Khrushchev's Policies

Question 1

what was khrushchev’s initial intention?

Answer 1

move focus from heavy industry & onto light industry, chemicals & consumer goods to actually benefit the people

Question 2

challenges

Answer 2

• bureaucratic system of administrators in moscow stifled initiative, making local changes difficult so as not to upset the plan
• clumsy & wasteful system = didn’t deal with trends & unforeseeable events very well - administrators worked out the likely demand for goods but if this increased the system was too inflexible to respond

Question 3

khrushchev’s reforms

Answer 3

• 1957 = set up 105 regional economic councils (sovnarkhozy) to supervise enterprises to try to decentralise decision making a bit
• harsh labour laws removed & weekly working hours reduced - incentives replaced coercion
• factory managers given more influence = to encourage initiative they could keep 40% of profits to spend as they liked
• emphasis on vocational education to support industrial developments

Question 4

what was the liberman plan? and when

Answer 4

1962 = prime minister calling for greater autonomy for local managers & for the market to decide prices instead of the state
- unfortunately these ideas were watered down by conservative communists wanting to stick to stalinist principles, rendering it pretty ineffective

Question 5

what & when was the 7 year plan?

Answer 5

1959-65 = discovery of new mineral resources encouraged the government to transform chemical & fuel industries, emphasise oil & gas instead of coal, increase consumer goods

Question 6

EVALUATION OF INDUSTRIAL = meeting the needs of the state/people

Answer 6

consumer goods were more abundant, raising living standards for many but again there is the quantity over quality issue
- the government wanted greater labour productivity which did happen but there was a lack of reward apart from income & benefits

Question 7

EVALUATION OF INDUSTRIAL = industrial/agricultural output

Answer 7

although targets sometimes weren’t met, it was still an impressive amount BUT quantity over quality
- space & arms race succeeded in developing new technologies
- economy growing yearly by 7.1% under the plan

Question 8

EVALUATION OF INDUSTRIAL = standard of living

Answer 8

more consumer goods raised living standards but of poor quality to meet targets, housing programme cut back when economic growth slowed in 1964

Question 9

khrushchev’s agricultural policies

Answer 9

• 1955 = individual collectives given greater power to make decisions at a local level - flexibility on how Ministry of Agriculture instructions were implemented
• MTS abolished = peasants hated them as political interference BUT replaced with a system expecting peasants to buy their OWN machinery
• collectives grew = many became agrogoroda which linked food production with processing, enabling greater investment in agriculture
• compulsory seizing of food replaced by planned state purchases, encouraging greater productivity

Question 10

EVALUATION OF AGRICULTURE = meeting the needs of the state/people

Answer 10

for the government - succeeded in raising agriculture’s status, needed to increase standard of living as an incentive now that terror was gone
for the people - peasants were happy about individualism & felt encouraged to grow more food, incomes boosted by 250%

Question 11

EVALUATION OF AGRICULTURE = standard of living

Answer 11

farmers’ income doubled from 1952-8 but still far below industrial workers

Question 12

EVALUATION OF AGRICULTURE = gdp & agricultural output

Answer 12

food production increased by 51% (1953-8) but still low but couldn’t store or transport it due to lack of facilities, still very labour intensive work, artificial fertilizer up 40% BUT farmers uneducated so used at wrong times, meat targets only met for 1 year as they had to kill all the animals to meet the target