20th Century. Industrialization, Collectivization, Constitution, Stalin's Three Pillars. Russian ...
By the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Soviet Union's scientific and technological lag behind Western countries became obvious. Joseph Stalin declared: "We are 50-100 years behind the advanced countries. We must cover this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or we will be crushed." The Bolshevik Party set a course for economic modernization. In order to transition what was still largely a peasant country to an industrialized economy, a new system of economic planning—the so-called "five-year plans"—was introduced. It was believed that within five years, Soviet citizens would be able to build thousands of new industrial giants and ensure their smooth operation. Simultaneously, collectivization of agriculture began in the USSR. Peasant property owners disappeared.
Livestock, land, and machinery—everything became communal. Furthermore, in the mid-1930s, the USSR adopted a new Constitution. It enshrined the achievements of Soviet power.
After watching this episode, you'll learn: what were the goals of the first five-year plans? What does the expression "working like Stakhanovites" mean? Why did peasants call collective farms "a second serfdom"? And why is the 1936 USSR Constitution considered the most democratic document of its time? This and much more is covered in the "Russian History" series.