Five Year Plan Dbq

The 5 year plan that was imposed on the USSR from 1928 until 1932 was implemented in order to achieve the rapid industrialization of Russia. Collectivisation was part of the five year plan and the aim was that it should modernize agriculture so that more peasants could instead work within industry. However, the collectivisation proved to be a failure since passive resistance broke out, the goals of grain production were not met and decreased, and modernization of farming proved unattainable. The statement that “The price was awful” therefore does apply to an extent, however it is important to consider perspectives as shown by different sources.

In source A, Stalin implies that peasants are being forced, against government policy, to work on collective farms. He suggests that “The Party’s policy rests on the voluntary principle, not force”. This however is contradictory to the real agenda of the USSR government. The government used force and deprived peasants of food and water themselves, if the peasants refused to collectivise. This degradation of peasants who refused to collectivise is shown in source C, in which, according to Churchill, Stalin admits to

Source B shows this since the reporter writes that there is famine in Russia, and people are crying “There is no bread; we are dying” (Source B). In source D, Robert Service confirms this by stating that “millions were lost from dekulakization or grain seizures”. However the communists did not want to admit to the famine or the lack of grain, and wanted to give a better image of the process. This is shown by the statement in source B that “In a train a communist denied to me that there was famine.” Stalin also indicates the unwillingness of the party to admit to the failure of collectivisation when, according to source C, he tells Churchill “We increased the food supply, and the quality of the