15) Lenin: Economic Developments Flashcards
(14 cards)
Key features of State Capitalism 1917-18
- Mixed economy (interim stage).
- 1917 Decree on Land -👨🏼🌾given control of land.
- 1917 Decree on Workers’ Control - factory committees could control pr + supervise management👷🏼.
- Max 8hr working day. Social insurance.
- 1917 People’s Bank of R Republic - nationalisation of all private banks.
- 1917 Veshenkha established to supervise economic development (but no nationalisation of industry).
- 1918 decree introduced ‘bourgeois specialists’ + 1-man management (⬆️ discipline +👷🏼proved unprepared to take over management in factories).
Was State Capitalism (1917-18) driven by ideology or pragmatism?
I - L saw as interim stage as part of transition to socialist economy.
I - L argued capitalist development necessary to build solid economic foundation for construction of socialist economy = return to Marx’s argument that socialism only take root in capitalist economy.
I - survival policy so Bs survived first months in power.
P - possibly reaction to the situation but made to fit B ideology.
P - L skipped the bourgeois democratic rev.
Positive impact of State Capitalism (1917-18)✅
❌Civil War nullified any positive impact it might have had.
Negative impact of State Capitalism (1917-18)
❌Much opposition to SC both inside + outside Party.
❌SRs + Left detested L’s industrial policy, predicted his encouragement of SC would lead to bureaucratic centralisation.
❌Bukharin criticised L for failing to implement socialist policies.
❌Industrial output⬇️dramatically.
Why was there a need for War Communism?⚒
- War➡️shortage of raw materials➡️lack of goods➡️inflation➡️👨🏼🌾resisting grain requisitioning.
- 👷🏼starving, not productive➡️rioting in cities + some returning to countryside for food.
- Food shortages➡️riots in cities.
Key features of War Communism (1918-21)?⚒
- 1918 forced grain requisitioned from👨🏼🌾.
- ⬆️labour discipline: fines for lateness, rations only if come to work, pay based on productivity, internal passports.
- Class-based rationing: workers + military get most, middle-class barely enough to live on.
- 1918 nationalisation of industries, managers replaced.
- Private trade banned.
Was War Communism driven by ideology or pragmatism?⚒
I - extension of class warfare to weaken middle class (e.g. class-based rationing).
I - internal front to crush enemies B opposition.
I - T: nationalisation + militarisation of labour always part of ideology.
I - thought centralised control would develop socialism.
P - grain requisitioning to support industrialisation - rapid route to socialism.
P - army prioritised - need to keep order + continue war.
P - economic policy not enough to feed or arm army.
P - B ideology = citizens sort out own affairs + support State willingly.
P - urban workers spent 3/4 income on food🥖.
P - centralised system of control necessary to run economy.
Positive impact of War Communism (1918-21)✅
✅Middle class, counter-revs + other opposition (SRs, Mensheviks) crushed.
Negative impact of War Communism (1918-21)❌
❌1921 economy in ruins: transport system point of collapse🚂, many🏭ceased pr (couldn’t get materials needed), ⬇️grain pr, famine➡️☠️☠️☠️.
❌👷🏼angry➡️repeated strikes + food demonstrations. Revival in support for other socialist parties. Bread rations cut by 1/3 some places. 1921 martial law imposed to deal w/ protests in cities. (Food demonstrations broken by Cheka - normal troops refused to fire on citizens.) Anger over militarised factories - workers imprisoned or shot if pr targets not reached🔫.
❌👨🏼🌾hostile to requisitioning➡️revolts e.g. Tambov Uprising 1920-21 (brutally crushed by 🔴Army). 1920 bad harvests➡️almost no grain reserves. Attacked requisitioning brigade. Remnants of 🟢Army supported peasants + deserters against 🔴Army.
❌Kronstadt sailors supported strikers in St. Petersburg + mutinied. Demanded end to terror, dictatorship, requisitions + 1-party rule. (Suppressed by 🔴Army + Cheka, leaders shot.)
❌⬆️internal party divisions from Workers’ Opposition + Democratic Centralists.
Key features of the New Economic Policy (1921-28)
- Opposition from much of R society to stop wartime policies➡️L introduced NEP.
- Abolition of grain requisitioning - fixed amount of grain to state ⬇️ + sell surplus on open market.
- Return of small businesses, private trade + money economy - L realised👨🏼🌾couldn’t sell produce w/o goods on sale.
- State still control over large-scale heavy industries🏭, transport🚂+ banking system🏦.
- Other industries had to buy materials + pay workers from own funds.
- Tightening of political control - 1922 pre-publication censorship introduced. Mensheviks + SRs outlawed.
- Cheka➡️GPU.
Was the NEP (1921-28) driven by ideology or pragmatism?
I - economy generally improved➡️consolidated Bs.
P - many Bs considered it too capitalist.
P - unemployment⬆️which went against B ideology of growing proletariat👷🏼.
P - Trotsky + Left Opposition wanted rapid industrialisation🏭.
P - ‘New Exploitation of Proletariat’ - wages low + overcrowded housing.
P - use of bourgeois specialists.
Positive impact of the NEP (1921-28)✅
✅Private trade➡️food + goods flow more between countryside + towns🥖➡️1923 food flowed in cities.
✅Chistkas + ban on factionalism solved Party divisions.
✅End of revolts.
✅Trade deals + foreign investment💵.
✅Economic recovery.
✅Industrial output⬆️rapidly➡️food + consumer goods.
✅1926 pr 27.6mn tonnes of coal⛏.
✅Nepmen (private traders) found produce + goods to sell in markets to peasants.
Negative impact of the NEP (1921-28)❌
❌ Prices of industrial goods⬆️ - in short supply.
❌Peasant landholdings smaller➡️not enough grain pr for industrialisation.
❌Large state-controlled trusts cut workforce to⬆️profit👷🏼.
❌Urban👷🏼unsatisfied w/ unemployment, housing, wages, power of single managers, use of bourgeois specialists➡️strikes.
❌1923 Nepmen controlled 3/4 retail trade but rife w/ corruption + bribery - like new type of bourgeois class.
❌After 1926 economic growth slackened.
❌1923 Scissor Crisis - low grain prices (lots of food in cities) + high goods prices (in short supply)➡️👨🏼🌾reluctant to supply food.
❌⬇️grain exports➡️couldn’t import technology needed for industrial expansion.
❌Agr still traditional methods - 1927 5mn+ sorcha in use ➡️not enough grain pr.
❌1927-28 grain crisis (grain pr⬇️1/4)➡️officials backed by👮🏻♂️sent to seize grain➡️relationship between👨🏼🌾+ govt broke down further.
❌⬆️jobless, unsupported women.
❌1928👨🏼🌾hoarding grain - consumer goods in short supply.
❌Industrial growth from v low base📈.
Why was the NEP an issue in the power struggle?
🔸Left-wing led by Trotsky wanted end NEP + rapid industrialisation➡️ ⬆️ proletariat.
🔹Right-wing led by Bukharin wanted keep NEP + “enrich the peasants”➡️spend more on consumer goods➡️ ⬆️ manufacturing industry🏭 - keep peasants happy👨🏼🌾😊 or risk economic collapse + endanger communist state.
◾️Stalin kept out of debate - central position.
