Socioeconomic conditions under Lenin Flashcards
1
Q
What is state capitalism?
A
A compromise economy which embraced some elements of socialism by imposing a degree of state control but retained elements of capitalism such as private markets and profit incentive
2
Q
What was the Bolshevik opinion to state capitalism?
A
Many Bolsheviks wanted radical measures like the nationalisation of all businesses and the abolition of money for the needs of the people rather than profit contrasting Lenin’s aim for a long transition as Russia was not ready as it had not industrialised
3
Q
What happened as a result of state capitalism?
A
- The decree on land and decree on worker’s control of factories gave workers incentive to work and to produce grain
- December 1917 - Nationalisation of banks
- June 1918 - Nationalisation of external trade
- June - September 1918 - Nationalisation of railways
- Creation of Veshenka
- GOELRO was established in 1920 to organise the production and distribution of electricity
- Workers failed to organise factories efficiently and output shrank
- They often gave themselves unsustainable pay and helped themselves to stock and equipment
- Viktor Serge reported workers making pen knives out of machinery and shoe soles out of leather conveyer belts to barter on the black market
4
Q
What were the conditions in the city?
A
- Industrial production fell due to a lack of raw materials, workers served in the army and non-essential businesses closed
- Urban dwellers were worse off as they lacked natural resources and many stripped their houses from wood to keep warm exacerbated by the blockade of trade and loss of Ukraine
- By early 1918, bread was rationed in Petrograd of 50g per person per day
- 2/3 of people turned to the black market as inhabitants from cities tried to barter goods ad sackmen tried to make little from under cover trading
- Cordon attachment were established to prevent illegal activity but they failed
- 60% of Petrograd’s workforce had left by April 1918 as war rations were higher in villages and the red army
- Between January 1917 and January 1919, Russia’s urban proletariat declined from 3.6 million to 1.4 million
5
Q
What were the conditions in the country?
A
- Since industrial production fell, inflation was brought in and peasants with surplus produce were not ready to sell it as many turned to subsistence farming
- Many peasants did well in the early years of the war as they sold horses for military use and killed livestock to maintain a good diet
- Out of the 10 million deaths in the civil war, 5 million was due to starvation and disease compared to only 350,000 from combat
- In 1920, the typhus epidemic killed 3 million due to a lack of soap, medicine and doctors as it was reserved for the frontline
- Former nobility had no ration cards so they begged and sold possessions
- Many took manual labour jobs like sweeping streets, clearing snow and working in labour battalions
- Large houses and palaces were divided up by Bolsheviks building committees and the nobility lived in small flats
- Cossack attacks wiped out whole villages in Ukraine
- Kiev changed hands 16 times
- Rape, murder and white pogroms became common
6
Q
What did Trotsky call for in the economy?
A
His own scheme with a mix of communist and socialist elements in 1920 but he later backed down for communism by force
7
Q
Why did war communism exist?
A
To ensure the red army with munitions, food and supplies by towns but some argued it was used to promote a socialist economy
8
Q
What was the Bolshevik opinion on war communism?
A
They treated the economy as a single enterprise to make use of Russia’s industrial and productive capability ergo heavy and large businesses had more investment without concerns for individuals like workers, managers or consumers whose interests constantly changed and contrasted economies driven by market force (influences such as demand and availability to determine prices not the government) supporting for the good of all as they emphasised centralised planning as Russia was a large factory without the problems of supply, demand and distribution
9
Q
What was requisitioning (taking a set amount quota)?
A
- Peasants’ grain was requisitioned to distribute to cities to feed workers as built upon the socialisation of land decree in February 1918 and a food supplies dictatorship in May 1918
- The government encouraged collective farming in hopes to farm more efficiently but few families took part in it
- Officially peasants were paid a fixed price for grain but when soldiers, cheka and workers came, they seized more produce for vouchers that could be exchanged at a later date
- Livestock, carts and firewood disappeared leaving peasants a limited amount of goods to live off
- The requisitioning detachments sought their own booty as a reward for their efforts
- Kulaks made personal wealth from farming and labelled as enemies to the people as entire stocks were seized
- The poor and moderately poor were treated better as allies of the urban proletariat but the requisition brought misery to rural areas and many peasants resisted
- They hid supplies but many soldiers searched for it and when they found, they only received half of the grain
- Peasants began to grow less and murdering members of requisition squads forcing the cheka to increase control
10
Q
What is nationlisation?
