Khrushchev's Economy - Agriculture

Virgin Land Scheme​

Aim​

• Hoped to increase Soviet Agricultural production by turning unfarmed land into new farms
• Agricultural investment grew from 3% a year to 12.8% between 1954 and 1959​

Success!​

• Overall production increased by 35% from 1953 – 1958​

• Improved standard of living​

• Led to 400% rise in income of farm workers​

However...

• Expensive

• Farms in Kazakhstan needed sophisticated irrigation systems (expensive to run and maintain)

• Failed to lead to further growth

• Harvests in 1959 and 1960 were slightly below the 1958 levels
• Below the targets

The Corn Campaign September 1958

• Encouraged farmers in Ukraine to grow maize

• His plan was to shift production of wheat to the Virgin Lands while maize would be grown in the traditional farms

• The maize would be used to feed animals and would increase the amount of meat available

Failure…

• His initiative was based on the success of US farms

• Soviet farms were only able to produce 50% of the corn per hectare

• Growing more corn meant that Soviet farms produced less hay

• The amount of animal feed dropped by 30% between 1958 and 1964

Khrushchev's Economy - Industry

Industry


The Seven-year-plan : Light industry in January 1959


The plan was designed to boost agriculture by investing in light industry. He hoped that more chemical production would lead to better fertilisers and therefore increased production of crops as well as synthetic fibres. He thought that chemical production through light industry would encourage growth in the 2 sections of the economy. He believe that further investment in heavy industry was unnecessary.


Production of chemicals ad consumer goods increased between 1959 and 1965.There was a 60% increased production of consumer goods, which is 5% below Khrushchev's target. 


However, the reforms were often counterproductive or so short that they did not have time to work.


* In Feb 1962 Khrushchev divided the Party in two; one half was responsible for agriculture and the other half for industry. These reforms were unpopular and took place in the middle of the 7 year plan.
* Khrushchev changed targets of the Plan in 1962 to more ambitious goals.
* Factories produced light fittings that were too heavy to hang on the ceiling.


Military spending:


The economy did not produce enough wealth to continue high levels of military spending and improve living standards. Military spending fell from 12% of GDP in 1955 to 9% in  1958. However, in 1962 Khrushchev increased military spending again due to series o nuclear stand-offs between Soviet Union and USA. This means that by 1962, military spending was around 11%.  Increased military spending led to a reduction in economic growth.


Khrushchev's vision:


In 1962, he stated that the Soviet Union would achieve Communism by 1980, at which stage housing, transport and food would be all available freely, and consumer goods would be cheap and widely available.

Soviet Society and Culture

Marx's stages and jumping ahead

• Think about the future  - more long-term - different concept of time
• Marx believed capitalism is exploitative - so at some point inevitably rise up and socialism brought in
• Problem Russia not at capitalism - still at feudalism
• So people thought the revolution would lead onto to capitalism and wait to develop
• Lenin made a speech to continue the revolution into socialism - wanted to simulate a capitalist system
• October was jumping ahead in time about 100 years
• Focus on future but they weren't sure what that was - Marx wasn't very clear

Stalin's economy

• 1928 - create an advanced economy over the next five years - Stalin's first Five Year Plan
• Idea to collect peasants into collectives
• Leading to an industrial society of the worker
• "We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they crush us..."
• Stalin said this in 1931, at the beginning of the rapid industrialization campaign. Ten years later, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union.
• A culture of targets
• Took the US and Britain 50 years to industrialise, it took the USSR 10
• Khrushchev set a date when communism would come - Reaching new heights - construction, technology, sputnik

Socialist people

• Creating socialist people - manual worker, educated, communal, selfless, rational
• Lenin wanted to artificially create these people
• 1961 "moral code of the builder of communism" written - set out the socialist future person
• Also negative side - removing those that don't belong - "former people"
• - Purges looking for those that didn't fit in - Stalin

Women as socialist people

• New person meant to be gender neutral
• 1920s idea that women became more like men
• Break bonds from family and work
• Backfires women start to work instead - birth rate drops
• 1930s work and household - but no politics because at home

Economy - Andropov

Andropov's 'reforms' 1982-1984

• Like Brezhnev Andropov refused to talk of reform
• Unlike Brezhnev he was willing to admit there were considerable economic problems that needed fixing
• Not willing to change the fundamentals of the economy
• Focus was on Labour discipline

To improve productivity Andropov started three campaigns...


