On October 25 (November 7), 1917, one of the radical parties of Russia, the RSDLP (b), came to power. its economic tasks were defined at the VI Party Congress (1917) and were not of the nature of socialist construction, but of public and state intervention in production, distribution, finance and regulation work force based on the introduction of universal labor conscription.
TO main events of this period included: the organization of workers' control, the nationalization of banks, the implementation of the Decree on Land, the nationalization of industry and the organization of its management system, the introduction of a foreign trade monopoly.
On practice the idea of nationalization was gradually reduced to confiscation, that had a negative impact on work industrial enterprises because they were rising economic connections, it became difficult to establish control on a national scale. Despite this situation, from the beginning 1918 The local nationalization of industry began to acquire a massive, spontaneous and growing confiscation movement. The lack of experience led to the fact that sometimes enterprises were established that workers were not actually ready to manage, as well as small enterprises that became a burden for the state. The practice of illegal confiscation by decision of the factory committee (fabzavkom) with its subsequent approval by government agencies has become widespread. Against this background, the economic situation of the country deteriorated.
By July 1, 513 large industrial enterprises became state property. June 28 1918 The Council of People's Commissars (SNK) adopted Decree on the general nationalization of the country's large industry "with the aim of decisively combating economic and industrial devastation and strengthening the dictatorship of the working class and the peasant poor." During the civil war, the nationalization of all industrial enterprises began. By autumn 1918 industry was almost completely nationalized.
Decree O land, adopted at the Second Congress of Soviets (1917), laid the foundations for new agrarian relations. It combined radical measures - the abolition of private ownership of land and the transfer of landowners' estates, "as well as all appanage lands, monastic, church, with all living and dead equipment" to the disposal of volost land committees and district Soviets of peasant deputies - with the recognition of the equality of all forms land use (podvirna, farm, communal, artillery) and the right to distribute confiscated land according to labor or consumer standards with periodic redistribution.
The nationalization and distribution of land was carried out on the basis of the Law on the Socialization of Land (adopted by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on January 27 (February 9), 1918), which determined the distribution procedure and the consumer-labor norm for the allotment. In 1917-1919 distribution was carried out in 22 provinces. More than 6 million villagers received land. they were freed from paying land rent and from debts to the Peasant Bank. The social structure of the village has undergone a radical change: the share of wealthy peasants decreased from 15 to 5%, the middle peasants increased sharply (from 20 to 60%), and the number of poor peasants decreased from 65 to 35%. Some model farms were not subject to division, but were reorganized into research demonstration forms of the Soviet economy - state farms.
At the same time, military measures were taken, which was a manifestation of “super-revolutionism” in the countryside. In particular, a state monopoly on bread was established; On May 27, 1918, food authorities received emergency powers to purchase grain (their formation began after the approval of the decree granting the People's Commissariat of Food emergency powers to combat the rural bourgeoisie, which hides grain reserves and speculates on them); based on the decree of June 11, 1918, food detachments created і combidi (committees of the poor), whose task was to confiscate surplus grain at fixed prices (in the spring of 1918, money actually depreciated and bread was actually confiscated for free, at best - in exchange for industrial goods). These measures contributed to an increase in the daily export of, for example, Ukraine, food from 140 wagons in March to 400 in June 1918. The export of grain was accompanied by requisitions, violence against peasants, and terror was carried out against the Ukrainian village. But even under these conditions, V. Lenin did not raise the question of the expropriation of the kulaks, but only of the suppression of their counter-revolutionary intentions.
In general, by the beginning of the civil war there was a national economic management system: The Central Committee of the party developed the theoretical foundations for the activities of the apparatus; The Council of People's Commissars decided the most important issues; the people's commissariats supervised individual aspects of national economic life, their local bodies were the corresponding departments of the executive committees of the Soviets; The Supreme Council of the National Economy (VSNKh) is the center of general industrial management, which exercised leadership through its main departments, and locally through provincial and city councils. The enterprise was headed by a board, 2/3 of whose members were appointed by the local economic council, and 1/3 were elected for six months. At the same time, the sectoral approach to management dominated.
