Which motives were most decisive? How far were economic problems responsible for Stalin’s decision to replace the New Economic Policy in 1928 with the first Five-Year Plan? There seemed to be various reasons why Stalin decided to replace the New Economic Policy with the first Five-Year Plan in 1928. These included economic problems, the role of ideology, a fear of invasion and political considerations. Although economic problems certainly were an important reason for Stalin’s decision, the most significant reason must have been political, since the consolidation of his power position had always been Stalin’s prime concern.
The ongoing debate within the Bolshevik party between the years 1924 and 1928 regarding the New Economic Policy was largely responsible for the power struggle that followed Lenin’s death. However, there were other factors, such as the nature of the leadership the party should adopt and the direction the Revolution should take ideologically. Additionally, personal ambitions played a part in the struggle for power. The New Economic Policy was introduced after the end of the Civil War as a substitute to War Communism in 1921. This was an economic concession that Lenin was forced to make due to the deteriorating economic conditions and the real threat of a revolt against the Bolshevik government.
Stalin’s five year plans did improve the Russian economy due to heavy industry increased the production of steel, iron, oil and coal. However, the five year plan was unsuccessful in terms of consumer goods and labour productivity. Additionally, the plans did not fully succeed in fulfilling Stalin’s targets for war preparation. Heavy industry was successful in improving the economy primarily due to the first three five year plans. Evidently, Industries like coal steel and iron grew enormously.
Regardless of this, although Germany seemed politically calm, there were still massive problems arising which could later cause significant problems in the early 1930s. Firstly, the Dawes Plan was an important incline that Germany was about to approach a much needed period of economic stability. After burning all of the old Deutschemark currency and replacing it with a completely new currency known as the Rentenmark, which was the main cause of solving the inflation crisis, and also with the much appreciated investment from America, German unemployment levels briefly fell in 1925.The new Rentenmark currency allowed Germany to continue paying back the hefty reparations which were under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The American investment not only helped Germany to pay reparations to the Allies, which they would not have been able to do, it also developed the infrastructure, for example creating
How far did the aims and key features of the Five-Year Plans change in the years 1928-41? Aims and features changed: * Aimed originally to catch up with the Western economies that were about 100 years ahead of the USSR. * To manufacture weapons in order to defend against invasion from capitalist countries. * Aimed to continue socialism as it was believed socialism could only exist in a highly industrialised nation. * Aimed to improve conditions for the working class as Stalin believed the revolution was a working class one, and had seen how the peasants prospered but the working class did not under the NEP.
Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal vs. Barack Obama's Economic Stimulus Plan Aiding the economy was what both of these plans were meant for. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal aided the American economy to get back on track during the 1930's. Due to the economy suffering severely from the great depression this plan was setup to help boast and get the economy going. Barack Obama's Stimulus Plan was also and aid brought out to save the economy. Due to the country facing the biggest economic crisis since the second world war, Obama and Democratic Party leaders suggested an economic stimulus package to confront the crisis.
By collectivizing and industrializing the agriculture and industries. Stalin hoped to improve Russia’s economy through making production of food and materials more efficient. To assess how successful were Stalin’s industrial policies in developing the Russian economy one would have to measure the results by the production of goods and the quality of life as that is much to do with food production. By 1928, the USSR was 20 million tons of grain short to feed the towns. Industrialization was creating even more towns, increasing this problem.
To what extent did collectivisation improve Soviet agriculture in the years 1928-41? Along with Stalin’s policy of industrialisation came widespread changes in agriculture. It was seen by Stalin as necessary to improve Russia’s agriculture, modernising it in order to create food surpluses that could be exported, therefore fuelling his Five Year plan. The policy of Collectivisation, in which larger agricultural units were created ensuring peasants would farm collectively rather than on individual farms, was seen as the solution to improving Russia’s agriculture, which had been left largely unchanged since the 1917 revolution. However, it proved deeply unpopular with the peasants, and although it allowed Stalin and the party to finally gain control over the workers in the countryside, it had devastating effects on this section of the Russian population.
There were other causes of the great depression and not just due to the crash of the stock markets. Farmers during these times were experiencing their own great depressions due mainly to overproduction. By 1932, almost one-fourth of Americans in the workforce were unemployed. (Beard, 114) President Hoover took steps to lessen the effects of the crisis, but made little change. (fdrlibrary.marist.edu) Both Hoover and Roosevelt waited for change to take place of its own.
Only six months after Hoover took office, the economy collapsed and the Great Depression began. Many factors caused and contributed to the Great Depression of 1929. One factor would be the overproductions of many goods in the 1920s led to worker layoffs Another factor was that easy credit led to people spending more than they had, and it led to a rapid inflation that eventually caused people to stop buying. The Federal Reserve Bank, created in 1913, did a poor job which also led to the great depression. It did not monitor interest rates to help regulate the economy when overproduction and inflation had started to cause unemployment in 1928-29 and the economy seemed likely headed toward collapse.