In the early 20s of the last century throughout the USSR, the industrial crisis reached its peak. The obviousness of the problems led to an understanding of the need to accelerate industrialization. But in Moscow began an active debate about the methods and ways of its implementation.
Confrontation Concepts
At that time, Dzerzhinsky was the chairman of the Supreme Economic Council. He proposed first of all to start developing light industry. This would help to generate quick incomes and provide the peasantry with consumer goods. Deputy Dzerzhinsky Pyatakov advocated accelerating the development of heavy industry. This proposal was supported by Preobrazhensky, Trotsky and Stalin. The necessary funds for the construction of new enterprises and the modernization of existing ones were supposed to be obtained by redistributing them from the private sector - through taxation of the peasantry, collectivization and unequal exchange. In 1926, the country officially headed for accelerated industrialization. However, problems immediately appeared on this path.
Kazakhstan during the period of industrialization
According to the plans of the central government, this territory was to become one of the key areas of accelerated economic policy. Actively pursued the policy of Moscow F. Goloshchekin. He advocated the formation of the mining industry and railway transport in the republic, which ensured the export of raw materials. Industrialization in Kazakhstan, in short, was aimed at creating the material base for the advanced industrial regions of the USSR. Some local authorities, led by Sadvakasov, opposed such a policy. They offered their course to the industrialization of Kazakhstan . Their idea was to create enterprises in the manufacturing and light industries. In this case, the interests of the republic itself should have been taken into account. The local authorities thus sought to prevent the region from becoming a colony. But the advantage was on the side of Goloshchekin. The development of industrialization in Kazakhstan has acquired a neocolonial form.
Road construction
Implementation of industrialization in Kazakhstan began with transport infrastructure. The first major project was the construction of the Turkestan-Siberian railway. She connected Alma-Ata and Semipalatinsk. Construction was completed by 1931. In 1927, the construction of the Petropavlovsk-Kokchetav road was completed. In 1931, it was continued to Akmola. In 1939, Rubtsovsk-Ridder, Iletsk-Uralsk, Akmola-Karaganda roads were built, and in 1940, Karaganda-Dzhezkazgan. These routes ensured the export of raw materials from the republic.
Enterprises
Together with roads, industrial structures were built and reconstructed. So, Karsakpay and Ridder plants were restored. The work was carried out on the Karaganda coal mines. Active construction of the Chimkent lead processing plant, the Dzhezkazgan and Balkhash smelters, and the Ust-Kamenogorsk lead-zinc plants began. The course of industrialization in Kazakhstan was complicated by the acceleration of pace and unjustified overestimation of plans. In 1929, the authorities decided to revise the five-year plan in the direction of increasing key indicators. The result of this was the difficulty in providing equipment and labor for the facilities under construction. There were problems with raw materials. Many construction sites were frozen. Despite the fact that enterprises produced a certain production volume, they could not gain full capacity. Industrialization in Kazakhstan lasted as a whole until the outbreak of World War II.
Migration policy
During the years of industrialization in Kazakhstan there was a shortage of labor. It was driven by the rapid pace of industrial construction. To provide facilities for workers and at the same time save on training the local population, the government practiced recruiting people in the western regions of the USSR. In these areas, the unemployment rate was very high. For the years 1931-1940. More than 550 thousand people were transported to the republic. A large number of workers, usually unskilled, were peasants from villages and villages ravaged by collectivization.
Problems
As a result of the migration policy at enterprises, not only productivity, but also discipline sharply decreased. Conflicts often arose between skilled European workers and unskilled local residents. At the enterprises reigned drunkenness, sloppiness. All this significantly impeded the activity of industry. So, during the construction of Turksib in the winter of 1928, a pogrom occurred in Sergipol. At Karsakpay plant drunkenness, hooliganism was widespread, ethnic clashes often occurred. At the Ridder Combine, Kazakhs were not allowed into the same dormitory with the Russians, they paid less to the locals than visitors with the same qualifications. There were problems with getting medical care. The turnover was high in enterprises.
