Economy

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When was Gosplan established? Who by?
February 1921, by the Sovnarkom.
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What was the Gosplan set up to do?
Create a New Economic Policy, in order to meet Russia's continued urgent need for food.
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Who supported the NEP?
Bukharin, Zinoviev and most of the leadership.
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Who saw the NEP as an 'ideological betrayal'? Why?
Trotsky. He was disturbed at the concessions of the peasantry and the emergence of capitalism.
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Where did state control continue in the NEP?
In transport, banking and heavy industry.
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How was the NEP capitalist?
It allowed for the ownership of smaller businesses (though these were usually cooperatives and trusts) and permitted private trade, therefore a mixed economy in Russia.
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What was ended in the NEP?
Rationing and the requisitioning system of grain.
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What ensured the effect use of resources?
Industries had to pay their workers with profits.
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What were peasants still having to do in the NEP?
Give a proportion of their grain to the State as a form of tax. This was different to before however as they could sell any surplus.
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Who responded more quickly to the NEP?
The peasants, in comparison to the town workshops and industrial cooperatives.
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What caused the 'scissors crisis'? When was this seen?
Agriculture still dominating the economy and high unemployment in urban areas. 1923.
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Who was responsible for the naming of the 'scissors crisis'?
Trotsky. He became the spokesman of the 'platform of 46', a group of 46 party members which issued an open public letter critical of the lack of economic planning.
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What was the 'scissors crisis'?
Where a huge increase in grain supplied brought down food prices in the towns, but a lack of industrial goods for peasants to buy in exchange encouraged them to hold back their supplies.
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What was the government's response to the 'scissors crisis'?
The government capped industrial prices and replaced the peasants grain taxes with money taxes from 1923, forcing peasants to sell. The State Bank was also instructed to advance loans to make sure there was an exchange of money.
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When did the 'scissors crisis' end?
In 1926, when production levels reached 1913 levels once again.
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What did the ending of the 'scissors crisis', and an improvement in the economy overall, lead to?
Bettie living standards, and an end to the revolts and disputes, along with favourable trade agreements with Britain and Germany.
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Who flourished in the NEP?
Nepmen, by buying and selling industrial goods mourned the country.
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Which class reemerged in the NEP?
The kulak class.
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How did grain harvest change?
It increased from 37 million tonnes to 72 between 1921 and 1925.
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How did coal production change?
It increased from 9 million tonnes to 18 between 1921 and 1925.
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How did electricity production change?
It increased from 520 million Kwhs to 2,900 between 1921 and 1925.
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How did the average monthly wage of an urban worker change?
It increased from 10 roubles to 25 between 1921 and 1925.
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How did Lenin ensure that the NEP caused no party divisions?
By the people in favour of 'One Party Unity' and reiterating his ban on factions.
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What did Lenin condemn in the NEP?
The 'Workers Opposition' group, in order to ensure the NEP did not seem to be weakening the Bolshevik party through criticism.
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Who quickly abandoned his initial opposition to the NEP, helping to maintain party unity?
Bukharin, who was a key Politburo member.
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Who was Lenin's closest confident during his last years?
Bukharin.
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What was the theory behind State Capitalism?
Lenin himself said 'Soviet plus electrification equals communism'. He understood Russia had to modernise before socialist ideals for which he had fought could be achieved. However, there many differences how the 'socialist economy' should be built.
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How did Lenin justify State Capitalism to his party?
By saying that the majority of specialists, who had the money and knowledge, were bourgeois, and so they needed them on side to achieve the best possible success as they only had authority in Moscow and Petrograd - through higher salaries.
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Why did Russia have so many economic problems in 1917?
Due to WW1. There was a shortage of raw materials and food and inflation had increased, as well as transport being crippled and Russia losing the Ukraine (richest grain region).
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What did the government do to try and improve food production?
Give the peasants what they wanted - in October 1917 the decree on land abolished its private ownership, legitimising peasant seizures and declaring all land belonged to the 'entire people'.
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Why did Lenin take on the policy of the SR's of "Land of the Peasants"?
Because the Bolsheviks had no policy of their own.
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What were the issues with the early decrees?
They only legitimised what were well underway. During this stage of State Capitalism Lenin recognised there would be a degree of state control but private markets would remain an important feature of the economy.
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What was established in December 1917?
Veshenka (the Council of the National Economy), to supervise and control economic development.
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Why was Lenin cautious about the demands for nationalisation from his party?
Because of peasants' and workers' control. Workers failed to organise their factories efficiently and output shrank at the time when it was most needed. Some workers rewarded themselves with unsustainable pay rises.
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Why else was Lenin cautious about the demands of nationalisation?
Some workers helped themselves to stocks and equipment (some cut conveyor belts to make soles for shoes) and they simply lacked the skills needed for successful management?
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Why was there high inflation in State Capitalism?
Because there was more money than goods available.
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What did high inflation result in?
Peasants hoarding grain, rather than selling it for worthless money, causing food shortages in towns to grow, especially with the loss of the Ukraine.
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What was the food situation in February 1918?
The citizens of Petrograd were living on rations of 50 grams of bread each day, and elsewhere food riots threatened Bolshevik control.
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What was established in 1920 to organise a nationwide system for generating electricity?
A special State Commission (GOELRO). Lenin said this was an example that 'Soviets plus electrification equals communism'.
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What took place towards the end of State Capitalism?
Banks and railways were nationalised and foreign debts cancelled. They were practical important achievements, showing how effective central control could be with real Bolshevik power.