Anti-Corruption Campaign

• November 1982 an investigation of senior party officials and industrial managers who were using Soviet resources to make themselves rich
• E.g. Brezhnev's Minister of interior Nikolai Shchelokov was sacked and put on trial for corruption - took his own life before the end of the trial

Anti-Alcohol Campaign

• Workers could be sacked for drunkenness and could be fined for damaging machinery if drunk at work

Operation Trawl - Anti-Drunkenness and Anti-Absenteeism Campaign

• KGB officers visited parks, restaurants and train stations arresting people who were drunk or absent from work

Results

• Did lead to reduction in consumption of traditional vodka
• However consumption of 'Andropovka' - a lower quality cheaper vodka - increased
• Also the campaigns were poorly enforced and so drunkenness and poor discipline continued

Economy - Brezhnev

• Reform discredited after Khrushchev's rejection from the party
• Brezhnev and the leaders after even abandoned the word 'reform'

Restoring the Economy

• Khrushchev's fall led to a rejection and undoing of his reforms
• - The party was reunited
• - Seven year plans were abandoned and in 1966 went back to five year plans

Aims

• Brezhnev content to just mind the system that Stalin had created
• Although like Brezhnev he hoped to produce more consumer goods
• Brezhnev was less ambitious in the quantity and quality of the consumer goods he expected

The 'Kosygin reforms'

What was it?

• Kosygin advocated reforms that were designed to cut investment in the most inefficient collective farms and divert it to light industry
• Also he proposed giving power over production to factory managers and judging success by profit not product levels
• Designed to make factories produce goods that consumers want

What happened?

• Introduced January 1968
• Similar reforms had been attempted in Czechoslovakia and was part of a series of reforms that lead to a rebellion against the Soviet Union
• This discredited Kosygin's programme
• Halted in August
• Authority back to central planners

Military investment

• Brezhnev increased military investment - 11% of GDP in 1964 to 13% in 1970
• Aim was to become equal with the US in terms of nuclear fire power
• Wanted to do this so that the Soviet Union wouldn't have to back down again (as had happened in Berlin Crisis of 1961 and Cuban missile of 1962)
• Success - nuclear parity was achieved by 1970
• However... Achieving and maintaining it was expensive and led to growing economic problems

'Developed Socialism'

• Brezhnev didn't follow through Khrushchev's commitment to reaching communism by 1980
• With the slow economic growth in the 1960 and 70s and increased military spending meant there was no way the Soviet Union could be turned into a land of plenty
• Instead Brezhnev argued that the Soviet Union should focus on improving living standards
• Meant abandoning reaching communism by 1980 and replacing it with 'developed socialism' - an economy with job security and low prices
• Low prices were achieved by importing large amounts of grain from the west rather than expanding the Virgin Land Scheme

Second Economy

• Brezhnev accepted the Black Market (or second economy) as a necessary evil
• Rather than trying to stop it let it continue because it made consumer goods and food more widely available and therefor helped his goal of improving living standards

GKO - Stalin

• It was the State committee of defence
• It was given the power and authority to make quick decisions
• It could maker quicker decisions than the Council of people's commissars which was necessary during war time
• Also it made the people feel that the government was taking special measures to organise for war

Brezhnev - Economy

Agriculture

• March 1965 CC Plenum
• -Described past failures
• -Grain production down and barely prewar levels - e.g. only 573 kg  per head compared to 540 kg in 1913
• Virgin land scheme ended

Industry 1960s

• Gosplan collated targets and plans that factories made and then put together the overall plans and targets
• Coal making loss of 16%
• Defence highly profitable 
• Milk and fish broke even
• 1965 CC plenum - Kosygin announced abolition

1970s

• 9th Five Year Plan - 1971-75 - focus on consumer goods
• Goals not met but improvement
• 1980 85% of families had TVs

