What are the reasons for collectivization in the USSR. The results of collectivization in the USSR
COLLECTIVIZATION OF AGRICULTURE
reasons for collectivization. The implementation of grandiose industrialization required a radical restructuring of the agricultural sector. In Western countries, the agrarian revolution, i.e. system of improving agricultural production, preceded the industrial revolution. In the USSR, both of these processes had to be carried out simultaneously. At the same time, some party leaders believed that if the capitalist countries created industry at the expense of funds received from the exploitation of the colonies, then socialist industrialization could be carried out through the exploitation of the "inner colony" - the peasantry. The village was considered not only as a source of food, but also as the most important replenishment channel. financial resources for the needs of industrialization. But it is much easier to drain funds from a few hundred large farms than to deal with millions of small ones. That is why, with the beginning of industrialization, a course was taken towards collectivization Agriculture- "implementation of socialist transformations in the countryside."
In November 1929, Pravda published Stalin's article "The Year of the Great Turn", which spoke of "a radical change in the development of our agriculture from small and backward individual farming to large-scale and advanced collective farming." In December, Stalin announced the end of the NEP and the transition to a policy of "liquidating the kulaks as a class." On January 5, 1930, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks issued a resolution "On the rate of collectivization and measures of state assistance to collective farm construction." It set strict deadlines for the completion of collectivization: for the North Caucasus, the Lower and Middle Volga - autumn 1930, in extreme cases - spring 1931, for other grain regions - autumn 1931 or no later than spring 1932. All other regions were to "solve the problem of collectivization within five years." Such a formulation oriented to complete collectivization by the end of the first five-year plan.
However, this document did not answer the main questions: what methods to carry out collectivization, how to carry out dispossession, what to do with the dispossessed? And since the countryside had not yet cooled down from the violence of grain procurement campaigns, the same method was adopted - violence.
Dispossession. Two interconnected violent processes took place in the countryside: the creation of collective farms and dispossession. The "liquidation of the kulaks" was aimed primarily at providing the collective farms with a material base. From the end of 1929 to the middle of 1930, more than 320,000 peasant farms were dispossessed. Their property worth more than 175 million rubles. transferred to collective farms.
However, the authorities did not exact definition who should be counted as fists. In the generally accepted sense, a kulak is someone who used hired labor, but this category could also include an average peasant who had two cows, or two horses, or good house. Each district received a dispossession rate, which averaged 5-7% of the number of peasant households, but the local authorities, following the example of the first five-year plan, tried to overfulfill it. Often, not only the middle peasants, but also, for some reason, objectionable poor peasants were recorded in kulaks. To justify these actions, the ominous word "fist-fist" was coined. In some areas, the number of dispossessed reached 15-20%.
The liquidation of the kulaks as a class, by depriving the countryside of the most enterprising, most independent peasants, undermined the spirit of resistance. In addition, the fate of the dispossessed was supposed to serve as an example to others, those who did not want to voluntarily go to the collective farm. Kulaks were evicted with their families, infants, and the elderly. In cold, unheated wagons, with a minimum amount of household belongings, thousands of people traveled to remote areas of the Urals, Siberia, and Kazakhstan. The most active "anti-Soviet" were sent to concentration camps.
For help local authorities 25,000 urban communists ("25,000 men") were sent to the countryside.
"Dizzy with Success" In many areas, especially in the Ukraine, the Caucasus and Central Asia, the peasantry resisted mass dispossession. To suppress peasant unrest, regular units of the Red Army were involved. But most often the peasants used passive forms of protest: they refused to join collective farms, they destroyed livestock and implements as a sign of protest. Terrorist acts were also committed against "twenty-five thousand" and local collective farm activists. Collective farm holiday. Artist S. Gerasimov.
By the spring of 1930, it became clear to Stalin that the insane collectivization launched at his call was threatening with disaster. Discontent began to seep into the army. Stalin made a well-calculated tactical move. On March 2, Pravda published his article "Dizziness from Success". He laid all the blame for the situation on the executors, local workers, declaring that "collective farms cannot be planted by force." After this article, most peasants began to perceive Stalin as a people's defender. A mass exit of peasants from collective farms began.
But a step back was taken only in order to immediately take a dozen steps forward. In September 1930, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks sent a letter to local party organizations condemning their passive behavior, fear of "excesses" and demanding "to achieve a powerful upsurge of the collective-farm movement." In September 1931, collective farms already united 60% of peasant households, in 1934 - 75%.
Collectivization results. Politics complete collectivization led to disastrous results: for 1929-1934. gross grain production decreased by 10%, the number of cattle and horses for 1929-1932. decreased by one third, pigs - 2 times, sheep - 2.5 times.
The extermination of livestock, the ruin of the village by the incessant dispossession of kulaks, the complete disorganization of the work of collective farms in 1932-1933. led to an unprecedented famine that affected approximately 25-30 million people. To a large extent, it was provoked by the policy of the authorities. The country's leadership, trying to hide the scale of the tragedy, forbade mentioning the famine in the media. Despite its scale, 18 million centners of grain were exported abroad to receive foreign currency for the needs of industrialization.
However, Stalin celebrated his victory: despite the reduction in grain production, its deliveries to the state increased by 2 times. But most importantly, collectivization created the necessary conditions to implement plans for an industrial leap. It put at the disposal of the city a huge number of workers, simultaneously eliminating agrarian overpopulation, made it possible, with a significant decrease in the number of employed, to maintain agricultural production at a level that did not allow for a long famine, and provided industry with the necessary raw materials. Collectivization not only created the conditions for transferring funds from the village to the city for the needs of industrialization, but also fulfilled an important political and ideological task, destroying the last island market economy- privately owned peasant economy.
Kolkhoz peasantry. Village life in the early 1930s proceeded against the backdrop of the horrors of dispossession and the creation of collective farms. These processes led to the elimination of the social gradation of the peasantry. The kulaks, the middle peasants, and the poor, as well as the generalized concept of the individual peasant, disappeared from the countryside. New concepts were introduced into everyday life - the collective farm peasantry, the collective farmer, the collective farm woman.
The situation of the population in the countryside was much more difficult than in the city. The village was perceived primarily as a supplier of cheap grain and a source of labor. The state constantly increased the rate of grain procurements, taking almost half of the harvest from the collective farms. The calculation for the grain supplied to the state was made at fixed prices, which during the 30s. remained almost unchanged, while the prices of manufactured goods increased by almost 10 times. The wages of collective farmers were regulated by a system of workdays. Its size was determined based on the income of the collective farm, i.e. that part of the harvest that remained after settlement with the state and the machine and tractor stations (MTS), which provided agricultural machinery to the collective farms. As a rule, the incomes of collective farms were low and did not provide living wage. For workdays, peasants were paid in grain or other manufactured products. The work of the collective farmer was almost not paid for with money.
At the same time, as industrialization progressed, more tractors, combines, motor vehicles and other equipment began to arrive in the countryside, which were concentrated in the MTS. This helped to sort out Negative consequences loss of working livestock in the previous period. Young specialists appeared in the village - agronomists, machine operators, who were trained by educational institutions of the country.
In the mid 30s. the situation in agriculture has somewhat stabilized. In February 1935, the government allowed peasants to have a household plot, one cow, two calves, a pig with piglets, and 10 sheep. Individual farms began to supply their products to the market. The card system was abolished. Life in the countryside began to improve little by little, which Stalin did not fail to take advantage of, declaring to the whole country: "Life has become better, life has become more fun."
The Soviet countryside reconciled itself to the collective farm system, although the peasantry remained the most disenfranchised category of the population. The introduction of passports in the country, which the peasants were not supposed to, meant not only the erection of an administrative wall between the city and the countryside, but also the actual attachment of the peasants to their place of birth, depriving them of their freedom of movement and choice of occupation. From a legal point of view, the collective farmer, who did not have a passport, was tied to the collective farm in the same way as a serf had once been to the land of his master.
The direct result of forced collectivization was the indifference of the collective farmers to the socialized property and the results of their own labor.
FORMING THE POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE USSR IN THE 1930s
Formation of a totalitarian regime. The grandiose tasks set before the country, which required centralization and exertion of all forces, led to the formation of a political regime, later called totalitarian (from the Latin word "whole", "complete"). Under such a regime, state power is concentrated in the hands of any one group (usually a political party), which has destroyed democratic freedoms in the country and the possibility of an opposition. This ruling group completely subordinates the life of society to its interests and retains power through violence, mass repressions, and spiritual enslavement of the population.
In the first half of the XX century. such regimes were established not only in the USSR, but also in some other countries that also solved the problem of a modernization breakthrough.
The core of the totalitarian regime in the USSR was the Communist Party. Party bodies were in charge of the appointment and dismissal of officials, nominated candidates for deputies of the Soviets at various levels. Only party members occupied all responsible state posts, stood at the head of the army, law enforcement and judiciary were in charge of the national economy. No law could be adopted without prior approval from the Politburo. Many state and economic functions were transferred to party authorities. The Politburo determined the entire foreign and domestic policy of the state, solved the issues of planning and organizing production. Even party symbols have acquired an official status - the red banner and the party anthem "Internationale" have become state.
