Page 46 - The Chief Culprit
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Industrialization and Collectivization
For us, Germany’s “national liberation” lies not in a war with the West, but in a prole-
tarian revolution encompassing both Central and Western Europe and uniting it with
Eastern Europe as [the] Soviet United States.
—L. T, “A N C!”
n 1927, a Five Year Plan for developing industry was adapted in the Soviet Union. is
began the industrialization, over-industrialization, super-industrialization. After the
Ifirst, the second Five Year Plan followed, and then a third one.
We can judge the purpose of the Five Year Plans from the following fact. At the begin-
ning of the first Plan, the Red Army had seventy-nine tanks; at the end it had over 4,538.
1
Nevertheless, the military accent was not so noticeable in the first five years. e main focus
then was not on the production of arms, but on the creation of an industrial base, which later
was to produce armaments.
e second Five Year Plan was a continuation of the development of the industrial base.
is meant the creation of furnaces, giant electricity plants and oxygen plants, and coal ore
mines. e production of arms was not yet the main objective although Stalin does not forget
about it either; in the first two five-year intervals, 21,573 warplanes were produced.
2
But it was the third Five Year Plan, which was scheduled to end in 1942, that had as its
goal the output of hoped-for military production, in enormous quantities and of very high
quality. Under Stalin, the Soviet Union truly attained grandiose achievements.
e first secret of the success: terror. Communists shut down the borders of the coun-
try; it was impossible to run away. Secret police unleashed a fight against “saboteurs.” Any
accident in a production line, any breakage, any lack of success was declared a result of an evil
plot. e guilty (and the innocent) were imprisoned; the terms were quite lavish. ose who
were named “malevolent saboteurs” were shot.
e terror had a dual effect. On the one hand, discipline improved, and any opposition
was crushed. Now there was no need to fear strikes and demands for higher wages. On the
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