How Do These Quotes Make Stalin Sound Like a Villain?

Question

"Soviet workers were subject to... Labor Discipline"
"Worker in my factory get 80-100 rombules (dollars), and 120 rombules(dollars)is the lowest figure on which on can live"{from the prospective of a Russian worker}
"I want to eat and live now"{from prospective of a Russian worker on the "5 year plan"

This was my homework but i already did it, i just wanna check answers. please help out!

Answer 1

Well considering Stalin forced millions of peasants to move from the farms into new industrial cities (one of which was named Stalingrad in his honor), and a consequence of which was the death of millions on account of starvation and poor living conditions- yes, those quotes do make Stalin look bad. He was a bad-***. But the quotations show how real people felt.

The first quote that refers to Labor Discipline is probaby a reference to either imprisonment, torture, or a combination of the two. It wasn't "discipline" as we know it, where a boss simply reprimands you. If you didn't do what you were told, you coud be shot or worse, sent to the gulag prisons in Siberia.

The second refers to the fact that workers were underpaid and could not afford to live on their salaries.

The five-year plans were basically plans where the government would schedule how much supply and production of everything there was in the next 5 years. But this didn't work well, because the plan would underestimate a future need for something like bread or meat, and therefore there were shortages of many food products. The quote says that the future (the five year plan) doesn't matter when there is nothing available in the present.

Answer 2

First of all it's rubles not rombules. Ok, Labor discipline implies a strict dictatorial atmosphere...If subsistence living takes 120 rubles and workers are only paid up to a max of 100 rubles, then those workers are either starving or going deeper in debt (which was not possible in Stallinist Russia because the banks did not loan people money) Russia was famous for it's "5 year plans" which were like the pots of gold at the end of rainbows. The communist government always promised its workers a much better life 5 years from "now" with the 5 year plans running continuously and endlessly. In other words mirages but the workers knew the lies and that's why the worker says "I want to eat and live now".)Show me the money!!