history russia kt2

Lenins economy - state capitalism

(1917–1918)

Definition: Transitional phase combining elements of capitalism with state control.

Key Features:

Major industries were nationalised (e.g. banks, railways).

The Supreme Council of the National Economy (Vesenkha) was established to manage the economy.

Small businesses remained in private hands.

Aimed to avoid total collapse and allow the Bolsheviks to consolidate power.

Problems:

Workers’ control often led to chaos, inefficiency, and falling output.

Peasants refused to supply grain to cities (no incentives).

Unpopular among radical Bolsheviks who wanted full socialism.

lenin’s economy - war communism

(1918–1921)

Why Introduced:

Civil War demanded strict control to ensure Red victory.

Economy was collapsing (hyperinflation, famine, dislocation).

Key Features:

Grain requisitioning: Peasants forced to give grain to the state, often violently.

Nationalisation of all industry (even small-scale).

Ban on private trade.

Labour discipline and rationing introduced.

Money effectively abolished in some areas (barter economy).

Consequences:

Urban industrial output collapsed.

Famine (especially 1921): over 5 million deaths.

Peasants resisted—Tambov Uprising (1920–21).

Kronstadt Rebellion (1921) showed growing discontent, even among loyal Bolsheviks.

lenins economy nep

(1921–1924)

Why Introduced:

Crisis caused by War Communism.

To win back peasant and worker support (political survival).

Approved at 10th Party Congress (1921).

Key Features:

Grain requisitioning ended – replaced by a tax in kind.

Peasants could sell surplus on the open market.

Small businesses and private trade legalised.

Large industries remained under state control (commanding heights).

NEPmen emerged: private traders profiting in new mixed economy.

Consequences:

Agricultural and industrial production recovered.

Peasants happier and more productive.

Led to divisions within the Party:

Left (e.g. Trotsky): saw NEP as betrayal of socialism.

Right (e.g. Bukharin): supported NEP as necessary.

Long-Term Issues:

Economy improved, but unevenly.

Industrial growth slower than agriculture = Scissors Crisis (1923).

Created ideological tension about the future of socialism.

stalins economy first five year plan

(1928–1932)

Aims:

Rapid industrialisation

Focus on heavy industry (coal, iron, steel, machinery)

Methods:

Gosplan (State Planning Committee) set production targets

Emphasis on quantity over quality

Use of shock workers (e.g. Stakhanovites)

Central control, no free market

Achievements:

Huge increases in coal, steel, electricity output

New industrial cities (e.g. Magnitogorsk)

USSR became more self-sufficient

Problems:

Poor quality goods

Consumer goods neglected

Widespread corruption and falsification of results

stalins economy second five year plan

(1933–1937)

Shift in focus:

Continued heavy industry, but increased attention to transport and communications

Some consumer goods reintroduced (briefly)

Achievements:

Moscow Metro and Dnieper Dam completed

USSR became world’s second-largest industrial power

Military production began to rise

stalins economy third five year plan

(1938–1941)

Main aim

Armament and defence industry due to rising threat from Nazi Germany

Interrupted by: German invasion in 1941 (Operation Barbarossa)

stalins economy during world war 2

Impact of war:

Factories moved east (beyond Ural Mountains)

Massive human and material losses

Focus entirely on military production

Achievements:

USSR outproduced Germany in tanks and aircraft

War effort supported by centralised planning

stalins economy fourth five year plan

(1945–1950)

Goals:

Rebuild destroyed infrastructure

Continue heavy industry

Results:

Quick recovery in industry

USSR restored pre-war industrial levels by 1950

Issues:

Consumer goods neglected

Agriculture remained weak

stalins economy collectivisation of agriculture

Why?

