This page will be used for Mr. Webber's PRS students to complete assignments and to communicate with fellow students on issues surrounding our 10th grade World History class.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Joseph Stalin's Russia
Describe in detail what your life would be like if you had lived in Soviet Russia during the rule of Joseph Stalin. Compare the life of someone working in the industrial sector with that of a collective farmer.
An industrial worker under Stalin’s rule led a very difficult life. Industrial workers did not have good pay, but if they did, there would not have been a lot of products to buy. Similar to the Industrial Revolution in Britain, the workers had long hours and dangerous working conditions. Although the industrial workers did not lead good lives, they believed that if they worked hard enough, their lives and society itself would improve under Stalin’s rule. Propaganda also played a part for the industrial workers. There were propaganda posters which encouraged the working force to work as hard as they could, hoping that if some did, the rest would follow their lead. Stalin did reward some of the skilled workers, which created competition between groups of workers. On the other hand, there was a drive to not be punished, and if they worked hard enough, they would not be sent to a prison camp. Those who did not work hard were sent to labor camps. If industrial workers did not go to the factories to work, they could be fined, sent to prison, or have their ration book taken away. In these prisons, there workers would do a lot of manual labor, and the government did not care if they died because they viewed the works an dispensable.
Although industrial workers had challenging lives, collective farmers were worse off. Just like the industrial workers, the farmers had low pay. There were kulaks, or farmers who owned larger factories and more land, but there were also the peasants who owned less land. The kulaks were against collectivisation even more than the peasant farmers, because they felt as if all of their hard work was wasted. Even though the kulaks hated this idea, the peasant farmers were also against collectivisation because their land was being taken away too. The first time Stalin tried to combine the farms, the farmers rioted against him by burning their crops and killed their livestock. This failed attempt, and the one to follow it led to famines throughout the country. Stalin reinforced these rules a second time, and the farmers had the same response, but this time, Stalin punished those who refused. Many of the slightly wealthier farmers were either executed or sent to prison camps. In addition, the villages that refused to give their land to the government were occupied by soldiers who shot the villagers who were considered enemies of the state. By 1939, 99% of the land was run by collective farmers, who did not receive the majority of their production. In fact, the government took 90% of their production, and only left the collective farmers enough to live off of.
Stalin thought less of the collective farmers than the industrial workers, which was odd because Stalin was a peasant himself before he became the leader of the Soviet Union. Under Stalin’s rule, more collective farmers were killed than industrial workers. Both the industrial workers and farmers believed that if they worked hard enough, their lives would improve, but this never occurred. There was never a better standard of living for the workers or farmers, and many struggled to survive. Old food was eaten and shabby clothes were worn by the majority of the workers and farmers. Education was their only hope to improve their lives, but many of them were never given a chance to educate themselves under Stalin’s rule.
When Joseph Stalin came to power in the 1920’s, basic freedom and rights of the people came to a halt. Absolute control of government, military and economy became a part of daily life. These changes were inforced with terror throughout all of Russia and any Soviet republics. In an attempt to modernize the country in the 1930’s, industry and agriculture underwent forced centralization and the culture of Russia was restricted to only things deemed acceptable. Also being extremely paranoid, Stalin installed the KGB, a secret police force who would round up anyone who was thought to be anti-communist, anti-Stalin, or simply a threat. Often times innocent people were accused of crimes they did not commit and were unfairly tried, convicted, and killed or punished for them. The people lived in constant fear. These purges became a large part of the Great Terror, the vast state of organized brutalities throughout the country. More than 2 million were exiled and more than 1 million killed. In fear of being taken away, all people forced themselves to support and applaud everything that Stalin and the government did. In reality the people were in a living hell, having lost everything and often everyone they cared about. This led to angry revolt and sabotage of Stalin’s Five Year Plan, in which the people would purposefully harm the effort of industrial and agricultural workers, and pretend to be extremely invested in Stalin’s cause to avoid detection.
Stalin hoped that the Industrial sector of Russia, under the Five Year Plan, would flourish and create socialist construction and modernization. The Five Year Plan needed extensive industrialization of the economy, and needed increased agricultural production to support it. In order to maximize production, collective farming was put in place. This basically meant that the government would take all of the farmers’ land and animals and turn them into a collective farm. Of course, the already suffering peasants met this idea with anger and mockery. Instead of helping the economy, collective farming instead destroyed peasants’ lives as they barely had anything to their name and an estimated 5,000,000 died from starvation. Peasants often abandoned the collective farms simply to survive. Peaceful resistance took place as the angry people slaughtered their animals instead of turning them over to the government, women riots were held, and farm equipment was destroyed. As a result, the overall farming requirements were much less than Stalin would have desired and put him and the society under such strain that the Five Year Plan was called off. Two more were later put in place but also failed miserably.
As the Five Year Plan called for rapid industrial growth, the industrial workers also suffered. Industries and services were nationalized, taking away power and wealth from the people. Stalin also had extremely unrealistic quotas for production and workers were constantly overworked. Despite the increase of productivity as the workers were worked into the ground, the industries still failed to meet their quotas, leading to goods shortages and inflation. However, while the industrial workers were overworked, they didn’t have everything stolen from them like the farmers and overall lead easier live without having to worry too much about starving to death.
Works Cited
Lewis Siegelbaum. "1929: Collectivization." Seventeen Moments in Soviet History. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2013. . Lewis Siegelbaum. "1936: The Great Terror." Seventeen Moments in Soviet History. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2013. . Paul Halsall. "Modern History Sourcebook: Stalin's Purges, 1935." Modern History Sourcebook. N.p., Aug. 1997. Web. 25 Mar. 2013. . "Russia - Transformation and Terror." Country Studies. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2013. .
Under the rule of Joseph Stalin, life was very bad for anyone living in Russia. You would get murdered for saying or doing one slight thing wrong, or being one bit out of order. Stalin used scare tactics to force people into confessing to crimes they did not commit. Stalin had “purges” which was the arrest and murder of millions of people who did not actually commit crimes. Other people would turn them in because they would be so terrified that if they didn’t turn that person in that they would be arrested and killed.
Stalin had a system called “The Five Year Plans” which brought all industry under state control. This means that the state was in charge of all industrial development. It would decide what would be produced, how much would be produce and where it would be produced. The Gosplan was an organization that was created to map all of these details out. Each plan set a targeted goal that industries must meet. These targets were completely unrealistic, and virtually impossible to actually have success. Emphasis was put on industries such as steel, iron, coal, oil and electricity. So, as you can imagine, the life of factory workers was not very enjoyable. The working conditions in these factories were horrible. They would work very hard to meet the goals that had been set for them, but no matter how hard they tried these goals could not be met. They would live in fear that if they did not do what the government told them then they would be murdered. Workers could be sent to prison camps in Siberia if they did not follow the five year plans. Managers of factories could be executed as “enemies of the people”. Nobody was allowed to talk badly about the five year plans because they were Stalin’s idea.
Life for farmers was not much better. In order to improve Russia’s agriculture, Saltin introduced collectivization, which was where man smaller farms would come together to be one large farm. These larger farms would use machinery because they were so big. Their job was to produce enough food for the factory workers, so the more food they could produce the better. The people who owned farms before this rule was put into play were not happy, because their land was being taken away from them. But obviously they were not going to complain, in fear of being killed. Collectivization also highlighted the use of machinery in order to produce more crops more quickly. Many people were very angry about collectivization, so in order to avoid it, they would slaughter all of the animals in their farms and destroy all of their grain so that the secret police would have nothing to take away from them. This way they wouldn’t be forced into collectivization.
Peasant farmers in the USSR did not benefit from Stalin’s rule. Under the line of the Czar, peasants, no matter wealth, were entitled to a portion of land. The Czar had given the majority of peasants a plot to farm on. Because of these disconnected farms, farming was often labor intensive and did not utilize machinery. In order to industrialize Russia, Stalin wanted to incorporate more machinery so that the farming process would be quicker. One can only use tractors and other equipment if the farm is large enough, so Stalin wanted to combine farms. If Stalin combined farms, he would be taking the land that the peasants owned and declaring that the government owned it. Peasants, no matter the degree of wealth, were outraged. Stalin was taking what was rightfully theirs. If a village did not comply with collective farming, soldiers would be sent, the owner would be killed, and the land would then be free. Those who refused to take part in collective farming would often slaughter their animals and destroy their grain, therefore, the government would not be able to take it. Collective farming resulted in a significant lesser output of goods than under the previous leaders.
On the other hand, factory workers did benefit from Stalin’s reforms as living standards were lifted. Before Stalin’s rule, health care was extremely limited, meaning that the poor was unable to access medicine. Stalin’s rule resulted in an increase of doctors and the ability to be treated in times of illness. Holiday was unheard of under the Czar, but Stalin required holiday for everyone. In addition, Stalin established health clubs and sports complexes as the people’s lived revolved around sport. Lack of housing was a significant problem in the USSR, so Stalin built apartment complexes. However, these complexes were primitive and well behind western standard. Because of collective farming, Russia’s food supply suffered, meaning that people throughout the country including factory workers lacked food. Stalin saw a need to industrialize the Russian economy. In order to do so, he established the five year plan. Under the new industrialization, employees worked long, hard hours. The workers lived and worked in brutal conditions as we saw with the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Propaganda played a big role in motivating the population and the lack of food was justified by the production of new machinery. Because of such a large revolution, more workers were employed, ensuring more people a stable, but tiny salary. The USSR created the KGB, a secret police force that would send any anti-communists or anti-government citizens to work camps. The KGB would follow through on any complaint, even if only based on one person’s opinion. Therefore, citizens lived in constant fear.
Peasant farmers did not benefit at all by collectivization while factory workers had it both ways. For a peasant farmer, all resources and right to land was taken away, leaving the only path as being a slave to the government. Neither working condition nor the quality of life improved. The government was unable to provide health care or leisurely activities in such rural areas. On the other hand, the factory workers were slaves of the government, but at least access to medicine improved and the government promoted leisurely activity. Both situations were bad, but industrial workers did have more benefits.
Under such pressure as existed in this time, I know for certain that I would either be a model Stalinist, or I would crack and off myself. Because Stalin himself was a factory worker at one point, he was more lenient (ever so slightly) on the farmers.
Being and industrial worker during the time of Joseph Stalin was tough. It was definitely a backbreaking job, but was also a frustrating job because of Joseph Stalin’s rule. Industrially, Russia was doing very well but it was very tough for the workers. They did not have much food, living conditions were rough, but surprisingly Joseph Stalin provided a good and effective health care system. During the time of Joseph Stalin, the number of doctors rose but the doctors were scared of performing procedures because they were scared of messing up. In the result of this tough labor, hard work and many other things, Russia became a major industrial by the year 1939. Also, Russia’s soldiers were benefiting from the boost of the industrial revolution. In the end, Russia was successful due to Stalin’s government, but there were many things people had to do in order for it to be successful. As you can see, it was difficult for industrial workers. I can easily relate this to modern day China. The Chinese and workers under Stalin worked long hard hours, have little to no benefits, and lived under tough conditions.
Collective Farmer:
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a collective farmer is “a farm, esp. in the U.S.S.R., consisting of the holdings of several farmers, run by a group of people in co-operation, usually under state control.” Joseph Stalin was the first person to use Collectivization. He used it from 1928-1940. Joseph Stalin’s goal was take smaller farms, combine them, and make one big farm. This is also known as collective farming. The Soviets believed that it would increase the food supply for the urban population, and it would also increase agricultural exports. After two years, the farmers started to ignore Stalin’s idea, so Stalin made collectivization compulsory. As you can see, it was very difficult for the farmers because they were under the rule of someone even if they were the owners of their farms. The farmers hated Stalin’s idea so they decided to revolt in a unique way. The farmers burned their own crops and even killed their own animals. In the end, farmers ended up losing their land and 90% of farms were owned by the government. As you can see, it was very difficult for the farmers during the time of Joseph Stalin. No farmers were in favor of Joseph Stalin, but if they spoke up, they would be murdered.
Comparison:
As you can see both types of workers had very tough lives. They both had different types of benefits but in the end, it would be tough to be any kind of worker under Joseph Stalin. It was not just the farmers and the industrial workers, but it was everyone. Not one person was safe.
Under the rule of the USSR and Joseph Stalin, Russian industrial workers lived harsh and cruel lives similar to those of Britain industrial workers during Britain’s industrial revolution. Like Britain’s workers, Russian industrial workers experienced low salaries despite the long work shifts. Many of the factory workers also had to risk their lives on a daily basis because that was what their job entailed. Even if the workers had money, there was nothing they could spend it on. Living conditions were poor and workers were susceptible to disease and infection. However, one thing that Joseph Stalin and USSR did right was the implementation of a good healthcare system. There were several doctors and physicians that were available to the common industrial worker. Even though there was this great health care system, the life of an industrial worker was terrible. So why did they work so hard?
There were several reasons why Russian industrial workers performed their jobs so well. The USSR and Stalin ruled with a praise and punishment sort of law. If a worker did not do there job well, they were punished, and if they worked hard, they were praised. Rewards for hard workers included raises in pay and leisure time. However, rewards were very rare whereas punishments were common. Punishments included getting fined, losing your ration book, or even being sent off to a labor camp. With the industrial worker’s pay being already so low, many of these punishments could easily ruin a person’s life. Prison camps were also very dreaded among the workers. A person who was shipped off to a prison camp often never returned home. They experienced heavy labor and were always monitored. Most of the prisoners died and were never to be seen again.
Industrial workers may have had a rough life, but the peasant farmers experienced even harsher lives. In 1918, even the poorest of peasants owned land and had their own farm; however, in 1924, Stalin realized that Russia was not producing enough agriculture with these small, family-owned farms to feed its own country. Stalin put into act what is called collectiveness. With this process, Stalin wished to bring together small farms and join them into one major agriculture factory. This would produce more food at a faster rate because of new technology; however, this did not please the peasants. The peasant farmers would be losing land they had acquired and would not be reimbursed. Instead, the peasants would lose everything they had. This collectivisation plan was built to benefit the Industrial worker’s life by giving them more food at the expense of the peasant. Ironically, Stalin created this plan despite being a peasant himself before he gained power.
Industrial workers had harsh lives, but at least they had health care and other necessities that the peasant farmers did not. The government wanted to improve the industrial worker’s life by inventing collectivisation, but at the peasant farmer’s expense. Neither class had an ideal lifestyle, but at least industrial workers had more opportunity and leniency than the peasant farmers.
Stalin wanted to create a perfect Socialist society. He revamped education so all students would understand how important Stalin and Communism were. Much emphasis was placed on outdoor activities and clean living. Stalin also tightened restrictions regarding divorce. There were many homeless children without family, which stained the perfection socialism was to bring to its people. As a result, the government paid married couples a child allowance and made it harder for women to get abortions. Living conditions improved and health care was expanded. Many doctors were afraid of punishment and followed orders, creating appointments for operations people didn’t need. Also, housing was scarce. Many people lived in one-room houses and did not have access to electricity. People were also entitled to have a holiday every year. Such leisure was not to expected under the Tsar.
Many complain of Stalin’s destruction of Russian society, but the leader brought about some improvement for the country. The country became more industrialized by 1939, surpassing America and Europe in progress. People who did not oppose the state lived a higher standard of life than they did under the Tsar. Military forces were stronger, and there was a stable government. Despite this progress, Stalin injected fear into Russian society and Purged the community of talented people.