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When was the Veshenka in use?
1917 to 1932.
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Who was Vehsenka's rival?
Gosplan
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What did Lenin start in the spring of 1918? Why?
War Communism, due to another grain crisis due to the civil war. This involved grain requisitioning.
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What can the change to War Communism be seen as?
A part of the Bolsheviks Terror being carried out during these years. Every aspect of life had to be coordinated with winning the civil war, aided by the Red Army and the Cheka.
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What did Lenin encourage under War Communism?
Collective cooperative farming, hoping that if peasants pooled their resources they would farm more efficiently, but only a tiny majority of households complied.
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What was set up in May 1918?
A food-supplies policy. This organised detachments of soldiers and workers from large towns into the countryside to ensure grain was delivered to the State.
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What did the food-supplies policy involve?
Officially, the peasants were paid a fixed price, but grain and livestock cats were often brutally confiscated, leaving peasants with barely enough to live on, while soldiers and workers kept what they collected as a reward.
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What were the peasants divided into under War Communism?
Three categories: The poor and moderately poor were regarded as allies of the urban proletariats, but kulaks who had made their own wealth were labelled as 'enemies of the people' and had entire stocks seized.
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What did War Communism lead to in rural areas?
Misery, with peasants requisitioning where they could. They hid their crops, grew less and murdered workers and soldiers. The Cheka had to be used extensively to make it work at all.
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What were nationalised under War Communism?
The railways, banks, merchant fleet, power companies and the Putilov Iron Works, due to the demands posed by civil war.
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What was the first industry to be entirely nationalised?
Sugar in May 1918.
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What was nationalised in June 1918?
Oil
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What was nationalised in November 1918?
Nearly all factories and businesses.
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What was the result of the nationalisation of factories and businesses?
Workers lost the freedom they had formerly enjoyed and professional managers were employed by the State to reimpose discipline and increase output. Working hours were extended and ration cards replaced ages.
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Who were the 'professional managers'?
The specialists who had recently been displaced from factory ownership.
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What were introduced to prevent employers drifting back to the countryside under War Communism?
Internal passports.
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What was forbidden under War Communism?
All private trade and manufacture.
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How did some see War Communism as a transition to a socialist economy?
As money was no longer the main agency of exchange with barter being used. Indeed, the political commissars attached to the Red Army indoctrinated soldiers with Marist theories that justified harsh measures.
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What was rationing used to do?
Discriminate against the 'former people' (bourgeois) who received the lowest rations.
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How did some exploit the system of barter?
Through supplying black market goods. These were described as 'petty'.
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What can said about War Communism?
It was an extension of class warfare to destroy the bourgeoisie, already seen in early Bolshevik rule, but there is no evidence Lenin wanted to radicalise the economy so quickly. It is easy to see how it provided for the Red Army in civil war.
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What was Trotsky's attitude towards War Communism?
He initially opposed it and put forwards his own mixed economy/capitalist idea in 1920 but whether this was rejected he accepted it and spoke of building communism by force.
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In practise, what did War Communism create?
More problems than it solved.
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Why did production decline under War Communism?
Transport systems were disputed by the fighting and management struggled to get factories working efficiently.
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By 1921, what was total industrial output?
20% of pre-war levels.
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What happened in 1920?
Diseases such as cholera were rift and a typhus epidemic swept through the city and caused 3 million deaths.
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How did populations in towns change under War Communism?
By the end of 1920 the population of Petrograd was 57.5% lower than in 1917 and Moscow was 44.5% lower.
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What did some urban workers do under War Communism?
They went on strike or refused the internal passport system, braving armed guards stationed on the edge of towns and cities in hope of finding food. Those that fled however were disappointed.
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What had reduced grain supplied to dangerous levels under War Communism?
Harsh requisitioning and the attack on kulaks.
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When was there an acute food shortage?
In 1920, as insufficient grain was planted. A third of land had been abandoned to grass and cattle had been slaughtered in their thousands by hungry peasants.
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When was there widespread famine?
In 1921, when the harvest produced only 48% tat of 1913. Millions died of disease and malnutrition. Russia's pollution declined by 40 million since 1913 and there were even reports of cannablism and trade of dead bodies.
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Agriculture: 1926
Despite a good harvest, the requisition of grain produced only 50% of what was expected. It was suspected that grain was being hoarded, leading to increased taxes and leak speculators and nepmen.
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Agriculture: 1927
Grain procurement crisis, as again state collections are low and food crises in the expanding industrial towns threaten industrial development.
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Agriculture: December 1927
At the 15th Party Congress, otherwise known as the collectivisation congress, Stalin argued in favour of strengthening cooperative grams, increasing mechanisation ad supporting voluntary collectivisation.
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Agriculture: 1928
Continuing problems led to rationing in the cities. The 'Ural-Siberian' method of grain requisitioning involved the forcible seizure of grain and the closing down of markets, brining unrest in rural areas. Stalin supported this.
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Agriculture: 1929
The 'Ural-Siberian' method is used throughout most of the SU bringing the NEP to an end. In December, Stalin launched forced collectivisation.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

What was the Gosplan set up to do?

Back

Create a New Economic Policy, in order to meet Russia's continued urgent need for food.

Card 3

Front

Who supported the NEP?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

Who saw the NEP as an 'ideological betrayal'? Why?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

Where did state control continue in the NEP?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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