ECONOMY Flashcards
Industry, Agriculture and working conditions
Industry Nicholas II (Witte)
- Used foreign expertise, foreign loans to invest in building Trans-Siberian railway.
- Placed in 1897 the rouble on the gold standard to give potential foreign investors confidence in the value of Russian currency. Capital from abroard up 120%
- Invested in heavy industry
- Coal production doubled and iron and steel increased 7 fold.
- Income industry shot up from** 42 million roubles in 1893** to 161 million roubles by 1897
- 17,264 miles of track in 1891 to 31,125 miles of track in 1901
- 8% growth per year fastest in Europe
Nicholas II limitations industry
- Overdeveloped heavy industry at the expense of engineering and textiles
- Still relied on manpower not technology
- railway track expansion was expensive, slow and poorly done - still meant that by 1914 Russia had 11 times fewer miles of track than Germany.
- Little regard paid to agriculture which fuelled discontent and then land problems
- Industry struggled to meet demand of armed forces and railway track was inefficient in coping with the demands of WWI.
- Russia was unable to win WWI against industrialised Germany despite having most gold reserves by 1914 still struggled to equip troops with correct amount of weapons.
- 40% inflation in 20th century
Stalin Industry
- Five-Year Plans (5YPs) were amethod of planningeconomic growthusing centralised planning and targets with the chief aim toexpand industrial production and heavy industry. For this, he developed threeFive-year Plansbetween 1928 and 1938.Gosplan, the state planning agency, drew up targets for production for each factory. The first two plans concentrated onimproving heavy industry- coal, oil, steel and electricity. At expense of consumer goods.
- the improvements in production between 1928 and 1937 were phenomenal: Coal- from 36 million tonnes to 130 million tonnes, Iron- from 3 million tonnes to 15 million tonnes, Oil- from 2 million tonnes to 29 million tonnes, Electricity- from 5,000 million to 36,000 million kilowatts.
- TheDneiperDam (largest dam in Europe, free-flowing water had been harnessed into energy. Dynamited during WWII and rebuilt in 1950) The Belomor Canal (seen as huge success of 1st 5YP, constructed in 20 months mostly by gulaglabourers. Irony as it was rushed is not deep enough for large vessels so can only have shallow boatspass through but celebrated as connects White Sea and Baltic sea)
- At the cost of consumer welfare, the 5YPs achieved a great deal. Aim had been to achieve rapid industrialisation for Russia to finally catch up with the West.This was achieved. Fought highly industrialised Nazi Germany in WWII and won.
- Won WWII 4th 5YP completed in 3 year showing a rapid recovery when other european countries remained in a post-war slump.
Stalin industry limitations
targets were fabricated at times due to a climate of fear, shortfalls in industries such as footwear, meat packaging.
Alexander III Industry (Bunge and Vyshnegradskii)
BUNGE:
* abolition of Salt Tax in 1881 and Poll Tax 1886 (Mostly affected Russian ordinary people as cured meat)
* Movement towards greater state ownership of railways. By 1911 69% under public control
VYSHNEGRADSKII1887-92
* became finance minister after Bunge failed by letting the value of the rouble fall in mid-1880s
* balanced government budget whilst also making surplus of income through efficient utilisation of income, taxes, railways and the state bank and treasury
* Revenue raised through theMedelevtariff of1891and income gained by exporting large amounts of graineven when there was the prospect of domestic shortage + starvation (famine)
* Income from exports increased by 50% from 1887-92
Alexander III industry limitations
Limitations Bunge:
* more liberal approach did not last long as A III blamed Bunge for dramatic fall in value of rouble in mid-1880s
Limitations Vyshnegradksy:
* the 1891 famine was seen as a direct result of the Mendeleev tariff by V, and he was replaced after this. Furthermore, they failed to prioritise industry, like Stalin and Witte attempted to do
* rouble fell off the gold standard
Industry AII (Reutern)
Attracted Foreign Expertise:
- Ludwig Loop developed Russian textile industry,
- Nobel brothers developed oil in Caucasus,
- Welshman J.J. Hughes transformed iron and steel production at Ekaterinoslav.
- By start of 20th century responsible for half of steel production in Russia.
Foreign Investment:
- issued gov bonds, tax exemptions and monopoly concessions in return for investment – helped to build railway.
- Built railways – 7 fold increase in track built from 2194 miles in 1862 to 13,979 miles.
- Massively boosted industrial sector. Enabled transportation of goods.
AII Industry limitations (Reutern)
- efforts cut short by Russo-Turkish War and WWI showed limitations of achievements.
- Danger of over reliance of foreign loans.
- Expensive transport system and corruption due to allowing monopolies etc
Industry Lenin
- State took complete control until it could be handed over to the proletariat.
- Supreme Economic Council (SEC) created which managed industry
- By 1919 all enterprises with 10 + workers were nationalised (30,000)
- War Communism was industry driven to producing war armaments to support during Civil War
- NEP led to increasing industrial output due to trade and foreign investment
Industry limitations Lenin
- Industrial output fell (Coal in 1913, 29 million tons → 1921, 8.9 million tons)
- Oct 1920 rouble only worth 1% of value in 1917 → abandonment of currency
- War communism hated by peasants due to grain requisition by Cheka
- Introduction of NEP hated by left as it saw if as conceeding to the right and capitalist ideas
Industry Khrushchev
- Khrushchev continued centralised economic planning but his first plan was abandoned and the second correlated with a slow down in the rate of growth showing his achievements were less than that of Stalin.
