How did Stalin’s rule change the Soviet Union Essay Example

for hard currency and to free up manpower as they were needed in the new factories; and finally it was designed to break the peasants as a political force. Peasants in the Soviet Union were deeply religious and conservative, and were seen, therefore, as a threat to the regime - the terroristic party The Socialist Revolutionaries had been mostly drawn from the peasantry.

Again, like the five year plans, the policy fulfilled its goals.However, the human cost of the policies was terrible. Industrialization was harsh - being late for work was an arrest able offence, many were arrested or for "wrecking" - i. e. when a machine broke or when someone made a mistake at work, and political prisoners were used as slaves on many of the big infrastructure projects, notably on the White Sea Canal.

The Holodomor - the Ukrainian famine caused by collectivization killed about 2. 5 million, and peasants resented having their land taken from them, but complaining could also lead to arrest, deportation or death.