By the end of the 30s. The face of the party has also changed. She finally lost the remnants of democracy. Complete “unanimity” reigned in the party ranks. Ordinary members of the party and even the majority of members of the Central Committee were excluded from the development of party policy, which became the prerogative of the Politburo and the party apparatus.
Ideologization of public life. Party control over the mass media played a special role, through which official views were disseminated and explained. With the help of the "Iron Curtain" the problem of the penetration of other ideological views from the outside was solved.
The education system has also changed. The structure of the curricula and the content of the courses were completely rebuilt. They were now based on the Marxist-Leninist interpretation not only of social science courses, but sometimes of the natural sciences as well.
Under the undivided party influence was the creative intelligentsia, whose activities, along with the bodies of the CPSU (b), were controlled by creative unions. In 1932, the Central Committee of the party adopted a resolution "On the restructuring of literary and artistic organizations." It was decided "to unite all writers who support the platform of Soviet power and strive to participate in socialist construction into a single union of Soviet writers. To carry out similar changes in the line of other types of art." In 1934, the First All-Union Congress of the Union of Soviet Writers took place. He accepted the charter and elected a board headed by A. M. Gorky.
Work began on the creation of creative unions of artists, composers, filmmakers, who were supposed to unite all those who worked professionally in these areas in order to establish party control over them. For "spiritual" support, the government provided certain material benefits and privileges (the use of art houses, workshops, receiving advance payments during long-term creative work, providing housing, etc.).
In addition to the creative intelligentsia, other categories of the population of the USSR were covered by official mass organizations. All employees of enterprises and institutions were members of trade unions, which were completely under the control of the party. Young people from the age of 14 were united in the ranks of the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union (Komsomol, Komsomol), declared a reserve and assistant to the party. The younger schoolchildren were members of the October organization, and the older ones were members of the pioneer organization. Mass associations were created for innovators, inventors, women, athletes and other categories of the population.
Formation of Stalin's personality cult. One of the elements of the political regime of the USSR was the personality cult of Stalin. December 21, 1929 he turned 50 years old. Until that date, it was not customary to publicly celebrate the anniversaries of the leaders of the party and state. The Lenin Jubilee was the only exception. But on that day, the Soviet country learned that it had a great leader - Stalin was publicly declared "the first disciple of Lenin" and the only "leader of the party." The newspaper "Pravda" was filled with articles, greetings, letters, telegrams, from which flowed a stream of flattery. The initiative of Pravda was picked up by other newspapers, from metropolitan to regional ones, magazines, radio, cinema: the organizer of October, the founder of the Red Army and an outstanding commander, the winner of the armies of the White Guards and interventionists, the guardian of Lenin's "general line", the leader of the world proletariat and the great strategist of the five-year plan ...
Stalin began to be called "wise", "great", "brilliant". A "father of peoples" and "the best friend of Soviet children" appeared in the country. Academics, artists, workers and party workers challenged each other for the palm of praise for Stalin. But everyone was surpassed by the Kazakh folk poet Dzhambul, who in the same "Pravda" intelligibly explained to everyone that "Stalin is deeper than the ocean, higher than the Himalayas, brighter than the sun. He is the teacher of the Universe."
Mass repression. Along with ideological institutions, the totalitarian regime also had another reliable support - a system of punitive organs for the persecution of dissidents. In the early 30s. the last political trials took place over the former opponents of the Bolsheviks - the former Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries. Almost all of them were shot or sent to prisons and camps. At the end of the 20s. "Shakhty case" served as a signal for the deployment of the fight against "pests" from among the scientific and technical intelligentsia in all sectors of the national economy. From the beginning of the 1930s A massive repressive campaign was launched against the kulaks and the middle peasants. On August 7, 1932, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars adopted the law "On the protection of property" written by Stalin state enterprises collective farms and cooperation and the strengthening of public (socialist) property", which went down in history as the law "on five spikelets", according to which even minor theft from the collective farm field was punished by execution.
In November 1934, a Special Council was formed under the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, which was given the right to administratively send "enemies of the people" into exile or forced labor camps for up to five years. At the same time, the principles of legal proceedings that protected the rights of the individual in the face of the state were discarded. The special meeting was given the right to consider cases in the absence of the accused, without the participation of witnesses, the prosecutor and the lawyer.
The reason for the deployment of mass repressions in the country was the murder on December 1, 1934 in Leningrad of a member of the Politburo, the first secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, S. M. Kirov. A few hours after this tragic event, a law was adopted on the "simplified procedure" for dealing with cases of terrorist acts and organizations. According to this law, the investigation was to be carried out in an accelerated manner and complete its work within ten days; the indictment was handed over to the accused a day before the case was heard in court; cases were heard without the participation of the parties - the prosecutor and the defense; requests for pardon were prohibited, and execution sentences were carried out immediately after their announcement.
This act was followed by other laws that toughened punishments and expanded the circle of persons subjected to repression. Monstrous was the government decree of April 7, 1935, which prescribed "minors, starting from the age of 12, convicted of theft, violence, bodily injury, murder or attempted murder, to be brought to criminal court with the use of all measures criminal punishment, including the death penalty. (Subsequently, this law will be used as a method of pressure on the defendants in order to persuade them to give false testimony in order to protect their children from reprisal.)
Show trials. Having found a weighty reason and created a "legal foundation", Stalin proceeded to physically eliminate all those who were dissatisfied with the regime. In 1936, the first of the largest Moscow trials of the leaders of the internal party opposition took place. Lenin's closest associates - Zinoviev, Kamenev and others - were on trial. They were accused of murdering Kirov, of trying to kill Stalin and other members of the Politburo, and also to overthrow the Soviet government. Prosecutor A. Ya. Vyshinsky declared: "I demand that the enraged dogs be shot - every one of them!" The court granted this requirement.
In 1937, a second trial took place, during which another group of representatives of the "Leninist Guard" was convicted. In the same year, a large group of senior officers led by Marshal Tukhachevsky was repressed. In March 1938, the third Moscow trial took place. Were shot former head government Rykov and "favorite of the party" Bukharin. Each of these processes led to the unwinding of the flywheel of repression for tens of thousands of people, primarily for relatives and friends, colleagues and even just housemates. Only in the top leadership of the army were destroyed: out of 5 marshals - 3, out of 5 commanders of the 1st rank - 3, out of 10 commanders of the 2nd rank - 10, out of 57 corps commanders - 50, out of 186 commanders - 154. Following them, 40 thousand were repressed officers of the Red Army.
At the same time, a secret department was created in the NKVD, which was engaged in the destruction of political opponents of the authorities who found themselves abroad. In August 1940, on Stalin's orders, Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico. The victims of the Stalinist regime were many leaders of the white movement, the monarchist emigration.
According to official, clearly underestimated data, in 1930-1953. 3.8 million people were repressed on charges of counter-revolutionary, anti-state activities, of which 786 thousand were shot.
The constitution of "victorious socialism". The "Great Terror" served as a monstrous mechanism by which Stalin tried to eliminate social tension in the country caused by the negative consequences of his own economic and political decisions. It was impossible to admit to the mistakes made, and in order to hide the failure, and, therefore, to maintain one's unlimited dominance over the party, the country and the international communist movement, it was necessary by all means of intimidation to wean people from doubting, to accustom them to see what really did not exist. The logical continuation of this policy was the adoption of the new Constitution of the USSR, which served as a kind of screen designed to cover the totalitarian regime with democratic and socialist clothes.
The new constitution was adopted on December 5, 1936 at the VIII All-Union Extraordinary Congress of Soviets. Stalin, justifying the necessity of adopting a new constitution, stated that Soviet society "realized what the Marxists call the first phase of communism - socialism." The "Stalinist constitution" proclaimed the elimination of private property (and, consequently, the exploitation of man by man) and the creation of two forms of ownership - state and collective-farm-cooperative as the economic criterion for building socialism. The Soviets of Working People's Deputies were recognized as the political basis of the USSR. The Communist Party was given the role of the leading core of society; Marxism-Leninism was declared the official, state ideology.
The Constitution provided all citizens of the USSR, regardless of their gender and nationality, with basic democratic rights and freedoms - freedom of conscience, speech, press, assembly, inviolability of the person and home, as well as direct equal suffrage.
The supreme governing body of the country was the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, consisting of two chambers - the Council of the Union and the Council of Nationalities. In between its sessions, executive and legislative power was to be exercised by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The USSR included 11 union republics: Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Armenian, Turkmen, Uzbek, Tajik, Kazakh, Kyrgyz.
But in real life, most of the provisions of the constitution turned out to be an empty declaration. And socialism "Stalinist" had a very formal resemblance to the Marxist understanding of socialism. Its goal was not to create economic, political and cultural prerequisites for the free development of each member of society, but to increase the power of the state by infringing on the interests of the majority of its citizens.
NATIONAL POLICY AT THE LATE 1920-1930s
Attack on Islam. In the second half of the 20s. changed the attitude of the Bolsheviks to the Muslim religion. Church land holdings, the proceeds of which went to the maintenance of mosques, schools and hospitals, were abolished. The lands were transferred to the peasantry, schools that provided religious education (madrasahs) were replaced by secular ones, and hospitals were included in the state health care system. Most mosques were closed. Sharia courts were also abolished. Removed from their duties, the clergy were forced to publicly repent that they "deceived the people."