- 6th 5YP (1956-6) Shifted economic production focus to plastics and synthetics, consumer goods became more prevalent- successful
- Emphasis on consumer goods in the 7th five-year plan. This was successful as consumer goods increased by 60%.
- Also by 1968 50% of Russia’s had TVs and washing machines as well as 10% had a vacuum cleaner. This was revolutionary for the Russian people.
Industry limitations Khrushchev
- Over optimistic targets led to the 6th 5YP being abandoned after 2 years.
- Still slower rate of progress in comparison to rivals such as the USA.
Alexander II Agriculture
- Emancipation of Serfs 1861: Freed 20 million privately owned serfs they now could own property with nobles handing over a portion of land to peasants.
- Move from serfs to subsistence farming to more motivated
- By 1905 land owned by nobility had fallen by 40%
- Laid a platform for all further agricultural reforms
- Long Term – freedom of movement to the cities, opportunity to own land and once done, work for profit- oppurtunity for modernisation
Alexander II limitations agriculture
- Poor short term – still tied to paying redemption payments which they could not afford
- Not done for good of people only done to modernise Russia
- Land given to peasants was poor quality and was than worked on before so led to revolts.
- 49 years of redemption payments for freed serfs (average life expectancy 35yrs) and paying 6% interest. Mir collected these payments
- Now controlled by strict Mir
Alexander III agriculture
- 1891 disastrous famine, around 400,000 dead
- Tsar blamed poor farming technique
- Ministry of agriculture established after famine
- Any rural problems were blamed on the character of peasants as being unruly, intoxicated and incompetent.
- Land captains were introduced as a form of authoritative repression who put down local unrest rather than transforming agriculture
Alexander III limitations agriculture
- Land captains more repressive than reformative
- caused resentment towards Tsar as peasants blamed for all agricultural issues of Russia
Nicholas II Agriculture
- Stolypin appointed Finance Minister after Witte
- Rural unrest peaked 1905-7 and Stolypin tasked with tackling land distribution
- Stolypin wanted to build a class of more educated, able peasants who would act as a role model to others – this was the ‘wager on the strong’
- Unused land would be made available to the Peasant Land Bank which peasants could buy from and peasants could consolidate their farming strips
- Under Stolypin: Agricultural output increased by a third, while peasant land ownership increased by 30%. The number of Kadets increased dramatically and they were increasingly supportive of the Tsar.
Nicholas II limitations agriculture
- By1914, 2 million peasants left the village communes to go to the cities leaving short of rural labour.
- Reform backfired
- Stolypin’s necktie was a result of attempts to supress opposition to regime
PG argiculture
- Had little control over the food supply – 8 hour bread queues
- Fighting the war (WWI) put pressure on food supply and distribution to cities
- In the ‘July Days’ peasants seized land by force.
Lenin Agriculture (War Communism and NEP)
- War Communism involved forceful grain requisitioning by Cheka often resulted in peasants burning own crops in defiance.
- 1920 the Cheka and Red Army seized food supplies for redistribution not simply to seize surpluses. 1921 severe famine- 5 million dead
- Following heavy criticism from party members and a KRONDSTADT REBELLION (where navy mutinied against Lenin due to unpopular War Communism), Lenin introduced NEP which came with some Capitalist concessions. Grain requisitioning stopped, encouraged foreign loans.
- NEP – removed restrictions on private trade so peasants could make profits – a capitalist concession
- Short term impact impressive! Grain harvest increase from 37.6 million tonnes in 1921 to 76.8 million in 1926.
Lenin agriculture limitations
- NEP seen as a betrayal of Oct Rev and Communist ideals so abandoned by Stalin in 1928.
- Distortion of ideology – economy needed to legitimise validity of Communist regime.
- 1921 famine- 5 million dead
- Led to ‘Scissor Crisis’ where food supplies exceeded Russia’s demand resulting in a fast fall in prices. Peasants did not want to sell grain at low prices but if they did not sell could not afford high prices of industrial goods so economy was relatively unstable.
Stalin agriculture
- Collectivisation – the process of bringing together small farms to form a bigger farm. Idea was collaboration between peasants meant more food could be made and extracted (belief that before peasants hoarded grain). Lenin had encouraged collectivisation to take place gradually but under him only 3% had collectivised.
- Dekulakisation
- Grain production inreased to 100 million tonnes in 1937
Stalin limitations agriculture
- 13 million Kulak families deported, 30,000 shot
- ignited peasant unrest- dissent, slaughtere cattle
- Collectives suffered from shortages of labour
- famine in 1947 killed 2 million
Khrushchev agriculture
- Virgin land scheme. He tried to cultivate vast amounts of land of north Kazakhstan and western Siberia with the aid of volunteers. By 1960 41.8million hectares were ploughed, and in 1956 the virgin lands contributed **50.8% of grain harvest. **
- Between 1952 and 1958 farm workers income more then doubled
- Agriculture output increased from 80m under Stalin to 110m