The Soviet Union's Socio-Economic and Political State in May 1939

This essay examines the Soviet Union in May 1939, focusing on the socio-economic and political climate under Stalin's rule. It details the impact of the October Revolution, the implementation of the Five-Year Plans, and the resulting industrialization and agricultural collectivization. The essay highlights the human cost of these policies, including the Holodomor famine and the Great Purge, while also analyzing key events like the Shakhty Trial and the Moscow Trials. It also discusses the Second and Third Five-Year Plans, the liquidation of the Red Army, and the Soviet Union's growing strength as a nation. The analysis covers the evolving internal and external challenges faced by the Soviet Union, providing insights into the consolidation of Stalin's power and its impact on the Soviet people and the global stage.

Running head: SOVIET UNION IN MAY 1939
SOVIET UNION IN MAY 1939
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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The Soviet Union after the October Revolution, became a stronger nation although it had
to face numerous other struggles at home include the civil war that broke out right after the
Bolshevik Revolutioni. During the later years, the country faced several other problems under the
rule of Lenin. The Soviets tried to make peace with the Germans after the First World War and
for this, they even sent Leon Trotsky for negotiations with hopes that the revolution would soon
start in Europe but it did not. In the early 1918, the Ukrainians signed a treaty with the Germans
and accepted German domination due to their want for freedom from the Soviet Union. Lenin’s
regime ends after his death in 1924 and Joseph Stalin takes over.
In the year 1928, Stalin implements the first five-year plan for the fast industrialization of
the country. The five-year plan resulted in heavy loss human and other resources and other
issues. Owing to the unrealistic quotas being set for the industrialization of the Soviet Union,
there were huge numbers of losses faced by workersii. The quotas that Stalin set could not have
been achieved in the ten years to come. However, the plan was successful in many regardsiii. One
of the biggest successes of the first five-year plan was the increase in the capital goods and the
consumer goods. While the capital goods saw an increase of 158%, the consumer goods hiked by
87% and the country’s total industrial output reached 118%iv. In the field of agriculture as well,
the Soviets managed to recruit over 70,000 volunteers for assisting in the collectivization of
farming in the rural areas. Stalin introduced agricultural collectivization during the first plan
although it was the brainchild of Lenin under his New Economic Policy. The collectivization of
agriculture was introduced with the goal that it would increase the industrial labourers’ number
for the new factories that had been set up. Other Soviet also viewed collectivization to be a good
plan that could increase yields of crop and help in the funding of other programmes. Despite
receiving criticism from the world, the first five-year plan could be considered a stepping stone

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for the Soviets to become the industrial and economic superpower in the world. However, the
country had to pay a huge price for this.
By the end of the First Five-Year Plan, six million died of famine in Kazakhstan and
Ukraine collectively due to forced collectivizationv. The Soviets had a difficult time meeting up
to the expectations of the regime during the first five-year plan. The year 1928 also had several
other important events that had some significance prior to the announcement of the First Five
Year plan. On March 7, the Shakhty Trial took place where the police held a few engineers in the
Shakhty town and laid accusations on them that they had conspired to sabotage the economy of
Soviet Union. Total 53 engineers were taken into custody along with some managers as well
from the North Caucasus townvi. The sabotage was supposed to be done with the help of former
coal miners that went against the Stalin government. The Shakhty trials led to the beginning of
the lengthy series of accusations that were put against the class enemies within the country. The
trials also led to the Great Purge that began in the 1930svii. Stalin was adamant on making his
five year plan successful and hence, forced labourers into working under harsh conditions and
continuously as well. Stalin tried to move away from the New Economic Policy of Lenin and
focused mostly on industrial expansion and advancement. High rates of industrial accidents took
place due to this and due to the least management skills of directors that were politically
appointed. Stalin also introduced the concept of ‘class warfare’ in order to motivate the people of
Soviet Union to go against the engineers and managers and support the “old specialists”. The
newspaper Pravda also used the arrests to claim that the bourgeoisie were utilizing the sabotage
of economy to be a technique of class struggle’viii. The Shakhty trials influenced the labourer
population to turn against the factory administrators, engineers and technicians. The trial sparked
the already infuriated labour class due to the poor working conditions and low wages of the

