Industrialization in Kazakhstan: successes and miscalculations

In the early 20-ies of the last century throughout the USSR, the crisis of industry reached its peak. The obviousness of the problems led to an understanding of the need to accelerate industrialization. But in Moscow, there began active debate about the methods and ways of conducting it.

Confrontation of concepts

The chairman of the Supreme Economic Council was at the time Dzerzhinsky. He suggested first of all to start developing light industry. This would facilitate the receipt of quick incomes and the provision of peasantry with consumer goods. Deputy Dzerzhinsky Pyatakov advocated the acceleration of 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 those already existing 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 took the course to accelerate industrialization. However, problems immediately appeared on this path.

Kazakhstan in 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 in the republic of the extractive industry and rail transport, which ensured the export of raw materials. говоря, была направлена на создание материальной базы для передовых промышленных районов СССР. Industrialization in Kazakhstan, briefly , was aimed at creating a material base for the advanced industrial regions of the USSR. Some representatives of local authorities headed by Sadvakasov opposed this policy. . They offered their policy of industrialization of Kazakhstan . Their idea was to create enterprises manufacturing and light industry. At the same time, the interests of the republic itself should be taken into account. Local authorities sought, therefore, to prevent the transformation of the region into a colony. But the preponderance was on the side of Goloshchekin. приобрело неоколониальную форму. The development of industrialization in Kazakhstan has acquired a neocolonial form.

Road construction

началось с транспортной инфраструктуры. The implementation of industrialization in Kazakhstan began with transport infrastructure. The first major project was the construction of the Turkestan-Siberian railway. It connected Alma-Ata and Semipalatinsk. The construction was completed by 1931. In 1927, the construction of the road Petropavlovsk-Kokchetav was completed. In 1931 it was continued to Akmola. In 1939, the roads Rubtsovsk-Ridder, Iletsk-Uralsk, Akmola-Karaganda, and in 1940-Karaganda-Dzhezkazgan were built. These ways were ensured by the export of raw materials from the republic.

Businesses

Along with roads, industrial structures were built and reconstructed. Thus, the Karsakpay and Ridder plants were restored. Works were conducted on Karaganda coal mines. The active construction of the Shimkent lead processing plant, the Dzhezkazgan and Balkhash copper smelters, and the Ust-Kamenogorsk lead-zinc plant began. осложнялся нагнетанием темпов и неоправданным завышением планов. The course of industrialization in Kazakhstan was complicated by an accelerating pace and an unjustified overstatement of plans. In 1929 the authorities decided to revise the five-year plan in the direction of increasing the basic indicators. As a result of this, it became difficult to provide equipment and labor for the objects under construction. There were also problems with raw materials. A lot of construction projects were frozen. Despite the fact that the enterprises produced a certain production volume, they could not get full capacity. длилась в целом до начала Второй мировой. Industrialization in Kazakhstan lasted until the beginning of World War II.

Migration Policy

возник дефицит в рабочей силе. In the years of industrialization in Kazakhstan there was a shortage of labor. It was caused by the rapid pace of industrial construction. To ensure the provision of workers and simultaneous savings on the training of local people, the government practiced sets of 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, as a rule, low-skilled, were peasants from auls and villages, ruined by collectivization.

Problems

As a result of migration policy, enterprises have drastically reduced not only productivity but also discipline. There were often conflicts between skilled European workers and unskilled local residents. At the enterprises there was drunkenness, slovenliness. All this significantly hampered the activities of industry. So, during the construction of Turksib in the winter of 1928 there was a pogrom in Sergippo. At the plant Karsakpay was widespread drunkenness, hooliganism, often there were inter-ethnic clashes. At the Ridder factory, the Kazakhs were not allowed into one hostel with the Russians, they paid less for local residents than for newcomers with the same qualifications. Problems were with obtaining medical care. The turnover at the enterprises was high.

Special resettlers

They acted as one of the sources of replenishment of the workforce. Special resettlers are dekulakized peasants, immigrants from Siberia and central regions of the country. In 1931 about 70 thousand people were moved to 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 the mines, on the construction of barracks, the railway. Those who worked, received 600 grams, the dependents - 300 grams of bread a day. From the spread of diseases and hunger, many special settlers died. They were replaced by new people. As a whole, about 189 thousand former kulaks were sent to Kazakhstan. 150 thousand of them were brought in 1931. The total number of special settlers by 1937 reached 360 thousand.

