Economic And Social Developments

Question 1

What state was the economy in after ww2

Answer 1

70% of industrial capacity had been destroyed and severely reduced the work force.
USSR faced huge defence budgets
Lend lease came to an abrupt end in 1947
The satellite soviet was created which created tensions between the communist east (the soviet bloc) and the capitalist west (USA) this led to the Cold War

Question 2

What was created to meet soviet needs

Answer 2

Gosplan coordinated 2 more five year plans

Question 3

What were the aims, details and results of the 4th five year plan

Answer 3

Aim - catch up with USA, rebuild heavy industry and transport, to revive the Ukraine.
Details - use of extensive reparations from east Germany, maintenance of wartime controls on labour force, long hours, low wages, high targets, female labour, grad projects, canals and HEP plants
Result - the USSR because 2nd to the USA in industry capacity, most targets in heavy industry were met, production doubles and urban workforce increased from 67 to 77 million, by 1947 the dnieper dam power station was in action again industrially stronger than pre war.

Question 4

What were the aims, details and results of the 5th five year plan

Answer 4

Aims - development of heavy industry and transport, consumer goods, housing and services received stronger investment.
Details - resources diverted to rearmament during the Korean War after Stalin died. Melkenov reduced expenditure of the military and heavy industry.
Results - most growth targets were met
National income increased
71%
Malenkov changes met opposition resulting in his loss of leadership in 1955

Question 5

What were the issues with the Stalinist system

Answer 5

• ministers in Moscow set different targets for each enterprise which required complex planning and the system began to break down
• too few administrators making the system work properly
• enterprises were judged and given bonuses according to their success in fulfilling targets but exceeding targets meant they would be set higher the next year so enterprises played it safe and avoid to much improvement
• resources were not being efficiently used, increasing amounts of capital punishment were needed to stand out.

Question 6

What happened to the sixth five year plan

Answer 6

Targets were over optimistic and the plan was abandoned after 2 years.

Question 7

What happened in 1957 which helped move the soviet economy towards a degree of decentralisation

Answer 7

• 60 Moscow ministries were abolished
• the ussr was divided into 105 economic regions each with its own local economic council to plan and supervise economic affairs.

Question 8

What did the 7th five year plan set out to do
(1961-65)

What were the results

Answer 8

Improving standard of living for ordinary people
40 hour week
40-% wage rise promised by 1965
Slogan- catch up and overtake the USA by 1970

Results

• vast expansion of chemical industry
• housing factories to produce prefabricated sections for new flats
• increase production of consumer goods
• greater explosion of ussr resources

Question 9

What were people around the world with amazed at at Brussels world fair 1958

Answer 9

The soviets technology

• air transport was expanded. Aeroflot cooperation was subsidised to offer cheap long distance passenger travel
• 1957 the ussr launched Sputnik (earths first artificial satellite) the same year Sputnik took a dog into orbit in 1959 a red flag was placed on the moon and pictures of the dark side of the moon were taken.

Question 10

How did krushchev seem successful in industrial output

Answer 10

Coal 1955-391 million tons

1965 578 millions tons

Question 11

How successful was the 7th five year plan

Answer 11

Didn’t come close to over taking America

From 1958 industrial growth slowed down significantly

Question 12

Give the aims, details and results of the 4th five year plan (1946-50) agriculture

Answer 12

Aim- force he kolkhozes to deliver agricultural products. To transform nature.
Detail- high quotas for grain, low peasant wages, tree plantations canals and irrigation ditches to make more land usable.
Results - state produced 70% of 1946, leaving peasants with little
Output of kolkhozes increased
Incentives remained low
Lagged behind industry
Lysenko’s ideas perpetuated inaccurate theories which held back farming.