1973 - 'alliance of the working class with science' - failure

1974 - new targets on cost and profits

-Didn't take into account supply and demand

-Failure

Economy fact sheet -

• Brezhnev focused on re-establishing the economy
• Government was more centralised
• Aimed to improve living standards and focused on light industry
• He put the majority of the money into the military
• Lack of investment in agriculture
• Virgin Land Scheme continued over 10 billion rubbles invested in irrigation in central Asia
• There was still lots of corruption caused by targets set by Gosplan that were unrealistic
• Soviet Union signed a deal with the US in order to have access to better technology
• 1980s - Stagnation led to the decline of the USSR
• Grain production from 1914 to 1963 only went up by 30kg per heaf

Brezhnev - Society

1970s shops for members of the party KGB, MVD government and party

• vouchers for first class produce
• 200 rubles could feed a family of five - the equivalent elsewhere would cost 500-600

Social Contract

Social benefits in return for obedience

Five main beliefs - 

• Social mobility
• Employment
• Low prices for essentials
• Free healthcare
• Interference free second economy (black market)
• Extended subsidies to holidays

Social Stability - Lack of opposition

• Failing to tackle underlying problems
• Hidden unemployment of about 20% - being paid but not doing a useful job
• Infants mortality rates increasing in the 1970s
• Life expectancy falling too (alcohol a major problem)
• Female unemployment rising

Conclusion

The 'social contract' lead to a lot of stability but it also gave rise to old problems remerging and stagnation. So stability was very successfully established but it wasn't necessarily the best thing for Russia.

Khrushchev - Society

Conclusion

Although there were set back and failures overall lives were improved. Living Standards , healthcare and housing all improved under Khrushchev. There was economic optimism because of the space race and the then apparent success of the Virgin Lands scheme (in the 1950s).

Women

• Motherly portrayal continued
• Promiscuity punished - world youth festival
• 'Style hunters' - looked down on

Living Conditions

• More focus on it - budget doubled
• Improvements to healthcare
• 2 times more houses in urban areas - poor quality
• 10 times bigger than the kommunalka under Stalin
• Prefabricated
• Own kitchens, more private
• More consumer goods
• Harsh labour laws from Stalinist era repealed

Education

• Khrushchev tried to get schools in the countryside to group together and share resources - however most stayed badly equipped
• Doubled number of schools in towns and cities
• Number of teachers rose - 1.5 million in 1953 to 2.2 million in 1964
• Levels of education of teachers also improved - 1953 19% had university degrees 1964 40%
• 1956 fees for secondary education and universities were abolished
• 1959 - Special funds for poor secondary school students
• Result was the proportion of 17 year olds attending secondary education that had been 20% in 1953 rose to 75% in 1959

December 1959 education law

• Education compulsory for 7-15 year olds
• More vocational courses up to 19
• New lesson on the fundamentals of politics

The 1956 reforms

• From 1931 - 1955 the curriculum pretty much stayed the same
• 1959 reform introduced polytechnic education - reflected need for more skilled workers - focus on the physical
• More trips and work placements

The 1959 Reforms

• Even more polytechnic - because Khrushchev believed that an education made people feel that they were 'too good' to work in factories or farms

1960 - More relaxed code of conduct

1961 - Foreign languages taught - no more exams homework

1962 - Teachers can't expel students

Healthcare

• Budget doubled
• Death rates and infant mortality rates fell
• Available not always good quality

New laws

• Free lunches in schools, offices and factories
• Free public transport
• Full healthcare and pension rights for farmers

Novocherkask tragedy

• 1 June 1962 starts as 10 people and by the end of the day 20 people were on strike
• 2 June 1962 marches demanding higher wages - military 20 people and injured 40

Alcohol

• Population grew by 25% 1940-1980
• Alcohol consumption grew by 600%

Andropov and Chernenko - Arts

• Basically stayed the same

Brezhnev - Arts

• Anti-Alcohol campaign
• 3 days of national morning after death
• Tried to create cult - Vanity was joked about and Nikolai Podgorny warned him of this and Brezhnev replied "If they are poking fun at me, it means they like me".
• Gave himself many medals - including Lenin prize for literature for his memoirs
• Show trials
• Like Stalin in essence
• Knew that it was important tool but was less interested in it than Khrushchev
• Under Brezhnev it was more focused on nostalgic revisions of the past - glory of the revolution
• Ballet was being supported - there was demand for soviet ballet all over the world

On becoming leader he said -

"Under Stalin, people feared persecution. Under Khrushchev, people feared reform. The people of the Soviet Union need a quiet life."

