8) The Economic Development of Russia to 1914

Question 1

Witte’s Great Spurt (Finance Minister 1892-1903)

Successes🟢

Answer 1

🟢High import tariffs to protect R industries from foreign competition🛡.

🟢Got rid of R debt⚖️.

🟢1897 R rouble backed against gold standard (⬆️ value, stable) to encourage foreign investment💸⚖️.

🟢1900: France supplied 1/3 all foreign capital💰.

🟢Use of foreign experts to oversee + advise R industry🗺🏭.

🟢Encouraged NII to invest govt money into industry + ⬆️ state control over economy.

🟢State revenue from grain.

🟢Focused on developing railway to drive industrial progress + ⬆️ demand for raw materials (new markets)🚂🚧.

🟢R’s annual growth rate over 8% 1894-1904.

Question 2

How successful was Witte’s Great Spurt?

Criticisms🔴

Answer 2

🔴Railway still little in comparison to R’s size🚂🗺.

🔴Roads still poor.

🔴1910: textiles (light industry) still 40% total industrial output🏭🧶.

🔴Little development of light industries which would have modernised manufacturing + ⬇️ need for imports.

🔴Annual growth rate high because it started from such a low base📈.

🔴1900: 20% budget used pay off foreign debt = ✖️10 more than budget spent on education💰.

🔴Agr neglected + suffered from under-investment👨🏼‍🌾.

🔴Rapid industrialisation➡️appalling working + living conditions for workers which Witte did little to help➡️general unrest + strikes👷🏼‍♀️☹️.

🔴No development in market for consumer goods to make life more tolerable for citizens.

🔴High tariffs on foreign industrial commodities made it too expensive for Russians to buy, especially agr machinery 🚜.

Question 3

Railways🚂

Answer 3

• State bought out private railways companies + extended lines - 1905: nearly 66% railway system state-owned👑.
• Railway-building➡️extensive exploitation R’s raw materials ⛏ - coal output in southern R nearly ✖️4.
• Railway lines linked grain-growing areas to Black Sea ports🚢➡️reinforcing export drive🥖.
• Govt got new revenue from freight charges + passenger fares💰🚞.
• Railway building slowed after 1908, but 1913 R had 2nd largest railway network in world🥈🗺.
• Stimulated development of iron + coal industries🏭.
• Railways caused ⬇️ transport costs➡️ ⬇️ price of goods.
• 1914 R 5th largest industrial power in world🎖🗺.

Question 3

Heavy industry🏭

Answer 3

• W developed large factory units of over 1000 workers in key areas to ⬆️ heavy goods pr.
• 1914: R 4th largest producer of coal, pig-iron + steel in world🎖🗺.
• R 2nd biggest oil producer in world➡️R internally self-sufficient + competing w/ USA🗽 on international market.

Question 4

Stolypin’s land reforms

after 1906 to develop kulak class to ⬆️ loyalty to🤴🏻+ improve economy by creating internal market

Answer 4

1906:
🔹Abolished mir’s communal land tenure➡️peasants can become permanent owners of their land.

🔹Land organisation commissions w/ elected representatives set up to supervise consolidating strips into 1 compact form➡️end strip farming.

🔹Peasants have right to leave mir.

🔹⬆️ amount of State + 👑 land available for peasants to buy.

🔹New Peasant Land Bank 🏦 set up to help fund land ownership.

🔹⬆️govt subsidies to encourage settlement in Siberia🗺💰.

1907:
🔹Redemption dues abolished.

Question 5

Example’s of Stolypin’s success in agriculture

Answer 5

✅Encouraged land transfers + development of larger farms.

✅Hereditary ownership of land by👨🏼‍🌾 ⬆️ from 20% (1905)➡️almost 50% (1915).

✅Larger farms using machinery + artificial fertilisers➡️ ⬆️ pr + ⬆️ peasant prosperity👨🏼‍🌾💸.

✅S’s encouragement of emigration took 3.5m👨🏼‍🌾 from over-pop rural districts to Siberia🗺➡️Siberia became major agr region for dairy farming🥛 + cereal pr🥣.

✅Mir’s power ⬇️ (mir was main source of 👨🏼‍🌾discontent).

Question 6

Example’s of Stolypin’s limitations in agriculture

Answer 6

❌1915 only 14% communal allotment land passed into private ownership.

❌Central R more conservative➡️👨🏼‍🌾reluctant to leave security of mir.

❌1914 only 10%👨🏼‍🌾holdings move from strip farming.

❌People who left mir were outcasts.

❌⬆️ class of alienated, poor, landless👨🏼‍🌾 (some went to🏙to work in🏭).

❌Fewer than 1% achieved kulak status.

❌Some noble landowners didn’t want to sell land🎩➡️50% land remained in hands of nobility 1914.

❌👨🏼‍🌾 unrest➡️many hanged (“Stolypin’s necktie”).

Question 7

Possible reasons for why the success of Stolypin’s reforms were limited

Answer 7

🔸S said 20 years of peace☮️ necessary❌cut short by WW1.

🔸Cultural change required for👨🏼‍🌾; desire for self-improvement, better education, awareness + a need to plan ahead.

🔸Fast industrial growth required to provide jobs for surplus rural labour🏭🦺.

🔸Regional variation🗺.

🔸May have helped poorer👨🏼‍🌾rather than creating more kulaks.

🔸Didn’t concentrate land into fewer hands, as intended.