Stalin’s economic and political transformation in 1928–1929, known as the ‘Great Turn’, marked a decisive break from the NEP and reshaped Soviet society.
The Great Turn: From NEP to Rapid Industrialisation
By the late 1920s, the New Economic Policy (NEP), which had stabilised Russia’s economy after the Civil War, faced mounting criticism within the Communist Party. Many saw it as fostering inequality and creating a new class of wealthy peasants (kulaks) and traders (NEPmen), which contradicted socialist ideals.
Definition: The Great Turn refers to Stalin’s abrupt policy shift from the NEP’s mixed economy to a command economy based on rapid industrialisation and forced collectivisation of agriculture.
Reasons for the shift:
Economic stagnation: Industrial growth had plateaued by the mid-1920s.
Grain procurement crisis: Peasants hoarded grain, causing shortages and threatening urban food supplies.
Ideological commitment: A genuine desire to build socialism by eliminating capitalist elements.
Desire for self-sufficiency: Rapid industrialisation was seen as essential for defence and to make the USSR independent of foreign imports.
This policy reversal was both economic and political: it strengthened state control and consolidated Stalin’s power, sidelining opponents who favoured the NEP’s gradualism.
The First Five-Year Plan: Goals, Priorities, and Methods
In 1928, the Soviet government launched the First Five-Year Plan (1928–1932), an ambitious blueprint to modernise the USSR’s economy overnight.
Goals
Transform the USSR from a backward agrarian country into a leading industrial power.
Prioritise heavy industry: coal, steel, iron, and machinery.
Reduce dependence on Western technology and imports.
Strengthen the military-industrial complex to safeguard against external threats.
Priorities
Heavy industry received the largest share of resources and investment.
Consumer goods and agriculture were neglected, causing shortages and falling living standards for ordinary people.
Emphasis on gigantic industrial projects, like the Dnieper Dam and Magnitogorsk steel plant.
Methods
Central planning: Targets were set by Gosplan, the State Planning Commission, often unrealistically high to drive production.
Forced labour and coercion: Millions, including political prisoners, were mobilised to build factories, mines, and infrastructure.
Shock brigades and Stakhanovite movement (emerging later but rooted in this era): Workers were encouraged to exceed quotas, fostering a culture of competition and over-fulfilment.
Severe discipline: Harsh punishments for ‘saboteurs’ and ‘wreckers’ blamed for production shortfalls.
By focusing resources on heavy industry, the plan laid the foundation for the USSR’s industrial might, though at immense human and social cost.
Early Stages of Collectivisation: Purpose and Peasant Resistance
Why Collectivisation Was Introduced
Collectivisation aimed to merge millions of small peasant farms into large, state-controlled collective farms (kolkhozes) and state farms (sovkhozes).
Key reasons:
Secure a stable grain supply for cities and export surplus to finance industrialisation.
Destroy the economic power of the kulaks, whom Stalin labelled as class enemies exploiting poorer peasants.
Extend communist control into the countryside, traditionally a weak point for Bolshevik influence.
Early Implementation
Began intensively in 1929, with local party officials driving the campaign village by village.
Forced requisitioning of grain escalated, leading to widespread resentment.
Propaganda depicted collectivisation as a step towards a modern, mechanised agriculture with tractors and scientific farming.
Peasant Resistance
Many peasants saw collectivisation as an attack on their traditional way of life.
Acts of resistance included:
Slaughtering livestock rather than surrendering animals to collective farms. The USSR’s livestock population halved within a few years.
Hiding grain and tools.
Revolts and armed clashes in some regions.
Stalin responded with brutal measures: mass deportations of so-called kulaks, forced resettlement, and harsh punishment for resisters.
Collectivisation caused severe disruption to agricultural production and laid the groundwork for devastating famines in the early 1930s.
Propaganda, Press Control, and Stalin’s Cult of Personality
Use of Propaganda
Stalin’s government used propaganda to rally public support for radical changes and suppress dissent.
Posters, films, and newspapers glorified industrial projects, heroic workers, and technological progress.
The Five-Year Plan was portrayed as a collective struggle against backwardness.
