2- Economic Policies Successful? Flashcards
War Communism
a series of harshly restrictive economic measures implemented to help the
Bolsheviks win the Civil War
War Comm left economy in a State of collapse- what shows this
by 1921, industrial
production was only one fifth of the figure for 1913. It also lead to by hyperinflation: in 1920, the
rouble had fallen to one percent of its worth in 1917.
War Comm- As well as economical consequences, the policy had a wide range of political and social costs.
From 1918-21, requisition squads systematically
terrorised the countryside, which meant there was a food shortage. This led to a national famine in
1921 that killed 5 million people, with the Pravda admitting that 1 in 5 people were starving.
War Comm- Furthermore, the failures of the policy and the repressive nature of it led to increased
unpopularity and outbreaks of resistance.
In 1921, the most serious challenge to Bolshevik control
since the October Revolution occurred: the Kronstadt Rising. Increasing the significance of this
rebellion was the fact that people who had drafted demands in manifesto were the workers and
sailors of Kronstadt, who had been genuine socialists wholly loyal to Lenin’s government in 1917,
with Trotsky having referred to them as ‘the heroes of the revolution’. This open challenge revealed
that the workers felt betrayed by the Party, showing how this policy caused disillusionment and
discontentment while the Bolshevik’s hold on power was fragile in the throes of civil war, suggesting
that this economic policy was politically damaging.
What also shows War Comm was politically damaging
This is reinforced by the fact that they had to
accept foreign assistance, for example the USA provided food for 10 million Russians. This was the
ultimate humiliation for the Bolshevik government: they were trying to prove Communism as the
strongest ideology whilst simultaneously admitting they relied on capitalist nations for aid
Successes of Stalin’s Plans- It is dear to see the drastic impact they had when looking at the conditions of 1928, before the plans
had been implemented fully:
agriculture dominated the economy by 80% and industrial output was
around the level it had been in 1913. Moreover, Stalin daimed that the Soviet Union was ‘50 to 100
years behind the advanced countries*. The plans significantly contributed to a growth in industry and
the increasing strength of the USSR that gained it the status of a superpower.
All the targets of the
plans were attained and in most occasions over-achieved:
Stalin’s plans increased electricity output
almost ten-fold, coal and steel production rose by five times and oil production increased three-fold.
Plan successes, productivity
productivity in major industries increased by between 25-50%.
Another success of plans industrially
Magnitogorsk- a large city- was built from scratch, with 250,000 living there in 1932 and the
transport infrastructure grew. For example, the Moscow Metro got its first trainline in 1935, and the
Moscow Volga Canal was built in 1937. This proves that the plans were hugely successful as they
brought about rapid growth industrially, improving many aspects of the Soviet Union’s historic
backwardness and bringing the nation on parr with developed western capitalist nations, allowing
the Party the ability to promote Communism as a solid ideology, which gave them increased control
domestically.
How are plan’s successes proven
the Plans’ successes are proven by the fact that the USSR won World
War Two in 1945. This shows how developed the economy must have been in order to fund
rearmament and how their economy had been solidified.
The policies helped the USSR to become one of the fastest growing industrial nations:
in
1950s, the Soviet economy’s annual growth rate 7.1% opposed to 2.9% for the USA.
However, there were many weaknesses of the early Five-Year plans that could suggest they did more
harm than good to the system. One example of this is the sacrifice of quality for quantity,
demonstrated by
the Stalingrad tractor factory: it was expected to produce 300 tractors a month in
1930 but by June, there was only 8 and they broke down.
Another example Of weaknesses of plans, waste
Productivity worse than it had been in 1913 UNDER 5TH PLAN,40% of what was produced was wasted.
Plan failures- targets
targets were often overstated by
managers due to fear of the repressive regime. The doctoring of official returns and inflated output
claims became normal practise, so the actual outputs could have been much lower and the figures
are less reliable.
Plans- what did the terror used by the government lead to?
The terror exercised by the government also caused a failure to adopt the latest
technology due to fear that this would be too time-consuming, meaning factory managers would not
meet the excessive targets set from above.
