"Revolution from Above"

Paper Summary:

Joseph Stalin set out to change the strictly agricultural Russia into an industrially powerful nation. In November 1927, Stalin launched his "revolution from above" by setting two extraordinary goals for Soviet domestic policy: rapid industrialization and collectivization of agriculture. This papers examines the effects of Stalin's Five-Year Plans. It shows that although Russia reached new economic and industrial levels and became more modernized, Stalin was a brutal, single minded dictator who exploited the workers, allowed millions to die in slave labor and kept the populace in a constant state of fear and paranoia.

From the Paper:

"Stalin focused particular hostility on the wealthier peasants, or kulaks. About one million kulak households were deported and never heard from again. Forced collectivization of the remaining peasants, which was often fiercely resisted, resulted in a disastrous disruption of agricultural productivity and a catastrophic famine in 1932-33. Although the First Five-Year Plan called for the collectivization of only twenty percent of peasant households, by 1940 approximately ninety-seven percent of all peasant households had been collectivized and private ownership of property almost entirely eliminated. Forced collectivization helped achieve Stalin's goal of rapid industrialization and modernization, but the human costs were incalculable.1"

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