Decree on the nationalization of the oil industryJune 20, 1918
1. Oil producing, oil refining, oil trading, auxiliary drilling and transport enterprises (tanks, oil pipelines, oil warehouses, docks, dock structures, etc.) with all their movable and real estate, wherever it is and whatever it is.
2. Small enterprises mentioned in paragraph 1 are excluded from the application of this decree. The grounds and procedure for the said withdrawal are determined by special rules, the development of which is entrusted to the Main Petroleum Committee.
3. Trade in oil and its products is declared a state monopoly.
4. The matter of managing nationalized enterprises in general, as well as determining the procedure for carrying out nationalization, is transferred to the Main Petroleum Committee under the Fuel Department of the Supreme Council of the National Economy (Glavkoneft).
5. The procedure for the formation of local bodies for the management of nationalized enterprises and the limits of their competence are determined by special instructions of the Main Petroleum Committee upon approval by the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the National Economy.
6. Pending the acceptance of the nationalized enterprises as a whole into the management of the Main Petroleum Committee, the previous boards of these enterprises are obliged to continue their work in full, taking all measures to protect the national property and the uninterrupted course of operations.
7. The previous board of each enterprise must draw up a report for the entire year 1917 and for the first half of 1918, as well as the balance sheet of the enterprise as of June 20, according to which the new board checks and actually accepts the enterprise.
8. The Main Oil Committee has the right, without waiting for the submission of balance sheets and until the complete transfer of nationalized enterprises to the management of Soviet authorities, to send its commissars to all boards of oil enterprises, (460) as well as to all centers of extraction, production, transport and trade in oil, Moreover, the Main Petroleum Committee can delegate its powers to its commissioners.
9. All rights and obligations of the councils of congresses of oil industrialists are transferred to the relevant local authorities for the management of the nationalized oil industry.
10. All employees of enterprises and institutions coming under the jurisdiction of the Main Petroleum Committee are ordered to remain in their places without interrupting the work assigned to them.
11. Pending the publication by the Main Petroleum Committee of the instructions, orders and rules provided for in the decree, local councils of the national economy, and where there are none, other local bodies of Soviet power, are given the right to issue them for their region.
12. This decree comes into force immediately upon publication.
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars
V. Ulyanov (Lenin).
Administrator of the Council of People's Commissars
V. Bonch-Bruevich.
Secretary of the Council N. Gorbunov. Verified according to the publication: Decrees of Soviet Power. Volume II. March 17 – July 10, 1918 M.: State. publishing house political literature, 1959.
The most important role in the creation of socialist property is played by:
- nationalization of land;
- nationalization of industry;
- nationalization of banks.
Let's consider their features.
Nationalization of land
Note 1
The beginning of the nationalization of land in Russia should be considered the adoption of the Decree on Land on October 26 (November 8), 1917, in accordance with which the victorious class began to carry out socialist reforms. In accordance with the Decree, the objects that were subject to “nationalization” included land, its subsoil, water and forest resources, the Institute of “private ownership” of land was abolished, and the land, in accordance with the Decree, became public (state) property.
In accordance with the Decree, over 150 million hectares of land confiscated from landowners, monasteries, churches, state lands and others were transferred free of charge to the peasants. The total area of land that was owned and used by peasants after the adoption of the Decree increased by almost 70 percent. Also, according to the Decree, peasants were exempted from rent payments to former owners and from the costs of acquiring new land property.
In the context of the outbreak of military intervention and civil war, the Soviet state began to unite the rural poor around specially created organizations (committees of the poor), the main tasks of which were to be:
- redistribution of land, equipment and livestock in favor of the poorest villagers;
- providing assistance to food detachments in removing “surplus” food;
- implementation of the agricultural policy of the Soviet state in rural areas.