Khrushchev - Arts

• American Showcase
• World Youth Festival 1957
• Style hunters - too into western styles - campaigns against
• Space Race
• "it looks to me like a little boy pissed on the floor" "Dogshit"  - reaction to art
• Celebrating the achievements and life of Lenin not his death
• The Thaw (book) allowed to be published despite being critical of Stalin
• Gershwin allowed on the curriculum
• Solhnitisyn - allowed to publish under Khrushchev and not Brezhnev - truth about gulags
• The secretary - meant to criminalise style hunters people felt sympathy instead - backfired

Stalin - arts

• Socialist-realism - more realistic (easily understood) but still celebrates the glory of the worker and the revolution
• Cult of personality - after WW2 portrayed as hero
• Gender inequality - women were peasants and mothers or farmers whilst men were industrial workers
• Theatres shut, plays  and films censored
• Editing photos

Lenin - art and culture

• Agit-prop - agit-trans
• Proletkult - glory of worker and revoltion
• Cult of Lenin - attempted assassination - Fanny Kaplan August 1918
• Not traditional arts - tsarist, bourgeois
• Decree on press
• Cinema important
• Glavlit - controlling literature
• Rodchenko - cubism, photomontage
• Lunacharsky
• Bukharin - editor of Pravda
• Writers - Yesenin

Lenin - Centres

Communist Party Politburo set up and took over the Sovnarkom

End of elections for key positions in the Soviet 1919
Chosen by central committee instead
Means that the party is controlling the state
Even at local level - chosen by party bosses

Nomeklatura
5,500 (approx) positions
Loyalty over experience
By 1924 over 7 million members

Tenth Party Congress - Ban on Factions
Hoping to increase party loyalty and unity

Russian Soviet Federation Republic - January 1819 (the new name for Russia)

End of free elections for local soviets

Sticks and carrots
Sticks
-Cheka
-Gulags
Carrots
-Decree on land
-Workers in control of factories
-Banning of other parties 1921

State under Lenin

Sovnarkom
Council of People's commissars
Had to be a member of the party to join
Chosen by the Central Executive Committee

Central Executive Committee
Oversaw laws and carried out administration

All-Russian Congress
All laws passed through here
Can raise issues for discussion
By late 1920s all members had to belong to the party

Party under Lenin

Politburo
7-9 members
Precedence over Sovnarkom
Decisions passed onto Sovankom
But often would approve because it consisted largely of the same people

Central Committee
30- 40 members
Elected members to go to Politburo

Party Congress
Representatives from local party branches
Discussed party stuff
Ban on factions limited discussion

Khrushchev - Pressure to produce

• Massive fraud - e.g. dead animals being counted
• "farms met their targets and the state paid for imaginary meat" - Robert Service
• 1936 - harvest failed - Khrushchev was forced to import grain from the US

Corruption a way of life

e.g. All gold and diamond mines were state owned however there was lots on the black market

e.g. Roifman doctor who got patients knitting

Khrushchev - Agriculture

Giving incentive

• Introduced a lower quota for collective farms and higher prices for goods produced outside the quota
• Lead to 250% increase in incomes in 1952-1956

Increase efficiency

• Invest in equipment and fertilisers
• By 1955 there was a 30% increase in the number of tractors

Virgin Land Scheme

• The aim was to increase soviet agricultural production
• They went about this by expanding their farmlands
• 33 million hectares were ploughed
• 1000s komosol members sent 
• Poor living conditions - many ended up leaving

The corn campaign

• Khrushchev believed that corn was the miracle crop that would help beat the USA
• The plan was to produce more than the US in 1960

Successes/failures

• Overall increase by 35.3%
• Led to more food available which improved living conditions
• Needed more money to fully modernise agriculture
• Didn't beat the US which was embarrassing for Khrushchev

Economy and Government

February 1957 - 105 local councils given power over economic planning

Local party bosses got a boost to their power

Khrushchev is stronger, the government is weaker

Politically good but an economic failure

Industry

Aims

• Modernise
• Increase light industry production (high tech stuff)
• improve living conditions by cutting government spending