Question 13

aims, details and results of the 5th five year plan

(1951-55) agriculture

Answer 13

Aims- continuation of 4th year plus Khrushchev virgin land schemes
Detail - expansion of agriculture in formerly uncultivated areas
Results- agriculture still behind industry

Question 14

What incentives were introduced to encourage peasants to produce more

Answer 14

• quotas on peasants private plots were cut
• peasants who did not possess animals were no longer expected to deliver meat to the state
• collectives were allowed to set there own quota targets and choose how to use their land

Question 15

What changes were implemented to increase production

Answer 15

• 1962 campaign to increase the use of chemical fertilisers

- encouragement to merge collectives to create charter farms to develop the virgin land schemes

Question 16

What were the virgin land schemes

Answer 16

Khrushchev believed that one way to increase production would be to cultivate grazing lands in western Siberia and norther Kazakhstan which had not been previously put under the plough
- the Komsomol were encouraged to spent there time on the new farms helping to put up fences, dig ditches and build roads.
By 1956- 35.9 million hectares of virgin land had been ploughed for wheat.

Question 17

What did Khrushchev think the answer to food shortage would be

Answer 17

Campaigns for new crops. After he visited the USA in 1959 he encouraged production of cornflakes.
Agrocities

Question 18

Why was the new pricing system proved a failure

What were some problems with the virgin land schemes?

Answer 18

State officials kept altering the prices so farmers found it difficult to plan ahead.

• not very effective in the long run, climatic conditions had not been taken into account. Bad harvest in 1963. USSR was forced to input grain from North America as a result.

Question 19

How were living conditions under the 4th and 5th 5YP

Answer 19

• peasants were squeezed by he quota systems and lived on an income less than 20% of an industrial worker.
• diets were poor and housing, services and consumer goods were all in short supply
• women were expected to make up for war dead.

Question 20

He did Khrushchev attempt to improve living conditions

Answer 20

De- stalinisation campaigns and economic reforms.
Consumer goods such as TVs and fridges became more available.
Peasants became eligible for a state pension.
40 hour week
Wage equalisation campaign saw an increase in the lowest paid bringing related social equality
Cars became more common

Question 21

What was the quality of life an cultural change under Stalin 1945-53

Answer 21

Post war saw a grim zhdanovshcina during were censorship had grown tighter, the ethnic minorities suffered and freedom of cultural expression was nonexistent. Stalins paranoia cast a shadow over the social life breeding an atmosphere of fear and secrecy.

Question 22

How was social life under Khrushchev 1953-64

Answer 22

The thaw - personal freedom.
Freedom ion literature , radio and writers were lifted.
Sports tours arranged
TVs showed international performances
Intourists - foreigners could visit the ussr
Greater contact with western culture e.g.- the world festival of youth 1957 in Moscow attended by 34,000 from 31 countries
Stiliqgi - soviet version of teddy boys
Increase in hooliganism

Question 23

Give an example of artists who thrived on the new freedom.

Answer 23

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn- realised from a labour camp and allowed to publish one day in the life of Ivan denisovich in 1962 in which he described conditions in the gulags

Question 24

How did not artists and writers not enjoy complete freedom

Answer 24

Khrushchev had his own taste and they were conservative. He disliked modernism in literature and was quite outspoken and critical after a visit to a Moscow art gallery displaying modernists work in 1962.

Question 25

How was Khrushchev with the churches

Answer 25

Atheism was brought into school curriculum, children were banned from church services from 1961 and it was forbidden to parents to teach religion to their children.
Mass closure of monasteries, convents and orthodox churches, reducing the latter from 22,000 in 1959 to just under 8000 by 1965.
All remaining seminars were shut down
Clergymen who criticised atheism might be formed to retirement, arrest or sent to labour camps.

Question 26

How were the ethnic minorities treat under Khrushchev

Answer 26

No move towards greater independence of the nationalities
22nd party congress the aim was to have a single common language by all nationalities in the Soviet Union
Against letting Jews have there own schoolsans refused to let them emigrate to the new state of Israel created after ww2