From plow to atomic bomb.
The economy of Stalin's era is as controversial as the entire era of Stalin. Some repeat the well-known phrase: "He took the country with a plow, and left - with an atomic bomb", that is, he managed to turn a backward agrarian state into a powerful industrial power in just 25 years. Others object: but at what a wild, inhuman price!
We are 50-100 years behind
The economic boom in the USSR in the 1930s – 1950s is often called the “Stalinist economic miracle”. When Stalin came to power, he was sure that if the country was not urgently put on an industrial track, the young socialist state would not last long. “We are 50-100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or we will be crushed. This is what our obligations to the workers and peasants of the USSR dictate to us, said Joseph Stalin at the first all-Union conference of workers in socialist industry on February 4, 1931. Remarkably, Stalin's forecast turned out to be accurate - the Great Patriotic War began ten and a half years later. “We need to transform our country from an agrarian into an industrial one, the sooner the better,” Stalin said.
Rapid and global industrialization is the main achievement of the Stalinist era: in less than three five-year plans, 364 new cities were built in the USSR, about nine thousand large enterprises were put into operation. During the first five-year plan alone, the Stalingrad Tractor Plant appeared, producing 150 thousand cars a year. After him, a tractor plant in Kharkov was put into operation. An automobile industry was created - in Gorky and Moscow. In the Urals, in Sverdlovsk, another giant has grown - Uralmash. In 1932, the first stage of the DneproGES was launched - the largest hydroelectric power plant in the USSR at that time. Thousands of kilometers of railways were under construction - Turksib, connecting Siberia and Turkestan, had a length of almost 1,500 kilometers. Metallurgy giants also appeared in the first half of the 30s: Magnitka - Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant,as well as Lipetsk and Kuznetsk Combines.
Magnitka builder icon.
The entire world watched the forced industrialization of the USSR with admiration and horror, just experiencing the height of the Great Depression. By the mid-30s, in terms of total gross domestic product and industrial production, the USSR took first place in Europe and second in the world (after the United States).
Promotional video:
Abylkhan Kasteev. * Turksib * (1969)
Who paid for the explosive growth?
For such a powerful breakthrough, which was the forced industrialization, serious resources were needed. Stalin himself abandoned the path followed by the Western industrial countries. They drew resources from the colonies. At the same time, Stalin also abandoned the path of loans and concessions that tsarist Russia had taken in its time - the leader called it "voluntary bondage." Stalin outlined another way of development, which he called "the path of socialist accumulation," that is, his own savings for the business of industry.
The peasants had to pay for industrialization. Collectivization (the forced registration of all peasants in collective farms) proceeded in parallel with industrialization: most historians believe that one would be impossible without the other. Collective farms were supposed to provide cities and gigantic construction sites with cheap food, part of the grain would be exported abroad and thus provided currency for industrialization. Historians are still arguing about how the frantic pace of industrial construction and the terrible famine that broke out almost throughout the entire territory of the USSR in the early 30s are related to each other. Due to urgent and compulsory collectivization and incidental dispossession of kulaks, crop losses during harvesting reached 35–40 percent in some regions (at some point, Red Army soldiers were even sent to agricultural work). In addition, 1932 was a barren year. According to various estimates, from 8 to 40 million people suffered from hunger.
Another "resource" for industrialization was the GULAG prisoners - a cheap and agile labor force. By 1935, there were about a million prisoners in the camps of the USSR; by the beginning of the war, this figure had reached 2 million. The prisoners were building the White Sea-Baltic Canal, they also laid the Trans-Siberian railway. About 450 large enterprises were built for the most part by the "inhabitants" of Karlag, Vorkuta and Norilsk ITL, Belomoro-Baltic ITL. According to rough estimates, the volume of capital construction carried out by prisoners amounted to about 18 percent of total state capital investments. Separately, it is worth noting the contribution of the GULAG prisoners to the military economy of the USSR. In his scientific article "The Role of the Gulag in the Economy of the USSR" the economist Rodion Dolzhikov calculateshow many products for the needs of the front were produced by the prisoners. So, in the second year of the war, the question of supplying the front with 82-mm mines was acute. In May 1942, the GULAG fired about a million mines - 30 times more than in 1941. In 1941, 20 million units of ammunition were produced, in 1942 - already 30 million. From 1942 to 1944, 67 million meters of fabric were processed at the garment factories of the GULAG, from which 22 million sets of military uniforms were sewn.of which 22 million sets of military uniforms were sewn.of which 22 million sets of military uniforms were sewn.
Prisoners at the construction site of the White Sea-Baltic Canal.
Dekulakization of the peasants, 1930s. The seized grain.
