Joseph Stalin
1879–1953

In 1928, as leader of the U.S.S.R., Joseph Stalin introduced the "Five-Year Plans," which replaced the more ideologically flexible "New Economic Policy" of Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924). Stalin's plans were responsible for rapidly industrializing the Soviet Union and for restricting foreign trade by making the Soviet Union largely self-sufficient. Stalin also formed the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (hereafter Comecon) in 1949 to encourage economic integration among the Soviet Union and other Eastern European states. Stalin, after playing a minor role in the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917, rose to power to become general secretary of the Communist Party in April 1922. Lenin's death in January 1924 allowed Stalin to consolidate his power in the Soviet Union, which became complete with the Great Purge of 1936 to 1938. Whereas Lenin's New Economic Policy allowed for some operation of the free market, Stalin's Five-Year Plans put agriculture and industry under strict government control. Stalin forcibly collectivized agriculture and restrained consumption so that capital could go into industry; Soviet industrialization progressed at an amazing rate as agricultural productivity fell. The Soviet Union was mostly self-sufficient during Stalin's leadership, exporting fuels, metals, and timber while importing machinery and consumption goods. Almost all of this trade occurred with members of the Comecon.

SEE ALSO Comecon;Socialism and Communism;Russia.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gregory, Paul R. The Political Economy of Stalinism: Evidence from the Soviet Secret Archives. Cambridge, U.K.; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Wolfe, Bertram D. Three Who Made a Revolution, a Biographical History. New York: Dial Press, 1948.

Jeffrey Wood