In the cities, on the instructions of the Center, a campaign was launched to eradicate Muslim traditions that do not correspond to the norms of "communist morality." In 1927, on International Women's Day on March 8, women gathered for a rally defiantly tore off their burqa and threw it directly into the fire. For many believers, this sight was a real shock. The fate of the first representatives of this movement was deplorable. Their appearance in public places caused an explosion of indignation, they were beaten, and sometimes killed.
Noisy propaganda campaigns were carried out against ritual prayers and the celebration of Ramadan. The official ruling on this matter stated that these humiliating and reactionary practices prevent workers from "taking an active part in the building of socialism" because they are contrary to the principles of labor discipline and the planned principles of the economy. Polygamy and the payment of kalym (bride price) were also banned as incompatible with Soviet family law. Making the pilgrimage to Mecca, which every Muslim is obliged to make at least once in his life, has become impossible.
All these measures caused violent discontent, which, however, did not take the scale of mass resistance. However, several Chechen imams declared a holy war against the enemies of Allah. In 1928-1929. uprisings broke out among the highlanders of the North Caucasus. In Central Asia, the Basmachi movement again raised its head. These speeches were suppressed with the help of army units.
The repressions that fell upon Muslims led to the fact that people stopped openly demonstrating their adherence to Islam. However, the Muslim faith and customs never disappeared from family life. Underground religious brotherhoods arose, whose members secretly performed religious rites.
Sovietization of national cultures. In the late 20s - 30s. the course towards the development of national languages and culture was curtailed. In 1926, Stalin reproached the Ukrainian people's commissar for education for the fact that his policy led to the separation of Ukrainian culture from the general Soviet one, which was based on Russian culture with "its highest achievement - Leninism."
First of all, in national systems education, the use of local languages in public institutions. Compulsory study of a second language, Russian, was introduced in elementary and secondary schools. At the same time, the number of schools where teaching was conducted only in Russian increased. Teaching in higher education was translated into Russian. The only exceptions were Georgia and Armenia, whose peoples jealously guarded the primacy of their languages.
At the same time, the state languages of the Caucasus and Central Asia went through a double reform of the alphabet. In 1929, all local writing systems, mainly Arabic, were transferred to the Latin alphabet. Ten years later, Cyrillic was introduced - the Russian alphabet. These reforms virtually nullified previous efforts to spread literacy and written culture among the population.
Another source of introduction to the Russian language was the army. In the 1920s, with the introduction of universal military service, attempts were made to create ethnically homogeneous units. Even then, however, commanders were usually either Russians or Ukrainians. In 1938, the practice of forming national military units was eliminated. Recruits were sent to units with a mixed national composition, stationed far from their homeland. Russian became the language of military training and command.
The recognition of the Russian language as the state language of the USSR pursued not only ideological goals. Firstly, it facilitated the possibility of interethnic communication, which was important in the conditions of ongoing economic modernization. Secondly, it made life easier for the Russian population in the national republics, whose number increased significantly in connection with the implementation of the five-year plans.
And, thirdly, it made it possible for parents who had far-reaching plans for the future of their children to send them to schools where they could learn the state language and thus gain advantages over their compatriots. Therefore, the national elites did not protest against linguistic innovations.
However, the increase in the status of the Russian language did not at all mean a return to the tsarist policy of Russification. The anti-religious campaign and the collectivization of agriculture dealt a crushing blow to all national cultures, which were predominantly rural and contained a strong religious element, including Russian culture. Most of the Russian villages lost their Orthodox churches, priests, believing hardworking peasants, traditional system land ownership, has lost the most important elements of Russian national culture. The same can be said about Belarus and Ukraine. In addition, the Russian language has now become an expression of the multinational party Soviet culture, and not Russian in its traditional sense.
"Alignment economic level national outskirts". Destruction of national personnel. One of the main tasks of industrialization and collectivization was proclaimed by the party to raise the level economic development national outskirts. To accomplish this task, the same universal methods were used, which often did not take into account national traditions and characteristics. economic activity different peoples.
The example of Kazakhstan was indicative, where collectivization was primarily associated with intensified attempts to force the nomadic people to switch to arable farming. In 1929-1932. cattle, and especially sheep, were literally destroyed in Kazakhstan. The number of Kazakhs engaged in cattle breeding decreased from 80% of the total population to almost 25%. The actions of the authorities did not correspond to national traditions so much that fierce armed resistance became the answer to them. Basmachi, who disappeared in the late 1920s, reappeared. Now they were joined by those who refused to join the collective farms. The rebels killed the collective farm authorities and party workers. Hundreds of thousands of Kazakhs with their herds went abroad, to Chinese Turkestan.
While proclaiming a policy of "equalizing the economic level of the national outskirts," the central government at the same time demonstrated colonial habits. The first five-year plan, for example, envisaged a reduction in cereal crops in Uzbekistan, and in return, cotton production expanded to incredible proportions. Most of it was to become raw material for the factories of the European part of Russia. Such a policy threatened to turn Uzbekistan into a raw materials appendage and caused strong resistance. The leaders of the Uzbek Republic worked out an alternative plan for economic development, which assumed greater independence and versatility of the republican economy. This plan was rejected, and its authors were arrested and shot on charges of "bourgeois nationalism."
With the beginning of industrialization and collectivization, the principle of "indigenization" was also subject to adjustment. Since directive changes in the economy and the centralization of management were by no means always welcomed by local leaders, leaders were increasingly sent from the Center. Leaders national formations and cultural figures who tried to continue the policy of the twenties were subjected to repression. In 1937-1938. in fact, the party and economic leaders of the national republics were completely replaced. Many leading figures of education, literature and art were repressed. Usually, local leaders were replaced by Russians sent directly from Moscow, sometimes by more "understanding" representatives of the indigenous peoples. The most egregious situation was in the Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, where the republican politburos disappeared in their entirety.
Industrial construction in national areas. Nevertheless, the economic modernization that began in the country changed the face of the national republics. The policy of creating industrial centers based on local raw materials has brought positive results.
In Belarus, mainly woodworking, paper, leather and glass enterprises were built. Already during the years of the first five-year plan, it began to turn into an industrial republic: 40 new enterprises were built, mainly for the production of consumer goods. The share of industrial production in the national economy of the republic was 53%. During the years of the second five-year plan, new industries were created in Belarus: fuel (peat), machine-building, and chemical.
In the Ukrainian SSR during the years of the first five-year plan, 400 enterprises were put into operation, among them such as the Dneproges, the Kharkov Tractor Plant, the Kramatorsk Heavy Engineering Plant, etc. The share of industrial products in the economy of the republic increased to 72.4%. This testified to the transformation of Ukraine into a highly developed industrial republic.
In Central Asia, new cotton-cleaning plants, silk-reeling factories, food processing plants, canning factories, etc. were built. Power plants were built in Fergana, Bukhara and Chirchik. The Tashkent plant of agricultural machines began to work. A sulfur plant was built in Turkmenistan and mirabilite mining began in the Kara-Bogaz-Gol Bay.
An important role in the industrialization was played by the Turkestan-Siberian Railway. Its construction was completed in 1930. Turksib connected Siberia, rich in grain, timber and coal, with the cotton-growing regions of Central Asia and Kazakhstan.
In the RSFSR, much attention was paid to the development of industry in the autonomous republics: Bashkir, Tatar, Yakut, Buryat-Mongolian. If capital investments in the industry of the RSFSR as a whole grew 4.9 times during the first five years, then in Bashkiria - 7.5 times, in Tataria - 5.2 times. During the years of the second five-year plan, even more significant funds were allocated for the development of autonomous republics, regions and national districts. A powerful woodworking industry was created in the Komi ASSR, the industrial exploitation of the region's oil and coal resources began, and oil wells were built in Ukhta. The development of oil reserves began in Bashkiria and Tatarstan. The extraction of non-ferrous metals in Yakutia, the development of the natural resources of Dagestan and North Ossetia have expanded.
Often industrial enterprises the whole country built on the national outskirts. Workers and builders arrived here from Moscow, Leningrad, Kharkov, from the Urals and from other large industrial centers. The internationalism proclaimed by the party was not just a propaganda slogan. Representatives of various nationalities grew up, studied, worked, created families nearby. In the 30s. in the USSR, a multinational community of people with its own social and cultural specifics, behavioral stereotype, and mentality has developed. An artistic expression of the spirit of internationalism that reigned in Soviet society was the most popular film "The Pig and the Shepherd", which tells about the love of a Russian girl and a guy from Dagestan.
SOVIET CULTURE OF THE 1930s
Development of education. The 1930s went down in the history of our country as the period of the "cultural revolution". This concept meant not only a significant increase, compared with the pre-revolutionary period, in the educational level of the people and the degree of their familiarization with the achievements of culture. Another component of the "cultural revolution" was the undivided dominance of the Marxist-Leninist doctrine in science, education and all areas of creative activity.
Under the conditions of the economic modernization carried out in the USSR, special attention was paid to raising the professional level of the population. At the same time, the totalitarian regime demanded to change the content of school education and upbringing, for the pedagogical "liberties" of the 20s. were of little use for the mission of creating a "new man".
