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Communism Final > MC > Flashcards

MC Flashcards

1
Q
  1. Main idea of utopian socialists. No specific names. Just common features.
A
  • The establishment of a society based no harmony, association and cooperation through communal working and living.
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2
Q
  1. The crisis of the capitalist system and class struggle according to Marx.
A
  • The goal of capitalism is to invest in technology and reduces wages. This would lead to increased work hours, higher productivity, and lower wages, which in turn would lead to lower purchasing power and the crisis of overproduction. Eventually there will be mass unemployment or takeovers due to monopolization of industries.
  • How do we solve this> Political activity and class consciousness. Class consciousness would lead to a revolutionary process.
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3
Q
  1. Marx’s Labor Theory of Value.
A
  • Labor is exchanged for money but the rate is lower than the actual value of the product produced. If labor produced value higher than its own value, then that is the surplus value taken by the capitalists.
  • Marx called this struggle the ‘rate of exploitation’
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4
Q
  1. Russia’s political system between the February and October revolutions. Provisional Government.
A
  • The provisional government consisted of the Kadets, Mensheviks, and Socialist Revolutionaries. It had no power of coercion thus had to tolerate the Soviets.
  • The Soviets needed the PG in order to have international legitimacy.
  • Soldiers elected committees. There were many deserters.
  • Kornilov affair. Led his troops to arrest the Bolsheviks but was arrested by the PG.
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5
Q
  1. First Bolshevik decrees.
A
  • Land Decree: No private land ownership, called on local village committes to restribute land
  • Workers Control: Gave elected factory committees the power of supervision over industrial and commercial enterprises
  • Decress of November and December 1917: Abolished all ranks and hierarchical greetings in the army.
  • Decree on People’s Courts: Judged elected by population.
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6
Q
  1. The Civil War in Russia after the October Revolution.
A
  • Anticipated by Lenin.
  • Anti-Bolshevik army (White Army) had political disunity and failed.
  • The White Army did not have as much foreign support as some believe.
  • The discipline of the Red Army was vital.
  • Proclamation of Red Terror: Sept 5, 1918. Introduced concentration camps.
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7
Q
  1. What was War Communism?
A
  • Nationalization of all industry
  • State trade monopoly
  • Partial suspension of money transactions
  • Compulsory food deliveries on peasants
  • Requisitioning of agricultural products
  • Forceful establishment of state property.
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8
Q
  1. Peasant response to War Communism.
A
  • Unhappy with the sloppy land redistribution. It wasn’t fair.
  • Annoyed that the PG asked for food deliveries just how the Tsar did.
  • Peasants engaged in free trade. Those who did were called meshochniki or bagmen.
  • Churches being closed and the arrests of priests made many peasants angry.
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9
Q
  1. Workers response to War Communism.
A
  • Factory committees didn’t have much power.
  • Unemployment was rampant and workers moved to the countryside.
  • Food prices rose.
  • Communists formed ‘labor armies’ to clear roads, rebuild bridges, etc.
  • Party membership sunk.
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10
Q
  1. The creation of the new specialist class in the Soviet Union.
A
  • Created during the Lenin-Stalin area.
  • An objective to train more specialists from the working class. Many failed in technical universities. Many non-party professors were verbally attacked and dismissed.
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11
Q
  1. Economic debates in the Soviet Union in the 1920s (Trotsky vs. Bukharin).
A
  • Trotsky: Rigorous centralized planning. Focus heavily on heavy industry. Machinery made in heavy industry will then help every other field.
  • Bukharin: Opposition on the right. Recommended lowering prices of industrial goods and easing restrictions on land leasing. Bukharin wanted to focus heavily on the agricultural sector. He believed that peasants would produce more to sell, be well fed, and the peasants would then buy industrial products which would help heavy industry.
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12
Q
  1. The New Economic Policy (the USSR in the 1920s).
A
  • A strategic retreat to capitalism approved by Lenin. Occurred in 1921.
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13
Q
  1. Agricultural collectivization in the USSR (the 1920s-1930s).
A
  • The goal of the campaign was to liquidate the kulak and to increase food supplied to the cities. Over 5 million resisted collectivization and were killed/banished.
  • Led to a massive famine, passports, road blocks, and many kolkhoz farmers not being payed.
  • Kommuna: All property held in common, sometimes with living quarters.
  • Artel: Each househould owned its own dwelling and small plot of land. Other resources shared.
  • TOZ: Some or all fields cultivated collectively
  • Sovkhozy: Fixed wages.
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14
Q
  1. Industrialization in the Soviet Union (the 1930s).
A
  • Stalin wanted to surpass the west. Stalin argued for heavy industry to be at the center.
  • Unemployment was pretty much eliminated but the demand for works was still high and very expensive.
  • Housing was horrible
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15
Q
  1. The occupation of the Baltic States (Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia).
A
  • Done by force in the 1940s. Held “elections” which ended in communist majorities in all three countries.
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16
Q
  1. The creation of the communist regime in Hungary and the Hungarian revolt.
A
  • Communist party didn’t do too well in the elections but they won some seats and key ministerial positions.
  • The police were controlled by the communist party; many government members were arrested.
  • Hungarian revolt of October 23,1956 against the communist party.
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17
Q

The creation of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia and the Prague Spring.