Stalin knew that Russia’s current system of agriculture was not enough to support its large labor force. He combined smaller farms into larger collectives so each farm could produce more food. Many peasants resisted collectivization, because Lenin had given them land and they felt their land was being stolen by Stalin. Stalin did give collectives machinery to improve agricultural yield and productivity. Those who resisted were deported, sent to labor camps, resettled, or executed. Starvation and death was common in the farms, because Stalin favored redistribution of food among urban centers and the army. As a result, many peasants relocated to urban centers to avoid the harsh life of a farmer.
Industry workers faced a hard life, but they pushed on because of the idealistic view propaganda gave them. They worked long, grueling hours to fulfill the Five Year Plans. They were not paid much and worker safety was not considered. Also, many consumer goods were not produced so the country could focus on gathering natural resources.
Both industry and farm workers lived hard lives. They did not have much choice in terms of lifestyle. However, many farm workers died of starvation because Stalin held a grudge against the peasants. Also, industry workers were rewarded based on productivity, so they had a chance to be paid more. As a result, industry workers had a slightly better life than farm workers.
Life as a factory worker under Stalin was very hard. It could be argued that it was even worse, as the British industrial revolution as one could get punished for not working hard enough. People would work in coal and iron factories. To motivate the workers to work hard, workers would be put into groups and from there compete for a higher salary. This made many workers angry as some workers would always get a higher pay, just because they were a little stronger than all the other workers. The people who didn’t work hard enough were put into hard work camps where the conditions were even worse than those of the factories.
Life in a farm in Russia was even harder than the life in the factories. Stalin had put an order to do collectivism. This system of agriculture combined all the small farms into larger farms. The meant that if you were a wealthier Russian farmer all the land and wealth you had gained through many generations were lost as Stalin would combine all the farms around you. Even many poor peasants were unhappy from this change. The reason Stalin wanted big farms is so that they could produce bigger quantities of food to feed the factory workers. This also forced the peasants to use machinery to harvest, as it was impossible to use just manual labor in these large farms. In the end this whole plan was a failure. The farmers revolted against Stalin many times as he was taking their grains and giving it to the rest of the population.
Working in factories and farms were both really hard in while Stalin was in power. The worst though, was being a farmer, as one was barely given any rights and would many times lose their own farm because of collectivism. People in farms would also be forced to sell their own grain for a cheap price. Sometimes the military would even come and force them to give most of the seasons harvest. The farmers would revolt, but this would lead to being taken by the secret police. Though the factories had a low pay they at least could stay put in the cities.
During the rule of Joseph Stalin, industrial workers and collective farmers were both affected. The Industrial workers had to deal with Stalin’s first Five-year plan from 1928 through 1933. The idea behind the plan was to remake the Russian economy through the Industrial society. This put huge pressure on the workers to meet extremely difficult standards. As a worker in the industrial sector during the rule of Joseph Stalin, life would be dreadful. As a worker with quotas to fill, workers would find themselves working 16 to 18 hour days. If one was not able to fulfill their quotes they could be looking at treason charges. The days were not only long and challenging for workers, but workers had to also face the fear of being fired. Workers were forced to work hard because if they were fired it means losing “the right to use ration and commodity cards”. They were often then blacklisted for new employment, which brought the risk of starving. To add to the troubles, many workers died during the Stalin’s industrial Five Year Plan. This was mainly due to the harsh and demanding working conditions. It is estimated that 127,000 workers died during just the first four years of the plan. During this time, many also worked in labor camps with poor conditions.
The collective farmers during Stalin’s rule were treated much better. Between 1928 and 1940, Stalin replaced the small individual farms with collective ones that would increase the food supply. He was very successful in collectivizing the farms; however it often caused large human and social costs. There were still agricultural labor camps, however the agricultural side was not as bad as the industrial side in my opinion. Actually at first the Collectivizing of the farms did not go well at all. In fact, because the fact that one in five farmers were dying in the camps, the other farmer resisted the movement. However from 1929 to 1930 The-all-out-drive took place. Here the percentage of collective farms jumped from 7.4% to 60%. Then by 1936 90% of the soviet agriculture was collectivized. Overall the Collective farmers had ha ruff start, but soon the farms began grow in size which put ease on them. For this reason I feel that the collective farmers had a much easier lifestyle than the Industrial workers. I am not saying that the Collective farmers had it easy, but I just believe the industrial workers had it worse.
Industrial workers had tough lives under Stalin’s rule, but benefitted in a some ways. For example, their living standards were raised, so they had better places to live. They still had to deal with hunger, but their living conditions were better. Industrial workers usually did not make much money. They had to work for many hours every day for a small amount of money. They believed that, though their current conditions were not great, if they worked hard, Stalin would reward them. Stalin had a few ways to increase productivity. He would reward some workers for their good work, which caused others to feel competitive and want to work harder to get rewarded as well. He would also threaten to send bad workers off to labor camps, which would encourage people to work harder. If these people did not work hard enough, they would have to work in a prison camp and could be killed. Stalin focused on productivity with the industrial workers. For the most part, these workers were treated better than collective farmers.
Farmers were very restricted by the government in many ways. Their farms were owned by the government and the farmers did not have much control because of this. They were assigned a specific plot of land, which harmed the production of food because caring for these farms required a lot of manual labor. These areas were also too small to use machines, which did not coincide with Stalin’s goal of industrializing Russia. Stalin combined farming areas to make them larger which made the government the owner of these farms, and upset the farmers. The grouping together of small farms was called collectivisation. Once this began, farmers had to work together and grow food, which they then sold to the government at low prices. The farmers were allowed to keep the produce surplus and profits. The peasant farmers disagreed with this system and did not cooperate with the government. They would kill their livestock and crops instead of selling them to the government. If they did this and did not follow the rules, they would be punished. The kulaks, or the wealthier peasants, were opposed to the idea of collectivisation because the amount of land that they had to farm was no longer based on hard work, it was randomly assigned. This caused uproar and food shortages.
Some similarities between farmers and industrial workers are that they were both very restricted and everything was censored. They could not read anything that was uncensored, or they would be punished. An example of censorship would be the books studied in school by children. They had to be authorized by the government and a book by Stalin was always studied. The controlled education caused a lot of children to be improperly taught. Also, both groups of people had to deal with food shortages and hunger under the rule of Stalin. Healthcare was easier to get, though, which helped a lot of people. Stalin seemed to favor industrial workers compared to collective farmers, even though he grew up as a peasant himself. Industrial workers had somewhat easier lives compared to farmers, and they had more advantages to their jobs.
When Joseph Stalin took power over Russia, his goal was to modernize and expand the industrial sectors of the country. The revisions he had created were all fit to take place during a five year period and was thus called “The 5 year plan.” In order to carry out the 5 year plan, Stalin would implement collective farming, which was small farms joining together to make bigger farms. The bigger farms would use machinery to harvest their food and collect larger amounts to feed to both themselves and the factory workers. As long as the factory workers were fed, they could work efficiently and the 5 year plan would proceed as planned. However, neither factory worker or farmer led carefree lives in result of Stalin’s aspiration.
An industrial worker worked long hours at dangerous jobs with small pay. The amount of consumer goods available for the workers was little to none and the homes provided were extremely poor. Despite these seemingly halting facts, the workers continued to labor in their respective industrial jobs. One of the main reasons was that for the youthful workers, the idea of communism and the world it would create was worth the waiting and the hard work. The workers were also pushed by propaganda and the belief that if everyone was doing it, they didn’t want to be the one left behind. Laborers were also rewarded with money for the amount of work they put in compared to the average man. And of course there was always physical punishment and the looming threat of the labor camps and the arduous physical work that awaited those we refused to work. But regardless of all of the pain, the 5 year plan managed to successfully turn Russia into an industrial powerhouse.
Farmers had it tougher than the industrial workers. This is ironic because Stalin himself had been a peasant before he had risen to power. Lenin had previously given land to all farmers. Farmers who were rich enough to hire labor were called kulaks. When the farmers refused to give up their land to collectivization, Stalin tried turning the peasants against the kulaks, but to no avail. The first famine spread through Russia. Stalin sent soldiers to villages that wouldn’t hand their farms over to collectivization, and many villagers were shot. This time, peasants would slaughter their animals and burn their crops so that Stalin wouldn’t be able to steal any. This brought about a second famine. Stalin tried relaxing his rule, but when he was met with the same resistance yet again, a third even worse famine spread throughout the land. Stalin now officially declared war on the kulaks and many were executed. By 1939, the government owned 90 percent of the profits and left only the meager ten percent for the farmers to live off of.
Life in Soviet Russia was very similar to the lives of people in modern day North Korea. Stalin created a personality cult among the people. All artists, poets, and authors had to glorify Stalin in their work. Books and media were highly controlled by the government; anyone who tried to gain access to material that wasn't government approved was punished. Education and family life were strictly controlled through government-made courses, exams, restrictions on divorce and abortion, and an emphasis on ceremonial marriage. Woman maintained a mostly equal position with men in the workplace. Though living standards rose for many people through health care and holidays, workers on collective farms or in industries still found life to be very difficult. Industry workers had long hours in dangerous working conditions for which they received little pay. These workers still worked hard out of fear of punishment for slacking and the prospect of a better life that the Soviet rule promised. The life of a peasant whose farm had been collectivized was also difficult. Many were forced to collectivize or sold their land out of fear. Those who worked for a collectivized farm had to hope that each member contributed to the overall success; failure of a farm to meet the production quota had disastrous effects on everyone in it. Many peasants migrated to urban areas to avoid starvations.
Stalin’s idea about Soviet Union is to create a socialist heaven. He was trying to make everyone in his country equal——besides him and other leaders of the nation. He is a dictator who doesn’t really care about his people, though he was a peasant before he became the great leader of Soviet Union. The government rule by him collects almost everything, and they give the supplies equally to everyone else in the nation. However that’s just how it should work ideally, in reality, the corruption, the mistake of management, even some leaders’ own desire, would be a big problem for the society.
Stalin is also a paranoid person, he doesn’t believe the people around him, he is afraid that the capitalists in Russia will arise again and his working compadres are trying to get his power. Thus he started the Great Purge, during that time, everyone in the nation is suspect. You may need to identify your friend, your siblings, even your innocent parents as traitor, or you will be considered as a traitor as well. You might be caught at anytime by KGB, maybe just because you said something anti-communism, anti-soviet, even just anti-Stalin. At least 1.5 million people were arrested or executed. During that time, no one can trust others in the country. Stalin also eliminated Eastern Orthodoxy successfully in Russia by killed hundreds of thousands of priests as well.
The industrial workers’ life under Stalin’s rule isn’t that difficult at first, because the workers were considered as the leaders of the country. They got more health care, more holidays and shelters to live. However, Stalin wanted the industry to grow even faster than before. Thus he created the 5 years plan which is basically rapid growth of the industry. Due to Stalin’s rapid industry growth plan, the industrial workers also need to work very hard everyday, a lot of them just died because of the high working pressure and the low reward. Just like the workers during the industrial revolution, the workers work in terrible working conditions and they work many hours everyday. Workers were brainwashed that as long as they work hard, the nation will get better and their life, as a consequence, will be better as well. However because of the lag of the agriculture, their life actually got even worse. Compare to the farmers under Stalin’s rule, those workers were really lucky. The farming life is even harder than working in factories because of the collective system. Basically as a farmer you need to give all your products to the government to feed the workers in the factories. They also didn’t have the properties of their lands because they also belong to government. Farmers during that time have very few difference with serves during the era of Czar. Many of them starved to death because they gave all the products away.
If you were a farmer under Stalin you were under the Collectivization of Agriculture. Stalin believed that Russia wasn’t doing well in agriculture. He said, "Agriculture is developing slowly, comrades. This is because we have about 25 million individually owned farms. They are the most primitive and undeveloped form of economy. We must do our utmost to develop large farms and to convert them into grain factories for the country organized on a modem scientific basis." In order to make this happen, smaller farms were merged together into large collective farms. Even the poorest farmers were able to afford land under this system. The richer farmers weren’t cool with this policy however. They hated how it minimized their hard work to get to their position. In response, the richer farmers ruined their crops and land when the government tried to take it and turn it into a collective farm.
If you were in the industrial sector, the government was in total control of what you could read and listen to. If you went against this, you were punished and sent to labor camps. There were shortages of food that led to many dying and it was hard to find housing. The industrial sector was flourishing with growth unlike the U.S., which was experiencing the Great Depression. Every citizen was entitled to a holiday each year and get healthcare if you were sick. If you did everything as you were supposed to do, you would be more successful than under the tsar. Stalin also brought a stable government. Lastely, if your neighbor or anyone for that matter didn't like you, they could report you to the secret police and you would be taken away even if you did nothing.
Under Stalin's reign, it could be argued that the factory workers had a better off life than the farmers.
Before Stalin's reign, there were not many factory workers because the USSR had not yet industrialized. One of Stalin's main goals was to catch up on the 50 years of industrialization most of the west had made. He decided that the best course of action was to send the country into a massive construction and manufacturing boom. The plan could only take place however, if the government had full control over all business and trade. The result of the government running manufacturing was overall a success in the grand scheme of things. Not only did the USSR catch up with all of the other countries that had been so far ahead of it, it also superseded many of them to become one of the world's superpowers by WWII. The workers themselves however did not feel the success the nation as a whole did. They did receive a higher standard of living when compared to the standards before Stalin, but still received little pay for their work. The way the system worked when the government was put in charge of business was that the government assumed that workers would achieve greater than the goals set out before them by the government. The problem with that plan is that it really leaves the workers with no incentive to work hard because all they have to do is achieve the goal to get paid. Living wasn't easy being a factory worker, and many died of starvation due to the low wages for food and intensive labor.
The farmers in Russia had things harder though. Pre-Stalin, the farmers would have their own plots of land and made an amount of money directly proportional to the amount of effort put into their farming. When Stalin implemented his plan, the farmers had to combine their farms with their neighbors as a part of collectivization. The farmers were extremely unhappy with this because that meant that they lost that relationship of hard work meaning good pay. Many revolts occurred in rural areas as a result, proving that farmers had it worse than the factory workers.
Under communism everyone earns the same amount of money so the incentive is removed for working hard. Stalin was insanely ambitious for his country and for catching it’s economy and place in the world industrially up to the modern standard in a short period of time. For this to happen, Stalin needed everyone to be working to their full potential which was hard in times of communism because people could get away with not working and still get their share of the pay. No positive incentive is available because if extra incentive is possible then the goal and purpose of communism is eliminated. Stalin was forced to use fear and negative incentive to keep his workers in line. He set up gulags as a place to put those who didn’t work, but he got carried away and started to persecute anyone who opposed his party and his rule.
With Stalin’s view that the entirety of Russia’s agriculture and industry was far behind, he had some great plans in mind. The first was to unify agriculture. He believed that Russia should be able to sustain and feed itself, but also be able to export and grow the economy. His idea was to take all of the small peasant farms and unify them into one “super” farm. This idea is called collective farming. The peasant farmers were doing fine, they were able to feed themselves and their families, as well as sell some of their surplus for profit. They didn’t necessarily want to join with other farms, they had no reason to, so they didn’t voluntarily join large collective farms. Joseph Stalin thought his idea was necessary for economic growth, and after people wouldn’t volunteer to his grand idea, he forced them. Anyone who opposed was either sent to jail, work camps, or even executed. In protest of the tyranny, some farmers would spit in the face of his plan by burning their own crops and even killing their own livestock.