Policies

• 1955 - Cuts to military expenditure
• =>12.1 in 1955 9.1 in 1958
• =>1958 and 1962 series of standoffs with US - increase 1962 1962 11%
• Seven Year Plan - Jan 1959 - Focused on light industry
• Factory managers given incentive - got 40% of profits

Successes

• Increased production of chemicals and consumer goods (1959-1965) although not as much as hoped
• 60% increase in consumer products produced - although this was 5% under Khrushchev's target

Failures

• Decentralisation - lack of coordination
• Gosplan tried to do stuff but local councils resisted
• Division of party - unpopular - happened in the middle of the Seven Year Plan
• 1962 - new and more ambitious targets
• Production by weight
• Production by value

Kulaks

Kulaks were rich peasants.

Stalin used propaganda to portray the Kulaks as uncommunist which served as justification  for Stalin shooting and deporting them and taking their machinery and animals.

Living Standards and Housing

Living conditions got worse and were generally overcrowded and unhygienic

• Between 1929 and 1940 the urban population trebled
• From 1941 - 1945 half of urban housing was destroyed (as a result of the war)
• Only 22.8% of houses had sewers

Collectivisation

The aim was to merge farms to improve efficiency and share resources

Terror - 25,000ers sent out to enforce collectivisation

• 1930s Stalin realised workers needed incentive
• 1932 Peasants allowed to sell excess produce in markets
• 1940 Markets produce 19% of retail turnover which was embarrassing for the party

The Five Year Plan - the fifth

1951 - 1955

The Aim

Focus on defence after 1950 military spending rose by one quarter of government budget which left less money for other things for example only 12% was for food

The Result

• Wage levels were higher by 1952 than 1940

The Five Year Plan - the fourth

1946 - 1950

The Aim

The aim was to recover after the war because for example

• Industry only produced two thirds of what it used to
• There were 25 million homeless in 1945

So 88% of investment went into heavy industry

The Result

• 80% increase in heavy industry production
• 1945 - 1950 soviet economy grew more than most others
• But farming not so good due to drought and a lack of labourers

The Five Year Plan - the third

1938 - 1941

The Aim

The aim was to prepare for war

• One third of government spending went towards the weapons and the military in 1940
• 1939 - 9 new aircraft factories were set up
• 1941 Stalin took control in preparation for war
• Russia was a super power

The Result

• Highly industrialised and urbanised
• Russia was ready for war
• But living standards were compromised
• Economy didn't improve much

The Five Year Plan - the second

January 1933 - December 1937

The Aim

The aim was to industrialise and improve living standards. The targets were more realistic and the focus shifted to other industries (e.g. communication)

The Result

• Improved living standards
• 1935 bread rationing ended
• But there was little cooperation or organisation

The Five Year Plan - the first

1928 - 1932

The Aim

The aim was to replace the capitalist NEP with a more communist system that would industrialise quicker.

It consisted of a series of targets set by Gosplan (a committee responsible for economic planning)

Results

• Economy grew by 14% a year
• "gigantomania" - quantity not quality
• Failed to reach targets

NEP

• The New Economic Policy
• Aim was to rebuild the economy and keep people on side
• Mixed economy (some free market, some nationalised)
• 1921 ended rationing and people could buy food
• NEP men travelled in and out of cities and the country buying and selling goods
• Goes against communist ideals which caused political division
• Lead to the scissor crisis
• There was industrial growth until it plateaued
• It also resulted in a very wealth NEP men
• It was popular with peasants

NEP men

Bought in Countryside => Sold in the city => Bought in the city => Sold in the Countryside... etc.

Scissor Crisis

• Under the NEP agriculture improved quickly but industry didn't resulting in industrial prices rising as agricultural prices fell
• By 1923 industrial prices were three times bigger than agricultural prices

War Communism

• From 1918-1921
• Was necessary to continue war
• It introduced state ownership, compulsory labour (September 1918), abolished trade and introduced grain requisitioning
• The grain requisitioning along with a bad harvest lead to 5 million deaths in 1921
• Number of factory workers fell by 25%
• People returned to the country side
• Led to economic collapse
• Not enough money to industrialise
• Bolsheviks become less popular as a result
• There were few incentives to work hard
• Lenin compared the communist state to a man 'beaten to within an inch of his life'.