About the Soviet Union Under Stalin

There was a time in Russian history that a man named Joseph Stalin had almost absolute power over the entire country. During this time, he used the secret police and detention centers to ensure his power would stay with him.

Geography

Russia, also known as the USSR, is located between Europe and China with India below. The land used to be bigger, but fourteen republics of Russia broke off to form independent countries after the fall of Communist Russia.

Time Frame

December 1925, Joseph Stalin came to power after prevailing in a power struggle against Leon Trotsky, who was later exiled. He continued to hold on to this power until March of 1953, following his death.

History

When Joseph Stalin took over Russia, he claimed that the country was at least one hundred years behind in technology and culture when compared to the other powerful countries of the time like America and Great Britain. Stalin wanted this problem remedied in ten years. To do so, Stalin established "Gosplan," The State General Planning Commission. By April of 1929, "Gosplan" decided on two five-year-plans, known as "Piatiletka," or The National Economic Construction. With this plan, Stalin hoped to quadruple Soviet capitol stock by the end of the ten years.
The first five-year-plan entailed increasing Russia's use and transporting of natural resources in the urban areas. The plan did work, causing the Soviet's industrial growth to increase faster than any other country in history. The country had fulfilled 93.7% of the plan ahead of schedule. However, there was a high cost of human deaths to implement this plan.
The second five-year-plan expanded their industrial period even more, and much faster than predicted. By 1937, coal had reached an output of 127 million tons and there was even an increase in the weapons industry, due to the growing German and Japanese threats.
During the second five-year-plan, around 90% of the Russian agriculture had become collectivized, meaning all the farms were forced to join together to feed those moving into the cities. The farmers who opposed the collectivization, would slaughter their animals so the government would not get them. However, those farmers were declared traitors and punished.

Size

By 1933, there were more than 3.5 million party members. However, due to accusations of treason and later executions, by 1938 the number of members dropped to 1.92 million.

Effects

During Stalin's reign, employment in Russia rose to 6.4 million per year, and by 1940 employment rose to 8.3 million. Due to the mobilization of Russia's natural resources, unemployment dropped to nearly 0%, something that had never been accomplished by the Czars or even Lennon.
However, because the first five-year-plan was extremely harsh on the people, Russian miners had to work 16 to 18-hour workdays just to meet the minimum quota. If a miner did not meet his quota, he was charged with treason and punished. During this time, work conditions were poor, and it is estimated that 127,000 workers died during the first four years. From 1921 to 1954, 3.7 million people were accused of counter-revolutionary crimes and were either sentenced to death, labor camps, or expatriation. Russian historians claim these numbers are exaggerated.
Due to the collectivization, there was a gigantic drop in farm production, leading to famines that caused 5 to 6 million deaths. It is estimated that there were between 3 to 10 million deaths in the Ukraine alone.