ECONOMY UNDER STALIN Flashcards
What did NEP produce that was an issue?
NEPmen and a private market that was too strong.
What were urban workers suffering from under NEP?
High unemployment and low wages.
What were the figures for export and import levels in 1926?
Exports were at 33% of 1913 level and imports were at 38% of 1913 level.
What did the government replace grain tax with under NEP?
A monetary tax.
How did the peasants avoid selling their grain to the state for a lower price under NEP?
They started to hold food back from the market. They even fed it to their animals rather than sell t.
What were the figures for grain procurement in 1927?
Only 75% of 1926 grain was procured.
When was collectivisation introduced?
1929.
Why did Stalin need to reform the economy to create a stronger military?
To fight a modern war, a country had to have a well-developed industrial base. There were also war scares in the early 1930s.
What did Stalin want Russia to become?
The ‘Soviet America’.
How would economic reform make Russia more self-sufficent?
Make Russia less dependent on western manufactured goods.
What did Stalin want to end regarding grain supply through the new economic structure?
End the dependence of the economy on a backward agricultural system as this had created major problems in the past.
Why did the current social structure of Russia make it difficult for Stalin to move towards a socialist society?
According to Marxist theoreticians, socialism could only be created in a highly industrialised state.
How much of the population were workers in 1928?
Only 20%.
What were Stalin’s economic policies central to?
Him establishing his credentials, as he needed to prove himself as an equal of Lenin.
How would the new economic policies improve living standards?
Catching up with the west as industrialisation created wealth which could prove communism created a good life.
What had Stalin announced at the 1926 Party Congress?
The aim was ‘to transform our country from an agrarian to an industrial one.’
What did collectivisation represent?
A major shift in the direction of the economy towards central planning or a “command economy”.
What was the idea behind the implementation of collectivisation?
Larger units of land could be farmed more efficiently through mechanisation.
What was an MTS? What did these create?
MTS = tractors and machinery would be supplied by the state through huge machine and tractor stations. In order to create mechanised agriculture.
What are the three main types of collective farms?
- Toz
- Sovkhoz
- Kolkhoz
What crisis occured in 1928-9?
A grain procurement crisis.
How did Stalin use the ideology of a “class enemy”?
To blame kulaks and begin a process of dekulakisation.
What did Stalin announce in December 1929?
Stalin announced the liquidation of the kulaks. The aim was to frighten the middle and poor peasants into joining collective kolkhoz.
What was mass collectivisation?
Stalin enlisted 250,000 volunteers and conscripts to revolutionise the countryside.
