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z - russia: impacts of dictatorial regimes on economy and society > extent and reasons for economic change > Flashcards

extent and reasons for economic change Flashcards

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1
Q

key dates: TSARDOM (7)

A

1861 - Emancipation edict
1864 - introduction to zemstva
1882 - factory inspectorate established
1883 - Peasant Land Bank set up
1891 - tariff and famine
1892-3 - Witte’s ‘Great Spurt’
1897 - gold standard

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2
Q

key dates: COMMUNIST (8)

A

1917 - Decree on land, State Capitalism and SEC
1917-21 - War Communism
1921 - NEP, Gosplan and famine
1927-8 - famine
1928-32 - FYP
1929 - mass collectivisation and dekulakisation
1932-4 - famine
1954 - Virgin Land campaigns

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3
Q

What were the main aims of economic policy across the period?

A
  • focus on heavy industry
  • catching up with the West
  • improve agricultural activity to boost industrialisation
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4
Q

(A2) When was Reutern financial minister? What did he achieve? (2)

A

1862-78

  • focus on railway expansion (through subsides, five fold inc of railway track opened by 1878) - gave a significant boost to industrial sector, annual growth rate of 6%
  • foreign experts and loans - Hughes - by 1884 his New Russian Coal, Iron and Rail making company was the largest producer of pig iron - inspired the trends of foreign investment
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5
Q

(A3) When was Bunge economic minister? What did he achieve?

A

1881-74
- 1883 - Peasant Land Bank

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6
Q

(A3) When was Vyshnegradsky financial minister? What did he achieve?

A

1887-92

  • grain export was up by 18%,
  • cutting back on government expenditure and increasing indirect taxation, building up the gold reserves by over 300 mil roubles
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7
Q

(A3) How did Vyshnegradky cause a famine in 1891-2

A
  • ‘we ourselves shall not eat, but we shall export’
  • 0.5 die of cholera and starvation - can’t afford goods due to grain requisition
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8
Q

(A3) Why is Witte’s ‘Great Spurt’ a significant turning point for Russia?

A
  • break from slow progress of the past - commitment to industrialisation
  • gold standard
  • development of a prosperous peasant class
  • prelude to Stalin’s Great Turn
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9
Q

(A3) When was Witte economic minister? What did he achieve?

A

1892-1903

  • 1897 gold standard - increase trust and stabilise currency
  • 60% of railways state owned by 1890s
  • 1822 Baku oilfields, Trans-Siberian
  • annual growth 8%, 4th largest industrial producer
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10
Q

failures of Tsarist economic policies

A

A2:
- Russia remained weak and 1/3 of expenditure used to pay for loans
A3:
- famine
(GS)
reliance on foreign capital and foreign expertise - no growth in home experts meaning changes were short-lived
- russia had 11 times fewer miles of track than Germany

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11
Q

(N2) What impact did WW1 have on Russia’s economy?

A
  • despite having the largest stock of gold reserves in Europe - struggled to meet demands of armed forces
  • Stolypin’s agricultural reforms not doing enough
  • gold standard abandoned - led to rampant inflation (food prices x4)
  • Workers wages less than 1/3 of those in WE
    1. Population boom 28mil by 1916 led to hoarding and a lack of incentive to buy/sell
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12
Q

(PG) How did the Provisional Government fail in terms of agriculture?

A
  • didn’t solve land problem - wanted to wait until after war - 237 cases of land seizure in July
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13
Q

(LE) When was State Capitalism implemented? What did it entail?

A

1918-20
Taking control of the economy before it could be ‘safely’ handed over to proletariat - supreme council of national economy – nationalised banks, railways and larger factories, shortages of all consumer goods and food

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14
Q

(LE) What did State Capitalism achieve?

A
  • 1917 Decree on Land
  • 1918 Decree on Workers’ Control
  • centralised control was essential to survive the effects of war - opposition within/external to the party
  • Civil war nullified any positive impacts - coal production fell to 8.9 mil tons in 1921
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15
Q

(LE) When was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed? What did is cause?

