how did Lenin seek to organise the economy on socialist lines 1917-21 and what problems did this create

what economic problems did Lenin face

• how to create a “socialist economy

• no “model” to follow

• vagueness of marxist theory- a “common plan”

• russian economy did not “fit” marxs vision of an industrialised economy- russian economy still feudal (early industry)

• lack of economic experience

• management of worker and peasant expectations

state capitalism

• oct 1917- summer 1918

• decree on land

• decree on workers control

• supremem council of the national economy

• bolsheviks nationalised the banks (1917), external trade and railways

decree on land

aolished private ownership and said land belonged to people

decree on workers control

gave workers control over factories and the power to run and “supervise” using “workers committees”

supremem council of the national economy

• set up to take charge of all existing institutions for the regulation of economic life

why was state capitalism a failure

• workers failed to organise factories effectively

• workers allowed themselves unsustainable pay increases

• workers committees lacked skills needed for successful management

• industrial output shrank and led to runaway inflation

• peasants had no incentive to produce

bread ration (febraury 1918)

bread ration reached an all time low and 50g per person

war communism

• ideology: creat a “new” socialist economy

• reality of economic collapse: - inherited economic weakness (ww1)/ need to mobilize economy and resources to win civil war/ ensure supplies to red army

• response to early bolshevik excess: - giving control of industry to workers was idealistic but unworkable/ managers needed to re-assert control and a workable hierarchy

key features of war communism

• requisitioning (grain)

• bartering- disappearing of money economuy

• rationing- class based

• reintroduction of hierarchy- factory managers

• nationalisation

• central planning

• military discipline

nationalisation (war communism)

• all major industries nationalised (oil and sugar first)

• military style control of railways

• workers lost freedoms given in decree of workers control

• each factory had a political commissar

disappearance of money (war communism)

• transaction using money became limited due to massive inflation

• bartering replaced money

• some recieved wages in form of goods rather than money

military style discipline (war communism)

• death penalty introduced for all striking workers

• unemployed forced to join “labour armies” and complete public work e.g construction

• all workers expected to “volunteer” for unpaid work on “communist saturday”

vesenkha (war communism)

all industry put under control of “the supreme council of the national economy”

rationing (war communism)

• organised on class basis

• workers and red army got highest rations

• limited rations for professionals such as doctors and administrators

• no rations for the “former people”- nobility, bourgeoisie and clergy

private trade (war communism)

all private trade banned

workers (war communism)

• strikes forbidden and working hours extended

• fines for latness and slackness

• hard work rewarded by increased rations

• food, housing and clothing now distributed by central authority.

• re-introdution of tsarist internal passports

• compulsory labour duty demanded of the non-working classes

requisitioning (war communism)

• organised by the “food supplies dictatorship”

• soldiers and cheka often seized more or offered vouchers instead of money

• livestock and equipment often stolen leaving the peasants with barely enough to live on

• 150,000 members of the cheka and bolshevik volunters were sent out to requisition grain

• govt set uo “committees of the village poor” to encourage peasants to inform on others

impact of war communism

• nationalisation did nothing to increase production

• dislocated transport system prevented effective distribution

• deprived anpower: conscritpion into army/ inhabitants left

• 1918-1921: population of petrograd and Moscow dropped by half

• scarcity of goods and printing of money destroyed value of currency

• peasants resistant to governmenyt

• myth that kulaks hoarding grain (not true)

• cheka units were sent out into country to take grain by force

• 1918-21: requizition squads terrorised country side- peasants had less incentive to produce surplus

• 1921- shortage had created national famine

• reports of canibalism and trade for dead bodies

• bolshevik regime censored news of famine

rouble value

1920: rouble had fallen to 1% of what it had been in 1917

trains and trams fare

1921: trains and tram fare one million times price of 1917

famine 1921

• 1 in 5 of population was starving

• of 10 miollion fatalities in civil war, half starved

• harvest produced 48% of 1913 level

• 5 million deaths

Russian population

1913: 170,9 million

1921: 130.9 million

wages

1919: wages 2% of 1913 level

90% of wages paid with goods instead of money

fuel shortages

1919-20: 300 wooden houses demolished to provide fuel

middle classes

1920: 42% of prostitutes were from bourgeois families

• houses run by building committees

• city soviets rounded up officers, civil servants and aristocrats and forced them to clean up streets

• 500 bolsheviks and families lived in Kremlin and best hotels

industrial output

1921: total industrial output fell by less than 20% of 1913 level

coal output

coal production decreased from 27.5 million tonnes (1913) to 7 million tonnes (1920)

why were the bolsheviks in trouble by 1921

• collapse in transport system

• industrial production 20% of 1913 level#

• 1920: famine- 5-6 million dead

• impact of gran requistion (loss of confidence in peasantry)

• widespread disease (cholera, typhus)

• grain harvest 48% of 1913

• dissappearance of money ecnomy

• peasant uprisings (tambov)

• large areas of “no go” for authorities

• food demonstrations in cities- bread riots

• feb 1921: 118 uprisings

• lenin saw peasants unrest as more dangerous than civil war

number of peasant uprising

feb 1921: 118 uprisings

workers opposition

• economic demands: end to war communisn

• soviets without communists

• opposition to centralisation of power

workers opposition join up with kornstadt sailors

• uprising: call to end of war communists- return to principle of 1917

• backboner of revolution- bolsheviks belivers

• trotsky says: “heros of revolution”

• put down brutally: red army, cheka

• lenin: “spark that lit up reality”: led to NEP

the tambov region

• 1920: poor harvest, peasants had little grain

• august 1920: revolt began led by Antonov- killed 1922

• 1920: requisitions increased from 18 million to 27 million pods in the region

• caused peasants to reduce grain production

• 70,000 peasants in rising

• town of khitrovo

• union of working peasats

1920 increase of requisitions

1920: requisitions increased from 18 million to 27 million pods in the region

number of peasants in rising

70,000

the revolt

• effective and infiltrated Tambov cheka

• jan 1921: spread to Samara, Saratov, tsaritsyn

• red army- 100,000, used chemical weapons

• concentration camps- 50,000 interned, 5% died in camps

• 1920-22: 140,000 deaths

number in red army

100,000 soldiers

number in concentration camp

• 50,000 interned

• 5% died in camps

number of deaths 1920-22

140,000 deaths from civil war/ rising/ famine