In the early 30s. The Central Committee of the Party and the Council of People's Commissars adopted a number of resolutions on the school. In the 1930/31 academic year, the country began the transition to universal compulsory primary education in the amount of 4 classes. By 1937 seven years of education became compulsory. The old teaching and upbringing methods, condemned after the revolution, were returned to the school: lessons, subjects, a fixed schedule, grades, strict discipline and a whole range of punishments, up to and including expulsion. School curricula were revised, new stable textbooks were created. In 1934, the teaching of geography and civil history was restored on the basis of Marxist-Leninist assessments of the events and phenomena that took place.
School building was widely developed. Only during 1933-1937. more than 20,000 new schools opened in the USSR, about the same number as in tsarist Russia in 200 years. By the end of the 30s. over 35 million students studied at school desks. According to the 1939 census, literacy in the USSR was 87.4%.
The system of secondary specialized and higher education developed rapidly. By the end of the 30s. The Soviet Union came out on top in the world in terms of the number of pupils and students. Dozens of secondary and higher educational institutions have emerged in Belarus, the republics of Transcaucasia and Central Asia, the centers of autonomous republics and regions. The circulation of books in 1937 reached 677.8 million copies; books were published in 110 languages of the peoples of the Union. Mass libraries were widely developed: by the end of the 30s. their number exceeded 90 thousand.
Science under ideological pressure. However, both education and science, as well as literature and art, were subjected to ideological attack in the USSR. Stalin declared that all sciences, including natural and mathematical ones, are political in nature. Scientists who disagreed with this statement were persecuted in the press and arrested.
An acute struggle unfolded in biological science. Under the guise of defending Darwinism and Michurin's theory, a group of biologists and philosophers headed by T. D. Lysenko came out against genetics, declaring it a "bourgeois science." The brilliant developments of Soviet geneticists were curtailed, and subsequently many of them (N. I. Vavilov, N. K. Koltsov, A. S. Serebrovsky, and others) were repressed.
But Stalin paid the closest attention to historical science. He took personal control of textbooks on the history of Russia, which became known as the history of the USSR. According to Stalin's instructions, the past began to be interpreted solely as a chronicle of the class struggle of the oppressed against the exploiters. At the same time, a new branch of science appeared, which became one of the leading ones in the Stalinist ideological construction - the "history of the party." In 1938, the "Short Course in the History of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks" was published, which Stalin not only carefully edited, but also wrote one of the paragraphs for it. The publication of this work marked the beginning of the formation of a single concept for the development of our country, which all Soviet scientists had to follow. And although some of the facts in the textbook were rigged and distorted in order to exalt the role of Stalin, the Central Committee of the party in its resolution assessed the "Short Course" as "a guide that represents the official, verified by the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) interpretation of the main issues of the history of the CPSU (b) and Marxism- Leninism, which does not allow any arbitrary interpretations. Every word, every position" short course"should have been perceived as the ultimate truth. In practice, this led to the defeat of all existing scientific schools, a break with the traditions of Russian historical science.
Successes of Soviet science. Ideological dogmas and strict party control had the most detrimental effect on the state of the humanities. But representatives of the natural sciences, although they experienced the negative consequences of the intervention of party and punitive bodies, nevertheless managed to achieve noticeable success, continuing the glorious traditions of Russian science.
The Soviet physical school, represented by the names of S. I. Vavilov (problems of optics), A. F. Ioffe (study of the physics of crystals and semiconductors), P. L. Kapitsa (research in the field of microphysics), L. I. Mandelstam ( works in the field of radiophysics and optics); .
A significant contribution to applied science was made by the works of chemists N. D. Zelinsky, N. S. Kurnakov, A. E. Favorsky, A. N. Bach, S. V. Lebedev. A method for the production of synthetic rubber was discovered, the production of artificial fibers, plastics, valuable organic products, etc. began.
World achievements were the work of Soviet biologists - N. I. Vavilov, D. N. Pryanishnikov, V. R. Williams, V. S. Pustovoit.
Significant progress was made in Soviet mathematics, astronomy, mechanics, and physiology.
Geological and geographical research has acquired a wide scope. Mineral deposits were discovered - oil between the Volga and the Urals, new coal reserves in the Moscow and Kuznetsk basins, iron ore in the Urals and in other areas. The North was actively explored and developed. This made it possible to sharply reduce the import of certain types of raw materials.
socialist realism. In the 30s. the process of liquidating dissent in artistic culture was completed. Art, completely subordinate to party censorship, was obliged to follow one artistic direction - socialist realism. The political essence of this method was that the masters of art had to reflect the Soviet reality not as it really was, but as it was idealized by those in power.
Art propagated myths, and most Soviet people readily accepted them. Indeed, since the time of the revolution, the people have lived in an atmosphere of belief that the grandiose social upheaval that has taken place should bring a beautiful "tomorrow", although "today" was difficult, painfully difficult. And art, together with the encouraging promises of Stalin, created the illusion that the happy time had already come.
In the minds of people, the boundaries between the desired "bright future" and reality were blurring. This state was used by the authorities in order to create a socio-psychological solidity of society, which, in turn, made it possible to manipulate it, constructing either labor enthusiasm, or mass indignation against "enemies of the people", or popular love for their leader.
Soviet cinema. An especially great contribution to the transformation of people's consciousness was made by cinematography, which has become the most popular form of art. Events of the 20s and then 30s. reflected in the minds of people not only through their own experience, but also through their interpretation in films. The whole country watched the documentary chronicle. It was seen by the audience, sometimes unable to read, unable to deeply analyze the events, they perceived the surrounding life not only as a cruel visible reality, but also as a joyful euphoria pouring from the screen. The stunning impact of Soviet documentary filmmaking on mass consciousness is also explained by the fact that brilliant masters worked in this field (D. Vertov, E. K. Tisse, E. I. Shub).
Do not lag behind the documentary and artistic cinema. A significant number of feature films were devoted to historical and revolutionary themes: "Chapaev" (directed by the Vasilyev brothers), a trilogy about Maxim (directed by G. M. Kozintsev and L. Z. Trauberg), "We are from Kronstadt" (directed by E. L. Dzigan).
In 1931, the first Soviet sound film "Start in Life" (directed by N. V. Ekk), which tells about the upbringing of a new Soviet generation, was released. The films of S. A. Gerasimov "Seven Courageous", "Komsomolsk", "Teacher" were devoted to the same problem. In 1936, the first color film "Grunya Kornakov" appeared (directed by N.V. Ekk).
In the same period, the traditions of Soviet children's and youth cinema were laid. There are film versions of famous works by V. P. Kataev (“The lonely sail turns white”), A. P. Gaidar (“Timur and his team”), A. N. Tolstoy (“The Golden Key”). Wonderful animated films were produced for children.
Especially popular among people of all ages were musical comedies by G. V. Aleksandrov - "Circus", "Merry Fellows", "Volga-Volga", I. A. Pyryev - "The Rich Bride", "Tractor Drivers", "Pig and Shepherd" .
Historical films became the favorite genre of Soviet cinematographers. The films "Peter I" (dir. V. M. Petrov), "Alexander Nevsky" (dir. S. M. Eisenstein), "Minin and Pozharsky" (dir. V. I. Pudovkin) and others were very popular.
Talented actors B. M. Andreev, P. M. Aleinikov, B. A. Babochkin, M. I. Zharov, N. A. Kryuchkov, M. A. Ladynina, T. F Makarova, L. P. Orlova and others.
Musical and visual arts. The musical life of the country was associated with the names of S. S. Prokofiev, D. D. Shostakovich, A. I. Khachaturian, T. N. Khrennikov, D. B. Kabalevsky, I. O. Dunaevsky. Groups were created that later glorified Soviet musical culture: the Quartet. Beethoven, the Grand State Symphony Orchestra, the State Philharmonic Orchestra, etc. At the same time, any innovative searches in opera, symphony, and chamber music were decisively suppressed. When evaluating certain musical works, the personal aesthetic tastes of the party leaders, which were extremely low, affected. This is evidenced by the rejection by the "tops" of D. D. Shostakovich's music. His opera "Katerina Izmailova" and the ballet "Golden Age" were subjected to rough criticism in the press for "formalism".
The most democratic branch of musical creativity, songwriting, reached its peak. Talented composers worked in this field - I. O. Dunaevsky, B. A. Mokrousov, M. I. Blanter, the Pokrass brothers and others. Their works had a huge impact on contemporaries. The simple, easy-to-remember melodies of the songs of these authors were on everyone's lips: they sounded at home and on the street, poured from movie screens and from loudspeakers. And along with the major cheerful music, uncomplicated verses glorifying the Motherland, labor, and Stalin sounded. The pathos of these songs did not correspond to the realities of life, but their romantic-revolutionary elation had a strong impact on a person.
The masters of fine arts also had to demonstrate fidelity to socialist realism. The main criteria for evaluating the artist were not his professional skills and creative individuality, but the ideological orientation of the plot. Hence the dismissive attitude towards the genre of still life, landscape and other "petty-bourgeois" excesses, although such talented masters as P. P. Konchalovsky, A. V. Lentulov, M. S. Saryan worked in this area.