Industrially, Stalin was also over realistic. He pushed workers to their peaks by setting irrational quotas and expected workers to exceed these goals. Also, if workers did not work hard enough or did not meet quotas, they were terrorised. They were sent to work camps like gulags, jail, possibly executed, or tortured. Stalin used tyranny and fear tactics to push work out of workers and this impacted negatively. It lead to hatred towards the government and put thoughts of rebellion in the heads of workers. Although Stalin’s plans were ambitious, they only existed in ideal situations, and would lead to the eventual downfall of communist Russia.
Stalin’s goal in Communist Russia, from the time he took power in 1924 to his death in 1953, was to create an utopian society; however, this clearly is not what occurred during these 29 years of his rule. Under Stalin’s dictatorship, the common people did not have any freedoms, which impacted all forms of their lifestyle. This situation is similar to other examples of totalitarianism we have seen in history and today, such as Hitler in Germany and Kim Jong-un in North Korea. For children during this time, the education they were receiving is nothing like the education we would receive today. All schools were controlled by the state and carefully monitored what kids were learning. Specifically, the Revolution of 1917, where the Bolshevik’s overthrew the provisional government, was highlighted and glorified to students. In addition, Stalin ordered a book called “A Short History of the USSR” to be taught in all of the schools as well, and basically excluded any other history besides their own. Outside of school, children almost had to be involved in Party groups, such as the Young Pioneers until the age of 14, and then the Komosomol until age 28. Not being in these groups was frowned upon, especially since that could signal that you don’t believe in the Party’s ideals, which literally was fatal. Another major lifestyle change that impacted many civilians was religion. Every religion was banned, so the only option for religion was no religion, or atheism. Because of this, nearly 40,000 Christian churches and 25,000 mosques were closed down and converted into clubs, cinemas, schools, and warehouses during Stalin’s reign. Even a famous cathedral in St. Petersburg, which at that time had been called Leningrad was turned into a museum of atheism. As a result of the lack of religiousness within the USSR, the only person one could worship was Stalin himself, as he was glorified in every way – not just religion. Stalin majorly impacted the news and media as well. This was done through propaganda, or changing the media to portray a specific message, and usually was done to highlight a certain person or party. In this case, all of the newspapers, specifically one called Pravda, were extremely biased towards Stalin’s Party, and only gave one side to the story – Stalin’s side. To go along with this, all creative artists’ works had to support the Party and the government, and had to deal with “socialist realism”. If an artist painted or wrote about anything that was against Stalin’s policies, there would be major consequences, which usually involved executions. Finally, the other major impact on civilians was family life. Divorces and abortions during Lenin’s rule were easy to achieve, but Stalin decided to change this so there would be less unwanted children in his utopian society. By doing this, women’s’ rights were yet again taken away, and couldn’t divorce if they wanted. To add to this, many growing families were unable to find housing during this time, as there were huge housing shortages, and even if a house was available, only 6% of households had more than one room. There were also huge food and good shortages as well, so the growing families, which were supported by Stalin, suffered greatly, as they couldn’t afford and food or basic necessities. Although there were some positives for the civilians, such as better healthcare and more holidays for workers, the typical common person lived in fear of the government, because many people would be accused of crimes they had never even committed. This made neighbors turn on neighbors quite often so they could stay in the clear, which is not a healthy environment to live in. People needed to follow the orders of Stalin and his Party, or they would have to suffer the consequences – and approximately 15 million people suffered the horrendous consequence of death.
In addition, Stalin's major ideas included the 5 year plans, which included urbanization and agricultural production as well. To do this, Stalin introduced collectivization, or pieces of land that were owned by the government and were split into pieces for the peasants to farm on, and all of the profits would go directly to the Party. Not only was this a disaster because there was no way to transport the goods, but many peasants became angry about moving onto big farms and protested instead. Meanwhile, Stalin's other main goal was to industrialize to catch up to Western Europe, and he was able to do this in an incredibly short amount of time. However, although the USSR was able to catch up technologically, the workers suffered a huge amount as a result. Similarly to the Industrial Revolution in Britain, workers had long hours and virtually no pay, and even if they were paid, there was not anything to spend it on, as there were always food and good shortages.
Regardless of what type of worker you were, some aspect of Stalin's rule made your life miserable and extremely difficult to survive off of.
People living under the rule of Stalin led very strict lives. Books and all forms of media were blocked if the state did not permit them. This affected Russian children’s education greatly because a lot of the time they were being shielded from the truth. Another thing that Stalin did was force artists and authors to glorify him in any of their works, and at that time, people worshipped him instead of God. He also put a lot of emphasis on the family, and as a result women were seen more as equals. In the end, though, the government was pretty stable under Stalin. However, the people did not like it because of the tough, rigid lifestyle.
For example, industrial workers earned very little pay for their work, and with the money they did earn, they barely had anything to buy because “consumer goods were simply not produced.” The housing that was provided for them was very bad, along with the hours and working conditions. Even though the entirety of their jobs were terrible, the industrial workers kept on working for several reasons. Some were completely brainwashed by communism and Stalin, believing that eventually, by doing this, they would get a better life and a better society. Also, propaganda convinced some of the workers that what they were doing was great and that others would follow their lead. Yet another reason for working was rewards. If they worked hard enough, they would be rewarded with money, or even more important, a higher reputation. If they did not perform their job well enough, they would be sent off to labor camps, so that was enough to scare them.
Another example of the tough, rigid lifestyle under Stalin is that of the collective farmers. Stalin believed that if smaller farms (and their workers) were joined to create a collective farm, more food would be produced, and machinery could be afforded. However, when the peasants ignored his ideas and there was a famine, he became more forceful. They rebelled by either burning their crops or killing livestock. He tried enforcing his idea again, and there was still resistance. Finally, Stalin decided to execute the resistors and 99% of land ended up being collectivized by 1939. These collective farmers had low wages on top of everything else. Therefore, in a way, their lives were worse off because their life was constantly in danger and land was being taken away from them.
Joseph Stalin grew up in a poor family. He put all his effort towards grades and got a scholarship. He became the leader of the Soviet Union, Russia in 1929. Growing up he immersed himself in to the culture of politics. The people he ruled over lived very structured and tough lives. He established several multi-year plans which greatly increased the industrial capacity of the country. He was known to be "psychotic & crazy." If a person was out of line, or did something wrong he would have them killed right on the spot. He was know to be a very intelligent manipulator, he manipulated Russia into trusting him. With all of this dictatorship, his ego started to grow. "He expanded the powers of the secret police, encouraged citizens to spy on one another and had millions of people killed or sent to the Gulag system of forced labor camps."
The collective farmers had it worse than the industrial workers. The industrial and farmers had also a lot in common. They had low wages, long rough hours, and had horrible treatment. The kulaks were farmers who owned more land or bigger factories, but there were also the peasants who owned less land. Stalin brainwashed a majority of these people, and thats when propaganda with Stalin messed with their minds. The worst thing was, as these people are on farmlands doing their job for little pay, if they did not work hard enough then they would be force to goto labour camps. This treatment was horrible.
"By 1939, 99% of the land was run by collective farmers, who did not receive the majority of their production. In fact, the government took 90% of their production, and only left the collective farmers enough to live off of." Living in Russia at the time of Stalin's ruling would be rough. "Stalin ruled by terror and with a totalitarian grip in order to eliminate anyone who might oppose him." If I didn't think Stalin was a good ruler or thought he wasn't good then I could of possible been killed. "Stalin developed what became known as a "personality cult". Artists painted pictures glorifying Stalin and he dominated many pictures." He wanted the world to glorify him. " Those who wrote poems and novels had to do the same - write about Stalin in a manner which gloried him. Some artists and authors were so depressed by all this that they committed suicide rather than do what the state ordered them to do." Life was tough for these innocent people.
Life under the rule of Joseph Stalin was very difficult. Prominent government censorship and extreme methods of repression were the standard set forth by his rule. His trademark methods of asserting control over his people were extreme terror and political suppression, and they definitely managed to control the populous of the USSR through fear. Additionally, some of the basic human rights were ignored under his rule. In paris, the USSR and some of it’s union members abstained from signing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, one of the most widely accepted documents on basic human rights.
Life as an industrial worker was not exactly a walk in the park. The work that the factory hands did often resulted in little to no pay. Additionally, if they did make any money, very few consumer goods were actually produced. This meant that individualism was drastically reduced (as was the goal for Stalin) and that most everything was supplied by the government. The workers were also forced to work extremely hard, often pushing the limits of human capabilities. A day off of work could mean the loss of your ration book or possible prison time. This idea of punishment was often enough to get extremely hard work out of the factory hands.
Collectivized farming was Stalin’s response to the failing agricultural sector in the USSR. Essentially, collectivized farming put all farms in control of the government, which were then unified into much larger farms. However, another essential part of the collectivization movement was that the farmers would now be using advanced machinery and new science to increase the production capabilities on the farms. The increased production would mean a surplus of food. This food would then be used to feed the industrial workers and non-farmers. During the collectivization movement, Stalin declared the liquidation of the Kulaks, or rich peasants, as a class. This was evidence for his complete dedication to removing all individualism from the agricultural sector of Soviet society. Most peasants, in response to the collectivization movement, attempted to revolt or stop the movement by destroying their property and killing their livestock. Unfortunately, it was not useful, and by 1938, 93.5% of all farms were owned by the government.
If Stalin was in power then everyone’s lives were ruined. Everybody was unhappy and scared for there lives everyday. People had no rights or any freedom and had to worship Stalin. People had to love him as if he was a god. They admired pictures of him and were inspired with his words. The government was in complete control. No one could do something that was displeasing to the government, or else they would be harshly punished. People became very paranoid. Stalin wanted everyone to believe in him and his ideas that he sent undercover policemen to arrest people who did not follow Stalin or simply said something that they couldn’t. The people of Russia could not trust anyone, and anyone would turn in innocent people. The majority of the time people turned in people that were not guilty, but told the government that they had committed a crime. The innocent people were either tortured or killed for the supposed crime that they did. People were in great fear and just pretended to love Stalin, so that nothing would happen to them. More than 3 million people were terribly punished for their crimes, how could people not be terrified. This not only affected the adults, but the children too. They were limited education. Children were watched constantly; just like the parents. The government had total control of everyone’s lives. People could not make one decision without the governments approval. Woman and men were basically treated the same. Workers were very unhappy with their conditions at their work. For instance, farmers and factory workers had terrible work conditions. This leads to the five-year plan that Stalin designed. Stalin was planning to increase industries and agricultural work. Stalin wished for more industries and for Russia to become more modern. In order for that to happen agriculture had to be as good as the economy. It did not work though, because the people would secretly destroy his plan. The first move that Stalin did was take the farmers lands to make its own farm. This left the farmers with nothing, but anger and hatred toward the government. Farmers would kill their animals and destroy their equipment, so the government would have nothing. More people became peasants, because of the increase in economy and unemployment. This meant that more than a million people died from starvation. Some of the farmers left Russia, so they wouldn’t starve to death and get a better job. However, some of the farmers stayed in the new government farm and did a well job. If they didn’t do what the government asked for then there was sever punishment for all of the workers. Well, this plan also needed the industrial side to grow. This was hard for the people, because they were overworked and still poor. The government was taking money out of their paychecks and the people still had to work overtime. The conditions were dangerous and hard. However they worked as hard as they could, because they were afraid of what would happen to them. They were not as worried to starve to death because they still had a job. Nonetheless, the plan failed because of agriculture and industries not rising. This plan lead to millions of deaths, hyperinflation, and waste of times an money. Stalin had to postpone his plan for when he thought it would be best. He tried a few more times and again it failed because of the people.
If I had lived in Soviet Russia during the rule of Joseph Stalin I would have none of the same freedom that I have today. Today I claim freedom of speech, religion, and so much more. If I were to live in Soviet Russia in this hard time, every choice I made would have been monitored by the state. The state was in charge of everything. The state even controlled what people read and listened to. It had complete control over the media, therefore the influence of outside sources on the people who lived there. Those who disobeyed the laws of the state were sent to labor camps, and that was more than enough to assure that most would never attempt to disobey them.
Stalin wanted to be thought of as a god. He wanted to stand out in a crowd and have the only art that his people owned to be portraits of himself. He wanted to be personable, and was excellent and putting on the charade of a kind and thoughtful ruler.
In order to keep the economy stable, the agricultural workers had to produce a surplus amount of food in order to meet their quotas. This put immense amounts of pressure of collective farmers to produce large quantities of food while receiving little to no profit. The surplus of agriculture was used to buy machinery to make the lives of industry workers easier. While this put more pressure on the farmers, someone working in the industrial sector did less work but earned the same or even more pay.
Life under Stalin in Soviet Russia was a time where people had little to no freedom. The freedom that we as Americans hold dear to us today if freedom of speech, freedom of media, and freedom of religion. During this time period life was extremely limited. People couldn’t even read what books they wanted to read. All books, news, and music had to be approved by the government before it was issued to the people. If people dared to reach beyond the arms of the government to find other books and forms of media they were severely punished.
Artists and writers, the people who created these pieces of work, were also limited to the things that they could create. They were part of a “personality cult” where they were forced to paint pictures and write in a way that glorified Stalin and made him seem god like. Because they were limited creatively, many artists became depressed and either committed suicide or tried to leave the country.
In addition to media, education was also strictly taught and monitored. Schools and teachers were required to use a book called “A Short History of the USSR” which was ordered into production by Stalin himself. Exams were also reintroduced by Stalin after previously being banned by Lenin. Children from 8-23 were also expected to be apart of clubs after school. From 8-10 you were an Octobrist, from 10-19 you were a Pioneer, and from 19-23 you were a Komsomol. Children from a young age were taught how to be a “good socialist” and to value outdoor activites and clean living.
During this time period Churches were also closed down and church leaders were arrested. The reasoning behind this was that Stalin wanted no competition for power and didn’t want people to devote time to worshiping God. He wanted to be the only leading figure in the lives of the Russian people so he closed down the churches in fear of God challenging his position.
Industrial worker: During Joseph Stalin’s Russia the industrial workers were heavily scrutinized by the government for their productivity. Instead of have a foreman, who makes sure everyone is in line, everyone working in the factory must keep everyone in line and report to the secret police about what is happening in the factory if the production dies down. The secret police would need to get an answer for why production was dying down. This would make the workers become nervous because they knew that the secret police would be coming for them and the workers would create a scapegoat from other workers so that they themselves did not have to deal with the secret police taking them away in the night. The life of an industrial worker was one of paranoia and solidarity instead of the safety and unity that communism was supposed to entail. Even if you were accused of being or even thinking anti-communist you would be tortured and executed. That makes everyone turn on each other, neighbors ratting out neighbors, wifes ratting out husbands, and children ratting out their parents. This left families split in two, neighborhoods torn apart, and workplaces feeling unsafe.
Collective farmer: A collective farm was a farm that was repossessed by the soviet government and split up evenly between families which were tasked to generate crops for the population and not themselves. This created problems because each of the families got food no matter the amount of food they produced but still had to keep up a quota. This threw many families that were relocated from the west to east under the bus because of climate changes from where they originated. Because weather is uncontrollable, these quotas were hard to uphold and many farmers were killed. Stalin himself was a farmer by birth. He did not show any sympathy for the majority of collective farmers and held all of them to their quotas and if a family were to not hold their end of the quota he would have them taken away in the night, tortured, and executed.
