radical change policy 1927-1928

• Grain Crisis

  Stalin needed a reliable supply of cheap grain for cities and export to fund industrialization plans
• Russia exported 12 million tons of grain in 1913, but under NEP, the amount never exceeded 3 million
• NEP Faltering

  • Peasants lacked incentive to produce grain due to low prices and lack of goods to buy
  • NEP was introduced as a temporary crisis measure and made the Party uncomfortable
• Modernization Options

  • Modernization could have involved a banking system and market reforms similar to Stolypin's approach
  • This would be seen as a concession to capitalism, which Marxism seeks to transcend
• Stalin's Ambitions

  • Stalin aimed to complete Lenin's work of socializing Russia, using forceful direction from above similar to Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great
  • This required a large state apparatus to drive the socialist program
• Since Russia repudiated tsarist and Provisional Government debts, it couldn't borrow internationally to finance industrialization
• Geopolitical Factor

  Stalin sought to increase grain harvests and control exports for hard currency, creating an internal solution to the problem