Stalin First Five Year Plan Essay

A: Plan of Investigation

This investigation examines the extent to which the changes Stalin’s First Five-Year Plan had lead to the development of a greater industrial society. After the Russian Revolution and Civil War, Stalin had hoped to continue the Soviet Union’s development by expanding its economy. To assess the degree to which the people and economy of Russia had improved as an affect of the First Five-Year Plan, the results of the plan will be given, including the effects of the plan on the different industries in Russia. The details of why Stalin had chosen to introduce the First Five-Year Plan will also be observed.

The two sources Industry, State, and Society in Stalin’s Russia, 1926-1934 by David Shearer and Life and Bitter Waters:

This is a primary source, written shortly after the time the First Five-Year Plan had ended and while the fourth plan was taking place. The purpose of this primarysource is to convey the great changes made to the Soviet Union, its task, path to fulfillment, and the results of the changes on agricultural production, industrial production, the conditions of workers, and the exchanging of goods with its towns and between other countries. One limitation associated with this source is the time it was written. The First Five-Year Plans occurred in 1928-1932; shortly after in 1945, this book was written by Stalin. With a longer time period, a larger-ranged hindsight bias could be given about the long-term results of the plan. However, this type of source also has certain values. In this book, Stalin explains the experiences of some people who were affected by the First Five-Year Plan and gives some insight to how they would feel when certain components were imposed, such as collectivization of the peasants’

Using this as an advantage, Stalin began his purges in the late 1930s, after the First Five-Year Plan, which had led thousands of people to oppose the plan. He permitted no criticism of the plan and aimed to rid all anti-Soviet citizens against his ideas (Gatrell). These purges, altogether called the Great Terror occurred between 1937 and 1938 and resulted with over 57,000 arrested across the Soviet Union and 48 of these executed (Service 355). Despite these purges, Russian workers claimed to be fortunate to be employed. Increased employment and further industrial development in the USSR immensely benefitted the economy (Sulimov). The increase in employment led to a decrease in the number of jobless citizens in the nation. This resulted in an increase in total productivity, and therefore an increase in the economy. The number of students in schools had also risen from a little over one million to four million. The original society with a low literacy rate had transformed into a relatively industrial society, being one of the world’s industrial powers (Andreev-Khomiakov