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labourers. The trials fired their resentment and distrust against the administrators and this also
led to a trend to support the government initiatives. The trials also created the fear that the
country was under threat from the Germans and the revolutionaries. Karl von Shubert, the
German Secretary of State expressed that the Soviets must have informed the Germans about the
crimes but the Soviets did not do so and this disappointed the Germans.
In 1929, Stalin expelled Bukharin from the politburo. Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin was
one of the key members of the Stalin cabinet. From the years 1926 to 1929, Bukharin had
enjoyed immense power as the General Secretary and was regarded highly influential by the
members within the politburoix. However, his decision to oppose Stalin in continuing with
collectivization led to his expulsion from the politburo. During the Great Purge (to be discussed
later), Bukharin’s disloyalty was established through the tapped phone calls, conversations and
letters. He was then put on trial after being charged with the conspiracy to dethrone the Soviet
state. The Stalin regime executed Bukharin in the year 1938. The year 1929 also marked the
coming together of Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and Uzbek Soviet Socialist
Republic into the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic.
During the initial months of the year 1930, Stalin officially established the “gulag”x. A
government agency, the gulag was responsible for holding forced-labour camps during the five-
year plan period. The gulag has been around since the time of Vladimir Lenin. During Stalin’s
regime, it reached another level altogether. In July the same year, the Karakalpak Autonomous
Oblast went to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. The Karakalpak Autonomous
Oblast, created in 1925 was an independent part of the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist
Republic but it was transferred to the Russian RSFSR until 30 March 1932 from 20 July 1930
around which time it was elevated to be formed as the Karakalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist

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Republicxi. In 1932, the Central Executive Committee and the Sovnarkom made theft of any type
of public property to be punishable by death under the Law of Spikelets. In the same year, the
great famine Holodomor had devastated the Ukrainian regionxii. The politburo received a letter
from Stalin asking for the subjection of the Ukrainian SSR.
The year 1934 also marked a turning point in Soviet history after the assassination of
Sergei Kirov, Stalin’s main adviser. It led to the start of the “great purge” wherein millions of
communist party members were arrested and deported to the “gulags”. Around 3 million Soviets
were arrested out of which, 700,000 had been executed. It must be understood that Stalin’s rise
to power was not easy and he had to go against many to become the dictator of the USSR. The
dissenting members of the Bolshevik Party did not like the rise of Stalin and Stalin knew that. He
always wanted to end each member of the communist party who he doubted was conspiring
against him. The death of Kirov prompted Stalin to start the great purge. In December 1935, the
gulag had more than 800,000 prisoners and more than 300,000 were held in work coloniesxiii. The
year 1936 was about the beginning of the many trials that would take place in the years that
followed. The first trial was held in 1936 against the communist leaders in Moscow where the
defendants were forced to confess. Numerous high-ranking communists of the former Bolshevik
party were accused of treason. These include big names like Lev Kamenev, Nikolai Bukharin,
Grigorii Zinoviev, and Aleksei Rykovxiv. The Moscow Trials were events that seemed clearly
staged. In the meantime, NKVD, the secret police of the Soviet conducted 3-member
committees to determine if the assassinations of other Soviets considered anti-nationals were
justified. The term that Stalin used to address the so-called traitors were the ‘fifth-column’, ‘the
enemy of the people’ and the ‘saboteurs’xv. Stalin incorporated the territory of Karakalpak ASSR
into Uzbekistan in 1936.

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In May 1937, Stalin continues his great purge and liquidates majority of the Red Army.
In the next eighteen months, Stalin liquidated 3 marshals, 13 army generals and 8 admirals
including 35,000 others. The figure in average was 25% to 50% of the Red Army officers were
purged during 1937xvi. It is also rumored that the great purge of the army was carried out based
on the forged documents given by the Germans. The German forged the documents in
correspondence with Marshal Tukhachevsky and some members of the high command in
Germany. Within the period between 1932 and 1937, Stalin also announced the Second Five-
year plan. The second plan implemented in 1933 and continued until 1937. Similar to the First
Five-Year plan, the second plan focused on the heavy industry and it helped the Soviet Union
reach at par with Germany in terms of steel-production. Apart from the heavy industry, focus
was also put in the communications field, the railways in particular that turned out to be more
reliable and faster. However, the plan also had some drawbacks. The plan did not manage to
reach its targeted production especially in the oil and coal industry. The second plan introduced
several benefits for the labourers to attract increased workforce. One of the benefits was the
incentives launched for childcare so that the mothers could also work and make the plan a
success. Through the end of the second plan in 1937, the tolkachi came to prominence and
occupied an important position arbitrating between the commissariat and the enterprisesxvii. The
Second Five-year plan also resulted in the closing of the house of worship. The Stalin regime
executed Peter of Krutitsy on 10 October as part of the destruction of the house of worship under
the second five-year plan.
In 1938, Stalin introduces the Third Five Year plan. In one year of the plan, there seems
to be hardly any difference in the situation of the Soviet Union in terms of economy. Apart from
that, the year also marked the beginning of the third Moscow trial, known also as the trial of the