Alexey Stakhanov exceeded the norm more than 30 times.
Komsomol enthusiasm
Another serious resource for industrialization has become the enthusiasm of the builders, which is competently fueled and encouraged at all levels. Shock Komsomol construction sites became a place of attraction for young specialists from all over the USSR. Someone took part in the construction of industrial giants, succumbing to ideological appeals and romance, someone wanted to make money, for someone the construction was a salvation from hunger in their native villages. Uralmash, the Ural-Kuznetsk Metallurgical Plant, the first stage of the Moscow metro, the construction of railways … The success of the Komsomol construction projects was trumpeted throughout the country, campaigning more and more new participants. The status of a "Komsomol construction site" was given to objects for the timely completion of their construction at the lowest cost. Often they were erected in uninhabited and remote areas,living and working conditions were Spartan. So, the shipyard in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, founded in 1932, was built together by volunteers-Komsomol (after whom the city is named) and prisoners of the GULAG. Moreover, the prisoners were in the majority - about 70 percent. But the barracks and tents in which the builders lived were the same.
The status of a "Komsomol construction site" was given to objects for the timely completion of their construction at the lowest cost.
To prevent the war from being caught by surprise
The USSR met the Great Patriotic War as an industrial country, almost equal in military power to the enemy. The enemy seized vast territories on which large enterprises were located. But many factories, together with the personnel, managed to evacuate to the rear in order to begin work there as soon as possible. The budgets were substantially redrawn: if in 1938 25 percent was spent on defense, then in 1941 - about 44 percent. If Russia entered the First World War, far behind other powers participating in the war (for example, aircraft, guns, machine guns were released several times less), then in World War II the production of tanks and aircraft in the USSR was established at the same level as from the Germans. Tanks began to be produced, including at the largest tractor factories built in the 30s. Although there were sometimes questions about the quality of products, but,nevertheless, it was the hastily carried out industrialization of the country that made it possible to fight on equal terms with the enemy and gain a great victory.
History does not know the subjunctive mood, so it is difficult to imagine what would have happened to the Soviet Union if a milder strategy of gradually increasing the country's industrial level had been chosen. As life has shown, the USSR had little time to prepare for a big war.
March 22 2.1K views 1.4K reads 8 minutes 2.1K views. Unique visitors to the page. 1.4 thousand reads, 67%. Users who have read to the end. 8 minutes Average time to read a publication. Stalin's economic miracle From plow to atomic bomb Boris Berezovsky. poster “Under the leadership of the great Stalin - forward to communism! " (1951) Boris Berezovsky. poster “Under the leadership of the great Stalin - forward to communism! " (1951) Boris Berezovsky. poster “Under the leadership of the great Stalin - forward to communism! " (1951) Could the Methods of Stalin's Economy Be More Humane? The economy of Stalin's era is as controversial as the entire era of Stalin. Some repeat the well-known phrase: “I took a country with a plow, but left - with an atomic bomb "that is, he managed to turn a backward agrarian state into a powerful industrial power in just 25 years. Others object: but at what a wild, inhuman price! “We are 50-100 years behind.” The economic boom in the USSR in the 1930s-1950s is often called the “Stalinist economic miracle”. When Stalin came to power, he was sure that if the country was not urgently put on an industrial track, the young socialist state would not last long. “We are 50-100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or we will be crushed. This is what our obligations to the workers and peasants of the USSR dictate to us”, - stated Joseph Stalin at the first all-Union conference of workers of socialist industry on February 4, 1931. Remarkably, the Stalinist forecast turned out to be accurate -The Great Patriotic War began ten and a half years later. “We need to turn our country from an agrarian to an industrial one, the sooner - so much the better”, - Stalin spoke. Rapid and global industrialization - the main achievement of the Stalinist era: in less than three five-year plans, 364 new cities were built in the USSR, about nine thousand large enterprises were put into operation. During the first five-year plan alone, the Stalingrad Tractor Plant appeared, producing 150 thousand cars a year. After him, a tractor plant in Kharkov was put into operation. The automotive industry was created - in Gorky and Moscow. In the Urals, in Sverdlovsk, another giant has grown - - Uralmash. In 1932, the first stage of the DneproGES was launched - the largest hydroelectric power plant in the USSR at that time. Thousands of kilometers of railways were under construction - Turksib, connecting Siberia and Turkestan, was almost 1,500 kilometers long. Metallurgy giants also appeared in the first half of the 30s: Magnitka - Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine, as well as Lipetsk and Kuznetsk Combines. The icon of the builder of MagnitogorskThe icon of the builder of the Magnitogorsk Icon of the builder of the Magnitogorsk By the mid-30s, in terms of total gross domestic product and industrial production, the USSR