T2- industry and agriculture tsars and communists (economy)

Question 1

Reutern reforms and effects

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Bunge reforms and effects

Answer 2

Good
Salt, Poll tax abolished. Peasant land bank in 1883.
69% of railway in public control by 1911.

Question 3

Vyshnegradsky reforms and effects

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Witte reforms

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Witte reforms results good

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Witte reforms results bad

Answer 6

Neglected engineering and textiles
Reliance on foreign loan and investment- dangerous
RW still lagged behind west

Question 7

Stolypin increase in output 1909-1913 and gnp

Answer 7

Industrial output- 7 percent a year
GNP- 3.5 percnt a year

Question 8

Stolypin and witte economic reforms limitations

Answer 8

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.

Question 9

State capitalism under Lenin

Answer 9

Central economic control through supreme economic council to deal with economic crisis. Decree of Land in 1917 gave some priv land to peasants.

Question 10

How did the Treaty of Brest-Livotsk affect the economy?

Answer 10

Ended Russia’s involvement in ww1. Stopped ruination of economy- had to hand territory to germany e.g ukraine.

Question 11

What effect did the civil war have on the economy?

Answer 11

Production of coal fell, high inflation resulted in virtual abandonment of currency.

Question 12

What economic policy was implemented during the civil war?

Answer 12

War communism- grain requisitioning and state capitalism. Nationalised industry, militarisation of labour and forced requisitioning.

Question 13

What did NEP consist of?

Answer 13

The reaction
Denationalised small-scale enterprise
Return to encouragement of foreign trade and investment
End to grain requisitioning

Question 14

Effect of NEP

Answer 14

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

Question 15

NEP opposition

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Aims of Stalinist industrial reforms

Answer 16

• Catch up and beat west (tsars were bad)
• Prepare for conflict with capitalist countries
• Economic autarky (not relying on f investment)

Question 17

Five year plans summary

Answer 17

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.

Question 18

Five year plan 1

Answer 18

• 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.

Question 19

Five year plan 2

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

Five year plan 3

Answer 20

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)

Question 21

Five year plan 4 and 5

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

Khrushchev

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Industrialisation under Stalin-successful

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Industrialisation under Stalin-unsuccessful

Answer 24

Russian industry was still very inefficiently run and industrialisation was achieved at great cost to the Soviet people.

Question 25

Emancipation of the serfs and agri reform

Answer 25

+Progressive, brought in line with west
-Peasants tied down by redemption payments and mir, some left with less land than they had started with

Question 26

1891 famine

Answer 26

Blamed on poor techniques by peasants but realistically due to vyshnegradsky grain exports

Question 27

Stolypin’s reforms/wager on the strong 1905-7

Answer 27

• Peasant Land bank- peasants could buy land privately
• Undermined by nobles’ land bank
• Peasants released from tie from the mir

Question 28

Negative effects of stolypin’s reforms

Answer 28

Led to kulak class who were dissatisfied with land available 
2 mil people left village communes by 1914- short on rural labour workforce

Question 29

Decree on Land under bolsheviks

Answer 29

‘Peace, Land, Bread’- redistribution of land to peasants
Used this to gain popular support rather than benefit peasants.

Question 30

The kulaks under war communism

Answer 30

Kulaks blamed for food shortages
Punished by having property confiscated
Became scapegoats for some of the economic policies experienced by the bolsheviks

Question 31

The kulaks under nep

Answer 31

Viewed as ‘more cultured and educated peasants’
Bolshevik leaders still associated grain hoarding and shortages with kulaks- wealthier, productive peasants persecuted and blamed for shortcomings of ag policy

Question 32

Collectivisation

Answer 32

Dedicated to producing food for the benefit of the whole state. based on belief shortages were due to hoarding- just before Stalin was leader 3% of peasant farmers working on collective., vs his announcement in 1930 saying 58% of households were working on collective farms.

Question 33

Dekulakisation- why?

Answer 33

Due to them ‘actively opposing’ collectivisation and basically their hidden wealth which threatened the collective/communist structure.

Question 34

How many people were executed/exiled due to de-kulakisation?

Answer 34

1928-1930- -3 mil kulak families deported to siberia, 30k shot.

Question 35

How did the communists seek out kulaks?

Answer 35

Other peasants recruited to seek out kulaks. Created fear and boosted collectivisation.

Question 36

Renewed collectivisation from 1937

Answer 36

50 percent of peasants in kolkohzy 1930- 93% by 1937, 98% by 1941
Motor tractor stations used on farms
Some plots more productive after famine 1932-1934 which led to improved payments to farmers in the kolkhozy

Question 37

Why did peasants continue to resist collectivisation?

Answer 37

• famine suggested it contributed to food shortages, not help
• deprived rights to make extra income
• mir abolition in 1930 blow to tradition

Question 38

Khrushchev VLS

Answer 38

Short term success- 96 mil acres of land given to wheat prod in 1950, 164mil acres by 1964
Food requirements adequately met
However, long term failure. Virgin soil was poor , bad harvests of 1963 saw grain production fall significantly. Believed to be reason for downfall.