For their services, the poor could receive a certain reward in the form of basic necessities and grain, which were sold at significant discounts and generally free of charge.
In August 1918, a plan was developed to fight for the bread of the new harvest, based on an alliance of the “poor and starving peasantry” with the middle peasants, designed for direct product exchange of requisitioned industrial goods for bread.
Specifically, this direct product exchange was expressed in the system of surplus appropriation, which confiscated from the peasantry not only surpluses, but also the reserves of grain necessary for sowing.
Thus, the nationalization of land, water and forest resources was carried out in the interests of people working on the land. Later it will become the economic basis for agricultural cooperation.
Nationalization of industry
Note 2
When carrying out nationalization in industry, the first step was the adoption of the Decree on Workers' Control, according to which the workers themselves had to learn to manage. But the Decrees adopted did not always keep up with the natural course of events.
Workers, left to their own devices, rarely possessed the necessary technical knowledge, appropriate industrial skills and discipline, knowledge in the field of organizing technical accounting, without which it was impossible to carry out the normal operation of the enterprise.
There were cases when workers simply appropriated its funds after the seizure of an enterprise, sold equipment and supplies, and used the money received in their own interests
There are several stages in the nationalization of industry:
At the first stage (November 1917 - February 1918), nationalization was characterized by a fast pace and broad initiative of local authorities.
During the first stage, the nationalization of more than 800 enterprises and individual industries was carried out.
This period of nationalization was called the “Red Guard attack on capital” stage; the pace of nationalization significantly outpaced the pace of creating management systems for state-owned enterprises.
In November 1917, the nationalization of large industrial enterprises began; the nationalization process primarily included those private enterprises whose production was extremely important for the Soviet state, and those whose owners pursued a policy of sabotage.
The second stage of nationalization took place from March to June 1918. During this period, the center of gravity of the economic and political work of the RSDLP was the shift of attention from the expropriation of private property to the strengthening of already won economic positions, the organization of a system of socialist accounting and control, and the organization of management systems for socialist industry. The main feature of the second stage of nationalization is the socialization of not only individual enterprises, but also entire industries, as well as the creation necessary conditions for the nationalization of all major industry. Thus, on May 2, 1918, a Decree on the nationalization of enterprises in the sugar industry was adopted, and on June 20, a Decree on the nationalization of enterprises in the oil industry was adopted. A conference of representatives of nationalized engineering factories, held in May 1918, decided to nationalize transport engineering factories. In total, during the second period, more than 1,200 industrial enterprises were transferred to state ownership.
The third and final stage of nationalization began in June 1918 and ended in June 1919. Its main characteristic is the strengthening of the organizing, leadership role of the Council of People's Commissars and its territorial economic bodies in carrying out nationalization.
Thus, in the fall of 1918, the state owned more than 9,500 industrial enterprises. Since the summer of 1919, the pace of “nationalization” has increased sharply, which was caused by the need to mobilize all available production resources during the period of civil war and intervention.
Note 3
As a result of the nationalization of industry, the basis was created for the industrialization of the economy of the young socialist state.
Nationalization of banks
One of the most important measures to create a socialist economy of the young Russian state was the process of “nationalization” of banks, which began with the nationalization of the State Bank of Russia and the establishment of state control over private commercial banks.
The nationalization of the banking sector was determined by the provisions of two legislative acts - the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of December 14 (27), 1917, according to which all private commercial banks were transferred to the ownership of the state, and a state monopoly on the organization of banking was also established. The decree of the Council of People's Commissars, issued on January 23 (February 5), 1918, completely and free of charge transferred the capital of private commercial banks to the State Bank.
The process of merging nationalized private commercial banks with the State Bank of Russia into a single People's Bank of the RSFSR was finally completed by 1920. During the process of nationalization, such parts of the banking system were eliminated Tsarist Russia, like mortgage banks, mutual loan societies. The nationalization of banks created conditions for the Soviet state to successfully fight hunger and devastation.