took first place in Europe and second in the world (after the United States). Abylkhan Kasteev. Turksib (1969) Abylkhan Kasteev. Turksib (1969) Abylkhan Kasteev. "Turksib" (1969) Industrialization began under the tsar A number of modern historians believe thatthat the laurels of the country's industrialization did not belong to Stalin, but to Nicholas II. In the first decade of the twentieth century, Russian industry was actively developing - mechanical engineering, shipbuilding, chemistry, electrical engineering. In terms of the number of large enterprises and their technological level, the Russian Empire did not lag behind Germany and England. So, by the beginning of the First World War, there were about 400 largest manufacturing plants in the manufacturing industry of Russia, each of which employed more than a thousand people. This was a serious start for the Bolsheviks. The experience of the First World War also taught them a lot: in 1914-1917 Russia suffered from a shortage of metals and fuel, therefore, in the era of Stalin's industrialization, the emphasis was placed on the extractive industry. Who paid for the explosive growth? For such a powerful breakthrough as forced industrialization,serious resources were needed. Stalin himself abandoned the path followed by the Western industrial countries. They drew resources from the colonies. At the same time, Stalin also abandoned the path of loans and concessions, which at one time tsarist Russia followed - - the leader called it "voluntary bondage." Stalin outlined another way of development, which he called "the path of socialist accumulation," that is, his own savings for the business of industry. The peasants had to pay for industrialization. Collectivization (the forced registration of all peasants in collective farms) proceeded in parallel with industrialization: most historians believe that one would be impossible without the other. Collective farms were supposed to provide cities and gigantic construction sites with cheap food, part of the grain would be exported abroad and thus provided currency for industrialization. Historians are still arguing about how the frantic pace of industrial construction and the terrible famine that broke out almost throughout the entire territory of the USSR in the early 30s are related to each other. Due to urgent and compulsory collectivization and incidental dispossession of kulaks, crop losses during harvesting reached 35–40 percent in some regions (at some point, Red Army soldiers were even sent to agricultural work). In addition, 1932 was a barren year. According to various estimates, from 8 to 40 million people suffered from hunger. Another "resource" for industrialization was the prisoners of the GULAG - cheap and maneuverable labor. By 1935, there were about a million prisoners in the camps of the USSR; by the beginning of the war, this figure had reached 2 million. The prisoners were building the White Sea-Baltic Canal, they also laid the Trans-Siberian railway. About 450 large enterprises were built for the most part by the "inhabitants" of Karlag, Vorkuta and Norilsk ITL, Belomoro-Baltic ITL. According to rough estimates, the volume of capital construction carried out by prisoners amounted to about 18 percent of total state capital investments. Separately, it is worth noting the contribution of the GULAG prisoners to the military economy of the USSR. In his scientific article "The Role of the Gulag in the Economy of the USSR," the economist Rodion Dolzhikov calculates how much production for the needs of the front was produced by the prisoners. So, in the second year of the war, the question of supplying the front with 82-mm mines was acute. In May 1942, the GULAG released about a million mines - 30 times more than in 1941. For 1941, 20 million units of ammunition were produced, for 1942 - already 30 million. From 1942 to 1944, 67 million meters of fabric were processed at the garment factories of the GULAG, from which 22 million sets of military uniforms were sewn. Prisoners on the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal Prisoners on the construction of the White-Sea-Baltic Canal Prisoners on the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal Disposal of peasants, 1930s. Withdrawn grain Disposal of peasants, 1930s. The seized grain Dekulakization of peasants, 1930s. Seized grain Stakhanov records Rapid industrialization would have been impossible without heroism and strain. The famous Stakhanov movement emerged during the second five-year plan - in 1935. The miner of a mine in Donbass, Aleksey Stakhanov, mined 102 tons of coal in one shift on the night of August 30-31 (at a rate of 7 tons). Three weeks later, he broke his own record and produced 227 tons of coal per shift. The initiative was supported at the all-Union level - Stakhanovists from different regions were encouraged with material bonuses, newspapers and magazines wrote about them, they became national heroes. Each branch had its own Stakhanovites: Praskovya Angelina worked hard on a tractor, the blacksmith Alexander Busygin - at the Gorky plant, Makar Mazay - in metallurgy. The accelerated pace of work had a good effect on the wages of workers - in two or three years, with a constant overfulfillment of the plan, their earnings doubled and tripled. Alexey Stakhanov exceeded the norm by more than 30 times Alexey Stakhanov exceeded the norm by more than 30 times Alexey Stakhanov exceeded the norm by more than 30 times Enthusiasm of the Komsomol Another serious resource for industrialization was the enthusiasm of builders, competently fueled and encouraged at all levels. Shock Komsomol construction sites became a place of attraction for young specialists from all over the