THE EXTENT OF AND REASONS FOR ECONOMIC CHANGE

Question 1

What was a common thread in industrialisation?

Answer 1

The relationship with agriculture and the backward nature of Russian society.

Question 2

What did AII warrant in the beginning of industrialisation? What did this evolve into?

Answer 2

Warranted a ‘new work discipline’, which evolved into a way of controlling the activities of the bulk of the population.

Question 3

Who was appointed finance minister in 1862?

Answer 3

Reutern

Question 4

What approach did Reutern adopt? What were his three main aims?

Answer 4

A sensible approach which aimed to continue railway construction, attract foreign technical expertise and employment of foreign investment capital.

Question 5

When was the first railway constructed in Russia?

Answer 5

1837

Question 6

How much railway track had been opened in 1862 in comparison 1878?

Answer 6

1862 = 2,194
1878 = 13,979

Question 7

What three things did Reutern implement to secure foreign monies?

Answer 7

Government bonds, taxation exemptions and monopoly concessions.

Question 8

Who was made finance minister in 1882?

Answer 8

Bunge.

Question 9

What was created in 1883? What was there a move towards?

Answer 9

Peasant Land Bank. Move towards greater state ownership of railways.

Question 10

How much of the railway system was under public control in 1911?

Answer 10

69%

Question 11

How many miles of railway track was there in 1956?

Answer 11

74,600

Question 12

What did AIII blame Bunge for?

Answer 12

A dramatic fall in the value of the rouble in the mid 1880s.

Question 13

When was Vyshnegradsky made finance minister?

Answer 13

1887

Question 14

What was significant revenue raised through in 1891?

Answer 14

Medele’ev tariff.

Question 15

What did Russian economic activity largely revolve around by 1893?

Answer 15

Agricultural production

Question 16

What did Witte claim due to his radical policies?

Answer 16

“all thinking Russia was against me”.

Question 17

What three policies did Witte go back to?

Answer 17

Taking out foreign loans, raising taxes and interest rates.

Question 18

What significant thing happened to the Russian Rouble in 1897?

Answer 18

Placed on the gold standard.

Question 19

What happened to coal, steel and iron production in the ‘Great Spurt’?

Answer 19

Coal production doubled and iron and steel increased seven-fold.

Question 20

What was the total amount of railway track opened in 1891 in comparison to 1901?

Answer 20

1891 = 17,264 miles
1901 = 31,125 miles

Question 21

How much did income earned from industry rise from 1893 to 1897?

Answer 21

1893 = 42 million roubles 
1897 = 161 million roubles

Question 22

What was the average annual rate of increase in industrial production during the ‘Great Spurt’?

Answer 22

7.5%

Question 23

What had Russia become a part of through state control in the Great Spurt?

Answer 23

A new international capitalist order.

Question 24

What was the issue with Witte’s policies?

Answer 24

Consumer, engineering and textile industries were neglected.

Question 25

What was Russia’s miles of railway in comparison to Germany’s?

Answer 25

Eleven times fewer.

Question 26

What type of foreign policy did NII adopt?

Answer 26

Expansionist.

Question 27

When was Witte appointed prime minister?

Answer 27

1905.

Question 28

How much did industrial output increase on average from 1909 to 1913? How much did GNP increase?

Answer 28

Industrial Output = 7%

GNP = 3.5%

Question 29

What was the issue regarding Russian coal?

Answer 29

Production at the start of the war was 10% of that produced by Britain.

Question 30

What was significant about Russian gold reserves?

Answer 30

Largest stock of gold reserves in Europe, although they were still unable to fight a successful war.

Question 31

What was a key part of State Capitalism under Lenin?

Answer 31

Involved the state taking complete control of the economy until it could be ‘safely’ handed over to the proletariat.

Question 32

What was passed in November 1917?

Answer 32

Decree on Land - division of private landholdings that were handed over to the peasants.

Question 33

What was given extra powers in November 1918?

Answer 33

Workers’ Committees, given extra powers to run factories.

Question 34

How much did industrial output (in particular coal) fall from 1913 to 1921?

Answer 34

29 million tonnes in 1913 to 8.9 million tonnes in 1921.

Question 35

What did nationalisation under war communism cause?

Answer 35

Unrest as it meant that individuals lost the freedom to produce and sell goods at a time.

Question 36

What was the most hated policy under war communism?

Answer 36

Grain requisitioning, as it involved taking away surpluses of food and grain.

Question 37

What were three of the main features of NEP?

Answer 37

1. Denationalisation of small-scale enterprise.
2. A return to the encouragement of foreign trade.
3. An end to grain requisitioning.

Question 38

What was the NEP promoted as by the Politburo?

Answer 38

‘a temporary deviation, a tactical retreat’.

Question 39

When was NEP ended? What did it create?

Answer 39

1929, and created the Great Turn.

Question 40

What were the aims of NEP linked to?

Answer 40

Economic autarky.

Question 41

What was the Gosplan given the task of doing?

Answer 41

Researching and calculating figures needed for target setting for individual industries.

Question 42

Who were the plans created from the Gosplan given to?

Answer 42

Regional managers/directors to implement.

Question 43

How much was coal production in 1928 to 1945?

Answer 43

1928 = 35.5 million tonnes 
1945 = 150 million tonnes

Question 44

What did Khrushchev’s continuation of centralised planning result in?

Answer 44

Further economic growth and more diversification in what was produced.