How did Stalin modernized agriculture in the Soviet Union?

Answer 1

No evidence that Russia was the second richest industrial country in the world. Fails to state Stalin maintained power by purging fellow Party members. His agriculture program was a complete reversal of statements made 2 years earlier. Grain production dropped severely under the collective farm system Starvation and chaos in the grain markets. Stalin maintained power was because he modernised the Soviet economy. Russia had been through a huge civil war and Stalin had had to unify the whole country. Fewer than 20 out of every 100 people lived in the cities which made communication and trade difficult. Stalin created the fist five year plan in 1928. This was meant to increase production and thus get more money. Once Russia had more money it could by industrial products from other countries, therefore creating les jobs in the outskirts of Russia and forces people to come to the cities and find work in factories. However, many peasants starved as food was taken to feed cities and although the plan increased industrial output rapidly, Stalin had focused on making food a priority instead of clothes. This meant that clothes prices increased and with most of the wealthy banished from Russia, new clothes would have been too expensive for many to afford.

However, the modernisation did help improve Russia as a nation. By 1939 Stalin had made Russia the second richest industrial country in the world of the 20th Century. He had made farming, communications and travel around Russia easier. Coal, oil and steel output increased as a result of better mining techniques and better technology.

(Copyright Emily Reilly)

Answer 2

combinded small family farms into collective farms run by the state