When the Bolshevik lead by Vladimir Lenin took control of the Soviet Union after the Soviet Revolution overthrew the Romanovs. Lenin had felt that the capitalism of the Soviet Union was what enabled the people to have a successful Socialist revolt against the government. The Bolsheviks worked to organize the farmers and those who worked in factories against the government. This was because they felt that threatening the production of the country would work for the Romanovs to meet their demands. One such demand was that they wanted the Soviet Union to end their war with Austria and Germany. They also wanted the lands that were controlled by the aristocracy to be given to the peasants, they wanted workers to have better working conditions and to be able to afford better living conditions. Lenin wanted the power to belong to the Soviet people rather than the government. Soon the Bolsheviks were in power despite not winning any elections because the majority of the populace was behind them. Besides implementing all of the plans that they had requested of the Soviet government, the Bolsheviks also gave the workers control of the factories and nationalized the banks. After the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917 there was a lot of in fighting as they splintered off into various different groups. The group also had to face opposition from other sources such as the military, social and nationalist groups from other countries who wanted to force their ideals onto the Soviet people and government.
After the rebellions were defeated Lenin implemented his New Economic Policy (NEP). This policy allowed small industries to be privately owned and put an end to the requisition of grain. Grain was then taxed at 10 percent of the farmer’s harvest. The peasants were also able to sell their surplus grain on the open market. By 1923 the crisis that the Soviet Union had been suffering as a result of the Revolution and the various groups vying for power had been alleviated by both the new policies put forth by Lenin and the over 20 million in aid that was sent by the American Relief Association. The government had control of the industrial sector, while agriculture and trade was in the control of the people.
During Stalin’s time as ruler of the Soviet Union he began to rapidly industrialize the country. He used the process of collectivism to destroy the independence that the peasants had enjoyed since the Russian Revolution. It was during the rise of industrialization that the Soviet Union became a totalitarian regime. The reason that the Bolsheviks wanted the country to become industrialized was so that it could become a Communist and Socialist country where the proletariat class was in control of society. However, they were behind the rest of the world when it came to industrialization and felt that they had to quickly change their situation to compete with the rest of the world. This is the reason that Stalin felt that it was necessary to centralize industrialization and for the government to interfere in production. He called for the people to increase the tempo of their work and commitment to improving the Soviet Union in his speech to industrial managers saying essentially that when it was asked if the Soviets could slow down their tempo by their comrades. The answer was “No, comrades, it is not possible! No, comrades, it is not possible!” According to Stalin the people could not afford to slow down their tempo, instead they needed to increase it so that they could create a better country for the workers and the peasants living in the Soviet Union
Bibliography
Conquest, Robert. The Great Terror; Stalin's Purge of the Thirties. New York: Macmillan, 1968.
Keefe, Joshua R. 2009. Stalin and the Drive to Industrialize the Soviet Union. Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse 1 (10), http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=8v
Library of Congress. "Collectivization and Industrialization." Home | Library of Congress. Accessed January 14, 2017. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/coll.html.
Stalin, Joseph. Problems of Leninism. Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1976.
Tarr, Russell. "Lenin in Power." History Today. Last modified September 2006. https://www.historytoday.com/russel-tarr/lenin-power.
