Demands For Econ Change + New Economic Policy (NEP) Flashcards
What was the impact of the famine?
-peasants revolts - Tambov province
-100,000 troops deployed deal with troubles
-brutal reprisals against kulaks
What was the Tambov revolt?
-peasants no reserves after poor harvest when requisitioners arrived aug 1920
-Antonov formed 70,000 man peasant army + struggle continued to June 1921
-revolt spread across large swathes of south-eastern Russia
How did workers protest?
-strikes + riots
-workers protested against factory discipline
What did Lenin do in response to these uprisings?
-martial law declared Jan 1921
-extreme measure involving military force to enforce law + normal civil liberties suspended
-but some soldiers refused take action + Cheka used to crush demonstrations
What was the most alarming revolt that Lenin faced?
-30,000 soldiers Kronstadt naval base
-were most loyal supporters of Oct rev but march 1921 sent manifesto demanding end one party communist rule
How was this a challenge that forced Lenin to make economic changes?
-Red army sent 5 miles across ice to crush rebels
-15,000 rebel prisoners + leaders of revolt shot
-Lenin denounced sailors as ‘white traitors’ but incident shook him
How did these troubles cause divisions within B’vik party?
-workers opposition groups set up under Shiyapknikov + Kollontai
-argued greater worker control + removal manager + military discipline factories
-opposed Trotsky who wanted intensify war communism
What was the new economic policy?
-to revitalise society economy after devastation of civil war
-set up Gosplan by sovnarkom decree Feb 1921
What did Gosplan do?
-state general planning commission to advise on new econ policy
-supported by Bukharin, Zinoviev + most of leadership
What did the NEP allow for?
-priv ownership of smaller businesses + priv trade
-U-turn to free market control
What were the effects of the NEP?
-rationing ended + Ind had pay workers from their profits
-ensures sufficient use of resources
-end to grain requisitioning + peasants permitted to sell surplus
How did the NEP change the economy?
-got econ moving again
-peasants responded more quickly than towns but led to ‘scissors crisis’
-NEP recovered econ to pre war levels but didn’t achieve in modernising it
What was the scissors crisis?
-1923 - high increase grain supplies brought down food prices
-lack Ind goods peasants buy in exchange encouraged hold onto supplies
How did the gov deal with scissors crisis?
-gov capped Ind prices
-replaced peasants quotas with money taxes from 1923
-forced peasants to sell
What was the state of the economy by 1923?
-better living standards
-end to revolts + disputes
-trade agreements with Br + Ger
