Page 42 - Understanding NCERT Histroy 09th

• Fixed prices were implemented to promote industrial growth, leading to increased
production and the emergence of new factory cities.
• Rapid construction resulted in poor working conditions and frequent work stoppages.

• The education system expanded, providing opportunities for factory workers and peasants
Goyal Brothers Prakashan
to enter universities, and crèches were established for working mothers.
• Cheap public healthcare and model living quarters were provided, although the impact
was uneven due to limited government resources.

Source C (Page no. 43)
Dreams and Realities of a Soviet Childhood in 1933
Dear grandfather Kalinin …
My family is large, there are four children. We don’t have a father – he died, fighting for the
worker’s cause, and my mother … is ailing … I want to study very much, but I cannot go to
school. I had some old boots, but they are completely torn and no one can mend them. My
mother is sick, we have no money and no bread, but I want to study very much. …there stands
before us the task of studying, studying and studying. That is what Vladimir Ilich Lenin said.
But I have to stop going to school. We have no relatives and there is no one to help us, so I
have to go to work in a factory, to prevent the family from starving. Dear grandfather, I am
13, I study well and have no bad reports. I am in Class 5 …
Letter of 1933 from a 13-year-old worker to Kalinin, Soviet President
From: V. Sokolov (ed), Obshchestvo I Vlast, v 1930-ye gody (Moscow, 1997).

4.3 Stalinism and Collectivisation
l The early planned economy in Soviet Russia faced disasters due to the collectivization
of agriculture.
• Grain shortages led to government-fixed prices, but peasants refused to sell at those
prices.
• Stalin introduced emergency measures to stop speculation and confiscate supplies.
• Enforced grain collections and raids on wealthy peasants (kulaks) were carried out.

• Collectivisation of farms (kolkhoz) was implemented to develop modern, state-controlled
large farms.
• Peasants resisted collectivisation, resulting in livestock destruction and punishment.
• Despite collectivization, an immediate increase in production did not occur, and bad
harvests led to a devastating famine.
• Critics within the party were accused of conspiracy and faced imprisonment and labour
camps.
• Innocent individuals were forced to make false confessions under torture and were
executed.
• The planned economy and collectivization had negative consequences and resulted in
loss of life and suppression of dissent.

History Class IX H-35