Comparison: Both of these lives were miserable because of the uncertainty of life. Both lives have your life in the palm of someone or something elses hand. The only difference between the two is that the in the case of the industrial workers, people determine the outcome of their equals lives. While, the collective farmers life is determined on the climate, weather, and fertility of the soil.
Stalin wanted to transform Russia into an industrial superpower and keep total control over the people. His goal was to create the perfect socialist society, and he did not want anything threatening that. Therefore, the information given to the people was highly censored and any words of opposition were taken very seriously. All forms of media were filtered through the government, and those who attempted to find something unfiltered were threatened with labor camps or deportation. Education was highly monitored by the government and students were required to learn specific lessons put forth by the government—ones that glorified Stalin and the governmental system. All poems and novels had to portray him positively, and he was nicknamed “Uncle Joe” to make him seem familial, familiar and kind. Religion was prohibited under Stalin’s rule, all churches had to be shut down. There was to be no person worshipped more than Stalin himself. Industry was the main focus for Stalin, and he succeeded in growing this field. The economy boomed and living standards increased for those skilled in factory work. The military forces improved, the government was very stable, healthcare was decent and for those who did not oppose the government, life could be bearable. However, Stalin did not have good plans for improving the agricultural field. The agriculture was at the same level under Stalin’s rule but the population had grown significantly. The unchanging level lead to a famine that affected much of the population. The reason for this is Stalin’s failed plan of collectivism, where small farms would be merged together and equipped with high-tech machinery. Those who did not agree were killed and their land was taken so villages decided to kill their livestock so they would not be asked to join a collective. Stalin had set his focus on industrialization and as a result created a society that was satisfactory for many of those working in the industrial sector. He did not place as high of a priority on agriculture and came up with a system that did not work. As a result, a farmer had a very difficult time in the USSR and the country suffered in total with the lack of agricultural resources.
When Stalin took power over Russia he led his country with strict rules. He blocked books and other forms of media when it was not approved by state. Blocking books and the media effected the education system and people never knew the full truth when their lives were blocked from the real world. His goal was to expand the industries in his country. He created the five year system and this meant that Stalin would put into action collective farming. The factory workers were supposed to work efficiently during this plan which would put his plan to work and bring in more money. People proceed to worship Stalin as he portrayed himself as god. However many people did not enjoy living under Stalin's rule because of the tough lifestyle they would have to live by.
Under Stalin's rule industry workers lived difficult lives. An industry workers would not receive a lot of pay. Industry workers had poor living conditions and they did not have much food. Workers did not have good working conditions and hours. Though the conditions were terrible workers continued to work because of Stalin and communism at the time. Workers also believed that if they worked enough they would end up with more money and a better reputation. Workers were also influenced by propaganda which encouraged them to work hard and be rewarded for their actions. Stalin did reward some of the more skilled worker and punished those who did not work hard enough. This encouraged workers to work hard and not slack off and be punished. Stalin introduced a five year plan which brought all industry under the state control meaning that it was all planned by the state. The state would decide for industries what products they would make, how much is produced and where it would be produced. This plan was to increase industries and work. Stalins five year plan was successful and turned Russia into a powerhouse.
Collective farmers during this time did live tougher lives compared to industry workers. Collective farming was the jointing of smaller farms to create a bigger farm. This was useful because the bigger farms could use the machines to harvest their food to feed themselves along with the factory workers in larger amounts. The kulaks were the farmers who could afford hiring labour. The peasants refused and ignored Stalin's ideas and did not want to give their land to joint with other farms. This created famine throughout Russia. The peasants rebelled against him and burned their crops along with killing their animals. Stalin tried to reenforce his ideas but there were no followers creating a bigger spread of famine in Russia. Stalin declared war on the kulaks and executed many of them. By 1939 the government owned 90 percent of the profits. The collective farmers had wages along with everything else. This proves that farmers lived a tougher lifestyle during Stalin's rule since they had their land taken aways from them and sharing it with other farmers.
Joseph Stalin attempted to create a perfect communist society for Russia. In doing this, he limited many freedoms for citizens in Russia. For instance, citizens could only read what the state allowed, media was limited, artists were forced to paint glorifying paintings of Stalin, and people were not allowed to be religious since they were forced to Worship Stalin. Stalin's Russia was very similar to life under Kim Jong il in North Korea in that: education is controlled, people were forced to be good communists and worshipers of Stalin, there were problems with food production and millions were unemployed. Stalin made it his goal to industrialize Russia in order to make up for lost progress. Each factory was given un realistic expectations to produce coal, iron, steel and electricity. Factories also had to produce a required amount of goods or the punishment was severe. This made life very tough for industrial workers. They had little pay and little to spend there money on since consumer goods were not being produced. Working conditions were harsh and factory hours were long. The workers put up with this treatment because Stalin was the supposed 'Uncle Joe'. He had promised the workers a land of a better society if the put up with a couple years of hardship. People were encouraged by governmental controlled propaganda glorifying Stalin and his intentions. Factories also had an atmosphere of competition. Workers had to produce more than their fellow workers and if they did, they would be treated as a hero This is ironic considering this idea is more like capitalism than communism. Workers also worked in fear of punishment. This who didn't work the required amount had their food/ration book taken. However, life of factory workers was slightly improved by the fact that Stalin allowed them access to health care. There were many more doctors, but they were afraid to practice medicine. He also granted many workers holidays and developed a sense of community. These things were unheard of under Lenin Though it seems impossible, it could be said that farmers had it worse than the factory workers. Like factories, farms were owned by the government. Those who had originally owned much farmland were reduced to the levels of a factory worker. This was by the means of collectivization, where smaller farms came together to form larger farms. This made it so farmers became like slaves to the government. The farmers didn't like this idea of collectivism so they revolt by burning crops and livestock because if they rebelled in other ways they would be shot. The peasant farmers did not receive any of the health care benefits that the industrial workers did and their lives were worse of than they were under Lenin. Overall, both factory workers and farmers had harsh lives due to the lack of consumer goods, food availability, strict conditions and being owned by the government.
Working in the industrial sector was very difficult. The workers' standards of living tended to drop, and Stalin's laws to "tighten work discipline" made the situation even worse. Labor law codes such as the firing of workers who had been absent without a reason from the work place for just one day were enabled. With time, the expectations of workers got even higher. For example, being even 20 minutes late was enough ground to be fired, and managers who failed to enforce laws such as this faced criminal prosecution. Another example was when the law transitioning to the eight hour working day and the seven-day work week was put into play. The system was very serious. There were criminal penalties for quitting a job (2–4 months imprisonment), for being late 20 minutes (6 months of probation and pay confiscation of 25 per cent), etc. Even though these strict rules made for a big leap in Russia's industrialization, they were extremely harsh on industrial workers. Life in the factories was very difficult to fulfill, and it often required that miners put in 16 to 18-hour workdays. Failure to fulfill requirements could result in treason charges. Working conditions were poor, even hazardous- an estimated 127,000 workers died from 1928 to 1932. On top of the long hours, dangerous workload, and stress of being fired, the workers often faced intense hunger and starvation. However, in the years to come after the first 5 year plan, the working conditions improved.
As a collective farmer, demand for food intensified. Upon joining collective farms, peasants had to give up their private plots of land and property. Every harvest had to be sold to the state for a low price set by the state itself. Since the natural progress of farming was slow, the Central Committee decided to accelerate collectivization through force and increased political control of agriculture in order to feed the growing urban population. The farmers were so fed up by the fact they couldn't keep their goods that some began to slaughter their animals instead of giving them up to the government. Additionally, many farmers were forced to relocated to Kazakhstan, Siberia, and the Russian Far North (a large portion served at forced labor camps). Just about anyone opposing collectivization was severely punished (because of a rule formulated by Stalin) through execution, deportation to special settlements, or to forced labor camps. Even more unfortunate, collectivization led to a huge drop in farm productivity which led to an intense famine and left the majority starving
The collective farmers had it far worse than the industrial workers. The industrialists and farmers also had quite a lot in common. They both had low wages, endured long rough hours and horrible treatment. The kulaks were farmers that owned far more land/bigger factories, while the peasants owned less land and lived in far more poverty. Similarly to Hitler, Stalin was able to brainwash a majority of the Russian people; this is when propaganda played a pivotal role during Stalin's reign. The worst thing was that these people were on farmlands doing work for a very small amount of money. if they did not work hard enough, then they would be shipped to go to labor camps. Their living conditions were awful.
"By 1939, 99% of the land was run by collective farmers, who did not receive the majority of their production. In fact, the government took 90% of their production, and only left the collective farmers enough to live off of."
Industrially, Stalin was far too realistic. He forced many workers to their tipping point by increasing workloads to unreasonable amounts and he expected the workers to either reach or surpass these work milestones. Also, if workers wouldn't work hard enough or did not meet the expected amount, they were tortured and ostracized. They would transported to cruel working camps such as a gulag or jail where they could be killed or terrorized. Stalin used fear to get a surplus amount of work from the workers and this impacted him negatively. People began to revolt against him and hate him as their leader, which led to rebellious actions by the citizens/workers. Stalin realized his schemes were unrealistic and that they would exist only in his "dream" world. Because his plot was so unrealistic, it eventually led to the downfall of Communism in Russia.
When Joseph Stalin seized power of Russia in the 1920’s, life changed across the entire nation. Propaganda was spread to support Stalin’s communist regime in Soviet Russia. Some of the most popular types of propaganda at the time were images of Soviet Russia’s militarism, industrial revolution, and agricultural work combined into the depiction of the Soviet flag. This type of utilitarianism-based propaganda represented the government’s attempts to coax its people into believing that all their hard work with little reward is going towards the greater cause of the country.
(Note: The individual sections include the points in which industrial and agricultural workers are compared to each other).
Industrial Worker: Industrial workers not only worked in terrible conditions for long hours, but they were also granted low pay. Often times, Industrial workers would be in factories working with machines or assembly lines and repeating tasks tediously over and over again. A lot of the powerful machines were very dangerous and caused injury. There was no workers compensation or insurance to ensure the safety of the workers. This could be compared to the Industrial Revolution in Britain during the 1800’s. Factory workers would have to achieve impossibly high “quotas”, or standards of hard work they must achieve. In factories, there were lists ranking the productivity of the workers. The workers on the bottom of the list, such as those who did not work hard enough or simply could not handle it were sent to one out of thousands of labor/prison camps set up across the country. Joseph Stalin took more and more control of the government; he used the enforcement of the secret police much more often. Aside from capturing opposition, or claimed opposition to the government, the secret police would capture the people who did not work hard enough and such individuals would have often never been seen again by their friends and family. From an economical perspective, threatening the lack of work with more work is not a very motivating concept.
Perhaps the only positives for industrial workers under Stalin’s power included (at least for a few years), more equality for the people, such as between women and men. The spreading of the wealth also increased the living standards for factory workers. This, of course, had to have come at the cost of others. On the other hand, government services such as health care were often not as available. Even though they had harsh lives, it was not as hard as the Agricultural worker.
Agricultural Worker:
As ironic as it might seem, Stalin, a former peasant, allowed life to be even tougher on the peasant farmers in Soviet Russia than that of the factory workers. Peasant farmers were paid even less than the factory workers and had lowered living standards. Stalin introduced the concept of collective farming in which smaller farms, owned by the “Kulaks”, would merge into large farms. The agricultural workers would use machinery to complete their tasks on a larger scale to feed the factory workers. As stated earlier, communism benefits one section of people at the cost of another in a forced government-intervention manner. This is probably one of the reasons that the factory workers had it better off than the agricultural workers. Although the number is only an estimation, most historians believe 5,000,000 peasants died from starvation under Stalin’s rule. This figure is no where near the amount of death that would reach Soviet Russia later in WWII.
If a guy came up to you and told you that he lived under the rule of Joseph Stalin, you would instantly know that he did not live a fun and easy-going life. In fact, his life was most likely miserable, unfair and stressful.
Russian workers during the 1920's earned low income and received poor treatment. Although Stalin was a communist ruler, his people were not treated 100% equal. The treatment and pay one would receive depended on their working class, or occupation.
One working class, the industrial sector, consisted mostly of factory workers. Like most factory workers living in a country's industrial era, the conditions were not humane. Workers in the industrial sectors worked for extremely long hours in a cramped and unhygienic workspace. Disease was easily spread and injury and/or death was frequent. Stalin did not even provide workers with proper insurance/health benefits to keep his people alive and well. In return for hard labor, workers received enough pay to barely feed themselves, let alone a family. Stalin was also very unfair in terms of his expectations. He expected too much. If a worker wasn't giving their 10000%, Stalin's secret police would capture and/or execute the person. Essentially, being in the industrial sector in Stalin's Russia was a bummer.
Agricultural workers made up the second part of the Russian workers. Farmers and factory workers were very similar, but they did share a few differences. Obviously, farmers did not work in factories. Farmers received even less income than those in the industrial sector. Stalin used collective farming where small farms owned by farmers would become one big farm owned by the government. All in all, factory workers had it a little easier than the farmers because ironically, the farmers received less food to eat.
Describe in detail what your life would be like if you had lived in Soviet Russia during the rule of Joseph Stalin. Compare the life of someone working in the industrial sector with that of a collective farmer.
An industrial worker under Stalin’s rule led a very difficult life. Industrial workers did not have good pay, but if they did, there would not have been a lot of products to buy. Similar to the Industrial Revolution in Britain, the workers had long hours and dangerous working conditions. Although the industrial workers did not lead good lives, they believed that if they worked hard enough, their lives and society itself would improve under Stalin’s rule. Propaganda also played a part for the industrial workers. There were propaganda posters which encouraged the working force to work as hard as they could, hoping that if some did, the rest would follow their lead. Stalin did reward some of the skilled workers, which created competition between groups of workers. On the other hand, there was a drive to not be punished, and if they worked hard enough, they would not be sent to a prison camp. Those who did not work hard were sent to labor camps. If industrial workers did not go to the factories to work, they could be fined, sent to prison, or have their ration book taken away. In these prisons, there workers would do a lot of manual labor, and the government did not care if they died because they viewed the works an dispensable.
ReplyDeleteAlthough industrial workers had challenging lives, collective farmers were worse off. Just like the industrial workers, the farmers had low pay. There were kulaks, or farmers who owned larger factories and more land, but there were also the peasants who owned less land. The kulaks were against collectivisation even more than the peasant farmers, because they felt as if all of their hard work was wasted. Even though the kulaks hated this idea, the peasant farmers were also against collectivisation because their land was being taken away too. The first time Stalin tried to combine the farms, the farmers rioted against him by burning their crops and killed their livestock. This failed attempt, and the one to follow it led to famines throughout the country. Stalin reinforced these rules a second time, and the farmers had the same response, but this time, Stalin punished those who refused. Many of the slightly wealthier farmers were either executed or sent to prison camps. In addition, the villages that refused to give their land to the government were occupied by soldiers who shot the villagers who were considered enemies of the state. By 1939, 99% of the land was run by collective farmers, who did not receive the majority of their production. In fact, the government took 90% of their production, and only left the collective farmers enough to live off of.