Leading now have become other artists. Among them, the main place was occupied by B.V. Ioganson. His paintings "Rabfak goes (University students)", "Interrogation of Communists" and others have become classics of socialist realism. A. A. Deineka, who created his famous poetic canvas "Future Pilots", Yu. I. Pimenov ("New Moscow"), M. V. Nesterov (a series of portraits of the Soviet intelligentsia), and others worked a lot.
At the same time, portraits, sculptures and busts of Stalin became an indispensable attribute of every city, every institution.
Literature. Theatre. Strict party dictatorship and comprehensive censorship could not but affect the general level of mass literary production. One-day works appeared, resembling editorials in newspapers. But, nevertheless, even in these years, unfavorable for free creativity, Russian Soviet literature was represented by talented writers who created significant works. In 1931, A. M. Gorky finally returned to his homeland. Here he finished his novel "The Life of Klim Samgin", wrote the plays "Egor Bulychov and Others", "Dostigaev and Others". A. N. Tolstoy, also at home, put the last point in the trilogy "Walking through the torments", created the novel "Peter I" and other works.
M. A. Sholokhov, the future Nobel Prize winner, wrote the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" and the first part of "Virgin Soil Upturned". M. A. Bulgakov worked on the novel "The Master and Margarita" (although it did not reach the mass reader then). The works of V. A. Kaverin, L. M. Leonov, A. P. Platonov, K. G. Paustovsky and many other writers were noted for their generous talent. There was excellent children's literature - books by K. I. Chukovsky, S. Ya. Marshak, A. P. Gaidar, A. L. Barto, S. V. Mikhalkov, L. A. Kassil and others.
Since the end of the 20s. plays by Soviet playwrights were established on the stage: N. F. Pogodin ("The Man with a Gun"), A. E. Korneichuk ("Death of the Squadron", "Plato Krechet"), V. V. Vishnevsky ("Optimistic Tragedy"), A. N. Arbuzov ("Tanya") and others. The repertoire of all theaters in the country included Gorky's plays written in different years - "Enemies", "Petty Bourgeois", "Summer Residents", "Barbarians", etc.
The most important feature of the cultural revolution was the active familiarization of Soviet people with art. This was achieved not only by increasing the number of theaters, cinemas, philharmonic societies, concert halls, but also by developing amateur art activities. Clubs, palaces of culture, houses of children's creativity were created all over the country; grandiose reviews of folk talents, exhibitions of amateur works were arranged.
FOREIGN POLICY OF THE SOVIET UNION IN THE 1930s
Change in the foreign policy of the USSR. In 1933, the Nazis came to power in Germany, making no secret of their intentions to start a struggle for the redivision of the world. The USSR was forced to change its foreign policy. First of all, the position was revised, according to which all "imperialist" states were perceived as real enemies, ready at any moment to start a war against the Soviet Union. At the end of 1933, the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, on behalf of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, developed a detailed plan for creating a system of collective security in Europe. From that moment until 1939, Soviet foreign policy took on an anti-German orientation. Its main goal was the desire for an alliance with democratic countries in order to isolate Nazi Germany and Japan. This course was largely associated with the activities of the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs M. M. Litvinov.
The successful results of the new course were the establishment in November 1933 of diplomatic relations with the United States and the admission of the USSR in 1934 to the League of Nations, where he immediately became a permanent member of its Council. This meant the formal return of the country to the world community as a great power. It is fundamentally important that the entry of the Soviet Union into the League of Nations took place on its own terms: all disputes, primarily over tsarist debts, were resolved in favor of the USSR.
In May 1935, an agreement was concluded between the USSR and France on assistance in the event of a possible attack by any aggressor. But mutual obligations were in fact ineffective, since the treaty was not accompanied by any military agreements. Then an agreement on mutual assistance was signed with Czechoslovakia.
In 1935, the USSR condemned the introduction of compulsory military service in Germany and Italy's attack on Ethiopia. And after the introduction of German troops into the demilitarized Rhineland, the Soviet Union proposed to the League of Nations to take measures to stop violations of international obligations. But the voice of the USSR was not heard.
The course of the Comintern towards the creation of a united anti-fascist front. The USSR actively used the Comintern to implement its foreign policy plans. Until 1933, Stalin considered the main task of the Comintern to be the organization of support for his internal political course in the international arena. The sharpest criticism of Stalin's methods came from world social democracy. Therefore, Stalin declared the Social Democrats the main enemy of the Communists of all countries, regarding them as accomplices of fascism. These Comintern guidelines in practice led to a split in the anti-fascist forces, which greatly facilitated the coming of the Nazis to power in Germany.
In 1933, along with the revision of the Soviet foreign policy, the attitudes of the Comintern also changed. The development of a new strategic line was headed by G. Dimitrov, the hero and winner of the Leipzig process started by the Nazis against the Communists. The new tactics were approved by the 7th Congress of the Comintern, which took place in the summer of 1935. The communists proclaimed the creation of a united anti-fascist front to prevent a world war as the main task. To this end, the Communists had to organize cooperation with all forces - from the Social Democrats to the Liberals. At the same time, the creation of an anti-fascist front and broad anti-war actions were closely linked with the struggle "for the security of the Soviet Union." The Congress warned that in the event of an attack on the USSR, the Communists would call on the working people "by all means to contribute to the victory of the Red Army over the armies of the imperialists."
The first attempt to put the new tactics of the Comintern into practice was made in 1936 in Spain, when General Franco raised a fascist revolt against the republican government. The USSR openly declared its support for the republic. Soviet troops were sent to Spain military equipment, two thousand advisers, as well as a significant number of volunteers from among military specialists. The events in Spain clearly showed the need for united efforts in the struggle against the growing strength of fascism. But the democracies were still weighing which regime is more dangerous for democracy - fascist or communist.
Far East policy of the USSR. Despite the complexity of the European foreign policy, the situation on the western borders of the USSR was relatively calm. At the same time, on its Far Eastern borders, diplomatic and political conflicts resulted in direct military clashes.
The first military conflict took place in the summer-autumn of 1929 in Northern Manchuria. The stumbling block was the CER. According to the agreement of 1924 between the USSR and the Beijing government of China, the railway passed under joint Soviet-Chinese management. But by the end of the 20s. the Chinese administration was almost completely replaced by Soviet specialists, while the road itself actually became the property of the Soviet Union. This situation became possible due to the unstable political situation in China. But in 1928, the government of Chiang Kai-shek came to power, which began to pursue a policy of unification of all Chinese territories. It tried to regain by force the positions lost on the CER. An armed conflict broke out. Soviet troops defeated the Chinese border detachments on Chinese territory, which began fighting.
At this time on Far East in the face of Japan, the world community received a powerful hotbed of incitement to war. Having seized Manchuria in 1931, Japan created a threat to the Far Eastern borders of the Soviet Union, moreover, the CER, which belonged to the USSR, ended up on the territory controlled by Japan. The Japanese threat forced the USSR and China to restore their diplomatic relations.
In November 1936, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, which was later joined by Italy and Spain. In July 1937, Japan launched a large-scale aggression against China. In such a situation, the USSR and China went to mutual rapprochement. In August 1937, a non-aggression pact was concluded between them. After the signing of the treaty, the Soviet Union began to provide technical and material assistance to China. In the battles, Soviet instructors and pilots fought on the side of the Chinese army.
In the summer of 1938, armed clashes began between Japanese and Soviet troops on the Soviet-Manchurian border. A fierce battle took place in the area of Lake Khasan, not far from Vladivostok. On the part of Japan, this was the first reconnaissance in force. It showed that it would hardly be possible to take the Soviet borders in a rush. Nevertheless, in May 1939, Japanese troops invaded the territory of Mongolia in the area of the Khalkhin Gol River. Since 1936, the Soviet Union has been connected with Mongolia by a union treaty. True to its obligations, the USSR brought its troops into the territory of Mongolia.
Munich Agreement. Meanwhile, the fascist powers were making new territorial conquests in Europe. In mid-May 1938, German troops concentrated on the border with Czechoslovakia. The Soviet leadership was ready to help her even without France, but on the condition that she herself would ask the USSR about it. However, Czechoslovakia still hoped for the support of the Western Allies.
In September, when the situation escalated to the limit, the leaders of England and France arrived in Munich for negotiations with Germany and Italy. Neither Czechoslovakia nor the USSR were admitted to the conference. The Munich Agreement finally fixed the course of the Western powers to "appease" the fascist aggressors, satisfying Germany's claims to seize the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. Nevertheless, the Soviet Union was ready to provide assistance to Czechoslovakia, guided by the charter of the League of Nations. For this, it was necessary that Czechoslovakia applied to the Council of the League of Nations with a corresponding request. But the ruling circles of Czechoslovakia did not do this.
The hopes of the USSR for the possibility of creating a collective security system were finally dispelled after the signing in September 1938 of the Anglo-German, and in December of the same year, the Franco-German declarations, which were essentially non-aggression pacts. In these documents, the contracting parties declared their desire "never again to wage war against each other." The Soviet Union, seeking to protect itself from a possible military conflict, began searching for a new foreign policy line.