A
  • Czechoslovakia: Dominated by three socialist parties. Eduard Benes was forced to step down and Klement Gottwald became prime minister. In 1948 the communist takeover was complete through a reasonably free election.
  • Prague Spring: In August 20-21, 1968 – Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia.
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18
Q
  1. Nationalization of industry and land reform in Poland in the first years after the establishment of the communist regime.
A
  • Mass nationalization. Every factor with a labor force of at least 50 workers was nationalized.
  • Land mostly remained in private hands.
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19
Q

The economic system of Yugoslavia during communism and its achievements.

A
  • Self-management, economic freedom, traveling, variation, consumer goods, etc.
  • Tito was a fairly popular leader and Yugoslavia’s people hadthe highest standard of living in the region. Tito was a good leader in handling peace and cooperation in the communist system. A considerable amount of freedom of speech.
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20
Q
  1. Industrialization in the Soviet satellite states of East Central Europe after WWII.
A
  • Heavy Industry.?
21
Q
  1. Early years of the Chinese communist party.
A
  • 1920s: The Communist party hel its first congress on a boat on a lake. Mao Zedong emerged as one of the leaders. The soviets pressured the Communists to join the nationalist party but that alliance was soon broken. In 1928 Mao formed the first Red Army and a Soviet.
22
Q
  1. Mao Zedong’s ideas about building communism in China.
A
  • Followed the lines of Marx, Engels, and Lenin. He however had a primacy of the peasant class for the revolution. His main emphasis was from learning hands-on and testing ideas in practice.
  • Mao stressed closeness to the masses and the peasants.
23
Q
  1. The Great Leap Forward.
A
  • Mao’s goal was to overtake the UK in 15 years in industrial development.
  • Implemented in 1957-1958 (May). Over 740,000 co-operatives were reorganized into 26,000 communes.
  • The entire population of China had to try to make steel and ‘backyard’ furnaces.
  • Results were good at the start but this led to even higher target. There wasn’t much left to show and bad weather came. Over 20-40 million people died due to famine.
24
Q
  1. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
A
  • Meant to face his opponents and revisionist in the party.
  • Army uniforms fairly similar despite ranking differences.
  • Mao encouraged the youth to challenge authorities. This led to the creation of the Red Guards. The Red Guards traveled all over the country to get rid of the bourgeois and class enemies. Set out to eliminate the ‘Four olds’: Old thought, old culture, old customs, and old habits.
  • Mao urged radicals to take over their local government and directed the army to give military and political training in universities and schools.
  • Eventually the red guards went berserk and over 18 million were moved to the countryside.
  • Little Red Book stayed, uniforms stayed, and education curriculum was indoctrinated with Mao’s writings and sayings.
25
Q
  1. The difference between South and North Korea before the division.
A
  • North Korean was much more industrially developed due to the Japanese heavily investing before the independence movement.
26
Q

Communist movement in North Korea in the wake of the communist regime.

