Economic Development

Question 1

What date was Lenin’s decree on land?

Answer 1

October 1917

Question 2

What did the decree on land enforce?

Answer 2

Peasants seizure of land; abolishing private ownership.

Question 3

What was State Capitalism?

Answer 3

The first stage in a long transition into socialism.

Question 4

What date was Veshenka established?

Answer 4

December 1917

Question 5

What was Veshenka?

Answer 5

The Council of the National Economy.

Question 6

Why was the initial nationalisation of industry inefficient?

Answer 6

Workers failed to organise their factories efficiently, output shrank, workers awarded themselves excessive pay rises & helped themselves to equipment.

Question 7

Why was there high inflation at this point?

Answer 7

There was more money than goods available.

Question 8

When did Lenin begin to enforce food requisitioning?

Answer 8

spring 1918

Question 9

What was ‘food requisitioning?’

Answer 9

A set amount of food was taken from the peasants to supply urban workers and soldiers.

Question 10

Why did Lenin encourage collective farming?

Answer 10

in the hope that the peasants could work more efficiently in groups.

Question 11

Why were the Kulaks beginning to be labelled as ‘enemies of the people?’

Answer 11

They had made personal wealth from their farming.

Question 12

How were the Kulak’s victimized during the food requisitioning process?

Answer 12

They had their stocks seized and the Cheka were used against them.

Question 13

How did the Civil War affect nationalisation?

Answer 13

increasing demands meant more and more companies became nationalised.

Question 14

What was the first entire industry to be nationalised?

Answer 14

Sugar in May 1918.

Question 15

How were working conditions affected by nationalisation?

Answer 15

Working hours increased and workers lost their freedom. Wages were replaced by a rationing book.

Question 16

How did rationing and the attack on the Kulaks affect the country side?

Answer 16

Grain production reduced to a dangerous level.

Question 17

What was the Tambov revolt?

Answer 17

An army of peasants uprising against gran requisitioning after a poor harvest left them with no reserves.

Question 18

How many Red Army troops were deployed to deal with the peasant uprising in Tambov?

Answer 18

100,000

Question 19

When was Martial Law declared to deal with the strikes and protests?

Answer 19

January 1921

Question 20

When was the Kronstadt Revolt?

Answer 20

March 1921

Question 21

Who made up the rebel force in the Kronstadt Revolt?

Answer 21

30,000 sailors who had previously supported the October Revolution.

Question 22

What did the rebels in the Kronstadt Revolt demand?

Answer 22

An end to the one party state.

Question 23

Who was used to suppress the Kronstadt revolt?

Answer 23

The Red Army and the Cheka.

Question 24

How were the rebels in the Kronstadt Revolt punished?

Answer 24

15,000 were taken prisoner and the leaders were shot.

Question 25

When was the NEP announced?

Answer 25

At the 10th Party Congress, August 1921

Question 26

Which members of the Party supported the NEP?

Answer 26

Bukharin, Zinoviev and most of the leadership.

Question 27

Why did many Bolsheviks oppose the NEP?

Answer 27

they saw it as an ideological betrayal.

Question 28

What was the NEP's ideology or plan?

Answer 28

It allowed for the private ownership of smaller businesses and permitted private trade. It also ended rationing & industries had to pay their workers.

Question 29

What was the scissor crisis?

Answer 29

A rise in grain supply brought down food prices; but lack of industrial goods to buy in return caused peasants to hold onto their supplies.

Question 30

What caused the scissor crisis?

Answer 30

The peasants were quicker to respond to the NEP policies than the town workshops.

Question 31

How did the government respond to the scissor crisis?

Answer 31

The Government capped industrial prices, and replaced peasant quotas with money taxes in 1923; forcing them to sell.

Question 32

When did the economy recover from the crisis?

Answer 32

1926

Question 33

When was the Great Turn?

Answer 33

1927

Question 34

What was the Great Turn?

Answer 34

The announcement of Stalin's Five Year Plans for rapid industrialisation.

Question 35

What was Central Planning?

Answer 35

Stalin's desire to have strong central control over the economy.

Question 36

How did Stalin make sure workers stuck to the five year plans?

Answer 36

Not meeting quotas was seen as a criminal offence.

Question 37

What date(s) was the First Five Year Plan?

Answer 37

1928-32

Question 38

What were the aims of the first Five Year Plan?

Answer 38

increase production by 300% develop heavy industry boost electricity production by 600% double the output of the light industry.

Question 39

How successful was the first Five Year Plan?

Answer 39

In writing, very successful; Stalin claimed the goals were met in 4 years. However, no major targets were met. Success was due to over-enthusiastic reporting by local officials.

Question 40

What were the aims of the second Five Year Plan?

Answer 40

continue to develop heavy industry, put new emphasis on light industry, develop communications, boost engineering & tool making.

Question 41

What year(s) was the Second Five year Plan?

Answer 41

1933-37

Question 42

Was the second FYP successful?

Answer 42

Electricity and Chemical industries grew rapidly. New metals; zinc, copper and tin were mined for the first time. Oil Production failed to meet its targets. No increase in consumer goods.

Question 43

What year(s) was the third FYP?

Answer 43

1938-42

Question 44

What were the aims of the third FYP?

Answer 44

focus on development of heavy industry, promote rapid rearmament, complete transition to communism.

Question 45

In what areas was the third FYP successful?

Answer 45

strong growth in machinery and engineering & Rearmament.

Question 46

In what areas was the third FYP unsuccessful?

Answer 46

steel production stagnated, oil failed to meet targets. | Consumer goods was again the lowest priority.

Question 47

Why was the third FYP interrupted?

Answer 47

Germany invaded in 1941.

Question 48

When did the first stage of Collectivisation take place?

Answer 48

1929-30

Question 49

When did Stalin announce that the Kulaks were to be annihilated as a class?

Answer 49

December 1929

Question 50

How many richer peasants were forced to migrate north under dekulakisation?

Answer 50

c150,000

Question 51

How did peasants try to avoid being labelled as Kulaks?

Answer 51

by killing their livestock and destroying their crops.

Question 52

What percentage of grain-farming areas were to be collectivised in 1930?

Answer 52

25%

Question 53

What was a kolkhoz?

Answer 53

a collective farm.

Question 54

How did Dekulakisation go hand in hand with collectividation?

Answer 54

Dekulakisation was meant to scare poorer peasants into conforming to the collective farms.

Question 55

What percentage of households had been collectivised by March 1930?

Answer 55

58%

Question 56

When was the second stage in Collectivisation?

Answer 56

1930-41

Question 57

How many of the most successful farmers were removed by dekulakisation?

Answer 57

c10 million

Question 58

If you stole from a collective farm, what would your punishment be?

Answer 58

Jailed for 10 years