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Russia: The Wild East

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Factual: History

A history of Russia, written and presented by Martin Sixsmith

Russia: The Wild East: Series 2

Russia: The Wild East: Series 2: Episode 7: Industrialisation

Episode 7

Episode 7: Industrialisation

Series 2

Industrialisation

BBC Radio 4 - Russia: The Wild East, Series 2, Industrialisation

Stalin's Five Year Plans modernise the economy but create misery for the people.

Stalin's Five Year Plans transform a backward agricultural nation into a modern industrialised one at breakneck speed, financed by heroic sacrifices on the part of the workers.

Martin Sixsmith stands at the restored 'People's Economic Achievements Exhibition' in Moscow. He remembers visiting as a child when "proud guides delighted in showing us foreigners round the extravagantly decorated pavilions showcasing the achievements of Soviet industry and technology." He then recalls the subsequent years of decay. "What a perfect metaphor," he says, "for the meteoric rise and subsequent sorry fall of the Soviet Union's mighty industrialization programme." 

Stalin launched his first Five Year Plan in 1928, tapping into centuries-old fears of Russian vulnerability and the spectre of powerful enemies at the gates, to mobilise the nation in the face of overwhelming odds: "We are 50 or 100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make up this distance in ten years... Either we do it, or they will crush us!" 

The Five Year Plans set impossibly high targets and punitive timetables, but in spite of everything, the Soviet people rose to the challenge: output doubled and the Soviet Union became the world's second largest industrial producer. The surging energy of those years is captured in Mosolovs 'The Iron Foundry', and the iconic music Vremya Vperyod- Time Go Faster, which would introduce Soviet TV news bulletins up until 1991. But, as early as 1934 the reality was a sorry one. Despite Soviet propaganda which created a new national mythology (its heroes workers such as Alexei Stakhanov, a coalminer who mined a 102 tons of coal in one shift) when targets were not met, workers were branded 'wreckers' and saboteurs while relentless purges instilled constant anxiety -a great motivating factor, identified by playwright Alexander Afinogenov in his remarkably outspoken play 'Fear'.

Historical Consultant - Professor Geoffrey Hosking


Producer: Adam Fowler & Anna Scott-Brown
A Ladbroke Production for BBC Radio 4.

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Episode 7: Industrialisation

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