war against those who had benefitted from NEP and
    who were seen to be holding back the drive to socialism.

    A further incentive for Stalin to speed up industrialisation was the need to manufacture
    armaments; there was a war scare in the late 1920s when relations with France, Britain and
    Poland deteriorated; there were also concerns about Japanese intentions in the east; Japan
    took over Manchuria in 1931 which directly threatened Soviet railway interests and created a
    direct threat to the Soviet Union itself. Hence Stalin’s justification for his policy in 1931, ‘‘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’. Industrialisation was seen as
    essential for the Soviet Union being able to defend itself against attack from capitalist
    powers.

    The momentous decision to move from NEP to collectivisation and industrialisation was
    known as the ‘Second Revolution’. It was also a ‘revolution from above’. From now on the
    Soviet state would centralise and control the country’s economy. Although this had taken
    place to some extent under Lenin, Stalin’s plans involved a much greater degree of planning.
    In the process, this revolution was to also lead to great changes in the Communist Party and
    the relationship between the party and the people.

    From: IBDP History, (InThinking) by Jo Thomas & Keely Rogers. Updated 30 January 2023
    https://www.thinkib.net/history/page/22189/1-stalins-rise-to-power-and-rule-atl

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