USSR. Someone took part in the construction of industrial giants, succumbing to ideological appeals and romance, someone wanted to make money, for someone the construction was a salvation from hunger in their native villages. Uralmash, Ural-Kuznetsk Metallurgical Plant, the first stage of the Moscow metro, construction of railways & hellip; The success of the Komsomol construction projects was trumpeted throughout the country, agitating more and more new participants. The status of a "Komsomol construction site" was given to objects for the timely completion of their construction at the lowest cost. They were often erected in uninhabited and remote areas, living and working conditions were Spartan. So, the shipyard in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, founded in 1932, was built together by volunteers-Komsomol (after whom the city is named) and prisoners of the GULAG. Moreover, the majority of the prisoners were - about 70 percent. But the barracks and tents in which the builders lived were the same. The status of “Komsomol construction” was given to objects for the timely completion of their construction at the lowest cost The status of “Komsomol construction” was given to facilities for the timely completion of their construction at the lowest cost The status of “Komsomol construction” was given to facilities for the timely completion of their construction at the lowest cost So that the war would not catch the Great The USSR met the Patriotic War as an industrial country, almost equal in military power to the enemy. The enemy seized vast territories on which large enterprises were located. But many factories, together with the personnel, managed to evacuate to the rear in order to begin work there as soon as possible. The budgets were significantly redrawn: if in 1938 25 percent was spent on defense, then in 1941 - mdash; about 44 percent. If Russia entered the First World War, far behind other powers participating in the war (for example, aircraft, guns, machine guns were released several times less), then in World War II the production of tanks and aircraft in the USSR was established at the same level as from the Germans. Tanks began to be produced, including at the largest tractor factories built in the 30s. Although the quality of products sometimes raised questions, but, nevertheless, it was the hastily carried out industrialization of the country that made it possible to fight on equal terms with the enemy and gain a great victory. History does not know the subjunctive mood, so it is difficult to imagine what would have happened to the Soviet Union if a milder strategy of gradually increasing the country's industrial level had been chosen. As life has shown, the USSR had little time to prepare for a big war. Reform of 1947:bought gold, vodka, furniture The post-war economy of the country was marked by the monetary reform of 1947. Its goal was to reduce inflation, as well as to abolish the rationing system that had been in effect throughout the war. The reform was tough enough - conducted a denomination of the ruble, the old money was exchanged for new ones in just one week (an exception was made for remote regions of the Far North, where the exchange took two weeks). The reform was aimed at “removing the surplus money supply” from the population. When recalculated, the salary remained unchanged, but the amounts lying on the savings account, if they exceeded three thousand rubles, decreased by a third. If more than 10 thousand rubles - half of the amount was withdrawn. Those who kept money at home received one new ruble for 10 old ones during the exchange. When rumors of monetary reform leaked "to the people", panic began. All,who had any savings, tried to save them from depreciation. In an effort to minimize damage, people bought everything they could get their hands on in the post-war country, from furniture, motorcycles and bicycles to gold, alcohol and canned food. Queues lined up at the savings banks - people either withdrew money in order to spend it urgently, or, on the contrary, split large deposits into several small ones, which could then be exchanged one for one, opening them to dummies. In December 1947, the reform was carried out and the goal was achieved - inflation stopped and cards canceled. Soviet factories were built by the Americans Although the Soviet leadership in the 1930s advocated a complete rejection of the "capitalist influence of the West", nevertheless, foreigners took an active part in industrialization. They were paid in foreign currency. Specialists of various profiles were actively invited. The fact that in the West in the early 30s was the peak of the Great Depression played into the hands of the USSR, for the work - even in Russia - grabbed with both hands. Thus, the American architect Albert Kahn, who built an automobile production in Detroit, became the main consultant to the Soviet government on industrial construction. The Stalingrad Tractor Plant was built according to Kahn's project. It was first built in the United States, then dismantled and transported to Stalingrad, where Soviet builders reassembled it under the guidance of American engineers. Automobile factories in Moscow and Gorky, foundries and forging shops in Chelyabinsk, Magnitogorsk, Nizhny Tagil, Kharkov and other cities -In total, Albert Kahn and his company participated in the construction of about 500 Soviet industrial facilities and earned about $ 2 billion. In the workshop of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant. 1930 In the workshop of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant. 1930 In the workshop of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant. 1930 year.
Author: Lyubov Rumyantseva