Soviet-English-French negotiations. After the conclusion of the Munich Agreement, the heads of government of Britain and France proclaimed the onset of an "era of peace" in Europe. Taking advantage of the connivance of the Western powers, on March 15, 1939, Hitler sent troops into Prague and finally liquidated Czechoslovakia as an independent state, and on March 23 captured the Memel region, which was part of Lithuania. At the same time, Germany made demands on Poland to annex Danzig, which had the status of a free city, and part of Polish territory. In April 1939 Italy occupied Albania. This somewhat sobered the ruling circles of Britain and France and forced them to agree to the proposal of the Soviet Union to begin negotiations and conclude an agreement on measures to curb German aggression.
On August 12, after lengthy delays, representatives of England and France arrived in Moscow. Here it suddenly became clear that the British did not have the authority to negotiate and sign an agreement. Secondary military figures were placed at the head of both missions, while the Soviet delegation was headed by Marshal K. E. Voroshilov, People's Commissar of Defense.
The Soviet side presented a detailed plan of joint action by the armed forces of the USSR, Britain and France against the aggressor. The Red Army, in accordance with this plan, was to deploy in Europe 136 divisions, 5 thousand heavy guns, 9-10 thousand tanks and 5-5.5 thousand combat aircraft. The British delegation stated that in the event of a war, England would initially send only 6 divisions to the continent.
The Soviet Union did not have a common border with Germany. Consequently, he could take part in repelling aggression only if the allies of England and France - Poland and Romania - let the Soviet troops through their territory. Meanwhile, neither the British nor the French did anything to induce the Polish and Romanian governments to agree to the passage of Soviet troops. On the contrary, the members of the military delegations of the Western powers were warned by their governments that this decisive question for the whole matter should not be discussed in Moscow. Negotiations deliberately dragged on. The French and British delegations followed the instructions of their governments to negotiate slowly, "to strive to reduce the military agreement to the general conditions".
Rapprochement of the USSR and Germany. Hitler, without abandoning the use of force to solve the "Polish question", also suggested that the USSR begin negotiations on the conclusion of a non-aggression pact and the delimitation of spheres of influence in Eastern Europe. Stalin faced a difficult choice: either reject Hitler's proposals and thereby agree with the withdrawal of German troops to the borders of the Soviet Union in the event of Poland's defeat in the war with Germany, or conclude agreements with Germany that make it possible to push the borders of the USSR far to the west and to some time to avoid war. For the Soviet leadership, the attempts of the Western powers to push Germany into war with the Soviet Union were no secret, as well as Hitler's desire to expand his "living space" at the expense of the eastern lands. Moscow knew about the completion of the preparation of the German troops for an attack on Poland and the possible defeat of the Polish troops due to the clear superiority of the German army over the Polish.
The more difficult the negotiations with the Anglo-French delegation in Moscow were, the more Stalin was inclined to the conclusion that it was necessary to sign an agreement with Germany. It was also necessary to take into account the fact that since May 1939, military operations of the Soviet-Mongolian troops against the Japanese were carried out on the territory of Mongolia. The Soviet Union faced an extremely unfavorable prospect of waging war simultaneously on both the eastern and western borders.
On August 23, 1939, the whole world was shocked by the shocking news: the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR V. M. Molotov (appointed to this position in May 1939) and the German Foreign Minister I. Ribbentrop signed a non-aggression pact. This fact came as a complete surprise to the Soviet people. But no one knew the most important thing - secret protocols were attached to the agreement, in which the division of Eastern Europe into spheres of influence between Moscow and Berlin was fixed. According to the protocols, a demarcation line was established between German and Soviet troops in Poland; the Baltic states, Finland and Bessarabia belonged to the sphere of influence of the USSR.
Undoubtedly, at that time the treaty was beneficial to both countries. He allowed Hitler, without unnecessary complications, to begin the capture of the first bastion in the east and at the same time convince his generals that Germany would not have to fight on several fronts at once. Stalin received a gain in time to strengthen the country's defense, as well as the opportunity to push back the initial positions of a potential enemy and restore the state within the borders of the former Russian Empire.
The conclusion of the Soviet-German agreements frustrated the attempts of the Western powers to draw the USSR into a war with Germany and, conversely, made it possible to switch the direction of German aggression primarily to the West. The Soviet-German rapprochement brought about a certain discord in relations between Germany and Japan and eliminated the threat of war on two fronts for the USSR.
Having settled matters in the west, the Soviet Union stepped up military operations in the east. At the end of August, Soviet troops under the command of G.K. Zhukov surrounded and defeated the 6th Japanese army on the river. Khalkhin Gol. The Japanese government was forced to sign a peace agreement in Moscow, according to which, from September 16, 1939, hostilities ceased. The threat of an escalation of the war in the Far East was eliminated.
What you need to know about this topic:
Socio-economic and political development Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Nicholas II.
Domestic policy of tsarism. Nicholas II. Strengthening repression. "Police socialism".
Russo-Japanese War. Reasons, course, results.
Revolution of 1905 - 1907 The nature, driving forces and features of the Russian revolution of 1905-1907. stages of the revolution. The reasons for the defeat and the significance of the revolution.
Elections to the State Duma. I State Duma. The agrarian question in the Duma. Dispersal of the Duma. II State Duma. Coup d'état June 3, 1907
Third June political system. Electoral law June 3, 1907 III State Duma. The alignment of political forces in the Duma. Duma activities. government terror. The decline of the labor movement in 1907-1910
Stolypin agrarian reform.
IV State Duma. Party composition and Duma factions. Duma activities.
The political crisis in Russia on the eve of the war. The labor movement in the summer of 1914 Crisis of the top.
The international position of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century.
Beginning of the First World War. Origin and nature of war. Russia's entry into the war. Attitude towards the war of parties and classes.
The course of hostilities. Strategic forces and plans of the parties. Results of the war. The role of the Eastern Front in the First World War.
The Russian economy during the First World War.
Workers' and peasants' movement in 1915-1916. Revolutionary movement in the army and navy. Growing anti-war sentiment. Formation of the bourgeois opposition.
Russian culture of the 19th - early 20th centuries.
Aggravation of socio-political contradictions in the country in January-February 1917. The beginning, prerequisites and nature of the revolution. Uprising in Petrograd. Formation of the Petrograd Soviet. Provisional Committee of the State Duma. Order N I. Formation of the Provisional Government. Abdication of Nicholas II. Causes of dual power and its essence. February coup in Moscow, at the front, in the provinces.
From February to October. The policy of the Provisional Government regarding war and peace, on agrarian, national, labor issues. Relations between the Provisional Government and the Soviets. The arrival of V.I. Lenin in Petrograd.
Political parties (Kadets, Social Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, Bolsheviks): political programs, influence among the masses.
Crises of the Provisional Government. An attempted military coup in the country. Growth of revolutionary sentiment among the masses. Bolshevization of the capital Soviets.
Preparation and conduct of an armed uprising in Petrograd.
II All-Russian Congress of Soviets. Decisions about power, peace, land. Formation of public authorities and management. Composition of the first Soviet government.
The victory of the armed uprising in Moscow. Government agreement with the Left SRs. Elections to the Constituent Assembly, its convocation and dissolution.
The first socio-economic transformations in the field of industry, agriculture, finance, labor and women's issues. Church and State.
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, its terms and significance.
Economic tasks of the Soviet government in the spring of 1918. Aggravation of the food issue. The introduction of food dictatorship. Working squads. Comedy.
The revolt of the left SRs and the collapse of the two-party system in Russia.
First Soviet Constitution.
Causes of intervention and civil war. The course of hostilities. Human and material losses of the period of the civil war and military intervention.
The internal policy of the Soviet leadership during the war. "War Communism". GOELRO plan.
The policy of the new government in relation to culture.
Foreign policy. Treaties with border countries. Participation of Russia in the Genoa, Hague, Moscow and Lausanne conferences. Diplomatic recognition of the USSR by the main capitalist countries.
Domestic policy. Socio-economic and political crisis of the early 20s. Famine of 1921-1922 Transition to new economic policy. The essence of the NEP. NEP in the field of agriculture, trade, industry. financial reform. Economic recovery. Crises during the NEP and its curtailment.
Projects for the creation of the USSR. I Congress of Soviets of the USSR. The first government and the Constitution of the USSR.
Illness and death of V.I. Lenin. Intraparty struggle. The beginning of the formation of Stalin's regime of power.
Industrialization and collectivization. Development and implementation of the first five-year plans. Socialist competition - purpose, forms, leaders.
Formation and strengthening of the state system of economic management.
The course towards complete collectivization. Dispossession.
Results of industrialization and collectivization.
Political, national-state development in the 30s. Intraparty struggle. political repression. Formation of the nomenklatura as a layer of managers. Stalinist regime and the constitution of the USSR in 1936
Soviet culture in the 20-30s.
Foreign policy of the second half of the 20s - mid-30s.
Domestic policy. The growth of military production. Extraordinary measures in the field of labor legislation. Measures to solve the grain problem. Armed forces. Growth of the Red Army. military reform. Repressions against the command personnel of the Red Army and the Red Army.
Foreign policy. Non-aggression pact and treaty of friendship and borders between the USSR and Germany. The entry of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus into the USSR. Soviet-Finnish war. The inclusion of the Baltic republics and other territories in the USSR.
