  starter activity

 starter activity
Study the Soviet posters that follow. What is their message? What links them?
Let’s take them by storm
– the last year of the five
year plan. Government
poster from 1931
Tractors and day
nurseries – movers of
the new nation, Soviet
government poster from
1930
Mastering machinery –
be in the first ranks of
the builders of
communism. Soviet
government poster,
1934
Kolkhoznik, guard your
fields against the class
enemies. Government
poster, 1933
 Key words:
The Great Turn (1927) collectivisation OGPU
How did Stalin build
socialism in the
countryside?
 Learning objectives
TBAT explain the reasons why Stalin
introduced collectivisation
To explain how Stalin collectivised Russia
To evaluate the consequences
 Your task


Read p.39-41 (Bunce) and note down the
reasons why Stalin decided to collectivise farms
In your opinion, what was the most urgent
reason for Stalin?
Reasons for collectivisation



Economic factors – decline of grain production
(1927-9), worsening standards of living for
farmers, limited surplus grain to sell on to
foreign countries
Ideological factors – collectivisation would
foster communism in countryside
Political factors – collectivisation appealed to
Stalin’s left-wing supporters; Grain Procurement
Crisis (1927-9) showed how Stalin could be held
hostage by Kulaks & failure of NEP
 Your task

Read p.41-43 (Bunce) and explain how Stalin
collectivised Russia. Use these subheadings to
help:
Emergency measures
 Liquidation of kulaks
 Twenty-five-thousanders
 Dizzy with success
 Famine

Course of collectivisation
Emergency measures – rationing reintroduced; grain
hoarding criminalised; kulaks sent to labour camps
 Liquidation of kulaks – ‘dekulakisation’ introduced;
collective farms formed BUT resentment led to
destruction of crops, livestock & machinery
 Twenty-five-thousanders – socially conscious
industrial workers sent into countryside
 Dizzy with success – Pravda article, blaming over
enthusiastic local officials
 Famine – grain seizures, farmers executed or exiled,
grain taken to cities or exported

Imagine Stalin is holding a press conference with a handful of his
trusted aids. Write at least 3 questions you wish to ask Stalin
about collectivisation. You may want to think about these areas:
his true motives, dekulakisation, the 25000’ers, the NEP
 Your task





Read Bunce, p.43-5 and note down the
consequences of collectivisation in
Rural areas
Urban areas
Within Communist Party
 How similar were the consequences to War
Communism?
Consequences – rural areas





10,000,000 exiled as part of dekulakisation, 10%
of peasants
Unrealistic targets
Productivity declined – no incentive to work
hard; 1933 harvest 9m tonnes less than 1926;
livestock numbers halved
Mechanisation slow – expensive to hire tractors
from MTS, struggled to meet demand
By 1941 all farms collectivised
Consequences – urban areas





Grain procurement by state increased, e.g. 11m
tonnes (1928) to 23m tones (1933)
Grain exports increased, e.g. 0.03m tonnes
19298) to 5m tonnes (1931)
Standard of living fell – prices increased, wages
fell, meat consumed decreased 2/3 btwn 1928 &
1932
Growing suspicions of peasants by industrial
classes
Urbanisation increased, e.g. 22 to 63m (19221940)
Consequences - political



Fear of civil war - party leadership united behind
Stalin
Kulaks & peasant saboteurs blamed
Left-wing Communists supported
collectivisation as true communism
 Your task


Study the source sheet your teacher provides.
What can you learn from each sources about the
effects of collectivisation & dekulakisation you
get.
Which source is most useful for historians
investigating this period of Russian history?
 Extension task

Read about the impact of collectivisation on
Smolensk (Fiehn, p.216). How typical was
collectivisation there compared with elsewhere
in Russia?
 Key words:
The Great Turn (1927) collectivisation OGPU
How did Stalin build
socialism in the
countryside?
 Learning objectives
 Plenary
TBAT explain the reasons why Stalin
introduced collectivisation
To explain how Stalin collectivised Russia
To evaluate the consequences