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I can't quite tell how to tell all of this convincingly with primary sources, so I'm taking a break from my usual MO and straight-up describing what happens in 1926-27 in the USSR.
Quotas are established at the 25th Party Congress in April 1926, which state, among other things, that:
1. The army will triple in size over a four-year period.
2. The number of factories will quadruple over a one-year period.
3. Two hundred thousand collective farms will be established over a two-year period.
4. The production of arms, ammunition, heavy weaponry, tanks, shells, artillery, and heavy industry will increase by various orders of magnitude.
5. The production of household products--soap, clothing, paper, etc., is also to increase.
Trotsky and the Central Committee immediately set to work putting it in place. The Commissariat for Military Affairs (Коммисарият Воинских Дел--Kommissariat Voyinskikh Del, a.k.a. Voyindel), is established to manage the construction of the great military machine, headed up by Chief Commissar Mikhail Tukhachevsky. All military matters--recruitment, supply, training, research, equipment production, deployment, planning, strategic development, propaganda, etc., are transferred to Voyindel. Since the growth of the military is now the number one priority, Voyindel receives the lion's share of state resources, funding and bright minds and is subject to extreme scrutiny from the higher-ups, and so it is run with stunning effectiveness while other areas of life suffer somewhat.
To support the war machine it is building, the Party sets up thousands of state-owned farms, mines and oil fields in the countryside to generate food and resources, and thousands of private businesses in cities all over the country are converted into factories meant to manufacture machinery and goods. Sizable percentages of the populations of the cities are assigned to work in these new factories, and entire villages are transferred to the collectives. Though all workers, farmers and miners are meant to receive government supplies of food and household goods, the systems in charge of providing these are underfunded and undermanned (largely due to the military's priority over all else). So delivery of these goods are unreliable and inadequate. Farmers are subject to malnutrition, while miners, without an obvious food source, were subject to starvation. In the cities, factory workers are often forced to spend their meager salaries on food and goods from state-supervised, privately-run small stores, which are required to give up most of their income to the government, which just barely tolerates their existence. Going to these small shops is discouraged, referred to as "engaging in free market activities", but is essentially allowed because even the state knows that they are necessary to keep the workers alive when the supply systems fail. Once the revolution is complete, the state plans to eventually fix up the rationing system and permanently close down the shops, but until that day comes it will allow them to stay.
Unlike Stalin, Trotsky actually has a shred of sense of the value of human life. He does liquidate the kulaks, seeing them as irredeemable bourgeois scum. However, he has no desire to massacre small business owners or private farmers outright, seeing them merely as members of the middle class, which, in his mind, were also oppressed by the bourgeoisie. Some of these men resist the change and are either transferred quite forcibly to their new duties or are sent to be "instilled with revolutionary spirit"; most begrudgingly accept their role and become workers dissatisfied; a few, however, take a pragmatic approach to their new role society and become Party members, attempting to ingratiate themselves to the leadership. Those people, especially those who have skills that could be useful for the development of industry, are welcomed as fellow revolutionaries and are appointed to various mid-level posts, such as managing the newly established civilian factories and collectives. The workers and farmers are unmotivated, badly equipped and malnourished. As a result, production of non-military industrial goods, as well as food supplies and resources that are not designated for military use, lags far behind. However, the new factory owners, not wanting to lose their posts for poor performance, report false figures to their superiors. These superiors, also wanting to keep their jobs, further exaggerate the figures to fit the terms of the various quotas, so that the production goals are officially said to have been met while in fact they have fallen far behind.
The military, however, is a different story. While the factories dedicated to the production of household goods are secretly allowed to have low production standards, the state makes damn sure that its military production is up to shape. As said before, the best of the best are all sent to work for Voyindel and are subject to careful scrutiny, so that the military machine runs efficiently and quickly. Every employee of Voyindel is constantly monitored for signs of "anti-revolutionary sentiment"--simple incompetence--and those who are found unworthy of their post are swiftly transferred to a less prestigious posting. Among the lower-level employees, there is no fudging their job; the watchful undercover spies of the NKVD permeate the Voyindel offices to spy on the employees and report those who haven't been adequately performing their duties for the Revolution.
To fill up the army ranks, A draft is instituted, and propaganda is produced that entices more young men to enlist for the sake of spreading the revolution near and far. (It is quietly "leaked" to the public that the soldiers are better fed, clothed and treated than the rest of society. This helps to attract countless young men to enlist). And indeed that is true; Voyindel works day and night to make sure the soldiers get warm uniforms, decent rations, and thorough and useful training. By 1929, within two years of its implementation, the four-year quota has been nearly fulfilled and it shows no signs of stopping, as the number of Red Army active and reserve personnel verges on 6 million, up from the 2 million where it stood in 1926. So by 1928, the country is experiencing the intense growing pains of "creative" industrialization and is already lagging behind, but is quite successful in its end goal of building the Red Army up to titanic proportions. In this sense, the economic plans of the Twenty-Fifth Congress are almost successful: the military is growing larger by the month, the number of factories and collective farms has indeed gone up, production of military-related goods has been increased under the control of Voyindel. Production of all other food and materials, however, has been neglected; for this reason, the last goal of the plan does not even approach fulfillment.
