Was Industrialization Successful?

In 1928 the USSR was still in crisis, after all revolutions, and the civil war. Russia was still not ass well developed as other European countries 20 years ago, therefore Stalin needed to transform his country into a modern and powerful nation. He wanted to industrialize Russia. Stalin’s main aims were to create a good defense from foreign attacks and to catch up economically with other countries so Russia will not depend on import from mainly Germany and, other nations. Industrialization was all about creating a centrally planned economy which would work well, building factories and spectacular buildings, and finally crating a industrial superpower.

The plan was to divide next 15 years into 5 year plans. The plans set production and profit targets, which were to be achieved. To place it in reality, foreign technicians were employed to give advice. The production numbers were kept in special books, and was checked by the managers. Unfortunately, some of the pre-sets were not achieved and managers were punished, eventually (because of fear) the managers stopped keeping the numbers authentic if there was some drop in production. If a factory wasn’t productive enough to supply other industries the chain continued and a domino effect occurred. This caused Industrialization to be less spectacular, and lowered the figures. In addition, the organization of work was as poor, you could often find idle workers, and some working for 18 hours per day. Peasants which were send from the countryside were often badly trained (or not trained at all), therefore many lives were lost, and machines were damaged. The conditions in which the workers worked were terrible: “The resistance of the population was very low because of undernourishment during the winter and consistent overwork. Sanitary conditions during the thaw were appealing . . . ” (From Behind The Urals by John Scott) People worked much longer then their organisms were able to. Throughout this time, they received low wages and suffered from the lack of consumer goods and many daily requirements.

However Industrialization is considered to be a great success: “Huge plants were build in Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk, Stalingrad . . . ” (From The Russian Century by Brian Moynahan) As we can see the spectacular building projects which seemed impossible to other countries were becoming true. Some of these were build months ahead of schedule.