Post-WW2 Economy under Stalin and Khrushchev

Question 1

What were the huge economic strains facing the USSR post-WW2?

Answer 1

70% of their industrial capacity was destroyed, along with a largely reduced workforce. Lend-Lease came to an end and Stalin refused to let satellite states receive Marshall Aid.

Question 2

What did Stalin establish in 1947?

Answer 2

Comecon to link Eastern European countries in the Soviet bloc economically
Cominform to counter Western propaganda.

Question 3

How did Stalin start the Cold War?

Answer 3

The Soviet bloc had Soviet governments that were reliant on the USSR which created tensions between the expanding, communist East and the capitalist West.

Question 4

Why was the purpose of redistribution of industry?

Answer 4

To provide a broad base for industrial recovery since the expanded eastern industrial areas permitted the exploitation of new sources of raw materials.

Question 5

What were the aims of the Fourth Five Year Plan 1946-50?

Answer 5

Catch up with the USA. To rebuild heavy industry and transport, and to revive the Ukraine.

Question 6

What is the detail of the Fourth Five Year Plan 1946-1950?

Answer 6

Using extensive reparations paid by Germany, maintenance of wartime controls on labour force, and an emphasis on Grand Projects.

Question 7

What was the result of the Fourth Five Year Plan 1946-1950?

Answer 7

USSR became 2nd to USA in industrial capacity.
Urban workforce increased from 67 to 77 million.
Industrially far stronger than pre-war.

Question 8

What were the aims of the Fifth Five Year Plan 1951-55?

Answer 8

Continuation of heavy industry and transport development.
Increase consumer goods, housing and services.

Question 9

What was the detail of the Fifth Five Year Plan 1951-55?

Answer 9

Continuation of Fourth Five Year Plan with some resources redirected to rearmament during Korean War.
After Stalin’s death, Malenkov reduced expenditure of military and heavy industry.

Question 10

What were the results of the Fifth Five year Plan 1951-55?

Answer 10

National income increased 71%
Most growth targets met.
Malenkov’s changes met opposition - loss of leadership in 1955.

Question 11

Which of Malenkov’s economic ideas did Khrushchev heavily criticise?

Answer 11

Malenkov’s proposal to move economic focus from heavy to light industry.

Question 12

What were the main economic issues with the Stalinist system?

Answer 12

Ministers in Moscow were out of touch and set incongruent industrial targets, so it began to break down.
There were too few administrators left.
Enterprises had increased targets if they me their first ones, so managers hid productivity.

Question 13

What was the issue with the Sixth Five Year Plan?

Answer 13

Launched in 1956 to try break past constraints, but targets were over-optimistic and plan was abandoned after 2 years.

Question 14

What happened in 1957 which helped to move towards decentralisation?

Answer 14

60 Moscow ministries abolished.
USSR divided into 105 economic regions, each with its own sovnarkhoz to plan economic affairs.

Question 15

What was the ulterior political motive behind the 1957 reforms?

Answer 15

Removed Malenkov’s supporters in central industries and extended Khrushchev’s patronage of localities. He also hoped to cut unnecessary bureaucracy and win credit for communism and the socialist way.

Question 16

When was the 7 Year Plan and Supreme Economic Council established?

Answer 16

1959

Question 17

What was the emphasis behind the 7 Year Plan?

Answer 17

Improving ordinary people living standards, promising a 40-hour week and 40% wage increase by 1965. Shift from old heavy industries to modern industries.

Question 18

What was the 7 Year Plan slogan?

Answer 18

Catch up and overtake the USA by 1970.

Question 19

What were the modern industries developed by Khrushchev?

Answer 19

Vast expansion of chemical industry - fertilisers.
Housing factories to produce prefabricated flats
Increased production of consumer goods.
Greater exploitation of USSR resources and building of power stations.

Question 20

What technology was developed under Khrushchev?

Answer 20

Electrified Railway lines.
Aeroflot developed to offer long-distance passenger travel.
Sputnik - Laika the dog taken into orbit.
Icebreaker Lenin - nuclear-powered ship.
1961 Yuri Gagarin

Question 21

What was the increase in coal output 1955-1965?

Answer 21

391 million tons - 578 milion tons.

Question 22

What was the increase in electricity output 1955-1965?

Answer 22

170 billion kWh - 507 billion kWh.

Question 23

Which of Khrushchev’s systems were rapidly abandoned in 1965?

Answer 23

Decentralisation - added a layer of bureaucracy.

Question 24

What distorted the economic picture of the USSR?

Answer 24

Heavy spending on armaments and the space race.

