State Capitalism Flashcards
What was state capitalism?
A compromise economy. Some elements of socialism (a degree of state control) but retained elements of capitalism (private markets and profit incentive)
Why did Lenin implace state capitalism?
Marxism stated that socialism could only develop properly in an industrialised society
Manage existing economic structure with modifications until conditions were ripe for socialism
Decree on land - October 1917
Land allowed to ‘pass into the use of all those who wish to cultivate it’ and private landownership was abolished - not nationalised
If peasants didn’t have incentive to produce grain urban Russians would starve
Decree on Workers’ Control of Factories - November 1917
Simply acknowledged that factories already taken over by workers
How was greater state control over the economy established?
NATIONALISATION of banks (December 1918), of external trade (June 1918), railways (June and September 1918)
Veshenka (dec 1917)
GOELRO (1920) organise electricity
Problems of State Capitalism
Shortcomings of decrees on land and industry
Workers failed to organise efficiently, output shrank.
Some workers gave themselves unsustainable pay rises, took equipment/stock for themselves or to barter on black market
Make penknives/shoes out of machinery/convery belts
Conditions in cities
Early 1918 - Petrograd bread ration 50g per day
Blockade of trade greatly reduced supplies to cities
2/3 food sourced from black market
60% Petrograd workforce left city by April 1918
Conditions in countryside
Early war - did well sold horses for military use and killed livestock for food, but conditions worsened over time
Sackmen
Traders hounded by cordon detachments established in 1918 - authorities failed to quash black market
Rape and murder common - 100,000 Jews killed in white pogroms
How many died from disease and famine during the civil war compared to direct action?
5 million
Around 350,000
Conditions for former nobility and bourgeoisie?
No ration cards
Some swept streets, some sent to labour battalions on fronts
Large houses and palaces divided up, flats created in proportion to family size
Medical services?
Scarcity of soap and medicines
Few doctors after assault on bourgeoisie and most conscripted
