Bukit Merah Secondary School

Secondary 3 Express History

Impact of Stalin’s rule (I)

Name: ___________________________ ( ) Date: ___________

Class: __________

Definitions

1) Capitalism:

An economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are
controlled by private owners for profit rather than by the State

2) Socialism:

A system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and
control of the means of production and distribution of goods in the community
as a whole (State ownership, common ownership, cooperative enterprises etc)

3) Dictatorship:

1. Absolute rule, undemocratic rule

2. Political authority held by a single person

4) Devastate:

1. Destroy or ruin (something).

2. Cause (someone) severe and overwhelming shock or grief.

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 Inquiry Question: To what extent did Stalin’s dictatorship devastate the
Soviet Union?

A) Introduction

The Soviet System: Central Planning

: Collective Farms

: Mobilization of labour and resources to build heavy

industry
: State control of ideas and culture
B) Economic Impact

 Stalin wanted to modernize USSR; to make the Soviet Union as strong as

the Western powers.
 He sought to achieve this by introducing Five-Year Plans.
o Nationwide and centralized exercises
o Involves setting of ambitious targets to increase production

B1) Collectivization

 Under Lenin’s New Economic Policy (NEP),

o Farmers were allowed to own their own land and to sell any extra
crops they harvested for profit.
 But now under Stalin, the system of Collectivization was introduced
o The emergence of collective farms
 These collective farms were basically small, private-owned
farms merged into one large mechanized, state-owned farm.
 There was the belief that these larger units of land could be
farmed more efficiently with machines.
 One of the downside of this system was that if one of these
large farms fail to produce, due to bad harvest or weather, it
would also mean huge shortages of crops

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  Eg. The Great Famine, 1932-33
o Aspects of Collectivization
 Land owned by The State
 Crops distributed by The State
 The State decides how much farmers have to produce, how
long they have to work and what their wages were.

Discussion (Students to answer on their own)

 How do you think the Russian peasants reacted to Collectivization? How

would you have felt about Collectivization if you were a) a farmer who
was rich under the NEP, OR, b) a farmer who was poor under the NEP?
 Do you think Collectivization was successful or a failure?
Success Failure

Final verdict: ________________________________.

B2) Rapid Industrialization

 The State Planning Commission was tasked to draw up the Five-Year

Plans in December 1927.
 Industrialization was to focus on heavy industry such as coal, iron, steel
and electricity.

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 o These heavy industries produced goods for other industries’
consumption.
 The State dictated both the workers’ and factories’ production targets.
 In addition, the State also fixed the working hours and wages of the
workers.
 One of the main areas where the heavy industries was in the Magnetic
Mountain/ Magnitogorsk.
o It was the largest iron and steel producer in the Soviet Union.
 The first Five-Year Plan aimed to increase:
o Investment by 228%
o Industrial production by 180%
o Electrical generation by 335%
o Industrial labour force by 39%
 Evaluating the Five-Year Plans (Students to answer on their own)

Success Failure

Final verdict: ________________________________.

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C) Conclusion on Economic Impact

 After accessing the collectivization and rapid industrialization plans of

Stalin, would you say if Stalin had devastated the Soviet Union? Explain
your answer.

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