Joseph Stalin: “The Hard Line,” “Liquidation of the Kulaks”

“The Hard Line” - Main Idea: Russia must modernize quickly or fall behind and be taken advantage of.

• Tempo of modernization must not be reduced but increased
• Old Russia suffered due to its backwardness
• Nekrassov on Old Russia: “You are poor and abundant, mighty and impotent, Mother Russia.”
• The jungle law of capitalism means that if a country is backwards it is taken advantage of.
• Lenin said, “Either perish, or overtake and outstrip the advanced capitalist countries.”
• Stalin admits that russia is fifty to one hundred years behind the advanced countries. He draws the hard line: “Me must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they crush us.”

“Liquidation of the Kulaks” - Main Idea: Kulaks must be eliminated to make way for the goal of collectivism.

• Notes characteristic features of the work during the past year of 1929
• the party and soviet government have developed an offensive on the whole front against the capitalist elements in the countryside (Kulaks)
• this offensive has brought about and is bringing about positive results
• Admits that Russia could not have successfully taken on such an offensive 3-5 years previous
• Wishes to substitute for their output, the output of the collective farms and state farms
• States the goal of solid collectivization
• States that the Kulak is the sworn enemy of the collective farm movement