Fund industrialisation through grain exports

End private peasant farming (NEP seen as "capitalist")

Ensure government control over countryside

Launched: 1929

Key Features:

Merging of small farms into large, state-controlled kolkhozy (collective farms) and sovkhozy (state farms)

Use of terror and requisitioning

Dekulakisation: wealthier peasants (kulaks) were executed, exiled, or imprisoned

Resistance crushed by the OGPU and Red Army

Results:

Grain procurement increased (eventually)

Massive peasant resistance and slaughter of livestock

Famine (1932–33): especially in Ukraine (Holodomor) – millions died

Long-term inefficiency in agriculture

Peasants remained poor and unmotivated

khrushchevs economy - economic reforms

Key Aims:

Move away from Stalin’s focus on heavy industry

Improve consumer goods availability

Increase efficiency through decentralisation

Main Policies:

🔹 Decentralisation – 1957

Created 105 regional economic councils (sovnarkhozy) to manage industry

Intended to make planning more responsive and flexible

Result: led to confusion, duplication, and weakened central control

🔹 Seven-Year Plan (1959–1965)

Focused on chemicals, consumer goods, and light industry

Promised 40% rise in consumer goods production

🔹 Investment in space and military tech

1957: USSR launched Sputnik (first artificial satellite)

Investment in prestige projects but not sustainable for wider economy

Results:

Some growth in consumer industries, e.g. TVs, refrigerators, radios

Military spending and space race drained resources

Poor coordination due to reforms and regional fragmentation

khrushchevs economy - agriculture

Key Policies:

🔹 Virgin Lands Campaign (1954)

Cultivate unused land in Kazakhstan and Siberia

6 million acres brought under cultivation

Initial success: Grain output rose rapidly early on

Long-term failure: Poor soil, inadequate planning, declining yields by late 1950s

🔹 Increased state investment in agriculture

Higher prices paid to peasants for produce

Fertiliser and machinery production boosted

Collective farms merged into larger units

🔹 Maize Campaign (1959)

Khrushchev encouraged widespread maize planting to feed livestock

Failed due to unsuitable climate and poor planning

Outcomes:

Short-lived improvement in production

By 1963, grain had to be imported from the USA – humiliating for USSR

Agricultural problems exposed limits of Khrushchev’s reforms

brezhnevs economy - industry and economic policy

Key Themes:

Re-centralisation: Khrushchev’s decentralisation (sovnarkhozy) was reversed.

Focus returned to heavy industry, defence, and energy.

Reluctance to reform: stability > innovation.

📉 Economic Stagnation:

Growth in the 1950s: ~7%

By 1980s: ~2% or less

📦 Kosygin Reforms (1965)

Led by Premier Alexei Kosygin – aimed to improve productivity and reward efficiency.

Reforms included:

Giving factory managers more power

Emphasising output quality, not just quantity

Offering incentives for innovation

Why they failed:

Opposed by Party conservatives

Poor implementation

Reforms quickly abandoned by 1968

❌ Persistent Problems:

Central planning was inflexible

Managers falsified production figures to meet targets

Focus on quantity > quality

Obsolete machinery and factories

brezhnevs economy agriulture

Key Features:

Continued use of collective and state farms

Some incentives for productivity (e.g., private garden plots allowed)

Outcomes:

25% of investment went to agriculture

But: Grain production still couldn’t meet demand

USSR had to import grain (e.g., from the USA in the 1970s)

Causes of failure:

Poor motivation of collective farm workers

Low efficiency

Lack of reform in farm structure

brezhnevs spending on military arms race

Huge spending on military and defence (20%+ of GDP by late 1970s)

Driven by Cold War and desire for global superpower status

Took resources away from consumer goods and innovation

brezhnevs consumer goods

light improvement in living standards (more TVs, fridges, cars)

But availability was poor, and quality was low

Queues, shortages, and black market common

Rural standards of living lagged behind urban areas

brezhnevs second economy / black market

Because the planned economy couldn’t meet demand, a “second economy” emerged:

Illegal trading

Moonlighting

Corruption

Result: Some got rich unofficially; exposed weaknesses in the official system.