Failures and hardships were blamed on enemies of the state, such as kulaks and foreign spies.
Control of the Press
Independent journalism vanished; all newspapers and radio broadcasts were state-controlled.
The press reinforced party narratives, reported ‘record-breaking’ successes, and censored information on disasters and failures.
Dissenting voices within the party or media were silenced through purges, arrests, or execution.
Beginning of Stalin’s Cult of Personality
While Stalin initially portrayed himself as Lenin’s loyal disciple, the late 1920s saw the early development of his own cult of personality.
Stalin appeared in portraits alongside Lenin, suggesting continuity and legitimacy.
His name featured prominently in slogans, speeches, and textbooks.
He was credited personally for policy successes and depicted as the fatherly guide leading the USSR to prosperity.
This cult would grow enormously in the 1930s, reinforcing Stalin’s absolute authority and discouraging opposition.
Stalin’s Foreign Policy Moves
Though Stalin focused heavily on domestic transformation, his foreign policy between 1928 and 1929 aimed to safeguard the USSR’s security and extend communist influence cautiously.
Cooperation with China
Stalin supported the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) against the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) but shifted tactics after the KMT’s violent suppression of communists in 1927.
In the late 1920s, the USSR sought to balance relations with both factions to maintain influence in East Asia.
Treaty of Berlin with Germany
Signed in 1926 but reaffirmed during this period, the Treaty of Berlin extended the Rapallo Treaty’s framework.
It guaranteed neutrality if either side was attacked by a third power.
Enabled continued military and economic cooperation: Germany helped train Soviet officers and develop technology in secret, bypassing the Treaty of Versailles.
Changes in Comintern Leadership
The Communist International (Comintern) continued promoting world revolution but with tighter Soviet control.
Stalin placed loyalists in key positions, marginalising figures like Trotsky who advocated permanent revolution.
The Comintern shifted to a more defensive posture, focusing on protecting the USSR rather than immediate global upheaval.
These policies show Stalin’s pragmatism: while publicly promoting proletarian solidarity, he prioritised national security and his own power consolidation.
Stalin’s Great Turn in 1928–1929 radically transformed Soviet society, economy, and politics. The shift to central planning, forced collectivisation, and intensifying control set the stage for the dramatic upheavals of the 1930s.
FAQ
The Communist Party Congresses of the late 1920s were pivotal in legitimising Stalin’s radical economic shift. The Fifteenth Party Congress in 1927 laid the groundwork by denouncing kulaks and reinforcing the need to end capitalist practices in agriculture. This Congress formally approved policies favouring collectivisation and industrialisation, providing Stalin with an ideological mandate. It also saw the expulsion of the United Opposition (including Trotsky and Zinoviev), silencing alternative views on economic policy. Subsequent plenums of the Central Committee rubber-stamped Gosplan’s ambitious targets and endorsed harsh measures to meet them. These gatherings reinforced party discipline and ensured local officials and regional leaders implemented the new policies with minimal resistance. Debates were stage-managed to marginalise dissenting voices like Bukharin’s, allowing Stalin to present his economic revolution as the collective will of the Party. Thus, Party Congresses not only endorsed the Great Turn but entrenched Stalin’s authority by eliminating rivals and tightening ideological conformity.
Industrial workers during the First Five-Year Plan experienced intense pressure and significant hardship alongside promises of a better future. Labour discipline became stricter, with harsh penalties for absenteeism or failing to meet quotas. Many workers faced grueling hours in poorly equipped, rapidly constructed factories, often lacking basic safety measures. Living conditions in new industrial towns were dire; overcrowded barracks and a shortage of housing and consumer goods were common. However, workers were also bombarded with propaganda celebrating their role as heroes of socialist construction. Stakhanovite campaigns later encouraged workers to break records, with ‘shock workers’ receiving medals, privileges, or better housing. Skilled labourers sometimes gained rapid promotions and social status. Trade unions, once advocates for workers’ rights, became instruments for enforcing Party targets rather than defending conditions. Despite hardships, some workers were motivated by genuine belief in building socialism and improving life for future generations, enduring severe sacrifices for national progress.