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twenty-one. This was the trial where once a close aide of Stalin, Bukharin was executed.
Furthermore, in the same year, the battle of Lake Khasan was fought and the Japanese forces
occupied the territory, which they had to leave ultimately in the face of heavy combat and
diplomatic settlementxviii. The battle resulted in Japanese defeat on 31 August 1938 that further
cemented the strong rule of Stalin.
It is thus clear that the Soviet Union is a strong nation and that it has strong alliances.
Furthermore, the Soviet Union has improved greatly as an industrial nation owing to the success
of the two five-year plans in 1928 and 1933 respectively. While the first five-year plan focused
on rapid industrialization and agricultural collectivization, the second five-year plan concentrated
on the transformation of Soviet into a steel manufacturing giant. It aimed to surpass Germany.
However, the first two plans have also resulted in the deaths of millions of Soviet citizens due to
the human made famine. The production rate has not been achieved as well as it was expected.
Despite all this, the plans have worked for the Soviet Union in its way of becoming a world
power. The third five-year plan announced in 1938 is under progress and it seems to grow the
industrial progress of the Soviets by 10 to 12 percent. The country’s condition until May 1939 is
that of a strong country with abundant human resources and industrial power, strong military and
ruthless regime that could face any threat. Therefore, his majesty’s government should come into
an alliance with the Soviet Union looking at its condition until May 1939. The alliance would
prove strategically benefitting for Britain, as it would help check Nazi threat that lingers on the
world every time. Hence, it is crucial to come into an alliance with the Soviets and prepare for
beforehand for any future threat from the Nazi Germany.

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SOVIET UNION IN MAY 1939
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i Taylor, Philip M. "Munitions of the mind: A history of propaganda from the ancient world to the present era." (2013).
ii ("The First Five Year Plan, 1928-1932 | Special Collections & Archives" 2019)
iii Pauley, Bruce F. Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini: Totalitarianism in the twentieth century. John Wiley & Sons, 2014.
iv Dobb, Maurice. "Rates of growth under the five‐year plans." Soviet Studies 4, no. 4 (1953): 364-385.
v Fitzpatrick, Sheila. The Russian Revolution. Oxford University Press, 2017.
vi Kotkin, Stephen. Stalin, Vol. II: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941. Penguin UK, 2017.
vii Gellately, Robert. Stalin's Curse: Battling for Communism in War and Cold War. OUP Oxford, 2013.
viii Flynn, Molly. "The trial that never was: Russian documentary theatre and the pursuit of justice." New Theatre Quarterly
30, no. 4 (2014): 307-317.
ix Gregory, Paul R. Politics, Murder, and Love in Stalin's Kremlin: The Story of Nikolai Bukharin and Anna Larina. Hoover
Press, 2013.
x Gregory, Paul R., and Valery Lazarev. The economics of forced labor: The Soviet Gulag. Vol. 518. Hoover Institution
Press, 2013.
xi Babin, Borys V. "Rights and Dignity of Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine in Revolutionary Conditions and Foreign
Occupation: Evolution of the Statute of the Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine, as Legal Grounding for Crimea." Anthropology
& Archeology of Eurasia 53, no. 3 (2014): 81-115.
xii Bezo, Brent, and Stefania Maggi. "Living in “survival mode:” Intergenerational transmission of trauma from the
Holodomor genocide of 1932–1933 in Ukraine." Social Science & Medicine 134 (2015): 87-94.
xiii Conquest, Robert. The Great Terror: Stalin’s purge of the thirties. Random House, 2018.
xiv ("Great Purge" 2019)
xv Ibid 5
xvi Wright, Joanne. Terrorist Propaganda: The Red Army Faction and the Provisional IRA, 1968–86. Springer, 1991.
xvii Beissinger, Mark R. Scientific management, socialist discipline and Soviet power. IB Tauris, 1988.
xviii Militaryhistoryonline.com. 2019. "Military History Online - Nomonhan: The Second Russo-Japanese War".
Militaryhistoryonline.Com. https://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/20thcentury/articles/nomonhan.aspx.