A
  • Compromised of many young students and intellectuals. Japan did not approve and most were forced to leave the country. Due to this there weren’t many Communists in North Korea so the USSR and China started to send communists into North Korea.
  • One of the arrivals was Kim Il Sung who was chosen to lead the NK government.
27
Q
  1. Soviet Union’s control over North Korean in the first years of communism.
A
  • In its early years it was a satellite state of the Soviet Union.
28
Q
  1. Changes in North Korean politics in 1956.
A
  • In 1956 an opposition party challenged Kim Il Sung and were quickly crushed. Kim then appointed personnel to all top positions, including family members.
29
Q
  1. North Korea’s distancing from the Soviet Union.
A
  • NK believed the USSR was becoming too liberal under Kruschev. NK media stopped reporting on the USSR, sent home many USSR citizens, and recalled students.
30
Q
  1. North Korean economic structure.
A
  • Full nationalization of industry and agriculture. Almost complete elimination of private initiative and the role of money diminished.
  • Private makers were not banned but small and many regulations.
  • Farms much smaller than in the USSR.
  • Food rations were determined on social class, job, and area of residence.
31
Q
  1. Fidel Castro’s guerrilla army during the revolution (popular support, relationship with peasants, size). Refer to the slide “The Revolution”.
A
  • The name of the guerilla army was the M-26-7 movement. Castro’s troops had a good reputation of taking care of areas they controlled. They opened schools and medical care facilities while introducing agrarian reform.
  • His army would target Cuba’s economic sectors such as burning entire sugarcane crops.
  • Castro was denied financial aid from President Eisenhower.
32
Q
  1. First laws adopted by the Castro regime.
A
  • Law 135 reduced rental and housing costs by 30-50%
  • Another law cut public transportation and medicine fees.
  • Law 142 raised the minimum wage for government employees.
  • Urban Reform law (1960): Limited ownership of housing units to just one property. Occupants of excess houses would pay rent to the state and eventually receive titles to the properties
  • Agrarian Reform Law (1959): Limited land ownership to 1,000 acres. Made allowance for compensation for nationalized land and provided for land redistribution.
33
Q
  1. What were the proclaimed goals of the Castro regime?
A
  • Raise the standard of living, particularly of middle and lower classes.
  • Make Cuba more egalitarian. Extension of education, medical care, and other services to the masses.
  • To aide this, the Literacy Campaign (1961) helped illiteracy fall from 25% to just 4%
  • Fought to end racial and gender discrimination.
34
Q
  1. Cuban economy before and after the revolution.
A
  • SUGAR
  • After the revolution Cuba sank to an economic crisis. Why?
  • Nationalization led to decrease of production/productivity. Social reforms and wages needed expenditures. Highly educated skilled pros left the country. Embargo by the US.
  • Guevara admitted that the biggest problem was bureaucrats, labor absenteeism, and overall inefficiency.
  • “Year of Ten Million” Castro’s plan to produce 10 million tons of sugar in 1970. Got relatively close but failed due to insufficient labor.
35
Q
  1. Gorbachev’s reforms (perestroika, glasnost, communist party monopoly).
A
  • Perestroika (Restructuring): Cooperatives were allowed which allowed entrepreneurship. An Anti-alcohol campaign. Intensified investigation of corrupt individuals.
  • Glasnost (Openness): Freedom of expression, criticism, discussion, and publication.
  • Communist Party Monopoly: Gorbachev still believed that the Communist party should lead and that the socialist/communist system was superior.
36
Q
  1. The Solidarity movement in Poland.
A
  • Trade Union in Poland that grew while membership in the communist party decreased.
37
Q
  1. Gradualist approach to post-communist economic reforms.
A
  • Implementation of same economic reforms as Shock Therapy BUT over an extended period of time. Careful sequencing of economic reforms, minimization of negative impact and political costs.
38
Q
  1. Shock therapy approach to post-communist economic reforms.
A
  • Set of economic measures aimed at the simultaneous establishment of macroeconomic stabilization, price liberalization and trade liberalization, accompanied by large-scale privatization of state-owned enterprises (SLP)
39
Q
  1. Socialist/collective ownership.
A

?

40
Q
  1. Causes behind the communist system collapse.
A
  • Economic decline
  • Growing gap between promises and performance
  • Rising corruption
  • Communist party losing legitimacy and power in many soviet territories.
  • Formation of civil society.
  • Gorbachev Reforms
41
Q
  1. When did the Soviet Union collapse?
A
  • 1991
42
Q
  1. Investment decisions during communism.
A
  • Controlled in regards to political priority.
  • Investments mostly in Military, strategic industries (steel, machinery, etc) and Secret service forces (KGB)
  • All industries had unlimited demands for investments and nobody was denied funding. Investments were scares and were spread thin among enterprises.
  • Decisions were slow and slowed down production.
43
Q
  1. Elections during communism.
A
  1. Elections during communism.
    - Elections were held but they weren’t truly free. This allowed the USSR to maintain the image of a democratic system.
    - However most positions were filled by appointments and the nomenklatura system.
44
Q
  1. The “Washington Consensus” policies.
A
  • Fiscal discipline
  • Public expenditure prioritization
  • Tax Reform
  • Financial/Trade Liberalization
  • Exchange rates
  • FDI
  • Privatization of state owned enterprises
  • Deregulation
  • Property Rights
  • The USSR was unhappy with it because many western economies failed to follow it, yet the USSR had to do it all.
  • Uncertainty with massive economic reforms and low support of the population.
45
Q
  1. Price liberalization and the consequences of price liberalization.
A
  • All it takes for Price liberalization to be implemented is an announcement that markets can now set their own prices.
  • Leads to income redistribution and inflation.
  • Mostly led to massive inflation and hoarding of goods.
46
Q
  1. Dual nature of the communist transition.
A
  • Simultaneous political and economic reforms.
47
Q
  1. Privatization during post-communist transition. Voucher privatization.
A
  • Legal transfer of property from the state to private agents. Private property doesn’t mean full ownership.
  • Small scale: Transfer of small state assets, such as truck transport.
  • Large-scale: Slow.
  • Foreign Investments: Most attractive buyers because they had resources. Controversial because foreigners. Most domestic savings were used on small-scale privatization.
  • Voucher Privatization: Coupons that could be converted into shares in companies. Czechoslovakia was the first country to adopt this.
48
Q
  1. Fall in production output during post-communist transition. Reasons.
A
  • Two positions to take on this issue.
  • Position 1: Not as bad as it looked. Simply meant that supply was adjusting to demand. Real wages didn’t drop as much as it appeared.
  • Position 2: It was bad and they should’ve known it would be bad. Fall in output was due to disorganization. Breakdown of economic connections in enterprises.
49
Q
  1. Budget deficit during post-communist transition. Reasons.
A
  • Decreased due to drop in output.
  • Demand for social expenditures increased
  • Tax evasion
  • External finance was impossible due to high debts and lack of credibility.
  • Borrowing on a domestic scale was still difficult due to non-existent or underdeveloped markets
  • Mostly borrowed from the Central Bank

Communism Final (1 decks)

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