STALINISM Once his power was firmly established, Stalin worked to put the idea of "communism in one country" into practice. He believed that in order to stand alone, the Soviet Union needed to quickly develop into an industrial power. To that end, Stalin introduced the First Soviet Five- Year Plan in 1928 . FIVE- YEAR PLAN. Stalin's First Five-Year Plan had two primary objectives - to modernize agriculture and to improve industry. Stalin believed that if the Soviets achieved those goals. They could produce their own food and develop a strong independent economy. The agriculture modernization plan centered on the collectivization of Soviet farms. Collectivization required small farmers to join forces to form large-scale units. Stalin believed th}s policy would lead to increased production. The large agricultural production could be sold internationally to pay for modern equipment and help the country industrialize quickly. However, the peasants liked farming their own land and were reluctant to form themselves into state collectives. Under Lenin's New Economic Policy, many wealthy peasants called kulaks had refused to give a share of their crops to the government. Stalin aimed to force all Soviet farmers to participate in a new system that would be completely controlled by the government. The kulaks and other peasants fiercely resisted the collectivization effort. They killed about half of all the livestock in the country, burned the ir crops, and destroyed mach inery and tools. Nevertheless, Stalin succeeded in establishing complete control over rural life. Poor peasants were forced onto farms run by the state. The kulaks were eliminated as a class. By 1939 more that 96% of Russian farms were collectivized. Industrialization proceeded at the same time as collectivization. Stalin threw all available resources into developing the Soviet Union's industrial base. Soviet workers were forced to work long hours at low pay. As a result, industry developed at an amazingly rapid rate. Between 1928 and 1940, production in the steel, electric power, cement, coal, and oil industries more that doubled . Production of electricity increased more that eight times. The Soviet Union became an industrial power virtually overnight. What had taken the rest of European nearly a century, the Soviets accomplished in a little more that ten years. To enforce his collectivization and industrialization policies and crush all opposition to his power Stalin turned the Cheka (a Communist Secret Police force that had been established in 1917) into a huge organization known as the Government Political Administration (GPU). [Note: In 1934 the Communist Secret Police became known as the Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD). One result of Stalin's forced collectivization was the Ukraine Famine Genocide when starvation raged through the Soviet republic of Ukraine in 1932-1933. The main goal of this artificial famine was to break the spirit of the Ukrainian farmer/peasant resistance to collectivization by forcing them to participate. In 1932, the Soviets increased the grain production quota for Ukraine by 44%. Stalin was aware that this extraordinarily high quota would result in the inability of the Ukrainian peasants to feed themselves. According to Soviet law, no grain could be given to feed the peasants until the quota was met. Between 7 and 10 million people died during this time and at the height of the Genocide, Ukrainians were dying at a rate of 25,000 per day (17 per minute, 1,000 per hour). Nearly I in 4 rural Ukrainians perished as a direct result and over 3 million children born between 1932-1933 died of hunger. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union exported 1.7 million tons of grain to Western markets (nearly a fifth of a ton of grain was exported for each person who died of starvation). NK YO officers played a major role in enforcing collectivization and in capturing Soviet citizens who did not support Stalin's regime. After opponents of the government