Theme 2 - USSR Economics

What were Lenin’s three economic policies, with dates?

• State capitalism (March-June 1918)

• War Communism (1918-21)

• NEP (1921-28)

Give three features of state capitalism

• Nationalisation of large industries

• Small factories controlled by workers/capitalists

• Vesenkha would coordinate and direct production/manage factories

What two important economic decrees were passed in Oct-Nov 1917, and what did they do?

• Decree on Land - gave peasants the right to seize land from nobility and Church

• Workers’ Decrees - 8-hour working day, minimum wage

Give three reasons why War Communism was introduced

• Military - provide food for Red Army to win Civil War

• Ideological- centralised control, extend class struggle to crush middle class and kulaks

• Economic - deal with shortages and inflation by controlling food supply

Give two policies in War Communism that made a ‘food dictatorship’

• Grain requisitioning

• Rationing

Give two examples of growing labour discipline under War Communism

• Working day extended to 11 hours

• Work compulsory for all people 16-50

• Harsh punishment for lateness

Give two policies in War Communism that aimed to abolish the free market

• Abolition of trade

• Nationalisation of all businesses

Give three economic or social consequences of War Communism

• Falling agricultural production (46% of 1913 in 1921)

• Famine killed millions

• Growth of black market (60% of food)

Give two political consequences of War Communism

• Tambov Rising

• Kronstadt Uprising

Give two reasons for the introduction of NEP

• Placate peasants - to keep political power

• Revive the economy

Give three key features of the NEP

• ‘Tax in kind’ in the countryside

• Denationalisation of small factories

• Reintroduced money

Give two consequences of the NEP

• Restored political and economic stability

• Rise in agricultural production (38m to 77m tonnes 1921-26)

Give three limitations of NEP

• Scissor Crisis (1923) - rise in industrial prices which farmers could not afford

• Inequality and corruption (NEPmen)

• Political divisions in the Party

What did left-wing communists such as Trotsky argue for in the late 1920s?

Forced collectivisation and ultimately industrialisation

What did right-wing communists such as Bukharin argue for in the late 1920s?

Continue NEP