Stalin thought less of the collective farmers than the industrial workers, which was odd because Stalin was a peasant himself before he became the leader of the Soviet Union. Under Stalin’s rule, more collective farmers were killed than industrial workers. Both the industrial workers and farmers believed that if they worked hard enough, their lives would improve, but this never occurred. There was never a better standard of living for the workers or farmers, and many struggled to survive. Old food was eaten and shabby clothes were worn by the majority of the workers and farmers. Education was their only hope to improve their lives, but many of them were never given a chance to educate themselves under Stalin’s rule.
Sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/russia/stalincollectivisationrev1.shtml
http://www.historydoctor.net/Advanced%20Placement%20European%20History/Notes/soviet_union_under_stalin.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalins%20Russia.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalin.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/collectivisation.htm
http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/8/stalin-and-the-drive-to-industrialize-the-soviet-union
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhen Joseph Stalin came to power in the 1920’s, basic freedom and rights of the people came to a halt. Absolute control of government, military and economy became a part of daily life. These changes were inforced with terror throughout all of Russia and any Soviet republics. In an attempt to modernize the country in the 1930’s, industry and agriculture underwent forced centralization and the culture of Russia was restricted to only things deemed acceptable. Also being extremely paranoid, Stalin installed the KGB, a secret police force who would round up anyone who was thought to be anti-communist, anti-Stalin, or simply a threat. Often times innocent people were accused of crimes they did not commit and were unfairly tried, convicted, and killed or punished for them. The people lived in constant fear. These purges became a large part of the Great Terror, the vast state of organized brutalities throughout the country. More than 2 million were exiled and more than 1 million killed. In fear of being taken away, all people forced themselves to support and applaud everything that Stalin and the government did. In reality the people were in a living hell, having lost everything and often everyone they cared about. This led to angry revolt and sabotage of Stalin’s Five Year Plan, in which the people would purposefully harm the effort of industrial and agricultural workers, and pretend to be extremely invested in Stalin’s cause to avoid detection.
ReplyDeleteStalin hoped that the Industrial sector of Russia, under the Five Year Plan, would flourish and create socialist construction and modernization. The Five Year Plan needed extensive industrialization of the economy, and needed increased agricultural production to support it. In order to maximize production, collective farming was put in place. This basically meant that the government would take all of the farmers’ land and animals and turn them into a collective farm. Of course, the already suffering peasants met this idea with anger and mockery. Instead of helping the economy, collective farming instead destroyed peasants’ lives as they barely had anything to their name and an estimated 5,000,000 died from starvation. Peasants often abandoned the collective farms simply to survive. Peaceful resistance took place as the angry people slaughtered their animals instead of turning them over to the government, women riots were held, and farm equipment was destroyed. As a result, the overall farming requirements were much less than Stalin would have desired and put him and the society under such strain that the Five Year Plan was called off. Two more were later put in place but also failed miserably.
As the Five Year Plan called for rapid industrial growth, the industrial workers also suffered. Industries and services were nationalized, taking away power and wealth from the people. Stalin also had extremely unrealistic quotas for production and workers were constantly overworked. Despite the increase of productivity as the workers were worked into the ground, the industries still failed to meet their quotas, leading to goods shortages and inflation. However, while the industrial workers were overworked, they didn’t have everything stolen from them like the farmers and overall lead easier live without having to worry too much about starving to death.
Works Cited
Lewis Siegelbaum. "1929: Collectivization." Seventeen Moments in Soviet History. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2013. .
Lewis Siegelbaum. "1936: The Great Terror." Seventeen Moments in Soviet History. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2013. .
Paul Halsall. "Modern History Sourcebook: Stalin's Purges, 1935." Modern History Sourcebook. N.p., Aug. 1997. Web. 25 Mar. 2013. .
"Russia - Transformation and Terror." Country Studies. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2013. .
Under the rule of Joseph Stalin, life was very bad for anyone living in Russia. You would get murdered for saying or doing one slight thing wrong, or being one bit out of order. Stalin used scare tactics to force people into confessing to crimes they did not commit. Stalin had “purges” which was the arrest and murder of millions of people who did not actually commit crimes. Other people would turn them in because they would be so terrified that if they didn’t turn that person in that they would be arrested and killed.
ReplyDeleteStalin had a system called “The Five Year Plans” which brought all industry under state control. This means that the state was in charge of all industrial development. It would decide what would be produced, how much would be produce and where it would be produced. The Gosplan was an organization that was created to map all of these details out. Each plan set a targeted goal that industries must meet. These targets were completely unrealistic, and virtually impossible to actually have success. Emphasis was put on industries such as steel, iron, coal, oil and electricity. So, as you can imagine, the life of factory workers was not very enjoyable. The working conditions in these factories were horrible. They would work very hard to meet the goals that had been set for them, but no matter how hard they tried these goals could not be met. They would live in fear that if they did not do what the government told them then they would be murdered. Workers could be sent to prison camps in Siberia if they did not follow the five year plans. Managers of factories could be executed as “enemies of the people”. Nobody was allowed to talk badly about the five year plans because they were Stalin’s idea.
Life for farmers was not much better. In order to improve Russia’s agriculture, Saltin introduced collectivization, which was where man smaller farms would come together to be one large farm. These larger farms would use machinery because they were so big. Their job was to produce enough food for the factory workers, so the more food they could produce the better. The people who owned farms before this rule was put into play were not happy, because their land was being taken away from them. But obviously they were not going to complain, in fear of being killed. Collectivization also highlighted the use of machinery in order to produce more crops more quickly. Many people were very angry about collectivization, so in order to avoid it, they would slaughter all of the animals in their farms and destroy all of their grain so that the secret police would have nothing to take away from them. This way they wouldn’t be forced into collectivization.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_farming
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalin.htm
Peasant farmers in the USSR did not benefit from Stalin’s rule. Under the line of the Czar, peasants, no matter wealth, were entitled to a portion of land. The Czar had given the majority of peasants a plot to farm on. Because of these disconnected farms, farming was often labor intensive and did not utilize machinery. In order to industrialize Russia, Stalin wanted to incorporate more machinery so that the farming process would be quicker. One can only use tractors and other equipment if the farm is large enough, so Stalin wanted to combine farms. If Stalin combined farms, he would be taking the land that the peasants owned and declaring that the government owned it. Peasants, no matter the degree of wealth, were outraged. Stalin was taking what was rightfully theirs. If a village did not comply with collective farming, soldiers would be sent, the owner would be killed, and the land would then be free. Those who refused to take part in collective farming would often slaughter their animals and destroy their grain, therefore, the government would not be able to take it. Collective farming resulted in a significant lesser output of goods than under the previous leaders.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, factory workers did benefit from Stalin’s reforms as living standards were lifted. Before Stalin’s rule, health care was extremely limited, meaning that the poor was unable to access medicine. Stalin’s rule resulted in an increase of doctors and the ability to be treated in times of illness. Holiday was unheard of under the Czar, but Stalin required holiday for everyone.
In addition, Stalin established health clubs and sports complexes as the people’s lived revolved around sport. Lack of housing was a significant problem in the USSR, so Stalin built apartment complexes. However, these complexes were primitive and well behind western standard. Because of collective farming, Russia’s food supply suffered, meaning that people throughout the country including factory workers lacked food. Stalin saw a need to industrialize the Russian economy. In order to do so, he established the five year plan. Under the new industrialization, employees worked long, hard hours. The workers lived and worked in brutal conditions as we saw with the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Propaganda played a big role in motivating the population and the lack of food was justified by the production of new machinery. Because of such a large revolution, more workers were employed, ensuring more people a stable, but tiny salary. The USSR created the KGB, a secret police force that would send any anti-communists or anti-government citizens to work camps. The KGB would follow through on any complaint, even if only based on one person’s opinion. Therefore, citizens lived in constant fear.
Peasant farmers did not benefit at all by collectivization while factory workers had it both ways. For a peasant farmer, all resources and right to land was taken away, leaving the only path as being a slave to the government. Neither working condition nor the quality of life improved. The government was unable to provide health care or leisurely activities in such rural areas. On the other hand, the factory workers were slaves of the government, but at least access to medicine improved and the government promoted leisurely activity. Both situations were bad, but industrial workers did have more benefits.
Sources:
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalins%20Russia.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/collectivisation.htm
http://reason.com/archives/2013/03/17/a-troubling-after-image-of-stalin-60-yea
http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/8/stalin-and-the-drive-to-industrialize-the-soviet-union
http://history1900s.about.com/od/people/ss/Stalin_6.htm
Under such pressure as existed in this time, I know for certain that I would either be a model Stalinist, or I would crack and off myself.
ReplyDeleteBecause Stalin himself was a factory worker at one point, he was more lenient (ever so slightly) on the farmers.
Neema wrote:
ReplyDeleteIndustrial Worker:
Being and industrial worker during the time of Joseph Stalin was tough. It was definitely a backbreaking job, but was also a frustrating job because of Joseph Stalin’s rule. Industrially, Russia was doing very well but it was very tough for the workers. They did not have much food, living conditions were rough, but surprisingly Joseph Stalin provided a good and effective health care system. During the time of Joseph Stalin, the number of doctors rose but the doctors were scared of performing procedures because they were scared of messing up. In the result of this tough labor, hard work and many other things, Russia became a major industrial by the year 1939. Also, Russia’s soldiers were benefiting from the boost of the industrial revolution. In the end, Russia was successful due to Stalin’s government, but there were many things people had to do in order for it to be successful. As you can see, it was difficult for industrial workers. I can easily relate this to modern day China. The Chinese and workers under Stalin worked long hard hours, have little to no benefits, and lived under tough conditions.
Collective Farmer:
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a collective farmer is “a farm, esp. in the U.S.S.R., consisting of the holdings of several farmers, run by a group of people in co-operation, usually under state control.” Joseph Stalin was the first person to use Collectivization. He used it from 1928-1940. Joseph Stalin’s goal was take smaller farms, combine them, and make one big farm. This is also known as collective farming. The Soviets believed that it would increase the food supply for the urban population, and it would also increase agricultural exports. After two years, the farmers started to ignore Stalin’s idea, so Stalin made collectivization compulsory. As you can see, it was very difficult for the farmers because they were under the rule of someone even if they were the owners of their farms. The farmers hated Stalin’s idea so they decided to revolt in a unique way. The farmers burned their own crops and even killed their own animals. In the end, farmers ended up losing their land and 90% of farms were owned by the government. As you can see, it was very difficult for the farmers during the time of Joseph Stalin. No farmers were in favor of Joseph Stalin, but if they spoke up, they would be murdered.
Comparison:
As you can see both types of workers had very tough lives. They both had different types of benefits but in the end, it would be tough to be any kind of worker under Joseph Stalin. It was not just the farmers and the industrial workers, but it was everyone. Not one person was safe.
Sources:
http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/36279?redirectedFrom=Collective+Farmer#eid8890168
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collectivization_in_the_Soviet_Union
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/russia/stalincollectivisationrev1.shtml
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalins%20Russia.htm
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteUnder the rule of the USSR and Joseph Stalin, Russian industrial workers lived harsh and cruel lives similar to those of Britain industrial workers during Britain’s industrial revolution. Like Britain’s workers, Russian industrial workers experienced low salaries despite the long work shifts. Many of the factory workers also had to risk their lives on a daily basis because that was what their job entailed. Even if the workers had money, there was nothing they could spend it on. Living conditions were poor and workers were susceptible to disease and infection. However, one thing that Joseph Stalin and USSR did right was the implementation of a good healthcare system. There were several doctors and physicians that were available to the common industrial worker. Even though there was this great health care system, the life of an industrial worker was terrible. So why did they work so hard?
ReplyDeleteThere were several reasons why Russian industrial workers performed their jobs so well. The USSR and Stalin ruled with a praise and punishment sort of law. If a worker did not do there job well, they were punished, and if they worked hard, they were praised. Rewards for hard workers included raises in pay and leisure time. However, rewards were very rare whereas punishments were common. Punishments included getting fined, losing your ration book, or even being sent off to a labor camp. With the industrial worker’s pay being already so low, many of these punishments could easily ruin a person’s life. Prison camps were also very dreaded among the workers. A person who was shipped off to a prison camp often never returned home. They experienced heavy labor and were always monitored. Most of the prisoners died and were never to be seen again.
Industrial workers may have had a rough life, but the peasant farmers experienced even harsher lives. In 1918, even the poorest of peasants owned land and had their own farm; however, in 1924, Stalin realized that Russia was not producing enough agriculture with these small, family-owned farms to feed its own country. Stalin put into act what is called collectiveness. With this process, Stalin wished to bring together small farms and join them into one major agriculture factory. This would produce more food at a faster rate because of new technology; however, this did not please the peasants. The peasant farmers would be losing land they had acquired and would not be reimbursed. Instead, the peasants would lose everything they had. This collectivisation plan was built to benefit the Industrial worker’s life by giving them more food at the expense of the peasant. Ironically, Stalin created this plan despite being a peasant himself before he gained power.
Industrial workers had harsh lives, but at least they had health care and other necessities that the peasant farmers did not. The government wanted to improve the industrial worker’s life by inventing collectivisation, but at the peasant farmer’s expense. Neither class had an ideal lifestyle, but at least industrial workers had more opportunity and leniency than the peasant farmers.
Sources:
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalin.htm
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSstalin.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/collectivisation.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/russia/stalincollectivisationrev1.shtml
Stalin wanted to create a perfect Socialist society. He revamped education so all students would understand how important Stalin and Communism were. Much emphasis was placed on outdoor activities and clean living. Stalin also tightened restrictions regarding divorce. There were many homeless children without family, which stained the perfection socialism was to bring to its people. As a result, the government paid married couples a child allowance and made it harder for women to get abortions. Living conditions improved and health care was expanded. Many doctors were afraid of punishment and followed orders, creating appointments for operations people didn’t need. Also, housing was scarce. Many people lived in one-room houses and did not have access to electricity. People were also entitled to have a holiday every year. Such leisure was not to expected under the Tsar.
ReplyDeleteMany complain of Stalin’s destruction of Russian society, but the leader brought about some improvement for the country. The country became more industrialized by 1939, surpassing America and Europe in progress. People who did not oppose the state lived a higher standard of life than they did under the Tsar. Military forces were stronger, and there was a stable government. Despite this progress, Stalin injected fear into Russian society and Purged the community of talented people.
Stalin knew that Russia’s current system of agriculture was not enough to support its large labor force. He combined smaller farms into larger collectives so each farm could produce more food. Many peasants resisted collectivization, because Lenin had given them land and they felt their land was being stolen by Stalin. Stalin did give collectives machinery to improve agricultural yield and productivity. Those who resisted were deported, sent to labor camps, resettled, or executed. Starvation and death was common in the farms, because Stalin favored redistribution of food among urban centers and the army. As a result, many peasants relocated to urban centers to avoid the harsh life of a farmer.
Industry workers faced a hard life, but they pushed on because of the idealistic view propaganda gave them. They worked long, grueling hours to fulfill the Five Year Plans. They were not paid much and worker safety was not considered. Also, many consumer goods were not produced so the country could focus on gathering natural resources.
Both industry and farm workers lived hard lives. They did not have much choice in terms of lifestyle. However, many farm workers died of starvation because Stalin held a grudge against the peasants. Also, industry workers were rewarded based on productivity, so they had a chance to be paid more. As a result, industry workers had a slightly better life than farm workers.
