Essay Outline

Question: Compare and Contrast the economic policies of two single-party state rulers.

Thesis: Because Hitler and Stalin had different economic goals in mind for Germany and Russia, their economic policies in the 1920s-30s were mostly different. Although they both incorporated a drive for industrialization and Plans with set targets for outputs, Autarky-seeking Nazi Hitler focused less on agriculture than did the Collectivization-striving Socialist Stalin who also developed a Centrally-planned economy.


I. General/Economy goals:

1. Germany:
A. Autarky (self-sufficiency)
B. unify industry for state support
B. industrial preparation for war

2. Russia:
A. Establish Socialism
B. feed Russia

II. Methods for achieving goals:

1. Germany/Hitler
A. four year plan (emphasis on heavy industry):
a. fix prices
b. control raw materials
c. control investment / demand specific production from farmers/factory owners
B. Reich Entailed Farm Law of May 1933 -> farms may not be mortgaged

2. Russia/Stalin
A. Five Year Plan(s)
B. Collectivization (emphasis on agriculture for the economy) -> Canceling of collectivization -> Re-collectivization
C. Continued grain requisitioning and export of grain
a. 1.73 million tons of grain exported in 1932 (during the worst part of the famine)
-grain was left rotting in railways sometimes, un-accessable to the starving people
D. CENTRALLY-PLANNED ECONOMY
a. state decides:
- what to produce, how much, by whom, at what priority, how it's done
b. production broken down into categories such as heavy industry, then a Commissariat was put in charge
c. instructions would be handed down from
Party -> Commissariat -> regional administrator -> manager of specific industrial enterprise