Key Economic Developments

• Witte (1890s)• Stolypin (1900s)• War Communism (1917 +)• NEP (1920s)• Collectivisation (1920s)• Five-Year-Plans (1930s)• Seven-Year-Plans (1950s)

Why nothing before Witte?

• Society still evolving from feudal to ‘free agricultural’, let alone industrial

• Reactionary land policies of Alexander III meant most peasants did not move to cities

• Hence very little industrialisation

Witte

• Aim: “Save Russia”• Focus: Industry• Theory:– Railways built– This required coal/iron– This led to ‘supporting industries’– Led to increase in agricultural goods– All areas of economy stimulated

Witte: Continuity

• There had been small-scale railway and industrial growth pre-1891

Witte: Change

• Witte’s Great Spurt relied on foreign investment in Russia

• The new industries created needed to be protected by tariffs, which greatly increased the living costs

Witte: A Turning Point?

• State involvement in industrial planning• Russia took great steps towards becoming an

industrialised power• The notion of the peasantry being central to

Russian development took a less prominent role

Stolypin

• Aim: Save Russia (“Wager on the strong”)• Focus: Peasantry• Theory:– Through loans and land and rights, encouraged

peasants to leave mir and develop as independent farmers

– Created a new level of wealthy small-holding peasants, loyal to the regime

Stolypin: Continuity

• The peasant had always been central to Russia • No redistribution of land• In the same way that Witte aimed to develop

an industrial class loyal to the Tsar, Stolypin wanted an agricultural group loyal to the Tsar

Stolypin: Change

• The emphasis shifted from industrial to agricultural

• Peasants were viewed as people with rights and freedoms

Stolypin: A Turning Point?

• Stolypin’s ‘wager’ was the final effort of the Tsar to do anything proactive towards the peasantry

War Communism

• Aim: Save the revolution• Focus: Agriculture• Theory:– The requisitioning of grain and the execution of

those thought to be hoarding it would allow the regime to continue

War Communism: Continuity

• The peasants continue to be badly treated• Led to the organisation of peasant resistance,

the same sort as seen by Alexander and Nicholas

• Production still low• Cities still undersupplied

War Communism: Change

• The state was now prepared to use violence not as a last resort, but as a first method

• The focus was not on production, but on the distribution of what had been produced

War Communism: A Turning Point?

• It shows a negative attitude from the Communist Party towards the peasantry

NEP

• Aim: Save the revolution• Focus: Agriculture• Theory:– Farmers had to give a set amount of their income

to the state– The remainder can be sold for profit

NEP: Continuity

• The peasants continued to see part of their harvest taken by the state

NEP: Change

• The peasants became recognised as a hugely important section of Russian society

• A radical departure from both war communism and Marxist theory

NEP: A Turning Point?

• NEP was a departure from the period immediately after 1917

• It was a return to the pre-1917 period• It did not endure beyond 1928• Short-term it ended famine and stabilised the

economy

Collectivisation

• Aim: Save the revolution• Focus: Agriculture• Theory:– Peasants working together collectively produce

more than peasants working alone independently– Large-scale farms would produce large-scale crops– Farming would be equal, eliminating Stolypin’s

“strong”

Collectivisation: Continuity

• Link with the mir of Tsarist Russia?• It was followed ruthlessly, much like War

Communism had been

Collectivisation: Change

• Agriculture became industrialised• Wealthy peasants were viewed as dangerous

rather than desirable

Collectivisation: A Turning Point?

• After this point, there was little or no private agriculture in Russia

• The cities and the countryside finally formed a symbiotic relationship, with each needing the other

Five-Year-Plans

• Aim: Save the USSR• Focus: Industry (Heavy and Light)• Theory:– The USSR was non-industrialised– Stalin reckoned that they had about 10 years

before someone exploited this and invaded– USSR must be forcefully and totally industrialised

Five-Year-Plans: Continuity

• Link with Witte, in terms of the focus (heavy industry, coal, iron, steel and railways)

• Marxist ideology depends heavily on an industrialised working class

• The total disregard for the suffering and loss of life that it caused was a continuation of the attitudes of previous approaches

• There was a reliance on foreign expertise in the same way that Witte had relied on foreign capital

Five-Year-Plans: Change

• Attention switched back to industry – this was the first time since Witte that it became central

• The scale of involvement was far greater that Witte

• The Five Year Plans incorporated movements to modernise the army and defence, which had not been a feature of Witte’s plans

• Some new industries, which Witte had not examined, were included – electricity being the most notable

Five-Year-Plans: A Turning Point?

• After them, the USSR was an undeniably industrialised nation

• It set the scene for future centralised planning initiatives, notably the seven-year-plans

• Focus clearly shifts back onto industry over and above agriculture

Seven-Year-Plans

• Aim: Make people happier• Focus: Consumer goods• Theory:– “It is no good having the right ideology if everyone

has to walk around without any trousers”– More consumer goods led to a happier populace– This led to a contented populace– This safeguarded the regime

Seven-Year-Plans: Continuity

• State planning• Production targets• Continued city/countryside relationship• Although new targets in new areas were set,

traditional areas like industry and defence continued to be important

Seven-Year-Plans: Change

• The welfare of people is paramount, at least in the first instance

• Consumer goods• A genuine understanding of the needs of the

workers/peasants

Seven-Year-Plans: A Turning Point?

• Difficult to say, as at the end of the period• BUT the first time that welfare of the people

had made the list of important considerations