How far would you agree that the Bolsheviks responded successfully to the economic problems they faced in Russia between 1918 and 1924?

Created by: imscrewed666
Created on: 29-01-20 20:44


	How far would you agree that the Bolsheviks responded successfully to the economic problems they faced in Russia between 1918 and 1924?
	Advantages The first problem faced by the Bolsheviks in 1918 was ineffective production of workers and peasants. State Capitalism established worker control over the factories and redistributed land to the peasants via Land Committees under the Land Decree. Both the workers and the peasants proved inefficient and ineffective in running their enterprises, so production of both food and industrial products fell considerably. This was fixed under War Communism by the June 1918 Decree of Nationalisation, under which the state took control over all industry, instructing factories on what to produce and imposing strict discipline upon the workers in order to ensure the Red Army was well-equipped to fight in the Civil War. The Supreme Council of National Economy (Vesenkha) was set up by Lenin to create a planned economy, and trade unions were banned. The second problem faced by the Bolsheviks was peasant opposition to the Cheka detachments, known as requisition squads, were sent into the countryside to take peasant grain by force under the Food Supplies Dictatorship set up in May 1918.peasants resented grain requisitioning and resisted it by returning to subsistence farming, leading to low grain harvests. This, combined with a severe drought, caused a famine which killed an estimated 5 to 7 million people. A massive international aid operation was mounted, in which the USA played a major role through the American Relief Association, which spent over 60 million dollars in relief work. This was politically incredibly damaging to the Bolsheviks, whose opponents in the Civil War were being supported by the US at this time. In Tambov, there was a peasants' revolt in 1920 and 1921. As with the Kronstadt Mutiny, it was suppressed when the area was flooded with Red Army units, but also goes to show that while they had the forced compliance of the people, the policy was severely resented. This was fixed by the NEP, which replaced the despised requisitioning with a tax in kind and not just allowed, but encouraged, peasants to profit from surplus grain. Some peasants, who became known as Kulaks, became wealthy this way and were able to contribute to the economy by spending their wealth on manufactured goods. Finally, a third problem faced by the Bolsheviks throughout the entirety of their reign was scarcity of goods. This was, in part, exacerbated by the ineffectiveness of the workers during the years of State Capitalism. However, the NEP undoubtedly responded successfully to this through the emergence of Nepmen", who made money by buying food and goods cheaply and selling them more dearly. The added incentive of profit meant that the Nepmen made goods appear in the shops in quantities that hadn't been seen in years, as well as contributing to the increase in restaurants set up.	Disadvantages While War Communism does illustrate some attempt at a response to the ineffectiveness of workers and peasants under State Capitalism, it was not a successful one. Firstly, conditions became bleak for the workers, with one reporting that 'one might have thought that these were...the forced labour prisons of Tsarist times'. As well as this, it failed to improve economic productivity: industry ground to a standstill and production of heavy industry fell drastically. For instance, coal production fell from 29 tonnes in 1913 to just 9 tonnes in 1921. While the NEP was successful in its response to the economic problems caused by War Communism, it did so at the expense of the integrity and values of the Bolshevik Party. While described by Bukharin as a 'temporary deviation' and a 'tactical retreat', it still fundamentally opposed the values of socialism by relaxing central economic control and allowing peasants to profit from their produce. While War Communism was not a great success, at least it did not compromise communist ideals. Finally, one way in which the Bolsheviks irrefutably failed to respond to economic problems was through the failure of the State Planning Committee, also known as Gosplan, to deliver on a number of its pronouncements to the point where its own chairman had to advit that Soviet Russia lacked 'a single economic plan'.
	Evaluation In 1918, Russia was emerging from the economic policy of State Capitalism into that of War Communism. State Capitalism had left the country in a state of economic chaos that was in no way fit to support the Red Army in the upcoming Civil War, meaning the Bolsheviks had to respnd to a number of economic problems faced during this time. I will, in this answer, explore the degree of success with which they did this. Despite this, it is clear that although a lot of the problems resolved by the Bolsheviks in the period between 1918 and 1921 were actually of their own making, a number of these were still responded successfully to.