Sources:
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/collectivisation.htm
http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1929collectivization&Year=1929
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalins%20Russia.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalin.htm
Life as a factory worker under Stalin was very hard. It could be argued that it was even worse, as the British industrial revolution as one could get punished for not working hard enough. People would work in coal and iron factories. To motivate the workers to work hard, workers would be put into groups and from there compete for a higher salary. This made many workers angry as some workers would always get a higher pay, just because they were a little stronger than all the other workers. The people who didn’t work hard enough were put into hard work camps where the conditions were even worse than those of the factories.
ReplyDeleteLife in a farm in Russia was even harder than the life in the factories. Stalin had put an order to do collectivism. This system of agriculture combined all the small farms into larger farms. The meant that if you were a wealthier Russian farmer all the land and wealth you had gained through many generations were lost as Stalin would combine all the farms around you. Even many poor peasants were unhappy from this change. The reason Stalin wanted big farms is so that they could produce bigger quantities of food to feed the factory workers. This also forced the peasants to use machinery to harvest, as it was impossible to use just manual labor in these large farms. In the end this whole plan was a failure. The farmers revolted against Stalin many times as he was taking their grains and giving it to the rest of the population.
Working in factories and farms were both really hard in while Stalin was in power. The worst though, was being a farmer, as one was barely given any rights and would many times lose their own farm because of collectivism. People in farms would also be forced to sell their own grain for a cheap price. Sometimes the military would even come and force them to give most of the seasons harvest. The farmers would revolt, but this would lead to being taken by the secret police. Though the factories had a low pay they at least could stay put in the cities.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalin.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/collectivisation.htm
Colon Bancroft
ReplyDelete2/23/13
During the rule of Joseph Stalin, industrial workers and collective farmers were both affected. The Industrial workers had to deal with Stalin’s first Five-year plan from 1928 through 1933. The idea behind the plan was to remake the Russian economy through the Industrial society. This put huge pressure on the workers to meet extremely difficult standards. As a worker in the industrial sector during the rule of Joseph Stalin, life would be dreadful. As a worker with quotas to fill, workers would find themselves working 16 to 18 hour days. If one was not able to fulfill their quotes they could be looking at treason charges. The days were not only long and challenging for workers, but workers had to also face the fear of being fired. Workers were forced to work hard because if they were fired it means losing “the right to use ration and commodity cards”. They were often then blacklisted for new employment, which brought the risk of starving. To add to the troubles, many workers died during the Stalin’s industrial Five Year Plan. This was mainly due to the harsh and demanding working conditions. It is estimated that 127,000 workers died during just the first four years of the plan. During this time, many also worked in labor camps with poor conditions.
The collective farmers during Stalin’s rule were treated much better. Between 1928 and 1940, Stalin replaced the small individual farms with collective ones that would increase the food supply. He was very successful in collectivizing the farms; however it often caused large human and social costs. There were still agricultural labor camps, however the agricultural side was not as bad as the industrial side in my opinion. Actually at first the Collectivizing of the farms did not go well at all. In fact, because the fact that one in five farmers were dying in the camps, the other farmer resisted the movement. However from 1929 to 1930 The-all-out-drive took place. Here the percentage of collective farms jumped from 7.4% to 60%. Then by 1936 90% of the soviet agriculture was collectivized. Overall the Collective farmers had ha ruff start, but soon the farms began grow in size which put ease on them. For this reason I feel that the collective farmers had a much easier lifestyle than the Industrial workers. I am not saying that the Collective farmers had it easy, but I just believe the industrial workers had it worse.
Sources:
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalins%20Russia.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/C0112205/stalinsrussia.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Soviet_Union_(1927–1953)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collectivization_in_the_Soviet_Union
Industrial workers had tough lives under Stalin’s rule, but benefitted in a some ways. For example, their living standards were raised, so they had better places to live. They still had to deal with hunger, but their living conditions were better. Industrial workers usually did not make much money. They had to work for many hours every day for a small amount of money. They believed that, though their current conditions were not great, if they worked hard, Stalin would reward them. Stalin had a few ways to increase productivity. He would reward some workers for their good work, which caused others to feel competitive and want to work harder to get rewarded as well. He would also threaten to send bad workers off to labor camps, which would encourage people to work harder. If these people did not work hard enough, they would have to work in a prison camp and could be killed. Stalin focused on productivity with the industrial workers. For the most part, these workers were treated better than collective farmers.
ReplyDeleteFarmers were very restricted by the government in many ways. Their farms were owned by the government and the farmers did not have much control because of this. They were assigned a specific plot of land, which harmed the production of food because caring for these farms required a lot of manual labor. These areas were also too small to use machines, which did not coincide with Stalin’s goal of industrializing Russia. Stalin combined farming areas to make them larger which made the government the owner of these farms, and upset the farmers. The grouping together of small farms was called collectivisation. Once this began, farmers had to work together and grow food, which they then sold to the government at low prices. The farmers were allowed to keep the produce surplus and profits. The peasant farmers disagreed with this system and did not cooperate with the government. They would kill their livestock and crops instead of selling them to the government. If they did this and did not follow the rules, they would be punished. The kulaks, or the wealthier peasants, were opposed to the idea of collectivisation because the amount of land that they had to farm was no longer based on hard work, it was randomly assigned. This caused uproar and food shortages.
Some similarities between farmers and industrial workers are that they were both very restricted and everything was censored. They could not read anything that was uncensored, or they would be punished. An example of censorship would be the books studied in school by children. They had to be authorized by the government and a book by Stalin was always studied. The controlled education caused a lot of children to be improperly taught. Also, both groups of people had to deal with food shortages and hunger under the rule of Stalin. Healthcare was easier to get, though, which helped a lot of people. Stalin seemed to favor industrial workers compared to collective farmers, even though he grew up as a peasant himself. Industrial workers had somewhat easier lives compared to farmers, and they had more advantages to their jobs.
Sources:
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalins%20Russia.htm
http://www.pbs.org/redfiles/bios/all_bio_joseph_stalin.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/C0112205/stalinsrussia.html
http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=collectivisation
When Joseph Stalin took power over Russia, his goal was to modernize and expand the industrial sectors of the country. The revisions he had created were all fit to take place during a five year period and was thus called “The 5 year plan.” In order to carry out the 5 year plan, Stalin would implement collective farming, which was small farms joining together to make bigger farms. The bigger farms would use machinery to harvest their food and collect larger amounts to feed to both themselves and the factory workers. As long as the factory workers were fed, they could work efficiently and the 5 year plan would proceed as planned. However, neither factory worker or farmer led carefree lives in result of Stalin’s aspiration.
ReplyDeleteAn industrial worker worked long hours at dangerous jobs with small pay. The amount of consumer goods available for the workers was little to none and the homes provided were extremely poor. Despite these seemingly halting facts, the workers continued to labor in their respective industrial jobs. One of the main reasons was that for the youthful workers, the idea of communism and the world it would create was worth the waiting and the hard work. The workers were also pushed by propaganda and the belief that if everyone was doing it, they didn’t want to be the one left behind. Laborers were also rewarded with money for the amount of work they put in compared to the average man. And of course there was always physical punishment and the looming threat of the labor camps and the arduous physical work that awaited those we refused to work. But regardless of all of the pain, the 5 year plan managed to successfully turn Russia into an industrial powerhouse.
Farmers had it tougher than the industrial workers. This is ironic because Stalin himself had been a peasant before he had risen to power. Lenin had previously given land to all farmers. Farmers who were rich enough to hire labor were called kulaks. When the farmers refused to give up their land to collectivization, Stalin tried turning the peasants against the kulaks, but to no avail. The first famine spread through Russia. Stalin sent soldiers to villages that wouldn’t hand their farms over to collectivization, and many villagers were shot. This time, peasants would slaughter their animals and burn their crops so that Stalin wouldn’t be able to steal any. This brought about a second famine. Stalin tried relaxing his rule, but when he was met with the same resistance yet again, a third even worse famine spread throughout the land. Stalin now officially declared war on the kulaks and many were executed. By 1939, the government owned 90 percent of the profits and left only the meager ten percent for the farmers to live off of.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/collectivisation.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalin.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/russia/stalincollectivisationrev1.shtml
Life in Soviet Russia was very similar to the lives of people in modern day North Korea. Stalin created a personality cult among the people. All artists, poets, and authors had to glorify Stalin in their work. Books and media were highly controlled by the government; anyone who tried to gain access to material that wasn't government approved was punished. Education and family life were strictly controlled through government-made courses, exams, restrictions on divorce and abortion, and an emphasis on ceremonial marriage. Woman maintained a mostly equal position with men in the workplace. Though living standards rose for many people through health care and holidays, workers on collective farms or in industries still found life to be very difficult. Industry workers had long hours in dangerous working conditions for which they received little pay. These workers still worked hard out of fear of punishment for slacking and the prospect of a better life that the Soviet rule promised. The life of a peasant whose farm had been collectivized was also difficult. Many were forced to collectivize or sold their land out of fear. Those who worked for a collectivized farm had to hope that each member contributed to the overall success; failure of a farm to meet the production quota had disastrous effects on everyone in it. Many peasants migrated to urban areas to avoid starvations.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collectivization_in_the_Soviet_Union
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalin.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalins%20Russia.htm
http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1929collectivization&Year=1929
Stalin’s idea about Soviet Union is to create a socialist heaven. He was trying to make everyone in his country equal——besides him and other leaders of the nation. He is a dictator who doesn’t really care about his people, though he was a peasant before he became the great leader of Soviet Union. The government rule by him collects almost everything, and they give the supplies equally to everyone else in the nation. However that’s just how it should work ideally, in reality, the corruption, the mistake of management, even some leaders’ own desire, would be a big problem for the society.
ReplyDeleteStalin is also a paranoid person, he doesn’t believe the people around him, he is afraid that the capitalists in Russia will arise again and his working compadres are trying to get his power. Thus he started the Great Purge, during that time, everyone in the nation is suspect. You may need to identify your friend, your siblings, even your innocent parents as traitor, or you will be considered as a traitor as well. You might be caught at anytime by KGB, maybe just because you said something anti-communism, anti-soviet, even just anti-Stalin. At least 1.5 million people were arrested or executed. During that time, no one can trust others in the country. Stalin also eliminated Eastern Orthodoxy successfully in Russia by killed hundreds of thousands of priests as well.
The industrial workers’ life under Stalin’s rule isn’t that difficult at first, because the workers were considered as the leaders of the country. They got more health care, more holidays and shelters to live. However, Stalin wanted the industry to grow even faster than before. Thus he created the 5 years plan which is basically rapid growth of the industry. Due to Stalin’s rapid industry growth plan, the industrial workers also need to work very hard everyday, a lot of them just died because of the high working pressure and the low reward. Just like the workers during the industrial revolution, the workers work in terrible working conditions and they work many hours everyday. Workers were brainwashed that as long as they work hard, the nation will get better and their life, as a consequence, will be better as well. However because of the lag of the agriculture, their life actually got even worse.
Compare to the farmers under Stalin’s rule, those workers were really lucky. The farming life is even harder than working in factories because of the collective system. Basically as a farmer you need to give all your products to the government to feed the workers in the factories. They also didn’t have the properties of their lands because they also belong to government. Farmers during that time have very few difference with serves during the era of Czar. Many of them starved to death because they gave all the products away.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collectivization_in_the_Soviet_Union
Deletehttp://baike.baidu.com/view/411865.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalin.htm
If you were a farmer under Stalin you were under the Collectivization of Agriculture. Stalin believed that Russia wasn’t doing well in agriculture. He said, "Agriculture is developing slowly, comrades. This is because we have about 25 million individually owned farms. They are the most primitive and undeveloped form of economy. We must do our utmost to develop large farms and to convert them into grain factories for the country organized on a modem scientific basis." In order to make this happen, smaller farms were merged together into large collective farms. Even the poorest farmers were able to afford land under this system. The richer farmers weren’t cool with this policy however. They hated how it minimized their hard work to get to their position. In response, the richer farmers ruined their crops and land when the government tried to take it and turn it into a collective farm.
ReplyDeleteIf you were in the industrial sector, the government was in total control of what you could read and listen to. If you went against this, you were punished and sent to labor camps. There were shortages of food that led to many dying and it was hard to find housing. The industrial sector was flourishing with growth unlike the U.S., which was experiencing the Great Depression. Every citizen was entitled to a holiday each year and get healthcare if you were sick. If you did everything as you were supposed to do, you would be more successful than under the tsar. Stalin also brought a stable government. Lastely, if your neighbor or anyone for that matter didn't like you, they could report you to the secret police and you would be taken away even if you did nothing.
Sources:
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/collectivisation.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalins%20Russia.htm
Under Stalin's reign, it could be argued that the factory workers had a better off life than the farmers.
ReplyDeleteBefore Stalin's reign, there were not many factory workers because the USSR had not yet industrialized. One of Stalin's main goals was to catch up on the 50 years of industrialization most of the west had made. He decided that the best course of action was to send the country into a massive construction and manufacturing boom. The plan could only take place however, if the government had full control over all business and trade. The result of the government running manufacturing was overall a success in the grand scheme of things. Not only did the USSR catch up with all of the other countries that had been so far ahead of it, it also superseded many of them to become one of the world's superpowers by WWII. The workers themselves however did not feel the success the nation as a whole did. They did receive a higher standard of living when compared to the standards before Stalin, but still received little pay for their work. The way the system worked when the government was put in charge of business was that the government assumed that workers would achieve greater than the goals set out before them by the government. The problem with that plan is that it really leaves the workers with no incentive to work hard because all they have to do is achieve the goal to get paid. Living wasn't easy being a factory worker, and many died of starvation due to the low wages for food and intensive labor.
The farmers in Russia had things harder though. Pre-Stalin, the farmers would have their own plots of land and made an amount of money directly proportional to the amount of effort put into their farming. When Stalin implemented his plan, the farmers had to combine their farms with their neighbors as a part of collectivization. The farmers were extremely unhappy with this because that meant that they lost that relationship of hard work meaning good pay. Many revolts occurred in rural areas as a result, proving that farmers had it worse than the factory workers.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalins%20Russia.htm
ReplyDeletehttp://library.thinkquest.org/C0112205/stalinsrussia.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Soviet_Union_(1927–1953)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collectivization_in_the_Soviet_Union
Under communism everyone earns the same amount of money so the incentive is removed for working hard. Stalin was insanely ambitious for his country and for catching it’s economy and place in the world industrially up to the modern standard in a short period of time. For this to happen, Stalin needed everyone to be working to their full potential which was hard in times of communism because people could get away with not working and still get their share of the pay. No positive incentive is available because if extra incentive is possible then the goal and purpose of communism is eliminated. Stalin was forced to use fear and negative incentive to keep his workers in line. He set up gulags as a place to put those who didn’t work, but he got carried away and started to persecute anyone who opposed his party and his rule.
ReplyDeleteWith Stalin’s view that the entirety of Russia’s agriculture and industry was far behind, he had some great plans in mind. The first was to unify agriculture. He believed that Russia should be able to sustain and feed itself, but also be able to export and grow the economy. His idea was to take all of the small peasant farms and unify them into one “super” farm. This idea is called collective farming. The peasant farmers were doing fine, they were able to feed themselves and their families, as well as sell some of their surplus for profit. They didn’t necessarily want to join with other farms, they had no reason to, so they didn’t voluntarily join large collective farms. Joseph Stalin thought his idea was necessary for economic growth, and after people wouldn’t volunteer to his grand idea, he forced them. Anyone who opposed was either sent to jail, work camps, or even executed. In protest of the tyranny, some farmers would spit in the face of his plan by burning their own crops and even killing their own livestock.