System of camps

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 30-40s, several such camps were established in the republic. Kazakhstan, thus, has turned into a large-scale place of exile.

Inflation

проводилась за счет ухудшения качества жизни населения, в частности, крестьянства. Industrialization in Kazakhstan was carried out due to the deterioration of the quality of life of the population, in particular, the peasantry. For five years from 1929 to 1934 there was a high level of inflation. The growth of the money supply has reached 180%, and the value of manufactured goods has risen by 250-300%. A lot of items in the five-year plan, concerning, in particular, light industry, have not been realized.

Positive results

, эксперты отмечают существенный рост объема промышленного производства, увеличение доли его продукции в хозяйстве. Studying the specifics of industrialization in Kazakhstan , experts note a significant increase in the volume of industrial production, an increase in the share of its products in the economy. According to the ac. Asynbayeva, 40 large enterprises were launched in the republic during the first five-year plan , 120 during the second five-year period , and 700 in the third. The Aktyubinsk chemical and Balkhash copper smelters, the lead plant in Shymkent, the Karaganda coal basin, etc. were of great importance. The Turkestan-Siberian railway. In addition, the construction of large power plants began.

Mining industry

Accelerated industrialization also took place in this industry . в первые довоенные пятилетки акцент ставился на добыче природных ресурсов для удовлетворения народного хозяйства всего Союза в продукции нефтяной, угольной, пищевой и легкой промышленности, цветной металлургии. In Kazakhstan in the first pre-war five-year plan, the emphasis was on the extraction of natural resources to meet the national economy of the whole Union in the production of oil, coal, food and light industries, and non-ferrous metallurgy. In 1939, the share of the republic 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, the third - in oil and coal. The share of industry in gross output was 63.7%, compared to 13.5% before the first five-year plan.

Collectivization

In 1928-1930 administrative division in the USSR was reconstructed. In place of provinces, volosts and uyezds came the region and the region. They, in turn, were divided into districts. These units were smaller than counties, but more volosts in area. сопровождалась коллективизацией. In the first five-year period, industrialization in Kazakhstan was accompanied by collectivization. To its beginning in the republic there were more than 550 thousand farms of nomadic and semi-nomadic type. Collectivization was along the line of formation of collective farms, state farms, machine-haymaking stations (MSS). Before the war, a mass unification took place. In the collective farms, 99% of all farms were. In addition, four state farms and 331 MSSs were formed.

Errors

In the process of collectivisation, shortcomings were committed. First of all, like industrialization, it was accelerated at an extremely short notice. In February 1930, for example, the collective farms included more than 70%, and in some areas - up to 80% of farms. In addition, it was practiced "leaping" from one form of activity to another without forming prerequisites, taking into account the specifics of the agrarian sector of the republic. Of no small importance was the forced socialization of domestic animals. Animals were even taken 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, the territory of the middle and lower Volga, Western Siberia, Bashkortostan, and in some cases to other states - Mongolia, China, etc.

Results

Industrialization in Kazakhstan caused serious damage to agriculture. In contrast to the unification of 80% of households in collective farms in 1930 (by spring), they remained on the order of 10-15%. More than 180 thousand farms left the republic. This significantly undermined the economy of Kazakhstan, caused a huge loss to livestock. In the future, measures were taken to eliminate the consequences of the admitted excesses. However, in the pre-war five-year plan to restore the lost stock did not succeed. The key difficulty of the whole process was social and economic backwardness. Under such conditions, the people of the republic needed to make a rapid leap from feudalism to socialism without going over to the capitalist stage. The situation was aggravated also by the fact that the restoration of the national economic complex after the foreign intervention and the Civil War was significantly delayed. By 1926, industry in the republic reached only 61% of the level of 1913, agriculture - 82.9%. It was a very low, pre-revolutionary level. The leading place in industry was assigned to small-scale production, which produced mainly consumer goods and included only small enterprises engaged in processing livestock raw materials and agricultural products.