Quotas are established at the 25th Party Congress in April 1926, which state, among other things, that:
1. The army will triple in size over a four-year period.
2. The number of factories will quadruple over a one-year period.
3. Two hundred thousand collective farms will be established over a two-year period.
4. The production of arms, ammunition, heavy weaponry, tanks, shells, artillery, and heavy industry will increase by various orders of magnitude.
5. The production of household products--soap, clothing, paper, etc., is also to increase.
Trotsky and the Central Committee immediately set to work putting it in place. The Commissariat for Military Affairs (Коммисарият Воинских Дел--Kommissariat Voyinskikh Del, a.k.a. Voyindel), is established to manage the construction of the great military machine, headed up by Chief Commissar Mikhail Tukhachevsky. All military matters--recruitment, supply, training, research, equipment production, deployment, planning, strategic development, propaganda, etc., are transferred to Voyindel. Since the growth of the military is now the number one priority, Voyindel receives the lion's share of state resources, funding and bright minds and is subject to extreme scrutiny from the higher-ups, and so it is run with stunning effectiveness while other areas of life suffer somewhat.
To support the war machine it is building, the Party sets up thousands of state-owned farms, mines and oil fields in the countryside to generate food and resources, and thousands of private businesses in cities all over the country are converted into factories meant to manufacture machinery and goods. Sizable percentages of the populations of the cities are assigned to work in these new factories, and entire villages are transferred to the collectives. Though all workers, farmers and miners are meant to receive government supplies of food and household goods, the systems in charge of providing these are underfunded and undermanned (largely due to the military's priority over all else). So delivery of these goods are unreliable and inadequate. Farmers are subject to malnutrition, while miners, without an obvious food source, were subject to starvation. In the cities, factory workers are often forced to spend their meager salaries on food and goods from state-supervised, privately-run small stores, which are required to give up most of their income to the government, which just barely tolerates their existence. Going to these small shops is discouraged, referred to as "engaging in free market activities", but is essentially allowed because even the state knows that they are necessary to keep the workers alive when the supply systems fail. Once the revolution is complete, the state plans to eventually fix up the rationing system and permanently close down the shops, but until that day comes it will allow them to stay.
Unlike Stalin, Trotsky actually has a shred of sense of the value of human life. He does liquidate the kulaks, seeing them as irredeemable bourgeois scum. However, he has no desire to massacre small business owners or private farmers outright, seeing them merely as members of the middle class, which, in his mind, were also oppressed by the bourgeoisie. Some of these men resist the change and are either transferred quite forcibly to their new duties or are sent to be "instilled with revolutionary spirit"; most begrudgingly accept their role and become workers dissatisfied; a few, however, take a pragmatic approach to their new role society and become Party members, attempting to ingratiate themselves to the leadership. Those people, especially those who have skills that could be useful for the development of industry, are welcomed as fellow revolutionaries and are appointed to various mid-level posts, such as managing the newly established civilian factories and collectives. The workers and farmers are unmotivated, badly equipped and malnourished. As a result, production of non-military industrial goods, as well as food supplies and resources that are not designated for military use, lags far behind. However, the new factory owners, not wanting to lose their posts for poor performance, report false figures to their superiors. These superiors, also wanting to keep their jobs, further exaggerate the figures to fit the terms of the various quotas, so that the production goals are officially said to have been met while in fact they have fallen far behind.
The military, however, is a different story. While the factories dedicated to the production of household goods are secretly allowed to have low production standards, the state makes damn sure that its military production is up to shape. As said before, the best of the best are all sent to work for Voyindel and are subject to careful scrutiny, so that the military machine runs efficiently and quickly. Every employee of Voyindel is constantly monitored for signs of "anti-revolutionary sentiment"--simple incompetence--and those who are found unworthy of their post are swiftly transferred to a less prestigious posting. Among the lower-level employees, there is no fudging their job; the watchful undercover spies of the NKVD permeate the Voyindel offices to spy on the employees and report those who haven't been adequately performing their duties for the Revolution.
To fill up the army ranks, A draft is instituted, and propaganda is produced that entices more young men to enlist for the sake of spreading the revolution near and far. (It is quietly "leaked" to the public that the soldiers are better fed, clothed and treated than the rest of society. This helps to attract countless young men to enlist). And indeed that is true; Voyindel works day and night to make sure the soldiers get warm uniforms, decent rations, and thorough and useful training. By 1929, within two years of its implementation, the four-year quota has been nearly fulfilled and it shows no signs of stopping, as the number of Red Army active and reserve personnel verges on 6 million, up from the 2 million where it stood in 1926. So by 1928, the country is experiencing the intense growing pains of "creative" industrialization and is already lagging behind, but is quite successful in its end goal of building the Red Army up to titanic proportions. In this sense, the economic plans of the Twenty-Fifth Congress are almost successful: the military is growing larger by the month, the number of factories and collective farms has indeed gone up, production of military-related goods has been increased under the control of Voyindel. Production of all other food and materials, however, has been neglected; for this reason, the last goal of the plan does not even approach fulfillment.
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