Stalin's modernisation of the USSR

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One reason was that many peasants slaughtered their animals rather than hand them over to the collective farm, as a protest against collectivisation. Another was that the state took so much grain that there was not enough fodder left to feed the animals, so many died.

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One feature of the Stakhanovite movement was the record-breaking feat that started it. On the night of 30-31 August 1935 the coal miner Alexei Stakhanov cut 102 tonnes of coal in less than six hours at a mine in the Donbas, about fourteen times his normal target. The record was carefully planned by the local Party: other miners propped up the roof and moved the coal so that Stakhanov could keep cutting. Pravda turned him into a national hero, and workers in other industries were encouraged to set records of their own.

A second feature was the rewards for Stakhanovites and the pressure on everyone else. Workers who broke records received higher wages, better flats, holidays and medals, and at a conference of Stakhanovites in November 1935 Stalin announced that 'life has become better, comrades, life has become more joyous'. However, work norms were then raised for all workers, so ordinary workers had to produce more to earn the same pay. This caused resentment, and some Stakhanovites were even attacked by their fellow workers.

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Interpretation A is convincing about industry and some social changes. Heavy industry grew enormously between 1928 and 1940: coal output rose from about 35 to about 166 million tonnes and steel from about 4 to about 18 million tonnes. New industrial centres such as Magnitogorsk were built in the Urals and Siberia, out of reach of invaders, and in 1941-45 these factories produced the tanks and guns A mentions. Society changed too: literacy rose from about half the population in 1926 to over 80 percent by 1939, and the number of students in higher education rose more than fourfold. However, A was written in 1944 by a supporter of Britain's wartime ally, so it praises the USSR and says nothing about the famine, the labour camps or the Terror.

Interpretation B is convincing about the limits and costs. Agriculture remained backward: grain harvests in the 1930s were on average little better than in 1928, cattle numbers did not recover to their 1928 level until the 1950s, and collective farmers depended on their tiny private plots. In the towns families lived in overcrowded communal flats and queued for basic goods, and real wages were probably still lower in 1937 than in 1928. Prisoners built the White Sea Canal and worked the mines of Kolyma. However, B goes too far in saying that society was not modernised: the urban population doubled from about 26 million to about 56 million, millions learned to read, and many workers and peasants became engineers and managers.

Overall, B is more convincing about the extent of modernisation. My knowledge supports A's claims about industry and the war, but B gives a more complete picture: modernisation was rapid in heavy industry and defence, but very limited in agriculture and living standards, and it was achieved by force.

Model answer

The fear of invasion by foreign powers was an important reason for the Five Year Plans. The Bolsheviks had already faced foreign intervention during the Civil War, when British, French, American and Japanese troops landed in Russia, and the USSR remained isolated as the world's only communist state. In 1927 there was a 'war scare': Britain broke off diplomatic relations, the Chinese nationalists turned on their communist allies and a Soviet diplomat was assassinated in Warsaw. Stalin knew that Russia had been defeated by Japan in 1904-05 and by Germany in 1917-18 because its industry was backward. In a speech in 1931 he warned, 'We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they crush us.' This explains why the Plans concentrated on coal, iron, steel and machinery, the basis of armaments, and why new industrial centres such as Magnitogorsk were built far from the western border.

The wish to build a socialist society was also important. Marx had taught that socialism could only be built in an advanced industrial country with a large working class, yet in 1928 Russia was still mainly a land of peasants. Stalin's policy of 'Socialism in One Country' meant that the USSR had to build this industrial base itself, without waiting for revolution abroad. Many communists saw the NEP as a retreat that let Nepmen and kulaks grow rich, so the Five Year Plans replaced private trade with a state-owned economy planned by Gosplan. Ending the NEP also helped Stalin defeat Bukharin and the Right, who wanted to keep it.

Overall, the fear of invasion was the more important reason. Building socialism explains why Stalin chose a planned, state-owned economy rather than the market, but it does not explain the desperate speed of the Plans or their focus on heavy industry rather than consumer goods. That came from Stalin's belief that war was coming and that the USSR had only about ten years to prepare. The two aims were linked, because Stalin believed that a socialist state could only survive in a hostile capitalist world if it was industrially and militarily strong, but it was fear that set the pace. His warning proved accurate: Germany invaded in June 1941, and the industry built in the Urals and Siberia helped the USSR to survive.