Periodization of the Great Patriotic War. The initial stage of the war. Turning the country into a military camp. Military defeats 1941-1942 and their reasons. Major military events Capitulation of Nazi Germany. Participation of the USSR in the war with Japan.
Soviet rear during the war.
Deportation of peoples.
Partisan struggle.
Human and material losses during the war.
Creation of the anti-Hitler coalition. Declaration of the United Nations. The problem of the second front. Conferences of the "Big Three". Problems of post-war peace settlement and all-round cooperation. USSR and UN.
Beginning of the Cold War. The contribution of the USSR to the creation of the "socialist camp". CMEA formation.
Domestic policy of the USSR in the mid-1940s - early 1950s. Restoration of the national economy.
Socio-political life. Politics in the field of science and culture. Continued repression. "Leningrad business". Campaign against cosmopolitanism. "Doctors' Case".
Socio-economic development of Soviet society in the mid-50s - the first half of the 60s.
Socio-political development: XX Congress of the CPSU and the condemnation of Stalin's personality cult. Rehabilitation of victims of repressions and deportations. Intra-party struggle in the second half of the 1950s.
Foreign policy: the creation of the ATS. The entry of Soviet troops into Hungary. Exacerbation of Soviet-Chinese relations. The split of the "socialist camp". Soviet-American Relations and the Caribbean Crisis. USSR and third world countries. Reducing the strength of the armed forces of the USSR. Moscow Treaty on the Limitation of Nuclear Tests.
USSR in the mid-60s - the first half of the 80s.
Socio-economic development: economic reform 1965
Growing difficulties of economic development. Decline in the rate of socio-economic growth.
USSR Constitution 1977
Socio-political life of the USSR in the 1970s - early 1980s.
Foreign Policy: Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Consolidation of post-war borders in Europe. Moscow treaty with Germany. Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). Soviet-American treaties of the 70s. Soviet-Chinese relations. The entry of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan. Exacerbation of international tension and the USSR. Strengthening of the Soviet-American confrontation in the early 80s.
USSR in 1985-1991
Domestic policy: an attempt to accelerate the socio-economic development of the country. An attempt to reform the political system of Soviet society. Congresses of People's Deputies. Election of the President of the USSR. Multi-party system. Exacerbation of the political crisis.
Exacerbation of the national question. Attempts to reform the national-state structure of the USSR. Declaration on State Sovereignty of the RSFSR. "Novogarevsky process". The collapse of the USSR.
Foreign policy: Soviet-American relations and the problem of disarmament. Treaties with leading capitalist countries. The withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Changing relations with the countries of the socialist community. Disintegration of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Pact.
the Russian Federation in 1992-2000
Domestic policy: "Shock therapy" in the economy: price liberalization, stages of privatization of commercial and industrial enterprises. Fall in production. Increased social tension. Growth and slowdown in financial inflation. The aggravation of the struggle between the executive and legislative branches. The dissolution of the Supreme Soviet and the Congress of People's Deputies. October events of 1993. Abolition of local bodies of Soviet power. Elections to the Federal Assembly. The Constitution of the Russian Federation of 1993 Formation of the presidential republic. Aggravation and overcoming of national conflicts in the North Caucasus.
Parliamentary elections 1995 Presidential elections 1996 Power and opposition. An attempt to return to the course of liberal reforms (spring 1997) and its failure. The financial crisis of August 1998: causes, economic and political consequences. "Second Chechen War". Parliamentary elections in 1999 and early presidential elections in 2000 Foreign policy: Russia in the CIS. The participation of Russian troops in the "hot spots" of the near abroad: Moldova, Georgia, Tajikistan. Russia's relations with foreign countries. The withdrawal of Russian troops from Europe and neighboring countries. Russian-American agreements. Russia and NATO. Russia and the Council of Europe. Yugoslav crises (1999-2000) and Russia's position.
- Danilov A.A., Kosulina L.G. History of the state and peoples of Russia. XX century.
Question 01. What are the reasons for the transition to a policy of mass collectivization?
Answer. Causes:
1) the party needed funds for industrialization;
2) the communists initially considered the peasants as alien to the socialist revolution of small proprietors, collectivization deprived the peasants of private property, made them almost proletarians of the countryside;
3) the unification of peasants into collective farms, their material dependence on the leadership of the collective farm, made them more controlled by the command-administrative system of governance of the Soviet country;
4) collectivization guaranteed the Soviet power from crises with food supplies to the cities, similar to the grain procurement crisis of 1927.
Question 02. Why was collectivization accompanied by dispossession?
Answer. It was easier to take away the funds necessary for collectivization from a relatively small number of kulaks than from a much larger number of medium and small proprietors. In addition, it was easier to provoke the hatred of fellow villagers to rich kulaks (no one canceled elementary human envy).
Question 03. What are the reasons for the appearance of Stalin's article "Dizziness from Success"?
Answer. Mass collectivization at an accelerated pace aroused the resistance of the population. Dissatisfaction with the authorities began to penetrate into the army, which still largely consisted of peasants. Then an article by I.V. Stalin's "Dizziness from Success", in which he condemned "the planting of collective farms by force." Thus, the head of the country whitewashed himself in the eyes of the majority of the population. In fact, the leadership of the party very quickly demanded further collectivization again by violent means.
Question 04. What were the results of the policy of complete collectivization?
Answer. Results:
1) the number of cattle and horses for 1929-1932 decreased by a third, pigs - 2 times, sheep - 2.5 times;
2) gross grain production decreased by 10%;
3) the population of the USSR decreased from 1926 to 1937 by 10.3 million people (or 9%);
4) in 1932-1933, an unprecedented famine began, covering approximately 25-30 million people;
5) after the introduction of the passport system, under which the collective farmers did not fall, the peasants were actually attached to the place of their birth, deprived of freedom of choice life path, as in the days of serfdom;
9) collective farmers developed indifference to socialized property and the results of their own labor.
Question 05. What estimates of collectivization do you know? Which one do you share?
Answer. Estimates of collectivization vary from completely positive to completely negative. Its supporters argue that without collectivization there would be no industrialization, without industrialization the defense industry would not have been developed and the USSR could not have survived the Great Patriotic War. Opponents point to the huge number of victims of collectivization. The version that is popular today in Ukraine stands apart: in this union republic, the Soviet government used the famine artificially caused during collectivization as a form of genocide against the Ukrainian people, a means to populate the territory with a large number of loyal Russians. In my opinion, the Ukrainian version is not consistent: I.V. Stalin used repressions against entire peoples and the population of entire regions (Crimean Tatars, the population of Königsberg), but at the same time completely different, faster and more effective methods were used. As for collectivization, I prefer its negative assessment. Human sacrifice, especially such a number in peacetime, has no justification. There is also no justification for the hatred that Soviet propaganda sowed among the peasants themselves in the course of collectivization. In addition, it was collectivization that laid the foundations for the indifference of collective farmers to the effectiveness of their own labor, which led to problems with supplying the country with food and fodder (which often had to be purchased) until the collapse of the USSR,
Question 06. In your opinion, was the collectivization of the Soviet countryside objectively necessary?
Answer. I think that collectivization was not necessary. Under the conditions of total control over the country by the bureaucratic apparatus of the Communist Party, there really was no other way to such a rapid industrialization (there was no other source of funds for its implementation), but under the conditions of a different state system or a revision by the communists of some of their principles, industrialization could be carried out differently. This is evidenced, for example, by the Meiji revolution in Japan, during which it was possible to overcome a much more significant lag behind the industrial developed countries. The Meiji Revolution was carried out in a country with the absolute power of the ruler, also at the cost of the grief of many people, but not so much mass destruction of unarmed peasants and not at the cost of economic inefficiency for many subsequent decades.
Synopsis on the history of Russia
Chronological framework: 1929 -1937 Definition: collectivization is the replacement of the system of small-ownership peasant farming by large socialized agricultural producers.
Two problems: to what extent the national characteristics of Russia (a peasant land community) and collectivization correlate, and to what extent the building of socialism presupposes collectivization.
Economic background. Agriculture in 1925: the size of the crops almost equaled the level of 1913, and the gross grain harvest even exceeded the pre-war level. The sale and purchase of land is prohibited, but leasing is allowed. Total amount- 24 million peasant farms (the bulk of the middle peasants - 61%). 1926 -1927 - sown area is 10% higher than pre-war. The gross harvest exceeds the pre-war one by 18-20%. The total number of farms is 25 million (the bulk are still middle peasants 63%). Basically, manual labor prevails. The gross harvest of grain is growing, but marketable grain is almost not increasing. There are difficulties with grain procurements, which in 1927-28. develop into a crisis: the disruption of the grain procurement plan, the introduction of cards in the cities.
Reasons for the crisis: low productivity, low marketability, and grain strikes are the result of unequal exchange between town and country. Low purchase prices for bread are pushing peasants to sabotage grain procurements, and the government, in response, resorts to emergency measures: tax increases, strict discipline in terms of payments, confiscations, repressions, dispossession.
political background. Associated with the strong-willed decision of the Soviet leadership. It draws a conclusion about the insolvency of the small peasantry in the current situation and sets the task of ensuring state control over agriculture, and thereby tries to solve the problem of the uninterrupted flow of funds for industrialization. The course towards collectivization was based on the conclusions of the economist and statistician Nemchinov.
