Stalin’s Domestic Policies – Part II

Collectivization of Agriculture

• Industrial development could not occur without sufficient food production

• Collectivization was pursued as a means of giving the government the food supply needed for workers in cities

Collectivization of Agriculture

• Peasants were forced to work on collective farms by the secret police

• The main goal of the revolution from the peasants’ point of view was land ownership and some had worked on their land for generations, so they were resistant to this idea

• Those peasants who resisted were killed or faced starvation

• Some peasants were persuaded by propaganda to join collectives, but the better-off peasants weren’t (kulaks)

Kulaks

• The kulaks resisted collectivization by smashing farm tools, burning farm buildings, slaughtering livestock, and setting crops on fire

• Quotas were set up for each locality to arrest a certain number of them. The secret police, Red Army, and others showed up with lists or relied on denunciations

• They were executed, sent to Gulags, or moved to settle in remote areas

Collectivization of Agriculture

• In 1932, a crop failure came which resulted in a famine that killed 5 million

• By 1939, 95% of Russian farms had been collectivized, but some concessions were made to peasants:– Were allowed too keep small plots for

their own use– Were able to keep their own cattle– Were able to sell their extra crops on the

open market for profit

Collectivization of Agriculture• Results:

– The workers were guaranteed a supply of cheap food

– The produce of collectives was sold in overseas markets for big profit – the money could be used in industries

– The government gained greater control over the production and allocation of food, which helped during Germany’s invasion

– Kulaks were virtually eliminated– Had an enormous human cost– Agricultural production didn’t increase

Education In the USSR• Was one of the primary goals

– Lenin put into policy likbez (literacy), where people 8-50 were required to be literate in the Russian language

– Compulsory education was established for children

• Russian children were to be educated to obey the state and many parents were turned in as traitors by their own children

• Stalin ordered the writing of a book called “A Short History of the USSR” to be used in all schools which overplayed his role in the 1917 Revolution as well as his relationship with Lenin

Education In the USSR

• Education was free, even higher education

• The literacy rate dropped from 60% in 1917 to 20% by 1939

• With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the states had to take on the financial burden of free education

The Arts In the USSR

• Art became a political tool to help spread communist ideals

• Artists and writers were instructed to paint pictures and write poems which glorified Stalin

• Prizes were awarded for “ideological correctness in the arts”

• Some artists committed suicide rather than follow state orders

The Arts In the USSR

• Architects were considered among the elite of society and contrary to Communist ideals, lived in lavish apartments

• By July 1932, all independent organizations were abolished and replaced with the Union of Soviet Architects

• As he implemented collectivism, Stalin desired to make cities of “super buildings,” many based on his personal tastes; the construction program was based on prison labor

Women In the USSR

• The 1926 census showed a deficit of males after:– World War I– The Revolution– The Civil War

• This deficit was only furthered by:– Collectivization– Stalin's purges– World War II

• In the period between 1932 and 1937 women constituted 82 percent of all newly employed workers

Women In the USSR

• Because the USSR was so poor, both husbands and wives often had to work

• Despite many new responsibilities for women at the work place, nothing changed for women at home

• All of the child rearing and household duties women had always performed remained for them to take care of when they were not on the job

Women In the USSR

• Women served as much time on the job as did men, but at home they devoted a least two and a half times the amount that men did to household duties– Laundry – In the 1930s, 2/3 of urban families had to

obtain water from a communal tap. Running water itself was rare in the rural areas

– Shopping – Women traveled far to shop since there were so many shortages on basic necessities, and they waited huge amounts of time in line

Women In the USSR

• As a result, women had less time for leisure and for education

• Lack of education and career interruptions due to childbirth prevented them from being promoted

• The population levels of the country had dropped and the Party was desperately trying to find a solution to the issue of family disintegration

Women In the USSR

• Social services to women were not in great supply despite the fact that by the mid 1930s Stalin was very intent on restoring family stability:– Additional allowances were made to mothers in the

1930s who bore more children– The number of pre-schools increased– Very limited amounts of adoption and foster care

were allowed as well– The use of birth control was not allowed– Abortions were banned

Social Control

• The secret police were renamed from the Cheka to the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD)

• The purpose of the organization was to purge counter-revolutionaries

• The Gulag, or forced labor camps contained several million inmates of both criminal and political dissenters

Stalin’s Treatment of Minorities and Religious Groups

• Forced labor camps (Gulags) had been established in 1919, but it was not until the Stalin era that camp population reached significant numbers

• Conditions in the camps were extremely harsh

• Prisoners received inadequate food and clothing which made it difficult to endure the severe weather and long working hours

• The death rate from exhaustion and disease in the camps was high

Stalin’s Treatment of Minorities and Religious Groups

• Stalin’s purges involved “the removal of unwanted or potentially threatening elements from the country”:– The intelligentsia– Religious groups– Non-Russian nationalities

• The police terror in which millions of innocent people perished had no rationale beyond assuring Stalin’s absolute dominance

Stalin’s Treatment of Minorities and Religious Groups

• Before the Revolution, the Russian Orthodox church had an estimated 100 million members in 54,457 churches

• By 1930, 80% of the village churches in Russia were gone

• In the Ukraine, only 5 out of 4,900 churches survived. The number of Orthodox clergy was reduced from 2,000 to almost 200

Stalin’s Treatment of Minorities and Religious Groups: The Kulaks

• Soviets were ordered to turn in a certain percentage of kulaks or rich peasants in their area

• Many hard working farmers had been able to buy another mule, horse, or a few extra sheep were included since they had more than their comrades and were included as kulaks

• Villages that could not produce their quota of kulaks would rearrest common criminals or a passing gypsy band

Stalin’s Treatment of Minorities and Religious Groups: The Jews

• Israel– Stalin was the first to recognize Israel in 1948, but

he did so because he thought it could be turned into a Soviet outpost

– He believed he could use the outpost to get rid of British influence in the area

– When that failed and the new country looked instead to America, the ideological enemy, he became a staunch anti-Zionist

Stalin’s Treatment of Minorities and Religious Groups: The Jews

• Because two important Soviet officials were hospitalized, treated by the same Jewish doctor, and died, Stalin sought to rid Jews from the medical profession

• Thousands lost their jobs in the government and poets were put on trial (Night of the Murdered Poets)

• Eventually, Stalin broke off relations with Israel and rumor had it that new camps for Jews were being created when Stalin died

Stalin’s Treatment of Minorities and Religious Groups: The Cossacks

• Cossacks lived in the south of Russia and had supported the tsar, thus they were deemed counterrevolutionary

• In Stalin’s decossackization policy, they were killed and harassed so much by the Soviet government that many fought with the Nazis in WWII

• Hundreds of thousands were killed

Stalin’s Treatment of Minorities and Religious Groups

• Estimates of the number of people killed in the Great Terror remain a point of contention

• Stalin himself admitted to Churchill that he liquidated 20 million

• This is probably an accurate number if you count all those deliberately starved, shot, worked to death, beaten to death, driven to the point of suicide, or killed by neglect or exposure