Compare And Contrast The Role Of Collectivization In Russia Between 1928 And 1941

Between the years 1928 and 1941, both the Five Year Plans and Collectivisation were in their early stages . The reason for the eradication of the NEP and the creation of the Five Year Plans is that, even though the first Five Year Plan did increase production in factories, there was a large unpopularity for the plan from the peasantry and some workers, as they believed they were being treated unfairly. The two first Five Year Plans focused solely on improving heavy industry, which, at that time, was coal, oil, steel and electricity. In addition to this, there is clear evidence to support the success of the first two Five Year Plans. For instance, between the years 1928 and 1937, coal production increased from 36 million tonnes to 130 million
Collectivisation was a new way of reforming Russian agriculture. One of the many reasons for introducing this new process is that all harvests in 1927, 28 and 29 were poorer than the harvest in 1926. The evidence to support this is that in 1926, 77 million tonnes of grain were harvested, which is far more than the 72 million tonnes harvested in 1927. Even though more grain was harvested in 1926 compared to later years, other areas of agriculture showed an increase in amounts harvested over the years. For instance, 6 million tonnes of sugar beet was harvested in 1926, which is 4 million less than the amount harvested in 1927. These figures prove that grain was the only part of agriculture in Russia at that time that was struggling, which soon led to the overall figures going down. This decrease in production also led to prices of agricultural products being forced up. In addition to this, the decrease in grain production affected the standard of living for urban workers, as well as badly affecting the Soviet government by the amount rice surpluses decreasing, meaning there were less to sell abroad to provide resources for industrialisation. In larger context, Collectivisation led to large farms increasing efficiency, as well as meaning fewer people would be needed to work on the farms, which obviously would have resulted in the peasants working on the farms being less than
This means it took a total of 14 years to fully collectivise all farms in Russia. The other successes made by Stalin through Collectivisation are that, by 1937, grain production rose to nearly 100 million, as opposed to the 72 million tonnes harvested at the beginning of the process. Another success made by Stalin was the liquidation of the Kulaks. The reason why this was important for Stalin is because 'dekulakisation' signified the end of Capitalism and independent farming in Russia. Furthermore, it quickly increased the speed of Collectivisation, as, to begin with, Stalin proposed that only 30% of all farms would be collectivised, however, 'dekulakisation' led to the complete collectivisation of all farms in Russia. One final positive impact that collectivisation had on Russia in the mid 30's was the increase of technology on the collective farms. For instance, in 1927, there were only 2500 Machine Tractor Stations that supplied machinery to the different farms, and by 1932 there were 75000 MTS providing machinery to the collective farms in