Industrially, Stalin was also over realistic. He pushed workers to their peaks by setting irrational quotas and expected workers to exceed these goals. Also, if workers did not work hard enough or did not meet quotas, they were terrorised. They were sent to work camps like gulags, jail, possibly executed, or tortured. Stalin used tyranny and fear tactics to push work out of workers and this impacted negatively. It lead to hatred towards the government and put thoughts of rebellion in the heads of workers. Although Stalin’s plans were ambitious, they only existed in ideal situations, and would lead to the eventual downfall of communist Russia.
Stalin’s goal in Communist Russia, from the time he took power in 1924 to his death in 1953, was to create an utopian society; however, this clearly is not what occurred during these 29 years of his rule. Under Stalin’s dictatorship, the common people did not have any freedoms, which impacted all forms of their lifestyle. This situation is similar to other examples of totalitarianism we have seen in history and today, such as Hitler in Germany and Kim Jong-un in North Korea.
ReplyDeleteFor children during this time, the education they were receiving is nothing like the education we would receive today. All schools were controlled by the state and carefully monitored what kids were learning. Specifically, the Revolution of 1917, where the Bolshevik’s overthrew the provisional government, was highlighted and glorified to students. In addition, Stalin ordered a book called “A Short History of the USSR” to be taught in all of the schools as well, and basically excluded any other history besides their own. Outside of school, children almost had to be involved in Party groups, such as the Young Pioneers until the age of 14, and then the Komosomol until age 28. Not being in these groups was frowned upon, especially since that could signal that you don’t believe in the Party’s ideals, which literally was fatal.
Another major lifestyle change that impacted many civilians was religion. Every religion was banned, so the only option for religion was no religion, or atheism. Because of this, nearly 40,000 Christian churches and 25,000 mosques were closed down and converted into clubs, cinemas, schools, and warehouses during Stalin’s reign. Even a famous cathedral in St. Petersburg, which at that time had been called Leningrad was turned into a museum of atheism. As a result of the lack of religiousness within the USSR, the only person one could worship was Stalin himself, as he was glorified in every way – not just religion.
Stalin majorly impacted the news and media as well. This was done through propaganda, or changing the media to portray a specific message, and usually was done to highlight a certain person or party. In this case, all of the newspapers, specifically one called Pravda, were extremely biased towards Stalin’s Party, and only gave one side to the story – Stalin’s side. To go along with this, all creative artists’ works had to support the Party and the government, and had to deal with “socialist realism”. If an artist painted or wrote about anything that was against Stalin’s policies, there would be major consequences, which usually involved executions.
Finally, the other major impact on civilians was family life. Divorces and abortions during Lenin’s rule were easy to achieve, but Stalin decided to change this so there would be less unwanted children in his utopian society. By doing this, women’s’ rights were yet again taken away, and couldn’t divorce if they wanted. To add to this, many growing families were unable to find housing during this time, as there were huge housing shortages, and even if a house was available, only 6% of households had more than one room. There were also huge food and good shortages as well, so the growing families, which were supported by Stalin, suffered greatly, as they couldn’t afford and food or basic necessities.
Although there were some positives for the civilians, such as better healthcare and more holidays for workers, the typical common person lived in fear of the government, because many people would be accused of crimes they had never even committed. This made neighbors turn on neighbors quite often so they could stay in the clear, which is not a healthy environment to live in. People needed to follow the orders of Stalin and his Party, or they would have to suffer the consequences – and approximately 15 million people suffered the horrendous consequence of death.
Sources:
Deletehttp://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalins%20Russia.htm
http://www.ecclesbourne.derbyshire.sch.uk/ecclesbourne/content/subsites/history/files/Mr%20Mcs%20Russia%20Themes%20Resources/Life%20under%20Stalin.pdf
http://www.gendercide.org/case_stalin.html
http://www.historydoctor.net/Advanced%20Placement%20European%20History/Notes/soviet_union_under_stalin.htm
In addition, Stalin's major ideas included the 5 year plans, which included urbanization and agricultural production as well. To do this, Stalin introduced collectivization, or pieces of land that were owned by the government and were split into pieces for the peasants to farm on, and all of the profits would go directly to the Party. Not only was this a disaster because there was no way to transport the goods, but many peasants became angry about moving onto big farms and protested instead.
DeleteMeanwhile, Stalin's other main goal was to industrialize to catch up to Western Europe, and he was able to do this in an incredibly short amount of time. However, although the USSR was able to catch up technologically, the workers suffered a huge amount as a result. Similarly to the Industrial Revolution in Britain, workers had long hours and virtually no pay, and even if they were paid, there was not anything to spend it on, as there were always food and good shortages.
Regardless of what type of worker you were, some aspect of Stalin's rule made your life miserable and extremely difficult to survive off of.
People living under the rule of Stalin led very strict lives. Books and all forms of media were blocked if the state did not permit them. This affected Russian children’s education greatly because a lot of the time they were being shielded from the truth. Another thing that Stalin did was force artists and authors to glorify him in any of their works, and at that time, people worshipped him instead of God. He also put a lot of emphasis on the family, and as a result women were seen more as equals. In the end, though, the government was pretty stable under Stalin. However, the people did not like it because of the tough, rigid lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteFor example, industrial workers earned very little pay for their work, and with the money they did earn, they barely had anything to buy because “consumer goods were simply not produced.” The housing that was provided for them was very bad, along with the hours and working conditions. Even though the entirety of their jobs were terrible, the industrial workers kept on working for several reasons. Some were completely brainwashed by communism and Stalin, believing that eventually, by doing this, they would get a better life and a better society. Also, propaganda convinced some of the workers that what they were doing was great and that others would follow their lead. Yet another reason for working was rewards. If they worked hard enough, they would be rewarded with money, or even more important, a higher reputation. If they did not perform their job well enough, they would be sent off to labor camps, so that was enough to scare them.
Another example of the tough, rigid lifestyle under Stalin is that of the collective farmers. Stalin believed that if smaller farms (and their workers) were joined to create a collective farm, more food would be produced, and machinery could be afforded. However, when the peasants ignored his ideas and there was a famine, he became more forceful. They rebelled by either burning their crops or killing livestock. He tried enforcing his idea again, and there was still resistance. Finally, Stalin decided to execute the resistors and 99% of land ended up being collectivized by 1939. These collective farmers had low wages on top of everything else. Therefore, in a way, their lives were worse off because their life was constantly in danger and land was being taken away from them.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalins%20Russia.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalin.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/russia/stalincollectivisationrev1.shtml
Joseph Stalin grew up in a poor family. He put all his effort towards grades and got a scholarship. He became the leader of the Soviet Union, Russia in 1929. Growing up he immersed himself in to the culture of politics. The people he ruled over lived very structured and tough lives. He established several multi-year plans which greatly increased the industrial capacity of the country. He was known to be "psychotic & crazy." If a person was out of line, or did something wrong he would have them killed right on the spot. He was know to be a very intelligent manipulator, he manipulated Russia into trusting him. With all of this dictatorship, his ego started to grow. "He expanded the powers of the secret police, encouraged citizens to spy on one another and had millions of people killed or sent to the Gulag system of forced labor camps."
ReplyDeleteThe collective farmers had it worse than the industrial workers. The industrial and farmers had also a lot in common. They had low wages, long rough hours, and had horrible treatment. The kulaks were farmers who owned more land or bigger factories, but there were also the peasants who owned less land. Stalin brainwashed a majority of these people, and thats when propaganda with Stalin messed with their minds. The worst thing was, as these people are on farmlands doing their job for little pay, if they did not work hard enough then they would be force to goto labour camps. This treatment was horrible.
"By 1939, 99% of the land was run by collective farmers, who did not receive the majority of their production. In fact, the government took 90% of their production, and only left the collective farmers enough to live off of." Living in Russia at the time of Stalin's ruling would be rough. "Stalin ruled by terror and with a totalitarian grip in order to eliminate anyone who might oppose him." If I didn't think Stalin was a good ruler or thought he wasn't good then I could of possible been killed. "Stalin developed what became known as a "personality cult". Artists painted pictures glorifying Stalin and he dominated many pictures." He wanted the world to glorify him. " Those who wrote poems and novels had to do the same - write about Stalin in a manner which gloried him. Some artists and authors were so depressed by all this that they committed suicide rather than do what the state ordered them to do." Life was tough for these innocent people.
http://sg.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090320012612AAJMWVh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7VHISLNaVk
http://www.history.com/topics/joseph-stalin
Life under the rule of Joseph Stalin was very difficult. Prominent government censorship and extreme methods of repression were the standard set forth by his rule. His trademark methods of asserting control over his people were extreme terror and political suppression, and they definitely managed to control the populous of the USSR through fear. Additionally, some of the basic human rights were ignored under his rule. In paris, the USSR and some of it’s union members abstained from signing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, one of the most widely accepted documents on basic human rights.
ReplyDeleteLife as an industrial worker was not exactly a walk in the park. The work that the factory hands did often resulted in little to no pay. Additionally, if they did make any money, very few consumer goods were actually produced. This meant that individualism was drastically reduced (as was the goal for Stalin) and that most everything was supplied by the government. The workers were also forced to work extremely hard, often pushing the limits of human capabilities. A day off of work could mean the loss of your ration book or possible prison time. This idea of punishment was often enough to get extremely hard work out of the factory hands.
Collectivized farming was Stalin’s response to the failing agricultural sector in the USSR. Essentially, collectivized farming put all farms in control of the government, which were then unified into much larger farms. However, another essential part of the collectivization movement was that the farmers would now be using advanced machinery and new science to increase the production capabilities on the farms. The increased production would mean a surplus of food. This food would then be used to feed the industrial workers and non-farmers. During the collectivization movement, Stalin declared the liquidation of the Kulaks, or rich peasants, as a class. This was evidence for his complete dedication to removing all individualism from the agricultural sector of Soviet society. Most peasants, in response to the collectivization movement, attempted to revolt or stop the movement by destroying their property and killing their livestock. Unfortunately, it was not useful, and by 1938, 93.5% of all farms were owned by the government.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalin.htm
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/gfc.2003.3.2.14
http://spice.stanford.edu/docs/regional_perspectives_on_human_rights_the_ussr_and_russia_part_one/
If Stalin was in power then everyone’s lives were ruined. Everybody was unhappy and scared for there lives everyday. People had no rights or any freedom and had to worship Stalin. People had to love him as if he was a god. They admired pictures of him and were inspired with his words. The government was in complete control. No one could do something that was displeasing to the government, or else they would be harshly punished. People became very paranoid. Stalin wanted everyone to believe in him and his ideas that he sent undercover policemen to arrest people who did not follow Stalin or simply said something that they couldn’t. The people of Russia could not trust anyone, and anyone would turn in innocent people. The majority of the time people turned in people that were not guilty, but told the government that they had committed a crime. The innocent people were either tortured or killed for the supposed crime that they did. People were in great fear and just pretended to love Stalin, so that nothing would happen to them. More than 3 million people were terribly punished for their crimes, how could people not be terrified. This not only affected the adults, but the children too. They were limited education. Children were watched constantly; just like the parents. The government had total control of everyone’s lives. People could not make one decision without the governments approval. Woman and men were basically treated the same. Workers were very unhappy with their conditions at their work. For instance, farmers and factory workers had terrible work conditions.
ReplyDeleteThis leads to the five-year plan that Stalin designed. Stalin was planning to increase industries and agricultural work. Stalin wished for more industries and for Russia to become more modern. In order for that to happen agriculture had to be as good as the economy. It did not work though, because the people would secretly destroy his plan. The first move that Stalin did was take the farmers lands to make its own farm. This left the farmers with nothing, but anger and hatred toward the government. Farmers would kill their animals and destroy their equipment, so the government would have nothing. More people became peasants, because of the increase in economy and unemployment. This meant that more than a million people died from starvation. Some of the farmers left Russia, so they wouldn’t starve to death and get a better job. However, some of the farmers stayed in the new government farm and did a well job. If they didn’t do what the government asked for then there was sever punishment for all of the workers. Well, this plan also needed the industrial side to grow. This was hard for the people, because they were overworked and still poor. The government was taking money out of their paychecks and the people still had to work overtime. The conditions were dangerous and hard. However they worked as hard as they could, because they were afraid of what would happen to them. They were not as worried to starve to death because they still had a job.
Nonetheless, the plan failed because of agriculture and industries not rising. This plan lead to millions of deaths, hyperinflation, and waste of times an money. Stalin had to postpone his plan for when he thought it would be best. He tried a few more times and again it failed because of the people.
Sources:
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalins%20Russia.htm
http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?
http://countrystudies.us/russia/10.htm
If I had lived in Soviet Russia during the rule of Joseph Stalin I would have none of the same freedom that I have today. Today I claim freedom of speech, religion, and so much more. If I were to live in Soviet Russia in this hard time, every choice I made would have been monitored by the state. The state was in charge of everything. The state even controlled what people read and listened to. It had complete control over the media, therefore the influence of outside sources on the people who lived there. Those who disobeyed the laws of the state were sent to labor camps, and that was more than enough to assure that most would never attempt to disobey them.
ReplyDeleteStalin wanted to be thought of as a god. He wanted to stand out in a crowd and have the only art that his people owned to be portraits of himself. He wanted to be personable, and was excellent and putting on the charade of a kind and thoughtful ruler.
In order to keep the economy stable, the agricultural workers had to produce a surplus amount of food in order to meet their quotas. This put immense amounts of pressure of collective farmers to produce large quantities of food while receiving little to no profit. The surplus of agriculture was used to buy machinery to make the lives of industry workers easier. While this put more pressure on the farmers, someone working in the industrial sector did less work but earned the same or even more pay.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalins%20Russia.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_Soviet_Union
http://library.thinkquest.org/C0112205/stalinsrussia.html
Life under Stalin in Soviet Russia was a time where people had little to no freedom. The freedom that we as Americans hold dear to us today if freedom of speech, freedom of media, and freedom of religion. During this time period life was extremely limited. People couldn’t even read what books they wanted to read. All books, news, and music had to be approved by the government before it was issued to the people. If people dared to reach beyond the arms of the government to find other books and forms of media they were severely punished.
ReplyDeleteArtists and writers, the people who created these pieces of work, were also limited to the things that they could create. They were part of a “personality cult” where they were forced to paint pictures and write in a way that glorified Stalin and made him seem god like. Because they were limited creatively, many artists became depressed and either committed suicide or tried to leave the country.
In addition to media, education was also strictly taught and monitored. Schools and teachers were required to use a book called “A Short History of the USSR” which was ordered into production by Stalin himself. Exams were also reintroduced by Stalin after previously being banned by Lenin. Children from 8-23 were also expected to be apart of clubs after school. From 8-10 you were an Octobrist, from 10-19 you were a Pioneer, and from 19-23 you were a Komsomol. Children from a young age were taught how to be a “good socialist” and to value outdoor activites and clean living.
During this time period Churches were also closed down and church leaders were arrested. The reasoning behind this was that Stalin wanted no competition for power and didn’t want people to devote time to worshiping God. He wanted to be the only leading figure in the lives of the Russian people so he closed down the churches in fear of God challenging his position.
