IGNOU HISTORY Study Notes for IAS, UPSC Exams

History Of Modern Europe Mid 18th to Mid 20th Centuries

THE SOCIALIST WORLD - II

Structure

29.0 Objectives
29. 1 Introduction

29.2 Background
29.3 Planning and Idustrialisation
29.3.1 The First Fivc Ycar Plan, 1929-33
29.3.2 The Second Five Year Plan, 1933-37
29.3.-3 Results of Planned Indus(rialisation
29.3.4 The Third Fivc Year Plan, 1938-4 1
29.4 Collcctivisation of' Agriciltirc
29.4.1 Weaknesses of NEP Agriculture
29.4.2 Gra~n Harvest ant1 Marketings
29.4.3 The Procurcmcnt C'I-isis of 1927-28
29.4.4 Pcasant Rcsislancc to Collectivisalion
29.4.5 Nature of Collcctivisation
29.5 The Terror anti 11ic Purgcs
29.5. I The Four Trials
29.5.2 Purgesnd tlc Colnniunist Party
29.5.3 Purges and llc Arricd Forces
29.5.4 Purges ant1 rlc Soviet Society
29.6 Lct Us Sum Up
29.7 Answers 10 Check Your Progress Exercises

29.0 OBJECTIVES

Thematically this Unit is in co~itinuation with previous Unit. It takes up the story of Soviet
Russia from wherc thc last Unit Icft. After reading this Unit. you will learn

• the major political and economic developments in the USSR in the 1930%
• the nature of planned industrialisation initiated from 1929 onwards,
• the essence of collectivisation of .agriculture and its impact on the Russian peasantry, and
• the political tkctors that led to the terror and the purges of the 1930s.

29.1 INTRODUCTION

The previous Unit nan-atecl to you the story of the Russian Revolution and the major developments
in the post-revolutionary Russia. You learnt, for instance, that the period after the revolution was
characterized by a phase of war communism. Around 1921 tbe policy of war communism was
rep1aced.b~ the New Economic Policy (NEP). Around 1928, the NEP gave way to a policy of
planned development of industry and agriculture in Soviet Russia. This Unit tells you the story
of the planned phase of Russian Economy. It starts by telling you what is meant by planned
economy. It then takes up three crucial developmen* of the 1930s; planned industrialization in
phases, collectivisation of agriculture and the purges of the 1930s. All the three influenced the
history of USSR very significantly.

29.2 BACKGROUND

The cornparati\cly brief period of' rapid industrial expansion in the USSR hetween 1926 and
1941 Jid not initiate the modern industrialisation of Russia. It was preceded hy the spurt
associa!-.I with tsarist Finance Minister S.I. Witte in the !R90s, the hoom orl the eve of the

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