A

MARCH 1918
lost ¼ farmland, ¼ railways, Ukraine or Russia’s ‘bread basket’
shameful peace, civil war almost inevitable, SRs pulled out of Sovnarkrom and Lenin ordered mass arrests to (wanted a world revolution) – potential split avoided??

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16
Q

(LE) When was War Communism implemented? What did it entail?

A

1918-21
nationalised banks, railways and larger factories, partial militarisation if labour (solely to meet demands of war), food req to feed ary and labour workers

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17
Q

(LE) Impacts of War Communism

A
  • transport of materials and raw good disrupted, inflation, hoarding ad refusing to grow crops due to requisition squads 1919-20
  • Caused – strikes in Petrograd, 1920-21 dry spells and hoarding
  • By 1920 rouble was worth 1% of its 1917 worth
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18
Q

(LE) What caused the shift from War Communism to NEP?

A
  • Famine
  • Grain req
  • Kronsdat rising Feb 1921
  • Tambov rising 1921
19
Q

(LE) What was NEP implemented? What did it entail?

A

March 1921-24
state control of heavy industry but with trust
rejuvenation of trade by removing restrictions - new rouble, rationing ended
encouragement of foreign trade
tax in kind

20
Q

(LE) How did the Bolsheviks justify NEP?

A

temporary’. Bukharin – we are making economic concession to avoid political concessions

21
Q

(LE) impacts of NEP

A
  • industrial output increased dramatically - more food/consumer goods in markets reflects this
  • new entrepreneurial class: NEPMAN - 60% of retail
  • stopped famine by end of 1921
  • 1923 85% of companies privately owned,
  • 1927 over 5mil ploughs still being used
  • scissors crisis
22
Q

What were Stalin’s aims for Russia’s economy?

A
  • destroy tsarist superstructure which hindered Russia catching up with the West (100 years behind)
  • focus in heavy industry - superpower
  • autarky and preparation for conflict
23
Q

(ST) how did Stalin go about achieving his economic aims?

A
  • replaced NEP with strict state control and centralised planning - Gosplan 1924 (500k state planners – set overall ambitious aims with no consideration of people, increase coal by 100%, Fe by 200%)
24
Q

(ST) what were the dates of the each 5YPs?

A

1928-32
1933-37
1938-41

25
Q

(ST) successes of the 5YPs

A
  • 1 significant increases in heavy industry output
  • industrialised centres set up in the Urals and expansion of tractor works/agriculture
  • 2 certain materials like copper and zinc were mined for the first time, advancement in engineering and communication lines
  • 3 - managed to resist German invasion suggesting armament production was successful
26
Q

(ST) failures of the 5YPs

A
  • 1 shortage of experts and failures of the Belamor Canal
  • 2 consumer industries continued to decline
  • 3 lack of planning let to shortages, deterioration in quality of life, 28m Russians die in war, housing in short supply
27
Q

(ST) How did Stalin attempt to incentivise workers?

A

1931 - 27. Introduced pay differentials – counter Marxism but allowed skilled workers to earn more and catalyse industrialisation
Stakhovite movement - by 1936 20% of workers were classed as Stakhanovites

28
Q

Agriculture across the period

A
  • remained its own important sector
  • subservient to the needs of the industry
  • government policies focused on reforms that increased food production to aid urbanisation
  • agricultural peasants were always viewed as second-class citizens
29
Q

land ownership across the period

A

failed to deal with it effectively
Tsars - redistribution polices never met expectations of the peasants
Communists - all land appropriated and managed by the state - resentment

30
Q

Agriculture: Alexander II

A
  • emancipation edict - peasants had more access to land, but strip farming persisted which was inefficient and and was often infertile anyway
  • Peasants lost on average 4.1% of their pre-1861 agricultural holdings
31
Q

Agriculture: Alexander III

A
  • disastrous famine of 1891 due to Vyshegradsky’s grain requisition policies
  • to quell turbulence - lad captains introduced 1889 to keep discipline
32
Q