The nationalization of the tsarist banking system and private commercial banks gave impetus to the creation of a modern banking system in the Russian Federation.
October Revolution
In the fall of 1917, a national crisis was brewing in the country. 25 October (November 7), 1917, an armed uprising took place in Petrograd and one of the radical parties, the RSDLP (b), came to power with its program for bringing the country out of the deepest crisis. Economic objectives were determined by VI Congress of the RSDLP (b) and were not of the nature of socialist construction, but of public and state intervention in the field of production, distribution, finance and regulation of the labor force on the basis of the introduction of universal labor service. In the April Theses, V.I. Lenin emphasized: “Not the “introduction” of socialism, like ours direct task, and the transition immediately only to control on the part of the S.R.D. for the social production and distribution of products *.
*Lenin V.I. Full co b p . Op. T.31. — P. 116.
For the practical implementation of state control, the task was put forward nationalization. But in the understanding of V.I. Lenin, nationalization should not be reduced to confiscation, to a change in forms of ownership. “Even the “nail” of the matter will not be in the confiscation of the capitalists’ property, but precisely in nationwide, comprehensive workers’ control over the capitalists and their possible supporters. Confiscation alone will not do anything, because it does not contain an element of organization, accounting, or proper distribution.” *
* Decree op. T-34. P.309.
Nationalization was not supposed to disrupt capitalist economic ties, but, on the contrary, to unite them on a national scale, to become a form of functioning of capital under the comprehensive control of the working people (primarily the working class) involved in government activities. “It is not enough to “get out” the capitalists, it is necessary (by removing the worthless, hopeless “resisters”) to put them in a new public service" * . During the transition period, the duration of which was not determined, it was assumed that commodity-money relations would be maintained. However, the specific historical conditions of 1917 - 1918 combined with the revolutionary impatience of the masses of workers and the resistance of the bourgeoisie, they “spurred” the maturation of ideas about the possibility of the immediate implementation of communist principles and created the illusion of a natural transition to socialism and communism.
*Decree, op. T-34. P.311.
Measures of the “Red Guard” attack on capital
The main task of the first months of Soviet power was the concentration of commanding heights in the economy in the hands of the organs of the dictatorship of the proletariat and at the same time the creation of socialist governing bodies. V.I. Lenin called the policy of this period a “Red Guard” attack on capital, based on coercion and violence. It was coercion and violence that determined the specifics of the period under review. One should keep in mind the forced nature of this line, provoked by the activities of the bourgeoisie, which has lost political power.
The main events of this period included the nationalization of banks, the implementation of the Decree on Land, the nationalization of industry, the introduction of a foreign trade monopoly (April 22, 1918), and the organization of workers' control. The State Bank was occupied by the Red Guard on the first day October revolution in accordance with the party program requirements adopted on the eve of October. However, actually mastering banking required considerable effort. Officials of the Ministry of Finance sabotaged the decisions of the Soviet government. They refused to issue money on orders, tried to arbitrarily dispose of the resources of the treasury and the bank, and provided funds to the counter-revolution. Therefore, the new apparatus was formed mainly from small employees and recruited workers, soldiers and sailors who did not have experience in conducting financial affairs. However, “the takeover of the State Bank created more favorable conditions for workers’ control over the financial side of enterprises’ activities” *.
* Storysocialist economy of the USSR. T. 1. - M.: Nauka, 1976. - P. 91.
Taking over private banks was even more difficult. The actual liquidation of the affairs of private banks and their merger with the State Bank continued until 1920.
Worker control
The nationalization of banks, like the nationalization of industrial enterprises, was preceded by establishing workers' control. The implementation of workers' control throughout the country met with active resistance from the bourgeoisie. Private banks refused to issue money from current accounts to enterprises where workers' control was introduced, did not fulfill agreements with the State Bank, confused accounts, provided deliberately false information about the state of affairs, and financed counter-revolutionary conspiracies. Apparently, it was sabotage on the part of the owners of private banks that significantly accelerated their nationalization. On December 27, 1917, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued a Decree on nationalization of banks.