The course towards collectivization (adopted by the 15th Party Congress in 1927). The beginning of collectivization was preceded by preparations for it, which consisted of: technical assistance to the village, the creation of an MTS, the development of cooperation, financial assistance collective farms and state farms, in the policy of limiting the kulaks, in helping the working class. The main forms of cooperation: TOZs (partnerships for cultivating the land), artels (collective farms), communes (socialization reaches an extreme degree).
A year of great change. In November 1929, Stalin's article "The Year of the Great Break" was published, which became the ideological justification for forced collectivization: "The middle peasants went to the collective farm, which means that we can start forcing collectivization." In 1929-1930. A number of resolutions of the Central Committee, Central Executive Committee and Council of People's Commissars were adopted, which concretized the course towards complete collectivization and the elimination of the kulaks as a class. In carrying out collectivization, the Bolshevik Party relied on part of the poorest peasantry and the working class. 35,000 workers were sent to the countryside to organize collective farms.
Measures against kulaks. Punitive measures were used against active opponents of Soviet power (eviction to remote areas, obtaining land outside the collective farm array). The criteria for dividing kulaks and subkulakists were very vague (wealthy peasants were sometimes included). In total, about 1 million peasant farms were dispossessed.
Excesses in collectivization: coercion to join collective farms, unreasonable dispossession, forced socialization of residential buildings, small livestock, poultry, vegetable gardens. As a result: mass slaughter of livestock (1/2 of the livestock was destroyed), a mass exit of peasants from the collective farm, a wave of uprisings (kulak revolts). March 2, 1930 - Stalin's article "Dizziness from success" is published. He laid the blame for the excesses in carrying out collectivization and dispossession on the local leadership. On March 14, 1930, the decision of the Central Committee on the fight against the distortion of the party line in the collective farm movement began to overcome excesses and, as a result, forcibly created collective farms were dissolved. By August 1930, a little more than 20% of farms remained in them.
A new upsurge in the collective-farm movement took place in the autumn of 1930 and 1931. Expanding government sector in the countryside, state farms are being created. The machine and tractor stations (MTS), which previously operated as joint-stock enterprises, were nationalized. At the beginning of 1931, a new wave of dispossession began, which provided free labor for numerous five-year construction projects. The result of repression was the growth of collective farms. By the end of 1932, more than 60% of farms consisted of collective farms and state farms. This year was declared "the year of complete collectivization."
Famine of 1932-1933 If 1930 gave a high harvest, then in 1932 an unexpected famine broke out. Causes: unfavorable meteorological conditions (drought), a drop in productivity due to collectivization, a backward technical base, an increase in procurement (for cities and for export). The geography of the famine is Ukraine, the Southern Urals, the North Caucasus, Kazakhstan and the Volga region. Victims of hunger: 3-4 million people. On August 7, 1932, the USSR adopted the Law on the Protection of Socialist Property, popularly called the "law on three spikelets", which provided for a ten-year term of imprisonment or execution for theft of collective farm property. It was during this period that 18 million centners of grain were exported abroad to receive foreign currency and pay foreign bills. Collectivization stopped. But already in the summer of 1934, the beginning of its final stage was announced.
Completion of collectivization. In 1932, equalization in the collective farms was overcome - workdays, piece work, and brigade organization of labor were introduced. In 1933 - political departments and MTS were created (1934 - 280 thousand tractors). In 1935, the card system was abolished. 1937 - state acts were handed over to collective farms for perpetual possession of land. The collective farm system has finally won. 90% of households were in collective farms and state farms. By 1937, at the cost of colossal sacrifices (human and material), collectivization was completed.
socialist industrialization politics collectivization
The task of Russia's industrialization (in the broad sense of the word) also involved large-scale reforms in the agricultural sector. It was necessary to create effective large agricultural enterprises capable of increasing the production of grain, meat, raw materials and meeting the needs of the population and industry. There were at least two possibilities here. The first was to stake on the main suppliers of marketable grain - the kulaks, who, despite the policy of "restricting and ousting" them, still provided the bulk of agricultural products for the domestic market. Relying on them would make it possible, by transferring additional land and inventory to them, to ensure a steady increase in production. N. I. Bukharin adhered to this point of view. The second way was to stake on the poorest sections of the peasantry, uniting them into collective farms. The idea of collective farms was not new. Lenin spoke about this in the first months after the revolution. However, Lenin saw the transition to collective farms as a gradual and voluntary process (it was this approach that was the basis of all party decisions, starting with the 15th Congress of the CPSU (b), which headed for collectivization). Stalin set the task of solving this problem in the near future.
In 1929, the party leadership proclaimed a course towards the complete collectivization of peasant farms, which, according to the Bolshevik leaders, made it possible to solve several tasks important for the authorities at once: to provide a mechanism for pumping funds for the needs of industrialization; liquidate the kulaks as a class and thereby expand the social base of the regime in the countryside; extend the influence of the state to the private sector of agriculture (and thereby ensure the full nationalization of the economy); eliminate the so-called "agrarian overpopulation".
Continuous collectivization unfolded from January 1930. The decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (6) and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR “On the pace of collectivization and measures of state assistance to collective farm construction”, published on January 5, 1930, noted that the implementation of the course towards complete collectivization would take several years Danilov A. A. History of Russia. - 2nd ed. - M .: Publishing house "New textbook", 2004. - S. 266 .. In some regions of the country (the most developed grain crops: Kuban, Ukraine, the Volga region), it was supposed to be completed in the near future.
The main form of peasant cooperation was also determined - the agricultural artel. Unlike communes and partnerships for the joint cultivation of the land - TOZ, the artel provided, along with collective labor and public use of land, working livestock, equipment, distribution of the results of joint work according to work economic activity, as well as the preservation of personal household plots, small livestock, small inventory, etc.
However, instead of systematic, gradual and voluntary unification, a widespread campaign began to forcibly and immediately attract the entire peasant population to the collective farms. The kulaks and their families, deprived of their property, were evicted to the eastern and northern regions of the country. Together with the kulaks, the families of the middle peasants were deprived of their property in significant numbers and subjected to exile. According to some sources, up to 15 million people suffered from the dispossession policy.
The first result of this policy was the massive famine that broke out in 1932-1933. precisely in the formerly richest grain-growing regions of the country. About 8 million people became victims of hunger.
For 1929 - 1932 the number of cattle decreased by 33%, horses - by 32%, pigs - by almost half, sheep - by 2.5 times. The mass exodus has begun rural population to the cities. However, this was also part of the plans of the leadership - industrialization required workers.
Undoubtedly, the main historical result of collectivization was the industrial leap, carried out at the cost of great effort and expense.
The policy of complete collectivization in the USSR: results and consequences
There were few educated intellectuals and experienced business executives among the Bolshevik revolutionaries, but they were all armed with the "Most Advanced Revolutionary Theory", which they were very proud of. According to Theory, poorly managed owners are contraindicated for the new government. It is necessary to turn the peasants into a rural proletariat. It was precisely this result that the policy of complete collectivization in the USSR should have led to.
And this had to be done against the background of the inevitable post-war and post-revolutionary crisis. The authorities understood that it was necessary to recognize the obvious: unemployment, devastation, hunger. But they demanded a correct interpretation of what was happening: the party knows, the party is fighting and will win, and collectivization is only a part of the big policy of the party. For this, the best journalists and writers are involved.
Investments are not needed to create collective farms. The village simply has to give bread. And she will give it (we will cut out the dissatisfied and the rich). Money is needed for industry and the army. And to the west, also engulfed by the crisis, grain echelons go...
A trial wave of collectivization in the USSR begins in 1927. Exorbitant taxes on individual farmers. The lowest purchase prices are for them. The government is in a hurry. The leader calls for "overcoming the age-old backwardness in 10 years", and economic half-measures did not give immediate results. Coercive measures were required. The bread had to be beaten out. No matter what. Otherwise - the defeat of the party and the death of power. And in 1929, a tsunami of collectivization surged ...
The results of complete collectivization in the USSR
The first result: during the years of collectivization of grain exported to the amount of 677 million still convertible "gold" rubles.Here they are, money for modernization. 9 thousand factories were built, industrial production doubled by 1934. Yes, quantity over quality. But the main task is to provide state control over production and consumption - solved.
Among other tactical results:
- the crisis has been overcome;
- eliminated unemployment;
- "proven" the advantage of large producers over small ones;
- new branches of industry and the military-industrial complex have been created;
- destroyed the best, most efficient and active part the peasantry;
- there was a monstrous mass famine.
Consequences of the policy of complete collectivization
The long term results are:- the country has become one of the few capable of producing any product;
- the production of consumer goods is reduced to a minimum;
- forced labor incentives triumphed over economic ones;
- the command-administrative management system is absolutized;
- created a powerful propaganda apparatus;
- the ruble loses its convertibility;
- all sectors of the national economy are provided with cheap labor;
- the Great Empire of state socialism was formed;
- fear seizes the hearts of the Soviet people even more strongly.
The main conclusion was made by history: the great theory turned out to be erroneous. And not only about the policy of continuous collectivization. It is impossible to neglect universal economic laws. You can't sacrifice people to theory: a people that has always shown its colossal potential - in ten years it will win the war.