Special resettlers
They acted as one of the sources of replenishment of the workforce. Special settlers are dispossessed peasants, immigrants from Siberia and the central regions of the country. In 1931, about 70 thousand people were resettled in Karaganda. They were placed in 25 villages, the conditions in which were terrible. Special resettlers were forbidden to travel outside the area of residence. They worked in mines, on the construction of barracks, railways. Those who worked received 600 grams, dependents - 300 g of bread per day. From the spreading diseases and starvation, many special settlers were dying. They were replaced by new people. In total, about 189 thousand former kulaks were sent to Kazakhstan. 150 thousand of them were brought in 1931. The total number of special settlers by the year 1937 reached 360 thousand.
Camp system
It was created to provide large enterprises with cheap power. In 1931, the Karaganda camp was formed. It contained repressed from all regions of the Union. During the 30s and 40s, several such camps were created in the republic. Kazakhstan has thus become a large-scale exile.
Inflation
Industrialization in Kazakhstan was carried out due to a deterioration in the quality of life of the population, in particular, the peasantry. For five years from 1929 to 1934, a high level of inflation was noted. Money supply growth reached 180%, while the value of industrial goods rose by 250-300%. Many of the points in the five-year plan, in particular concerning light industry, were never implemented.
Positive results
Studying the features of industrialization in Kazakhstan , experts note a significant increase in industrial production, an increase in the share of its products in the economy. According to ac. Ashinbaeva, 40 large enterprises were launched in the republic during the first five-year period , 120 during the second, and 700 already in the third. Large-scale construction projects were the Aktobe chemical and Balkhash smelters, the lead plant in Shimkent, the Karaganda coal basin, etc. The key value was Turkestan-Siberian railway. In addition, construction began on large power plants.
Mining industry
Accelerated industrialization has also taken place in this industry . In Kazakhstan, in the first pre-war five-year periods, emphasis was placed on the extraction of natural resources to satisfy the national economy of the entire Union in the products of the oil, coal, food and light industries, and non-ferrous metallurgy. In 1939, the republic's share in the total output of lead and copper in the country was 84.8% and 16.2%, respectively. By 1940, Kazakhstan was in second place in the Union for Non-Ferrous Metallurgy, and in third - in oil and coal production. The share of industry in gross output amounted to 63.7% against 13.5% before the first five-year periods.
Collectivization
In 1928-1930, administrative division in the USSR was rebuilt. Regions, volosts and counties were replaced by regions and territories. They, in turn, were divided into districts. These units were smaller than counties, but more volosts in area. In the first five-year period, industrialization in Kazakhstan was accompanied by collectivization. By its beginning, the republic had more than 550 thousand nomadic and semi-nomadic farms. Collectivization went along the lines of the formation of collective farms, state farms, machine-mowing stations (MSS). Before the war, mass unification took place. The collective farms comprised 99% of all households. In addition, 4 state farms and 331 MCC were formed.
Mistakes
In the process of collectivization, flaws were made. First of all, like industrialization, it went at an accelerated pace in an extremely short time. In February 1930, for example, more than 70% entered collective farms, and in some areas up to 80% of farms. In addition, the practice of “leaping” from one form of activity to another without forming the prerequisites, taking into account the specifics of the agricultural sector of the republic. Equally important was the forced socialization of livestock. Animals were taken even from the poor. This caused discontent among the peasantry. People began to sell property, livestock and move to neighboring regions - the countries of Central Asia, in the territory of the Middle and Lower Volga, to Western Siberia, Bashkiria, and in some cases to other states - Mongolia, China, etc.
Summary
Industrialization in Kazakhstan has caused serious damage to agriculture. In contrast to the unification of 80% of households on collective farms in 1930 (by spring), about 10-15% of them remained. Over 180 thousand farms have left the republic. This significantly undermined the economy of Kazakhstan, caused huge damage to livestock. Further measures were taken to eliminate the consequences of the excesses. However, in the prewar five-year plans, it was not possible to restore the lost population. The key difficulty of the whole process was socio-economic backwardness. Under such conditions, the people of the republic needed to make a rapid leap from feudalism to socialism without moving to the capitalist stage. The situation was also aggravated by the fact that the restoration of the national economic complex after foreign intervention and the Civil War dragged on significantly. By 1926, industry in the republic reached only 61% of the level of 1913, agricultural - 82.9%. It was a very low, pre-revolutionary level. The leading place in industry was given to small-scale production, which mainly produced consumer goods and included only small enterprises engaged in the processing of livestock raw materials and agricultural products.