Bodies of workers' control arose during the February Revolution in the form factory committees. The new leadership of the country considered them as one of the transitional steps to socialism, saw in practical control and accounting not only control and accounting of production results, but also a form of organization, establishing production by the masses of workers, since the task of “correctly distributing labor” was set before nationwide control. Workers' control was supposed to be carried out over a long period.
However, in practice, the scope of workers' control was already rapidly narrowed in the first months of Soviet power in the context of the beginning of nationalization. On November 14 (27), 1917, the “Regulations on Workers’ Control” were adopted. It was planned to create its elected bodies at all enterprises where hired labor was used: in industry, transport, banks, trade, and agriculture. Production, supply of raw materials, sale and storage of goods, and financial transactions were subject to control. Judicial liability was established for enterprise owners for failure to comply with the orders of worker inspectors. In November - December 1917, workers' control was established at most large and medium-sized enterprises in the main industrial centers.
Workers' control became a school for training personnel in the Soviet economic apparatus and an important means of establishing state accounting of resources and needs. However, there is no doubt that workers' control greatly accelerated the implementation of nationalization. From the first steps of their activity, future business executives learned command, forced methods of work, based not on knowledge of economics, but on the slogans of the moment.
Nationalization and its stages
The Bolsheviks were aware of the need for gradual nationalization. Therefore, in the first months after the October Revolution, individual enterprises, which are of great importance for the state, as well as enterprises whose owners did not obey the decisions of government bodies. First of all, large military plants were nationalized: Obukhovsky, Baltiysky. However, already at this time, on the initiative of the workers, local enterprises were declared nationalized. An example is the Likinskaya manufactory (near Orekhovo-Zuev) - the first private enterprise that passed into the hands of the state.
The concept of nationalization was gradually reduced to confiscation. And this had a negative impact on the work of industry, since economic ties were disrupted and it was difficult to establish control on a national scale.
From the beginning of 1918, workers' control and local authorities began to act more decisively. The nationalization of industry locally took on the character of a massive and spontaneously growing movement. Inexperience led to the fact that sometimes enterprises were socialized for which the workers were not actually ready to manage, as well as low-power enterprises. Against this background, the economic situation in the country deteriorated. Coal production in the Donbass in December 1917 (67 million poods) was half as much as at the beginning of the year. In January 1918, 81 million poods were produced, but due to military operations in the south, coal exports fell sharply (31 million poods compared to 75 million poods in December 1917). The production of iron and steel in 1917 decreased by 24%. The situation with bread became more complicated.
The growth of this uncontrollable wave forced the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) to centralize "economic life on a national scale." This left an imprint on the nature of the nationalization of the second stage (spring 1918—June 28, 1918): entire sectors of production came under the jurisdiction of the state, primarily those where the positions of large financial capital were the strongest. At the beginning of May 13, the sugar industry was nationalized, and in June - the oil industry; The nationalization of metallurgy and mechanical engineering was completed.
By July 1, 513 large industrial enterprises became state property. June 28
1918 . The Council of People's Commissars "for the purpose of decisively combating economic and industrial devastation and strengthening the dictatorship of the working class and the rural poor" was adopted Decree on the general nationalization of the country's large industry. I The All-Russian Congress of National Economic Councils (December 1918) stated that “the nationalization of industry is basically complete.”
In 1918 V The Congress of Soviets adopted the first Soviet constitution. The constitution stated that “the Russian Soviet Republic is established on the basis of a free union of free nations, as a federation of Soviet national republics" The Constitution of the RSFSR of 1918 proclaimed and secured the rights of workers, the rights of the overwhelming majority of the population.