Question 25

How did the industrial growth slow from 1958?

Answer 25

Only a 7.5% growth rate in 1964, down 2.5% from previous years.

Question 26

Where was the decline in industry particularly marked?

Answer 26

Consumer goods - only a 2% growth.

Question 27

What was the limitation with the Soviet space exploration?

Answer 27

They only achieved this with excessive risk-taking, Laika died in orbit and Soviet rocketry was unsophisticated and inferior to that of the USA.

Question 28

What was the agricultural state of Russia in 1945?

Answer 28

Scorched Earth policy left only 1/3 of farms operational, and 1945 harvests had <60% of pre-war harvests. 2/3 of agricultural labour force gone.

Question 29

What were the aims of the Agricultural Fourth Five Year Plan 1946-50?

Answer 29

Force the kolkhozes to deliver agricultural products.
Revive wheat in Ukraine.
Transform nature and revitalise barren land.

Question 30

What was the detail of the Agricultural Fourth Five Year Plan 1946-50?

Answer 30

Massive state direction: high quotas for grain and livestock. Higher taxes on private produce. Lysenko’s ideas enforced.

Question 31

What were the results of the Agricultural Fourth Five Year Plan 1946-50?

Answer 31

State procured 70% of 1946 harvest.
Kolkhoz output increased.
Food rationing ended.
1/2 of output from private plots.
Lysenko was wrong.

Question 32

What were the aims of the Agricultural Fifth Five Year Plan 1951-55?

Answer 32

Continuation of 4 5YP plus virgin lands scheme and development of agrocities.

Question 33

What was the detail of the Agricultural Fifth Five Year plan 1951-55?

Answer 33

High procurement levels maintained.
Expansion of agriculture in uncultivated areas.

Question 34

What were the results of the Agricultural Fifth Five Year Plan 1951-55?

Answer 34

Agricultural production behind industry and not up to 1940 yet.

Question 35

How many horses had been lost in war?

Answer 35

Approx 25 million.

Question 36

How did Khrushchev criticise agriculture under Stalin?

Answer 36

Limitations of agricultural production concealed by unreliable statistics and grain output less than tsarist Russia.
Stalin’s collective farming methods counter-productive.

Question 37

What were the changes made to incentivise greater agricultural production from peasants?

Answer 37

Price paid for state grain procurements raised by c25.
State procurement reduced.
Taxes reduced.
No quotas on private plots.

Question 38

What large-scale changes were made to incentivise agricultural production?

Answer 38

Increase in numbers of farms connected to electricity grid.
1962 campaign for chemical fertiliser.
Increases in use of farm machinery - MTS expansion.
Encouragement to merge collectives to create larger farms (number of collectives halved)

Question 39

What was the Virgin Lands Scheme, and was it successful?

Answer 39

Khrushchev believed Western Siberia and Kazakhstan were unexploited and could provide economically. When the 1953 initial scheme was successful, a huge campaign was launched to attract farmers to settle. Komsomol encouraged to work on new farms.
35.9 million hectares of virgin land ploughed by 1956.

Question 40

What crop did Khrushchev root for, and why?

Answer 40

Maize - would answer USSR food shortages, since it had high tonnage/hectare. Encouraged by USA visit and campaigned against private car ownership.

Question 41

What were agrocities?

Answer 41

Huge collective towns, an attempt to replicate urban conditions of work and living on the land and destroying old, rural villages for greater efficiency. Never actually realised.

Question 42

How much did cereal production increase 1952-1964?

Answer 42

82 million tons - 132 million tons. Stalin’s aim of 180 million tons not met.

Question 43

What was the effect of the new measures?

Answer 43

Failed to encourage peasants to put effort into state-enforced work. Some attempt to increase amount of time spent on collectives, but private plots provided 50% of peasants income and contributed 30% of internal market produce.

Question 44

How was the new pricing system a failure?

Answer 44

State officials kept altering the prices so farmers couldn’t plan ahead. Frustrations at low prices State paid and interference of Party officials in farm management bred discontent.

Question 45

How was the selling of tractors a failure?

Answer 45

Most peasants did not have the tools or knowledge to carry out repairs, and did not want to pay the MTS to fix them so they were unsuccessful.

Question 46

What were the issues with Khrushchev’s Grand Schemes?

Answer 46

VLS unsuccessful long-term, climatic conditions not taken into account and lack of crop rotation sucked nutrients out of soil entirely. 1963 bad harvest meant grain had to be imported from USA.

Question 47

What is the summary of Khrushchev’s economic policies?

Answer 47

A time of too many different, mixed initiatives carried out with insufficient thought.