Agriculture: Nicholas II

A
  • Stolypin’s land reforms - abolished redemption payments by Jan 1907
  • unused land given to Land Bank which could be bought by upper-class peasants
33
Q

Agriculture: impact of Stolypin’s land reforms

A
  • 60k under necktie
  • abolished redemption payments by Jan 1907 - hadn’t been paid in full for a long time anyway
  • only 10% of households had moved past strip farming
  • 2 million left the mir - leaving rural areas with a shortage or labour - accelerated in WW1
34
Q

Agriculture: The Provisional Gov

A

did little to solve land issues

35
Q

Agriculture: Lenin

A
  • Decree on land used an a means to consolidate power as Lenin had promised ‘bread’ - not a long term solution
  • War Communism - grain requisitioning key feature (led to hoarding and famine) - Kulaks used as a scapegoat for agricultural decline
  • NEP - Kulaks still treated with suspicion and associated by authorities with shortages - higher taxes
  • Collectivisation - ‘civilised cooperatives’
36
Q

Agriculture: collectivisation under Lenin

A
  • to optimise - worked on a system that shortages caused by hoarding to sell for best price (allowed under NEP but scrutinised by Stalin)
    • Bolsheviks wanted to create collectives - stalled due to peasant resistance - only 3% were working on collectives
  • *
37
Q

Agriculture: Stalin

A
  • famine 1927-8 - prompted Stalin to push for collectivisation
  • collectivisation, dekulakisation and Komsomols all contributed to the control of the peasants
    • Between Nov 1929 and March 1930 60% of all farms were collectivised
  • Grain production increased from 73MT (1928) to 83MT (1930) (terror, grain req etc)
38
Q

Agriculture: Stalin’s collectivisation policies pre-war

A
  • Wanted to produce SOVKHOZES (STATE FARMS) → too expensive to maintain → KOLKOHOZES (COLLECTIVE FARMS) introduced
  • By 1940 there were 240k Kolkhozes
39
Q

Agriculture: Stalin’s collectivisation policies post- war

A
  • move back towards intense collectivisation policy
    • MTS - tractor stations responsible for distributing and collecting grain -peasants didn’t have the resources to look after them, 50% soon out of action
40
Q

Agriculture: Stalin’s dekulakisation policy

A
  • also used kulaks as scapegoats - 30k kulaks shot
  • Peasants would be rewarded 25% of grain if they told on Kulaks - Komsomol’s education
    • Kulaks would rather destroy grain than hand it over - led to famine
41
Q

Agriculture: failures of Stalin’s policies

A
  • failures of MTS stations
  • disastrous famine 1932-4 - disrupted collectivisation and was denied by gov
  • famine - Kulkas destroyed grain rather than handing it over, no incentives/grain being taken away
  • collectivisation associated with grain req - meaning people viewed the famine as ‘man-made’
  • removal of mir - major blow to village autonomy
42
Q

Agricultural policies: Khrushchev

A
  • regarded himself an agricultural expert - focused on agricultural organisation and production
  • abolished MTS, taxes reduced on peasants and procurement were low - incentive to work
    • 1954 Virgin Land Schemes (used to consolidate his power) to increase cultivated land (similar to Stolypin) - 96mil acres of land for wheat prod in 1950
43
Q

Agricultural policies: Khrushchev’s failures

A
  • harvest 1963 - bad weather led to riots in country/towns e.g Novocherkassk
  • wanted to implement quickly, not setting foundations for a LT - soil became overused, bad weather, bad 1963 harvest saw a decline in grain production of over 30% compared to prev year
44
Q

KEY FAMINES OF THE PERIOD

A
  • 1891-2 - VYSHNEGRADSKY POLICIES
  • 1921 - WAR COMMUNISM
  • 1927-8
  • 1932-4 - COLLECTIVISATION POLCIES

z - russia: impacts of dictatorial regimes on economy and society (4 decks)

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