2.1 Lenin's Economy Flashcards
collectivisation
Policy of creating larger agricultural units where peasants could farm collectively
command economy
Economy controlled and directed by the state where industries are owned by the state in the interests of the people.
state capitalism
Lenin’s term for the transition between and old bourgeois-led economy to a new proletariat-focused one
bartering
trade, result of economic collapse
NEP men
Bolshevik term for private business & people who profited from the NEP who were seen as not communist enough
Nationalisation
Placing private businesses under state control
Socialist Economy
Economy where all members of society have a share in the state’s resources as private ownership is prohibited
Food requisitioning
Taking food items from peasants at a fixed rate and giving it to urban workers/soldiers without considering local conditions
Veshenka
Council responsible for State Industry 1917-32
created in Nov 1917
Gosplan
State General Planning Commission 1921-1991
Land Decree
October 1917
abolished private property
to please peasantry
Decree on Worker’s Control
November 1917
workers power over industrial factories
private banks nationalised
foreign debt cancelled
Veshenka
State Capitalism: SUCCESSES
ideological success - power to lower classes
increased support for Bolsheviks
State Capitalism: FAILURES
rise in inflation, not in production (Workers’ Council pay rises)
Gov control and worker self-management tensions - Veshenka shows need for greater supervision
Rush resulted on near collapse
War Communism 1918-21
build socialism without foreign aid
ensure Red Army supplies
increased gov intervention radicalisation of policy
large-scale nationalisation
WC: Requisitioning
1920-21 famine 5M deaths
1921 harvest produced 48% of 1913’s
1/3 of land abandoned, 1000s of cattle slaughtered for food
Food Supply Dictatorship may 1918
WC: Industry
military discipline ‘Labour Armies’ ‘Communist Saturdays’
1921 production 20% of 1913 figure
work day extended 11 h 1918
1919 compulsory work able-bodied men 16-50
WC: SUCCESSES
Increased Party control over the people and economy (e.g through Veshenka)
Delivered resources needed to win the war
Fall of unemployment
WC: FAILURES
1920->917: Petrograd pop 58% lower, Moscow’s 45%
6 M deaths in rural areas, Industrial workforce 3 M to 1.2 M
famine
60% of food production bought and sold in black market
Lenin’s ideology had failed
Grain production fell by 50%, coal production by 70%
Brutality, no wages
Economic sate by 1921
80% of industry had been destroyed, surviving on reserves
Black market developed
inflation
NEP: reasons
Failure of WC
Need to revive economy - soldiers’ resettlement
Tambov and Kronstadt
retain power
Tambov Rising 1920-21
uprisings against WC’s plans to end MIRs in Volga Basin
put down by 50,000 soldiers
Kronstadt Mutiny March 1921
soldiers’ revolt outside Petrograd
army was base of power -> threat
NEP: supporters
Zinoniev, Bukharin
Party persuaded by Kronstadt & bad econ
desire for unity
Trotsky against “betrayal”
MIRs
Peasant organisation led by village elders , controlled their agricultural work
After 1917, used it for their own benefit
Obstacle to Bolshevik power over countryside (tried to remove it in WC)
NEP: Characteristics
Requisitioning -> taxation
private trading and small-scale private industry -> NEP men
Mir allowed to self-regulate farming, end to forced collectivisation
Currency for paying wages reintroduced 1921 in state-owned factories to incentivise production
Scissors Crisis 1923-26
More land (NEP) & better weather -> higher production and agriculture prices lower
growing gap between I/A prices
industry recovers by 1924, retail prices begin to lower 1923
NEP: stats
91.7 M hectares of land under cultivation (77.7 M in 1922)
Cereal production 20% higher than 1920
1920-23: factory output rose by 200%
NEP men: handled 75% of retail trade, 25,000 private traders in Moscow
European nations stimulated
monthly wage of urban workers doubled
NEP: SUCCESS
peasants could sell surplus
Scissors Crisis solved
Better living standards, return to stability
Some trade agreements
infrastructure rebuilt
Grain and coal production doubled
Industrial production increased by x10
Allowed Bolsheviks to consolidate their power
NEP: FAILURES
Ideological betrayal for Bolsheviks Agricultural/Industrial balance led food prices to fall which angered peasants
Corruption through black markets, prostitution and gangs increase