A
- The nationalisation of industries multiplied under the civil war including sugar in may 1918 and oil in June
- By November 1920, it expanded to nearly all factories and businesses banning private trade and manufacture
- Railways were controlled in a military style
- Workers lost freedoms given in November 1917 decrees as workers’ soviets were abolished
- Professional managers/specialists were employed to impose discipline and increase output to allow them to stay open and provide employment but non - essential industries and small workshops suffered
11
Q
What happened to labour discipline and rationing?
A
- Strikes were forbidden, working hours were extended and ration-card workbooks were issued instead of wages
- Fines were imposed for slackness, lateness and being absent whilst hard work was rewarded with onuses and more rations
- Food, clothing and lodgings were controlled through centralised distribution and regulation
- Internal passports were introduced to stop employees drifting to the countryside
- Obligatory labour duty was demanded of the non-working class
- Rationing was organised based on class so the red army soldiers and factory workers got the highest and white collar professional got the least as the former people
12
Q
What were the effects of war communism?
A
- Transport systems were distributed by fighting and management struggled to get factories to work efficiently
- By 1921, total industrial output had fallen to c20% of its pre-war levels and rations were cut
- Disease was rife heightened by famine leading to continued deaths
- Workers went on strike
- Some called for better rations, new elections and a recall of the constituent assembly
- Many ignored the passport systems and braved the army guards stationed on the city boundaries to flee the country in hopes to find food
- By the end of 1920, Petrograd’s population had fallen by 57.5% and Moscow by 44.5% from 1917
- Attacks on kulaks reduced grain supplies to dangerous levels
- There was an acute food shortages by 1920 as insufficient grain was planted
- 1/3 of land had been abandoned to grass and cattle and horses were slaughtered in their thousands by hungry peasants
- In the 1921 harvest, only 48% of what was produced in 1913
- Russia’s population decreased from 170.9 million in 1913 to 130.9 million by 1921
- Many resulted in cannibalism and trade in dead bodies
13
Q
What was red terror like?
A
- Bolsheviks relied on coercion for control through extreme terror especially after the assassination attempts
- The cheka rounded up the remaining SRs, Mensheviks and anarchists with many being shot. It is estimated that half a million were executed between 1918 and 1920 but official records only show a fraction of this number
- The cheka also conducted a class warfare as bourgeoise were arrested guilty of plotting a counter - revolution. This catalysed mass arrests, imprisonments and executions of all people from society
14
Q
What was the Tambov revolt?
A
- There were 155 uprisings in Russia in February 1921 and the most significant were in the Tambov province, 300 miles south east of Moscow
- It began in August 1920 and lasted until June 1921
- A 70,000 - man peasant army led to Alexander Antonov rose up against government forces arrives in the provinces as there were no grain reserves left
- Peasants and members of the green army joined
- This led to 100,000 red army troops to be deployed to deal with the uprising as it spread further across south-eastern Russia and by 1922, whole villages were destroyed
- There were brutal reprisals especially against accused Kulaks
- Poison gas was used a an extreme technique to deal with people hidden in the forest
15
Q
What happened during the Kronstadt rising?
A
- The food crisis of 1921 and a reduction of a third in bread rations in several cities including Moscow and Petrograd brought further strikes and riots
- They further protested about a lack of union representatives in factories and many turned to other socialist parties
- Marital law was declared in January 1921 but even some regular soldiers refused to take action and the cheka had to be used to crush demonstrators
- In March 1921, despite the previous loyalty, 30,000 sailors sent a manifesto demanding for the end of one - party communist rule demanding for a genuine democracy and civil rights using the slogan “soviets without Bolsheviks”
- The red army under Marshal Tukhachevsky was sent by Trotsky five miles across the ice (supported by an artillery force on land and cheka men to the rear in case of deserters) to crush the rebels
- Leaders of the revolt were shot and 15000 rebels were prisoners with most sent to a labour camp on the white sea
- Lenin saw them as white traitors because of previous loyalty
- The revolt created divisions in the Bolshevik party as the workers’ opposition group was set up by Kollontai and Shlyapknikov calling for greater worker control, removal of both mangers and military discipline in factories
- It objected to the fact that the state appointed trade union leaders which made them effective tools of the regime
- It opposed those who wanted to continue and intensify communism including Trotsky
