LENIN: Industrial and Agricultural Change

What was state capitalism?

Lenin’s term for the transitional phase between the old bourgeoisie econ and a new proletariat one. Highlights the tension between placing the econ in Bolshevik hands yet ensuring the econ production returned to pre WW1 levels.

When and what was the Land Decree?

October 1917

Abolished private ownership of land

When and what was the Decree on Workers’ Control?

November 1917

Placed control of the factories into the hands of industrial workers

When were all of the banks nationalised? What was it called?

27th December 1917

The People’s Bank of the Russian Republic

What was Vesenkha and why was it created?

Dec 1917 the Supreme Council of the National Economy was created as Lenin’s first decrees had a detrimental effect on the econ. Workers voted to give themselves fat pay rises and managers were aggressively sacked as a form of revenge. Therefore Vesenkha was to supervise the econ

What was the ideological basis of War Communism?

• Abolish private enterprises

• Collapse of currency and reintroduction of bartering (caused lots of inflation though)

• Large scale nationalisation

When were all industries with 10+ workers nationalised?

June 1918

How was War Communism a response to economic collapse?

• Bolsheviks inherited an economy in a state of near collapse

• Drastic reform of econ needed to win civil war

• State direction of the econ popular globally through WW1, not ideological

How was War Communism a reaction to early Bolshevik excesses?

• Bolshevik’s early decrees to secure support caused problems

• Idealistic and unworkable

• Abolition of army ranks reversed

• Factory managers had to be used to create some order in industry

What were the key features of War Communism?

• Nationalisation

• Vesenkha (all industry under control of the state)

• Reintroduction of hierarchical structures in industry

• Military style discipline in factories

• Unemployed in labour armies to work on projects like road building

• All workers unpaid work on ‘Communist Saturdays’

• Private trading banned

• Bartering

• Forcible requisitioning of food

• Rationing

How many Bolshevik volunteers were used to seize grain?

150,000

Why was NEP introduced in 1921? Economic considerations:

• End of civil war industry virtual standstill

• Heavy industry production 20% of 1913 level

• Food production 48% of 1913 figure

• Widespread famine (breakdown of transport systems)

• 1920s 20m died from famine/disease

Why was NEP introduced in 1921? Unpopularity of War Communism:

• Rationing hated and biased in distribution

• Managers in factories led to resentment and violence

Why was NEP introduced in 1921? The Tambov Rising:

• Requisitioning caused mass resentment in the countryside

• Volga basin, North Caucasus, Western Siberia

• 50,000 Red Army troops to put down the Tambov Rising in central Russia

Why was NEP introduced in 1921? The Kronstadt Mutiny:

• Sailors revolt outside Petrograd upped pressure on govt

• Could not be easily dismissed as ‘counter-revolutionaries’

• ‘Soviets w/o Bolsheviks’

• Tp Lenin it ‘lit up reality like a flash of lightning’

What were the key agricultural features of NEP?

• End to requisitioning

• Requisitioning replaced with a system of taxation which would allow peasants to sell remaining food for a profit

• No forced programme of collectivisation

• The Mir to stay as peasants self-regulating farming

What were the key industrial features of NEP?

• Small-scale industry returned to private hands

• Party to hold' ‘the commanding heights of the econ’-Lenin (heavy industry/transport/banks)

• Bonuses used to raise production in factories

• Reintroduction of currency for wages

• Legalisation of private trading to stop the black market growing

• Development of Nepmen

How successful was the NEP?

Successes:

• Industrial output rose rapidly first 3 years

• 1922/23 better harvests

• Roads/infrastructure repaired

• Enterprising Nepmen, restaurants/market stalls returned life to cities

Failures:

• Corruption spread via black markets

• Prostitution widespread

• Gangs of children stealing and reselling goods

• Scissors crisis

What/when was the Scissors Crisis?

• Imbalance between agricultural and industrial goods

• Food prices fell, industrial goods prices rose

• Low prices for grain discouraged peasants from growing food for the market

• Govt began to regulate prices December 1923