History (AS)·Depth Study B — Russia, 1905–1941 · NSSCAS B.5
The Five-Year Plans & collectivisation
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In 1928 Stalin gambled the future of the Soviet Union on one enormous idea: drag a backward peasant country into the modern industrial age in just ten years. Today we'll ask why he did it, follow the Five-Year Plans that raised giant steelworks and dams from bare ground, and then turn to the darker half of the story — collectivisation, the war on the kulaks, and the terrible famine of 1932–33. We'll meet the propaganda heroes and the giant targets, but we'll also stand quietly at a memorial. And we'll finish with the great AS question that examiners love: did the ends justify the means, and how modern was the USSR really by 1941?
What you'll learn in this lesson
By the end you should be able to (NSSCAS History (AS) B.5):
- Explain the causes and consequences of Stalin's Five-Year Plans
- Explain the causes and impact of collectivisation
- Evaluate how the changes affected the Soviet people
- Assess how far Stalin modernised the Soviet Union
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