He also increased industrial and agricultural production with his policy of collectivization. He carried out purges or the harsh movements against his enemies to make sure he kept total control of the U.S.S.R. Stalin made several changes in the Soviet Union. He did this by modernizing the economy by setting up the Five-Year Plan. In document 1, Stalin's speech uses nationalistic pride to motivate the people. Stalin was trying to push the people so they can be an advanced country.
Such as in source 8 which claims the USA wanted a war with the USSR to help its economy, emphasising the impact of the Military Industrial Complex on aggressive foreign policy which played a huge role in the development of the Cold War. Furthermore it can be argued that it was the misunderstanding and confusion between the two nations which owed more to the development of the Cold War in the years 1945-8.
Why did Stalin want to industrialise the USSR so quickly? To increase Military Strength: • Stalin knew that an un-industrialised country was a weak country. • To fight a war, the country had to be well developed on an industrial base so they could manufacture the huge quantities of weapons that would be required to fight a war. • Stalin had a big suspicion that the USSR would be attacked especially in the lat 1920’s. To achieve self- sufficiency: • Stalin wanted to make the USSR less dependent – especially on Western manufactured goods.
Question: How far do you agree that the changing priorities of the Five-Year-Plans suggest that Stalin had no overall scheme for Soviet economic policy, but was merely responding to events? Answer: The period from 1928 to 1941 witnessed the implementation of three Five-Year-Plans under Stalin’s government. As each plan progressed to the next phase, there were various accompanying alternations in their priorities. There is evidence to suggest that Stalin had no thorough economic plan but was merely making adjustments in the event of the unexpected. However, throughout three sessions, Stalin also well adhered to some complete policies related to heavy industry and this had become the key principle in Soviet economic policy.
To what extent can Stalin’s industrial policies be said to have been successful? Stalin’s Five Year’s Plans were designed to strengthen the USSR’s economy to make the nation self-sufficient. Stalin claimed that the USSR was ’50-100 years behind’, and therefore they had to gain ground on their western counterparts, and fast. Stalin planned to advance 100 years in 10 – this was because Stalin felt vulnerable to attack and he believed that the USSR must ‘overtake and outstrip the capitalist countries’. He believed in ‘Socialism in one country’ where the USSR would become strong enough to survive, then would take over the rest of the world.
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.
In fact Stalin was a great fan of coal steel and oil because he described them as decisive branches of industries because they were the first industries developed in the nineteenth-century industrial revolution . Another similar objective for the Five Year Plans was that Stalin wanted to arm and prepare Russia for war . In fact this was a big objective mostly for the SFYP and TFYP but even that Stalin did not wanted to create a war economy in the FFYP , he was very concerned that Russia should be ready to defend itself in the event of invasion and according to him heavy industry would lay foundations for rearmament in case of war . One his top priority and objective that is similar for the Five Year Plan’s was to fortify and to turn Russia into a world power which he shows by saying that : in ten years at most we must make good the distance which separates us from the advanced capitalist countries . However on another
This is implying of course that the decision by Nicholas II to go to war against Germany and it’s allies in 1914 was wrong, but this is not the case. Russia actually had many reasons to risk war again; the war was weighed heavily in the allies favour as the combined forces of Great Britain, France and Russia were far stronger than that of Germany, Austria and Hungary. Russia was aware of it’s major failing though, it’s slow modernisation had left it trailing behind that of the other countries, and Russia would have to be prepared for the rapid social and economic change that a war brings. This was Russia’s best chance to modernise and not be left behind. Russia’s early hopes were soon dashed however.
Zinoviev’s Letter Munich agreement September 1938 Appeasement policy Conclusion v Regardless of the war, a Cold War scenario was inevitable due to Political, economic and ideological differences. v WW II only intensified a previously existing problem Word Count: 1974 Karan Agarwal 12 E The era post World War two saw great dominance by the USA and the USSR as they possessed greater economic and military might than any other countries in the world at the time. Britain, France and Germany, the pre-war powers lay in ruins at the end of 1945, therefore allowing their dominance and power to shift to the USA and USSR. Bernard Baruch coined the term ‘Cold War’ during a congressional debate in 1947 stating that the situation was just
This gave Hitler confidence that Britain and France would not stop him when he invaded other countries. Chamberlain trusted Hitler up until 1939, when Germany invaded Poland . Britain declared war on Germany. However, increased militarism was also one of the reasons why the second world war started. When Hitler became the chancellor of Germany, he issued conscription and also began to rearm his army and build up his army capacity in order to invade both countries such as Czechoslovakia and Poland.