Prewar Stalinism, Part 5

Question 1: Discuss the debated causes of the Holodomor.

Answer 1: The causes of the Holodomor are a topic of debate among scholars, with two theories at the center. The first and more optimistic theory is that the famine was an unintended consequence of the Soviet Union’s newly-implemented industrialization and collectivization policies of the time. This theory points to a drastic decline in the Ukraine’s agricultural output around the time the famine occurred, as drought destroyed land, grain was not harvested, livestock went unfed, and administration was incompetent— all contributing to the lack of food. The second and more sinister theory is that the Holodomor was a deliberate act of genocide on the part of Stalin and the Soviet government. This is supported by sources that suggest no conditions in the Ukraine could have caused the famine to occur naturally and that a strong wave of Ukrainian nationalism at the time may have been enough to incur the infamous tyrant’s wrath. The deliberate genocide theory is accepted by Ukraine and 19 other governments worldwide, including the United States of America.

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Question 2: Discuss Gosplan.

Answer 2: Gosplan, also known as the State Planning Committee, was the Soviet government’s foremost organization for economic development and the primary developer of the government’s five-year plans for the country. It was founded in 1921 alongside the New Economic Policy. Gosplan began as an advisory committee, coordinating the economic plans of Union republics and supervising their progress. With the introduction of five-year plans in 1928, however, Gosplan’s importance expanded, as it became the organization responsible for creating and supervising the implementation of CPSU’s long-term goals for a communist utopia. Originally an independent organization, Gosplan was placed under the authority of Sovnarkom, the highest government authority in the Soviet Union, in 1930. In 1955, it was split into two commissions, the first dealing with future plans and goals and the other with more immediate concerns. Gosplan and its five-year plans served as the basis for immediate planning. Gosplan was headquartered in Moscow. The building from which it operated is now the State Duma headquarters.

Question 3: Describe the general framework of the Soviet five-year plans.

Answer 3: The Soviet five-year plans were designed to address economic development at every level: capital goods, consumer goods, agriculture, power, transportation, communication, health, education, etc. Depending on what needed work, emphasis changed from plan to plan. Each plan set goals for the subsequent five years, and goals were flagged with both base and optimum targets. Essentially, the five-year plans were small steps toward the Soviet Union’s ultimate goal: a communist utopia. To this end, as was common with the state’s response to citizens throughout Soviet history, lying to the people about progress became an endemic characteristic of the five-year plans.

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