Therefore, when Stalin came into power, most of the major industries were already in government hands. Stalin had stated that the Soviet Union was behind advanced societies, and that they had to industrialize quickly before ‘enemies’ could crush them. Heavy industry was essential for defense and for being supplied with agricultural tractors and combines. Stalin had believed that equality and democracy had to wait until the Soviet Union had thrived in their industrial economy. In 1928, Stalin replaced Lenin’s New Economic Policy by the first Five-Year Plan.
This shows that Alexander was ready to liberate Russia because even though it was risky, it helped to start the liberalisation process because it enabled ex-serfs to work in factories which would help boost the economy, let the gentry to earn their own money and would help advances in industry which in turn help Russia to compete with the western world. However the aftermath of this manifesto was a lot more negative than first appears. Although Alexander helped to abolish Serfdom there were a lot of negatives
It was in this time that Russia’s industrial output increased by up to 4%. Most of the capital industries were on a rise. The government done this by focusing on the construction of railroads that required iron, coal and steel. The hope was that the construction of railways would lead to the creation of iron, steel and coal industries, which would in turn create other industries focusing on production and consumer goods. This was all thanks to Russia’s finance minister Sergei Witte.
I am doing my project on Heinz Guderian. He was the son of an army officer, he was born June.17, 1888 at Culm, on the Vistula, in Poland. He joined the 10th Hanoverian Jaeger Battalion as an ensign and completed a course at the War Academy just before the beginning of WWI. After attending war school at Metz in 1908, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, backdated to 1906 and went again to Jaeger-Battalion. Guderian concentrated his idea on developing a highly mobile mechanised army.
The Red Army seized grain from the peasants by force which led to the 1921-22 famine. This famine resulted in the deaths of 5 million people and as well as cannibalism (Chrisp, 11). Stalin’s 5-year plan envisaged 85% of peasant holdings becoming cooperatives, of which 20% would run as collective farms (Volkogonov, 169). For Ukraine, Northern Caucasus and Lower and Middle Volga, the
Lenin’s real opinion of Stalin was highly negative. He was so concerned about Stalin becoming leader that he made a plea in his testament to do anything to stop this. ‘I suggest that the comrades think about a way of removing Stalin from that post and appointing another man in his stead.’ As well as his view to not see him as leader, Lenin described Stalin as ‘rude’, but more importantly, favored Trotsky to be his successor in the testament, stating that he was ‘most capable’ individual to lead Russia. If it wasn’t for Stalin using his role as secretary of state to keep this document hidden, these opinions of Lenin would have influenced the public hugely, as his death alone attracted millions of people to pay their respects. Stalin not only stopped a negative opinion of him costing leadership, but he completely turned that opinion upside down, persuading the public that he was very close to the much loved Lenin.
News of the violent acts believed to have been ordered by the Tsar himself quickly spread throughout European Russia, initiating huge responses from the people, provoking a rebellion, which would involve over 400,000 people. These huge strikes brought the government and economy to a complete halt. Strikes occurred throughout the country; peasants attacked the homes of their landlords, embracing the opportunity to revolt; the Grand Duke Sergei, the tsar's uncle, was assassinated in February; the transport system all but ground to a halt. Russia seemed to be on the point of imploding. Sailors on the battleship 'Potemkin' mutinied in June and to add more woes to the government, it became clear that on top of all of this, Russia had lost the Russo-Japanese War; a war that was meant to have bound the
One key piece of evidence in favour of this is the Pravda article “dizzy with success†which suggests that the purges spiralled out of Stalin’s control. The Purges thrust the whole of Russia into a state of fear of what would happen to them. It affected all sectors of society and even a seemingly insignificant act could result in arrest. For example one woman was arrested for saying that Tukhachevsky, a high ranking military officer, was handsome after he was arrested. One key reason other than Stalin’s personal paranoia for the Purges was to cleanse the party of careerists, yet dissidents and doubters were also at risk.
The events that happened before the introduction of the Dumas in the period 1904 – 1907 could have been a major part of this. One of the sparks of the revolution was Bloody Sunday. On Sunday 9th January Father Gappon led a demonstration to present a petition to the Tsar, but they were fired upon by Russian troops and it was thought that there were 200 dead and 800 wounded at the end. Russia’s population was overwhelmingly peasant. Before the Emancipation of Serfs by Alexander II, peasants were tied to the land they tended so they couldn’t migrate and depopulate Russia.
How far did the priorities of the three Five-Year Plans change in the year 1929-41? By Seb Monson The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia took form in the way of 3 Five Year Plans (FYP) which aimed for heavy industry throughout Russia to help aid the country in catching up with the ‘advanced countries’ and preparing Russia for war otherwise they would ‘perish’ as said by Lenin on the eve of the October revolution. Great Britian was in fact influential on Stalin as it was seen as a powerful Capitalist state after its Industrial Revolution a century earlier. This helped Stalin gauge what needed to occur, to enable Russia and its Socialist state to become a superpower. Stalin recognised that the industrial revolutions which, had made Western Europe and Northern America so strong, had been based on iron and steel production.