The first constitution of Russia
Decree on land
In the sphere of agrarian relations, the Bolsheviks adhered to the idea of confiscation of landowners' lands and their nationalization. IN Decree on land adopted at II Congress of Soviets the day after the victory of the revolution, combined radical measures to abolish private ownership of land and transfer landowners’ estates, “as well as all appanage, monastic, church lands, with all living and dead implements” to the disposal of volost land committees and district Soviets of Peasant Deputies with recognition of the equality of all forms of land use (household, farm, community, artel) and the right to divide confiscated land according to labor or consumer standards with periodic redistributions.
Socialization Law
The nationalization and division of land was carried out on the basis of the law on the socialization of land (adopted by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on January 27 (February 9), 1918), which determined the procedure for division and the consumer-labor norm for the allotment. In 1917-1919. The division was carried out in 22 provinces. About 3 million peasants received land. At the same time, military measures were taken: a state monopoly on grain was established; On May 27, 1918, food authorities received emergency powers to purchase bread; created food detachments, whose task was to confiscate surplus grain at fixed prices (in the spring of 1918, money no longer meant much, and bread was actually confiscated free of charge, at best by exchange for industrial goods). And there were fewer and fewer goods. In the fall of 1918, industry was almost paralyzed. But even under these conditions, V.I. Lenin does not raise the question of expropriating the kulak, but only of suppressing his counter-revolutionary attempts.
33.2. The period of "war communism"
Measures of "war communism"
On September 2, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee declared the Republic a single military camp. A regime was established whose goal was to concentrate all available resources in the state. The policy began to be carried out "war communism" which took complete shape by the spring of 1919 and consisted of three main groups of events:
1) to solve the food problem, a centralized supply of the population was organized. By decrees of November 21 and 28, trade was nationalized and replaced by forced state-organized distribution; in order to create food reserves, on January 11, 1919, food allocation: free trade in grain was declared a state crime. Bread received from the allotment (and later other products and goods of mass demand) was distributed centrally according to the class norm;
2) all industrial enterprises were nationalized;
3) universal labor conscription was introduced.
The supreme body was the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense established on November 30, 1918 by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.
Civil war and foreign
By the fall of 1918, the Republic was surrounded by fronts. The North was occupied by intervention by British, French and American troops, the Far East by Japanese, English, French and Canadian interventionists. The Baltic states, parts of Ukraine, Belarus, Crimea, and Georgia were captured by the Germans. Soviet power was overthrown in the territory from the Volga to Vladivostok. IN Central Russia Anti-Soviet riots broke out. The armies of Denikin and Krasnov operated in the South.
In January 1919, the Red Army launched an offensive and in the spring of 1919 all cities of Southern Russia were liberated.
At the second stage of the Civil War and intervention (March 1919 - March 1920), the Red Army carried out successful military operations against the armies of Kolchak, Denikin, Yudenich. A significant part of the Entente troops was evacuated. In January 1920, the Entente ended the economic blockade of Russia.
Replacing trade with direct distribution
In the current situation, the process of maturation of the idea of immediately building commodityless socialism by replacing trade with a systematic, nationally organized distribution of products. This position was recorded as a party policy in II Program of the RCP (b) in March 1919. The culmination of “military-communist” measures was the end of 1920 - beginning of 1921, when the decrees of the Council of People's Commissars were issued “On free supply of food products to the population” (December 4, 1920), “On free supply consumer goods" (December 17), "On the abolition of fees for all types of fuel" (December 23). Projects for abolishing money were proposed. However, the crisis state of the economy indicated the ineffectiveness of the measures taken. In 1920, compared to 1917, coal production decreased by more than three times, steel production by 16 times, and production of cotton fabrics by 12 times.
Centralization of management
The centralization of management is sharply increasing. Enterprises were deprived of independence in order to identify and maximize the use of available resources. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee, established on November 30, 1918, became the supreme body. Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense under the chairmanship of V.I. Lenin, who was called upon to establish a firm regime in all sectors of the national economy and the closest coordination of the work of departments. The Supreme Council of the National Economy (VSNKh) remained the supreme body for industrial management.
