T2- industry and agriculture tsars and communists (economy) Flashcards
Reutern reforms and effects
Focused on foreign tech expertise, investment capital and railway
Effect:
Good
Modernisation and expansion occured in iron, coal, textiles and oil.
Employed manch for textiles, welsh for iron and steel
2194 rw miles in 1862- 13979 in 1878
Average annual growth rate under Reutern- 6% a year
Bad
94% of Railway private by 1880- reliance on foreign investers
Railway not up to western standard
Bunge reforms and effects
Good
Salt, Poll tax abolished. Peasant land bank in 1883.
69% of railway in public control by 1911.
Vyshnegradsky reforms and effects
Efficient utilisation of taxes, railways, state crown and railways
Good
Raised gov revenue
Bad
Mendel’ev tariff- exported large amounts of grain leading to 1891 famine
Witte reforms
Focus on industry abandoned agri
Took out foreign loans
Raised interest rates and taxes
Investment on heavy industry and railway
Rouble placed on the gold standard
Witte reforms results good
Coal prod doubles, iron and steel increased sevenfold
RW- 17264 in 1891 to 31125 in 1901
Income increase from industry- 42 mil roubles in 1893 to 161 mil roubles in 1897
Witte reforms results bad
Neglected engineering and textiles
Reliance on foreign loan and investment- dangerous
RW still lagged behind west
Stolypin increase in output 1909-1913 and gnp
Industrial output- 7 percent a year
GNP- 3.5 percnt a year
Stolypin and witte economic reforms limitations
By 1913, russia coal production 10% of Britain, GNP 20% of Britain. No attempt at agri- starving people. WWI negatively impacted economy- more loans, high taxes, gold standard abandoned. Witte reforms only short term success.
State capitalism under Lenin
Central economic control through supreme economic council to deal with economic crisis. Decree of Land in 1917 gave some priv land to peasants.
How did the Treaty of Brest-Livotsk affect the economy?
Ended Russia’s involvement in ww1. Stopped ruination of economy- had to hand territory to germany e.g ukraine.
What effect did the civil war have on the economy?
Production of coal fell, high inflation resulted in virtual abandonment of currency.
What economic policy was implemented during the civil war?
War communism- grain requisitioning and state capitalism. Nationalised industry, militarisation of labour and forced requisitioning.
What did NEP consist of?
The reaction
Denationalised small-scale enterprise
Return to encouragement of foreign trade and investment
End to grain requisitioning
Effect of NEP
Industrial output increased rapidly, nepman emerged.
Scissors crisis- food supply increased at too fast a rate for demand, very low prices. Manufactured good supply increased at much slower rate, those prices were very high
NEP opposition
debate raged saying nep was betrayal of oct rev and communist ideals- rightists for nep, leftists against. Stalin became critic of nep once long term effects were apparent
Aims of Stalinist industrial reforms
- Catch up and beat west (tsars were bad)
- Prepare for conflict with capitalist countries
- Economic autarky (not relying on f investment)
Five year plans summary
1- 1928-32 – focus on heavy industry
2- 1933-38 - focus on heavy industry, manufacturing, communications, consumer goods & new industries
3- 1938-41 – as plan 2 BUT shifted to rearmament & interrupted by Nazi invasion (1941).
The 4th (1945-50) and 5th (1951-55) Five Year Plans were launched after WWII - focus to rebuild industry & agriculture.
Five year plan 1
- The economy grew by 14% per year, with higher oil, coal, and steel production than under Tsarism and the NEP.
- Gosplan’s targets were rarely met- most goods were of a poor quality as factories aimed for quantity over quality. There was also managerial corruption as they falsified results.
Five year plan 2
The output of steel trebled
expansion in the metallurgical industries of copper, mercury, lead and zinc.
Railway expansion aided transport e.g. the modernisation of 700kms of the Trans Siberian railway and building a line to connect Moscow and the Ukraine.
Five year plan 3
Investment in rearmament doubled e.g. in 1939 Gosplan ordered 9 new aircraft factories built.
Production of coal increased
Production of crude oil increased
However there was stagnation in the production of steel at 18 m tons (same as under second Five Year plan)
Five year plan 4 and 5
Aimed to restore the economy to pre-war levels. This was going to be difficult given the 26 million dead (70% were men) and so women stayed in the labour force. But production increased and by 1950 it was claimed, by the government, that production was 73% above the 1940s level.
Khrushchev
Continued centralised planning
There was overall growth under Khrushchev e.g. oil increased while pig iron rose
But the USSR still lagged behind other countries with regard to consumer goods, and Khrushchev industrial output less impressive than stalin
Industrialisation under Stalin-successful
Success
- Russia moved from a semi capitalist rural society into a highly industrialised (problematic), urbanised society.
- Iron and steel works, factories and hydro – electric dams were built across the Soviet Union. Electricity generation increased sevenfold in the 1930’s.
- USSR had overtook Britain in iron and steel production by 1940. This was achieved by economic autarky, unlike the period of industrialisation overseen by Witte between 1892 – 1903
Industrialisation under Stalin-unsuccessful
Russian industry was still very inefficiently run and industrialisation was achieved at great cost to the Soviet people.
