Bolshevik consolidation

Subdecks (2)

Cards (48)

  • Period
    1918 - 1921
  • State capitalism
    Mixed economy; socialist and capitalist elements; imposing state control but retaining private ownership
  • State control examples
    • GOELRO 1920
    • 1917 nationalisation of banks, 1918 railways
    • Veshenka 1917
    • 1918 decree on land
  • GOELRO
    organised and distributed electricity
  • Veshenka 1917
    managed state control over Russia's economy
  • 3 main issues with state capitalism
    • Bolsheviks and Bukharin demanded radical measures - state control over everything
    • factories taken over by workers meant decline in production - workers lacked management skills
    • peasants control sale of grains meant higher prices - state-controlled needed cheap grain so workers didn't need a higher wage
  • war communism
    June 1918; system to ensure Red Army were provided with food and weapons to win the war
  • war communism measures
    nationalization, grain requisitioning, labour discipline and rationing - government decided what would be produced and Lenin saw these as necessary to defeat the Whites
  • grain requisitioning
    peasants' grain distributed to feed Red Army and workers; farmers were supervised by the State; kulaks had stocks seized; opposition was repressed by Cheka
  • nationalization
    November 1920 all factories and businesses
    May 1918 sugar; June 1918 oil
    banned private ownership
    military-style control of railways
  • labour discipline
    workers lost rights from "Decree on Workers' Control of Factories"; abolished workers' soviets
    • fined for lateness and absence
    • internal passports - stop migration to countryside
    • extended hours
  • rationing
    • based on class - upper got the least and factory workers/Red Army got the most
    • ration-card workbooks instead of wages
  • effects of war communism
    • food shortages by 1920 - cannibalism, reduction of grain supplies
    • production decline
    • reduction in population by 44.5% in Moscow and 57.5% in Petrograd
  • population decrease from 170.9 million to 130.9 million
  • NEP
    February 1921 by Gosplan and introduced March 1921 to fix problems from war communism; Lenin knew it was an ideological retreat therefore did not allow a vote
  • Scissors-Crisis
    Agricultural prices were low whilst industrial prices were high
  • Scissor-Crisis impact
    Farmers couldn't used new methods nor increase productivity because there wasn't enough surplus cash to buy equipment or machinery
  • Nepmen were

    Hated for being representatives of capitalism
  • Political impact of NEP
    1921 ban on factions and SRs & Mensheviks were banned; Cheka given power to suppress Nepmen moving NEP towards capitalism; 1923 nomenklatura system to promote Party members who showed complete loyalty to Party