Calvin Solomon
Mr. Samuels
History 11, Period 7
Wednesday, January 27th, 2016
Compare and contrast the economic policies of Mao and Stalin
Intro​
:
In Russia and China, both Stalin and Mao emerged as almost god-like leaders
despite making their respective countries endure harsh programs of reform all
economically, politically and socially. Mao can be seen to have adopted the policies
of Stalin, both inspired by the Marxist ideologies of Lenin. Both Stalin and Mao
recognized the economic backwardness of their respective countries and wanted to
use industrialization and collectivisation as the primary means of increasing their
economies. Although the original plans were very similar, the actual undertaking
and execution of the plans in addition to the results and how it helped consolidate
both leaders do vary to a minor degree. ​
However, despite these minor distinctions in
policy execution, economic strategies such as The Great Leap forward,
Collectivization, and the Five Year Plans of both nations display the glaring truth that
the economic policies of both Mao and Stalin shared a great many parallels.
Body Paragraph #1 Mao’s Economic Policies:
➔ First Five Year Plan:​
Like Russia, China also had a Five Year Plan, because
also like Russia, China was extremely behind in terms of industrialization
especially in comparison to the west. Mao planned to improve this through
the Five Year Plan in 1953 by attempting to boost steel, coal and iron
production. By the end of the first five year plan, 93.5% of all farm
households were collectivized, showing that a combination of both
government propaganda as well as moral from the people can have a great
effect.
➔ the Great Leap Forward:​
The Second Five Year Plan, also introduced by Mao
was known as the Great Leap Forward, which planned to further develop
industry and agriculture. One of the common theories at the time was that if
the population was well fed, the population would be able to produce more
and prosper. On the bright side, universal health care and education was
provided in order to motivate the people to work. However, the Great Leap
Forward was not as much of a success as the first Five Year Plan, for although
there was a significant increase in industry and income, 20 million peasants
starved to death.
Body Paragraph #2 - Stalin’s Economic Policy:
➔ Stalin’s economic policies consisted of two main factors, Collectivization and
the Five Year Plans, those were initiated by Stalin in order for him to gain
power over Russia, develop the union both economically and industrially and
build his own version of a “Communist Utopia”. With unrealistic goals and
strict regulations, the plans lead to some successes and many failures.
➔ In order achieve the economical successes; Stalin had to go through a drastic
amount of failure. A majority of the economic failure came from
collectivization and the response to it from the people. As a form of protest to
collectivization, rebellious peasants slaughtered their cattle and burnt down
their farms, this resulted to a sharp decline in resources such as grain harvest,
cattle, sheep and goats. Those who did react this way were either sent to the
Gulag or killed, by sending away or killing such an enormous number of
people, there began being a lot less people to do some of the work needed
which then led to a drop in production; leading to less income. This all led to
an economic disaster. The goals were unrealistic and the peasants were
expected to work quicker than they should have, there was not enough
preparation nor was there good moral to keep them going. To make sure that
the economy was not too affected, Stalin forced rationing upon the peasants
as well as taking their grade for trade purposes. Those immoral quotas led to
famine around the USSR, there was around 10-20 million victims.
Body Paragraph 3: Compare and Contrast
➔ For comparison of economic policies, both recognized that their countries
were economically backward and introduced 5 Year Plans, Stalin in 1928 and
Mao in 1952. The emphasis of both was on state directed growth of heavy
industry. Both were concerned with increasing the output of coal, and steel
➔ Both undertook projects to impress. Stalin the new town with factory
complexes at Magnitogorsk and Mao a vast road and rail bridge across the
Yangzi. Both followed policies designed to increase the industrial workforce.
In agriculture both implemented collectivization as a means of introducing
new methods and machinery, and both policies produced famines. In contrast,
Stalin introduced and continued with 5 Year Plans, which were developed in
time to include some consumer goods. Mao followed the Soviet model at first
then – partly because promised Soviet aid turned out to be loans and
exploitation – went his own way such as the Great Leap Forward. Mao was
more concerned with the peasant population, and agriculture, e.g. his 8 point
agricultural constitution of 1958. For both, social policies included compelling
acceptance of their form of Communism and their personal rule and direction,
with the use of propaganda and terror. Education and training was
encouraged, but for the benefit of the regime not the individual. Youth in
both USSR and China was used to sustain the regimes e.g. Stalin’s Communist
youth movement and Mao’s Red Guards. In contrast Stalin’s policies were
more consistent with his control of the media, arts and culture. Mao used his
own “philosophy”, expressed in his “Red Book”, and tried to control the social
life of China with campaigns and revolutions, e.g. the Hundred Flowers
Campaign and the Cultural Revolution.
Conclusion