Industrial worker:
ReplyDeleteDuring Joseph Stalin’s Russia the industrial workers were heavily scrutinized by the government for their productivity. Instead of have a foreman, who makes sure everyone is in line, everyone working in the factory must keep everyone in line and report to the secret police about what is happening in the factory if the production dies down. The secret police would need to get an answer for why production was dying down. This would make the workers become nervous because they knew that the secret police would be coming for them and the workers would create a scapegoat from other workers so that they themselves did not have to deal with the secret police taking them away in the night. The life of an industrial worker was one of paranoia and solidarity instead of the safety and unity that communism was supposed to entail. Even if you were accused of being or even thinking anti-communist you would be tortured and executed. That makes everyone turn on each other, neighbors ratting out neighbors, wifes ratting out husbands, and children ratting out their parents. This left families split in two, neighborhoods torn apart, and workplaces feeling unsafe.
Collective farmer:
A collective farm was a farm that was repossessed by the soviet government and split up evenly between families which were tasked to generate crops for the population and not themselves. This created problems because each of the families got food no matter the amount of food they produced but still had to keep up a quota. This threw many families that were relocated from the west to east under the bus because of climate changes from where they originated. Because weather is uncontrollable, these quotas were hard to uphold and many farmers were killed. Stalin himself was a farmer by birth. He did not show any sympathy for the majority of collective farmers and held all of them to their quotas and if a family were to not hold their end of the quota he would have them taken away in the night, tortured, and executed.
Comparison:
Both of these lives were miserable because of the uncertainty of life. Both lives have your life in the palm of someone or something elses hand. The only difference between the two is that the in the case of the industrial workers, people determine the outcome of their equals lives. While, the collective farmers life is determined on the climate, weather, and fertility of the soil.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/joseph_stalin.htm
http://kommunalka.colgate.edu/cfm/essays.cfm?ClipID=376&TourID=900
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalins%20Russia.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/C0112205/stalinsrussia.html
Stalin wanted to transform Russia into an industrial superpower and keep total control over the people. His goal was to create the perfect socialist society, and he did not want anything threatening that. Therefore, the information given to the people was highly censored and any words of opposition were taken very seriously. All forms of media were filtered through the government, and those who attempted to find something unfiltered were threatened with labor camps or deportation. Education was highly monitored by the government and students were required to learn specific lessons put forth by the government—ones that glorified Stalin and the governmental system. All poems and novels had to portray him positively, and he was nicknamed “Uncle Joe” to make him seem familial, familiar and kind. Religion was prohibited under Stalin’s rule, all churches had to be shut down. There was to be no person worshipped more than Stalin himself.
ReplyDeleteIndustry was the main focus for Stalin, and he succeeded in growing this field. The economy boomed and living standards increased for those skilled in factory work. The military forces improved, the government was very stable, healthcare was decent and for those who did not oppose the government, life could be bearable. However, Stalin did not have good plans for improving the agricultural field.
The agriculture was at the same level under Stalin’s rule but the population had grown significantly. The unchanging level lead to a famine that affected much of the population. The reason for this is Stalin’s failed plan of collectivism, where small farms would be merged together and equipped with high-tech machinery. Those who did not agree were killed and their land was taken so villages decided to kill their livestock so they would not be asked to join a collective.
Stalin had set his focus on industrialization and as a result created a society that was satisfactory for many of those working in the industrial sector. He did not place as high of a priority on agriculture and came up with a system that did not work. As a result, a farmer had a very difficult time in the USSR and the country suffered in total with the lack of agricultural resources.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalins%20Russia.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalins%20Russia.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin
When Stalin took power over Russia he led his country with strict rules. He blocked books and other forms of media when it was not approved by state. Blocking books and the media effected the education system and people never knew the full truth when their lives were blocked from the real world. His goal was to expand the industries in his country. He created the five year system and this meant that Stalin would put into action collective farming. The factory workers were supposed to work efficiently during this plan which would put his plan to work and bring in more money. People proceed to worship Stalin as he portrayed himself as god. However many people did not enjoy living under Stalin's rule because of the tough lifestyle they would have to live by.
ReplyDeleteUnder Stalin's rule industry workers lived difficult lives. An industry workers would not receive a lot of pay. Industry workers had poor living conditions and they did not have much food. Workers did not have good working conditions and hours. Though the conditions were terrible workers continued to work because of Stalin and communism at the time. Workers also believed that if they worked enough they would end up with more money and a better reputation. Workers were also influenced by propaganda which encouraged them to work hard and be rewarded for their actions. Stalin did reward some of the more skilled worker and punished those who did not work hard enough. This encouraged workers to work hard and not slack off and be punished. Stalin introduced a five year plan which brought all industry under the state control meaning that it was all planned by the state. The state would decide for industries what products they would make, how much is produced and where it would be produced. This plan was to increase industries and work. Stalins five year plan was successful and turned Russia into a powerhouse.
Collective farmers during this time did live tougher lives compared to industry workers. Collective farming was the jointing of smaller farms to create a bigger farm. This was useful because the bigger farms could use the machines to harvest their food to feed themselves along with the factory workers in larger amounts. The kulaks were the farmers who could afford hiring labour. The peasants refused and ignored Stalin's ideas and did not want to give their land to joint with other farms. This created famine throughout Russia. The peasants rebelled against him and burned their crops along with killing their animals. Stalin tried to reenforce his ideas but there were no followers creating a bigger spread of famine in Russia. Stalin declared war on the kulaks and executed many of them. By 1939 the government owned 90 percent of the profits. The collective farmers had wages along with everything else. This proves that farmers lived a tougher lifestyle during Stalin's rule since they had their land taken aways from them and sharing it with other farmers.
Sources:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/collectivisation.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalin.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/russia/stalincollectivisationrev1.shtml
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalins%20Russia.htm
Joseph Stalin attempted to create a perfect communist society for Russia. In doing this, he limited many freedoms for citizens in Russia. For instance, citizens could only read what the state allowed, media was limited, artists were forced to paint glorifying paintings of Stalin, and people were not allowed to be religious since they were forced to Worship Stalin. Stalin's Russia was very similar to life under Kim Jong il in North Korea in that: education is controlled, people were forced to be good communists and worshipers of Stalin, there were problems with food production and millions were unemployed.
ReplyDeleteStalin made it his goal to industrialize Russia in order to make up for lost progress. Each factory was given un realistic expectations to produce coal, iron, steel and electricity. Factories also had to produce a required amount of goods or the punishment was severe. This made life very tough for industrial workers. They had little pay and little to spend there money on since consumer goods were not being produced. Working conditions were harsh and factory hours were long. The workers put up with this treatment because Stalin was the supposed 'Uncle Joe'. He had promised the workers a land of a better society if the put up with a couple years of hardship. People were encouraged by governmental controlled propaganda glorifying Stalin and his intentions. Factories also had an atmosphere of competition. Workers had to produce more than their fellow workers and if they did, they would be treated as a hero This is ironic considering this idea is more like capitalism than communism. Workers also worked in fear of punishment. This who didn't work the required amount had their food/ration book taken. However, life of factory workers was slightly improved by the fact that Stalin allowed them access to health care. There were many more doctors, but they were afraid to practice medicine. He also granted many workers holidays and developed a sense of community. These things were unheard of under Lenin
Though it seems impossible, it could be said that farmers had it worse than the factory workers. Like factories, farms were owned by the government. Those who had originally owned much farmland were reduced to the levels of a factory worker. This was by the means of collectivization, where smaller farms came together to form larger farms. This made it so farmers became like slaves to the government. The farmers didn't like this idea of collectivism so they revolt by burning crops and livestock because if they rebelled in other ways they would be shot. The peasant farmers did not receive any of the health care benefits that the industrial workers did and their lives were worse of than they were under Lenin.
Overall, both factory workers and farmers had harsh lives due to the lack of consumer goods, food availability, strict conditions and being owned by the government.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalins%20Russia.htm
Deletehttp://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalin.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/C0112205/stalinsrussia.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/russia/stalincollectivisationrev1.shtml
Working in the industrial sector was very difficult. The workers' standards of living tended to drop, and Stalin's laws to "tighten work discipline" made the situation even worse. Labor law codes such as the firing of workers who had been absent without a reason from the work place for just one day were enabled. With time, the expectations of workers got even higher. For example, being even 20 minutes late was enough ground to be fired, and managers who failed to enforce laws such as this faced criminal prosecution. Another example was when the law transitioning to the eight hour working day and the seven-day work week was put into play. The system was very serious. There were criminal penalties for quitting a job (2–4 months imprisonment), for being late 20 minutes (6 months of probation and pay confiscation of 25 per cent), etc. Even though these strict rules made for a big leap in Russia's industrialization, they were extremely harsh on industrial workers. Life in the factories was very difficult to fulfill, and it often required that miners put in 16 to 18-hour workdays. Failure to fulfill requirements could result in treason charges. Working conditions were poor, even hazardous- an estimated 127,000 workers died from 1928 to 1932. On top of the long hours, dangerous workload, and stress of being fired, the workers often faced intense hunger and starvation. However, in the years to come after the first 5 year plan, the working conditions improved.
ReplyDeleteAs a collective farmer, demand for food intensified. Upon joining collective farms, peasants had to give up their private plots of land and property. Every harvest had to be sold to the state for a low price set by the state itself. Since the natural progress of farming was slow, the Central Committee decided to accelerate collectivization through force and increased political control of agriculture in order to feed the growing urban population. The farmers were so fed up by the fact they couldn't keep their goods that some began to slaughter their animals instead of giving them up to the government. Additionally, many farmers were forced to relocated to Kazakhstan, Siberia, and the Russian Far North (a large portion served at forced labor camps). Just about anyone opposing collectivization was severely punished (because of a rule formulated by Stalin) through execution, deportation to special settlements, or to forced labor camps. Even more unfortunate, collectivization led to a huge drop in farm productivity which led to an intense famine and left the majority starving
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Soviet_Union_(1927–1953).
The collective farmers had it far worse than the industrial workers. The industrialists and farmers also had quite a lot in common. They both had low wages, endured long rough hours and horrible treatment. The kulaks were farmers that owned far more land/bigger factories, while the peasants owned less land and lived in far more poverty. Similarly to Hitler, Stalin was able to brainwash a majority of the Russian people; this is when propaganda played a pivotal role during Stalin's reign. The worst thing was that these people were on farmlands doing work for a very small amount of money. if they did not work hard enough, then they would be shipped to go to labor camps. Their living conditions were awful.
ReplyDelete"By 1939, 99% of the land was run by collective farmers, who did not receive the majority of their production. In fact, the government took 90% of their production, and only left the collective farmers enough to live off of."
Industrially, Stalin was far too realistic. He forced many workers to their tipping point by increasing workloads to unreasonable amounts and he expected the workers to either reach or surpass these work milestones. Also, if workers wouldn't work hard enough or did not meet the expected amount, they were tortured and ostracized. They would transported to cruel working camps such as a gulag or jail where they could be killed or terrorized. Stalin used fear to get a surplus amount of work from the workers and this impacted him negatively. People began to revolt against him and hate him as their leader, which led to rebellious actions by the citizens/workers. Stalin realized his schemes were unrealistic and that they would exist only in his "dream" world. Because his plot was so unrealistic, it eventually led to the downfall of Communism in Russia.
- http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalins%20Russia.htm
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_Soviet_Union
- http://library.thinkquest.org/C0112205/stalinsrussia.html
When Joseph Stalin seized power of Russia in the 1920’s, life changed across the entire nation. Propaganda was spread to support Stalin’s communist regime in Soviet Russia. Some of the most popular types of propaganda at the time were images of Soviet Russia’s militarism, industrial revolution, and agricultural work combined into the depiction of the Soviet flag. This type of utilitarianism-based propaganda represented the government’s attempts to coax its people into believing that all their hard work with little reward is going towards the greater cause of the country.
ReplyDelete(Note: The individual sections include the points in which industrial and agricultural workers are compared to each other).
Industrial Worker:
Industrial workers not only worked in terrible conditions for long hours, but they were also granted low pay. Often times, Industrial workers would be in factories working with machines or assembly lines and repeating tasks tediously over and over again. A lot of the powerful machines were very dangerous and caused injury. There was no workers compensation or insurance to ensure the safety of the workers. This could be compared to the Industrial Revolution in Britain during the 1800’s. Factory workers would have to achieve impossibly high “quotas”, or standards of hard work they must achieve. In factories, there were lists ranking the productivity of the workers. The workers on the bottom of the list, such as those who did not work hard enough or simply could not handle it were sent to one out of thousands of labor/prison camps set up across the country. Joseph Stalin took more and more control of the government; he used the enforcement of the secret police much more often. Aside from capturing opposition, or claimed opposition to the government, the secret police would capture the people who did not work hard enough and such individuals would have often never been seen again by their friends and family. From an economical perspective, threatening the lack of work with more work is not a very motivating concept.
Perhaps the only positives for industrial workers under Stalin’s power included (at least for a few years), more equality for the people, such as between women and men. The spreading of the wealth also increased the living standards for factory workers. This, of course, had to have come at the cost of others. On the other hand, government services such as health care were often not as available. Even though they had harsh lives, it was not as hard as the Agricultural worker.
Agricultural Worker:
As ironic as it might seem, Stalin, a former peasant, allowed life to be even tougher on the peasant farmers in Soviet Russia than that of the factory workers. Peasant farmers were paid even less than the factory workers and had lowered living standards. Stalin introduced the concept of collective farming in which smaller farms, owned by the “Kulaks”, would merge into large farms. The agricultural workers would use machinery to complete their tasks on a larger scale to feed the factory workers. As stated earlier, communism benefits one section of people at the cost of another in a forced government-intervention manner. This is probably one of the reasons that the factory workers had it better off than the agricultural workers. Although the number is only an estimation, most historians believe 5,000,000 peasants died from starvation under Stalin’s rule. This figure is no where near the amount of death that would reach Soviet Russia later in WWII.
My bibliography: http://web.ku.edu/~eceurope/communistnationssince1917/ch3.html
Deletehttp://www.jstor.org/stable/40912303
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalins%20Russia.htm
If a guy came up to you and told you that he lived under the rule of Joseph Stalin, you would instantly know that he did not live a fun and easy-going life. In fact, his life was most likely miserable, unfair and stressful.
ReplyDeleteRussian workers during the 1920's earned low income and received poor treatment. Although Stalin was a communist ruler, his people were not treated 100% equal. The treatment and pay one would receive depended on their working class, or occupation.
One working class, the industrial sector, consisted mostly of factory workers. Like most factory workers living in a country's industrial era, the conditions were not humane. Workers in the industrial sectors worked for extremely long hours in a cramped and unhygienic workspace. Disease was easily spread and injury and/or death was frequent. Stalin did not even provide workers with proper insurance/health benefits to keep his people alive and well. In return for hard labor, workers received enough pay to barely feed themselves, let alone a family. Stalin was also very unfair in terms of his expectations. He expected too much. If a worker wasn't giving their 10000%, Stalin's secret police would capture and/or execute the person. Essentially, being in the industrial sector in Stalin's Russia was a bummer.
Agricultural workers made up the second part of the Russian workers. Farmers and factory workers were very similar, but they did share a few differences. Obviously, farmers did not work in factories. Farmers received even less income than those in the industrial sector. Stalin used collective farming where small farms owned by farmers would become one big farm owned by the government. All in all, factory workers had it a little easier than the farmers because ironically, the farmers received less food to eat.