Stalin’s cultural policies in the late 1920s were crucial for consolidating his economic and political agenda. The state increasingly dictated what artists, writers, and intellectuals could produce, ensuring all cultural output aligned with socialist ideals. Literature and the arts focused on glorifying industrial heroes and collective farms, promoting an optimistic vision of the new Soviet society. Socialist Realism, which would become official policy in the 1930s, started taking root during this period, demanding art that was accessible and promoted the regime’s goals. Cinema, a popular medium, was harnessed to portray success stories of industrialisation and vilify class enemies like kulaks and foreign saboteurs. Schools and youth organisations like the Komsomol were mobilised to spread socialist values and enthusiasm for the Five-Year Plans. Historical narratives were rewritten to portray Stalin as Lenin’s rightful successor and a visionary moderniser. This cultural control strengthened public loyalty, marginalised dissent, and made opposition to Stalin’s economic shift appear unpatriotic.
The early collectivisation campaign had profound and often devastating effects on women in rural Soviet society. As collectivisation uprooted traditional village life, many women found themselves bearing a double burden. They had to work on collective farms while maintaining family responsibilities at home. Women often performed strenuous agricultural labour, as men were sometimes arrested, deported as kulaks, or fled to avoid repression. This left many female-headed households struggling to meet production quotas and feed their families amid widespread grain requisitioning. The campaign also disrupted traditional kinship networks and community support systems that women relied upon. Propaganda depicted women as equal partners in socialist construction, celebrating female tractor drivers and farm managers as symbols of progress. In reality, opportunities for leadership roles remained limited in this period. Nevertheless, the chaos and demographic shifts gradually pushed more women into formal employment and public life, setting the stage for greater female participation in agriculture and industry throughout the Stalinist era.
Stalin’s approach to dissent during the Great Turn was notably harsher and more systematic than that of earlier Bolshevik leaders. Under Lenin, while dissent was suppressed, especially during the Civil War, there was still room for open debate within the Party, exemplified by the vigorous discussions around the NEP and policies like the Kronstadt suppression. By the late 1920s, Stalin eliminated this internal pluralism. He used purges, expulsions, and denunciations to silence opponents within the Communist Party. Figures like Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Bukharin were discredited and removed from power through orchestrated showdowns at Party Congresses and secret police surveillance. Local officials and intellectuals suspected of opposing rapid industrialisation or collectivisation were branded ‘rightists’ or ‘wreckers’. The OGPU (secret police) played an expanding role, rooting out ‘enemies of the people’. This atmosphere of fear made open disagreement rare, ensuring that Stalin’s policies could proceed unchecked. His ruthless intolerance of dissent laid the groundwork for the mass purges and terror of the 1930s.
Practice Questions
Explain why Stalin introduced the Great Turn in 1928.
Stalin introduced the Great Turn to replace the NEP, which was increasingly criticised for allowing capitalist elements like kulaks and NEPmen. The economic stagnation and grain procurement crisis prompted Stalin to favour a centrally planned economy to boost industrial output. Ideologically, it allowed him to pursue true socialism and assert his dominance over rivals like Bukharin. Politically, the shift undermined his opponents and strengthened party control. The Great Turn promised rapid industrialisation and collectivisation to secure the USSR's economic independence and military strength, laying the foundation for Stalin’s personal authority and the Soviet Union’s transformation.
How significant was the First Five-Year Plan in consolidating Stalin’s power by 1929?
The First Five-Year Plan was highly significant in consolidating Stalin’s power by demonstrating his leadership’s decisiveness and control. By initiating rapid industrialisation, Stalin distanced himself from the NEP and eliminated opposition, particularly from Bukharin’s Right. The ambitious goals mobilised the population and glorified Stalin as the architect of Soviet modernity. Through propaganda and press control, he claimed credit for successes while scapegoating ‘saboteurs’ for failures. The plan also allowed tighter central control and laid the foundation for the cult of personality. Thus, it was instrumental in Stalin’s ideological, political, and administrative dominance by the end of 1929.
