ECONOMY AND SOCIETY- 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
Limitations of impact:
* 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.
Limitations of impact:
* 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
Limitations:
* more liberal approach did not last long as A III blamed Bunge for dramatic fall in value of rouble in mid-1880s
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
Limitations:
* 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…
Alexander II Agriculture
- Freed 20 million privately owned serfs they now could own property with nobles handing over a portion of land to peasants.
- Move from serfs subsistence farming to more motivated
- Landowners received compensation for the land given away
- 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
Limitations:
* Poor short term – still tied to paying redemption payments which they could not afford
* Land given to peasants was poor and was than worked on before so led to revolts.
* 49 years of redemption payments for freed serfs and paying 6% interest. Mir collected these payments
Lenin Agriculture (War Communism and NEP)
- War Communism involved forceful grain requisitioning from peasants which 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.
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.
* 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.
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
Limitations:
* land over used with not enough rotation and there was not enough fertilizer and in 1960 dust storms damaged over 13,000 square hectares of land. (not proper farming technique- even though Khrushchev was seen as a farming expert because his father was a farmer)
* Short run gains for long run damage e.g. soil erosion and flooding
* Over 20 million tonnes of maize had to be imported from the US and Australia in 1963
Khrushchev Working/ living conditions
- As part of de-Stalinisation, Khrushchev moved away from repressive methods. Some improvement in housing and working conditions as he launched a housing programme of huge proportions.
- 1958 Working day reduced to 7 hours
- Wages rose and only in 1954 met the level they had been in 1920s.
- Between 1955-1964 housing stock doubled- population happy as a result.
- Built ‘agro-towns’- built hastily – not as successful. Shows it was a priority for K.
- 3% increase in wages thanks to minimum wage (McAuley)
- Farmers workers income 1952-8 x2
- By 1968: 50% of Russians had TVs and washing machines
Limitations:
* By end of period authorities claimed that living standards have improved because more people want to stay in the comfort of own home then attend political meetings.
* Housing units that had previously been declared ready for tenants were actually unfinished and unsafe- Public called them “Khrushchev slums”- Limited improvement.
* Agro towns were not particularly successful
* Couldn’t build fast enough in newly cultivated “Virgin Lands”
PG Working/ living conditions (WW1)
- Very little focus on improving working conditions – focus was upon winning war.
- But 8 hour day became the norm which is an improvement considering in 1914 that 9-10 hour working day was the norm. This was the result of a decree by the P.G.
- Many slept in factories and conditions had not been addressed by P.G. this fed into more people wanting to join Bolshevik party and Petrograd Soviet in the hope of a better life.
- Repeated food crises- bread queues of 8 hours or longer during WWI became norm ‘revolution started in the bread queue’.
- Encouraged by the Bolsheviks, who favoured peace negotiations, there were demonstrations against Kerensky in Petrograd, which became known as the July Days. Riots occurred on the 16th and 17th against the Provisional Government which were put down by loyal troops
Limitations:
* Very little changed under the P.G. to working conditions and although not the cause of the Rev may well have, exacerbated by the demands of war, added to the pressure that would result in the P.G.s downfall.
* On average 16 people to one apartment
Alexander III Working/ living conditions
- No factory Inspectorate until 1882 and conditions were dangerous and unhealthy.
- Even when inspectors were introduced they were often largely ineffectual as too few in number and had limited powers of enforcement.
Limitations:
* Not a great turning point in working conditions. As clearly had limited powers of enforcement.
* Despite banning factory legislation in 1882 banning the employment of children under the age of twelve it was possible for employers to still use child labour as they probably would not be found out.