How far would you agree that the Bolsheviks responded successfully to the economic problems they faced in Russia between 1918 and 1924?

Advantages

The first problem faced by the Bolsheviks in 1918 was ineffective production of workers and peasants. State Capitalism established worker control over the factories and redistributed land to the peasants via Land Committees under the Land Decree. Both the workers and the peasants proved inefficient and ineffective in running their enterprises, so production of both food and industrial products fell considerably. This was fixed under War Communism by the June 1918 Decree of Nationalisation, under which the state took control over all industry, instructing factories on what to produce and imposing strict discipline upon the workers in order to ensure the Red Army was well-equipped to fight in the Civil War. The Supreme Council of National Economy (Vesenkha) was set up by Lenin to create a planned economy, and trade unions were banned.
The second problem faced by the Bolsheviks was peasant opposition to the Cheka detachments, known as requisition squads, were sent into the countryside to take peasant grain by force under the Food Supplies Dictatorship set up in May 1918.peasants resented grain requisitioning and resisted it by returning to subsistence farming, leading to low grain harvests. This, combined with a severe drought, caused a famine which killed an estimated 5 to 7 million people. A massive international aid operation was mounted, in which the USA played a major role through the American Relief Association, which spent over 60 million dollars in relief work. This was politically incredibly damaging to the Bolsheviks, whose opponents in the Civil War were being supported by the US at this time. In Tambov, there was a peasants' revolt in 1920 and 1921. As with the Kronstadt Mutiny, it was suppressed when the area was flooded with Red Army units, but also goes to show that while they had the forced compliance of the people, the policy was severely resented. This was fixed by the NEP, which replaced the despised requisitioning with a tax in kind and not just allowed, but encouraged, peasants to profit from surplus grain. Some peasants, who became known as Kulaks, became wealthy this way and were able to contribute to the economy by spending their wealth on manufactured goods.
Finally, a third problem faced by the Bolsheviks throughout the entirety of their reign was scarcity of goods. This was, in part, exacerbated by the ineffectiveness of the workers during the years of State Capitalism. However, the NEP undoubtedly responded successfully to this through the emergence of Nepmen", who made money by buying food and goods cheaply and selling them more dearly. The added incentive of profit meant that the Nepmen made goods appear in the shops in quantities that hadn't been seen in years, as well as contributing to the increase in restaurants set up.

Disadvantages

While War Communism does illustrate some attempt at a response to the ineffectiveness of workers and peasants under State Capitalism, it was not a successful one. Firstly, conditions became bleak for the workers, with one reporting that 'one might have thought that these were...the forced labour prisons of Tsarist times'. As well as this, it failed to improve economic productivity: industry ground to a standstill and production of heavy industry fell drastically. For instance, coal production fell from 29 tonnes in 1913 to just 9 tonnes in 1921.
While the NEP was successful in its response to the economic problems caused by War Communism, it did so at the expense of the integrity and values of the Bolshevik Party. While described by Bukharin as a 'temporary deviation' and a 'tactical retreat', it still fundamentally opposed the values of socialism by relaxing central economic control and allowing peasants to profit from their produce. While War Communism was not a great success, at least it did not compromise communist ideals.
Finally, one way in which the Bolsheviks irrefutably failed to respond to economic problems was through the failure of the State Planning Committee, also known as Gosplan, to deliver on a number of its pronouncements to the point where its own chairman had to advit that Soviet Russia lacked 'a single economic plan'.

Evaluation

In 1918, Russia was emerging from the economic policy of State Capitalism into that of War Communism. State Capitalism had left the country in a state of economic chaos that was in no way fit to support the Red Army in the upcoming Civil War, meaning the Bolsheviks had to respnd to a number of economic problems faced during this time. I will, in this answer, explore the degree of success with which they did this. Despite this, it is clear that although a lot of the problems resolved by the Bolsheviks in the period between 1918 and 1921 were actually of their own making, a number of these were still responded successfully to.

Get Revising

How far would you agree that the Bolsheviks responded successfully to the economic problems they faced in Russia between 1918 and 1924?