How was life in Russia under Joseph Stalin in the 1920s and 1930s?
For many Soviet citizens life was improving. The country was nearly all electrified during the 1920s, bringing light and radios to the people. The Five Year plans were met with a massive wave of enthusiasm as people wanted to start to benefit from the Revolution. People were now able to access free health-care, free education and have a job in one of the new factories which were being built. After the Wall Street Crash, the dustbowl and during the Great Depression it look as though Communism was not just succeeding, it was flourishing. The Soviet Union did not experience the Great Depression, in fact it benefited from it. The Soviets needed machinery and experts to train the new workforce in how to use them. And with the rest of the World’s economy in meltdown, they found the machines and experts in Germany, Britain and the USA. For peasants whose land was collectivised life was very different. The kulaks – rich farmers (although it should be noted that rich mostly means richer than ot