Development of the GOELRO plan
Despite the difficult situation in the country, the ruling party began to determine the prospects for the country's development, which was expressed in GOELRO plan - the first long-term national economic plan, approved in December 1920. The plan provided for the priority development of mechanical engineering, metallurgy, fuel and energy base, chemistry and railway construction - industries designed to ensure technical progress of the entire economy, within ten years it was planned to almost double industrial production while increasing the number of workers by only 17%. It was planned to build 30 large power plants.
One of the first power plants according to the GOELRO plan (Volkhovskaya)
In agriculture, it was planned to increase the acreage, carry out work on mechanization, land reclamation and irrigation, and define tasks for raising the culture of agriculture.
But it was not just about electrification of the national economy, but about transferring the economy to an intensive path of development based on it. The main thing was to ensure rapid growth in labor productivity with the least expenditure of material and labor resources of the country. “To align the front of our economy with the achievements of our political system” - this is how the goal of the GOELRO plan was formulated.
End of the war
At the end of April 1920, Poland attacked Soviet Russia. Thus began the third stage of the war and intervention. In March 1921, a peace treaty was signed with Poland, according to which Western Ukraine and Western Belarus were transferred to it. In November 1920, Crimea was liberated from Wrangel's army.
With the end of the Civil War at the end of 1920, the tasks of restoring the national economy came to the fore. At the same time, it was necessary to radically change the methods of governing the country. The militarized management system, the bureaucratization of the apparatus, and dissatisfaction with the surplus appropriation system caused an internal political crisis in the spring of 1921, which manifested itself in the Kronstadt rebellion, peasant uprisings in the Tambov province, Siberia, the Caucasus, and worker strikes in Moscow, Petrograd, and Kharkov.
33.3. Restoration of the economy, transition to the NEP
New Economic Policy Measures
In March 1921 X The congress of the RCP (b) reviewed and approved the main events that formed the basis of the policy that later (May 1921) received the name new economic policy (NEP).
The fundamental measure of the NEP was tax reform in agriculture. It consisted of replacing the food appropriation system natural food tax (tax in kind) in the form of a percentage or share of products, taking into account the number of consumers, the presence of livestock and the amount of harvest received. The amount of the tax in kind was established before sowing and was strictly differentiated: for low-income peasants it was underestimated, and in special cases it was abolished altogether. Surplus products could be sold within the framework of commodity exchange, which meant the actual recognition of commodity-money relations and trade as a form of their implementation. The tax in kind system provided the opportunity for the peasantry to accumulate surplus agricultural products and raw materials, which created an incentive (demand) for industrial production.
To implement such a project it was necessary inventory, which could not exist in a devastated country. Therefore, it became clear that in order to meet growing demand, it is necessary to attract private capital in the production of consumer goods, and this requires the denationalization of some enterprises.
Since state trade could not ensure the growth of trade turnover, private capital was also allowed into the sphere of trade and money circulation. At the same time, commanding heights and decisive sectors of the economy (large industry, land, banks, transport, international trade) remained in the hands of the state. This allowed the state to control and influence the growth of capitalist elements. One of the new forms of economic relations was rent Small and medium-sized enterprises producing mainly consumer goods were leased. The landlords were the Supreme Economic Council and its local bodies (district and provincial). A total of 4,860 businesses were leased. They produced 3% of the gross industrial output. However, from 1924-1925. leasing of state-owned enterprises began to decline and was discontinued in 1928.
Industrial leasing generally yielded positive results: several thousand small enterprises were restored, which contributed to the development of the goods market and the strengthening of economic ties between city and countryside; additional jobs were created; rent increased the material and financial resources of the state.
Another significant capitalist form in the first half of the 20s were concessions. They occupied great place in relations between the state and foreign capital. The state represented enterprises or territory for its development natural resources and exercised control over their use without interfering in economic and administrative affairs. Concessions were subject to the same taxes as state-owned enterprises. Part of the profit received (in the form of products) was given as payment to the state, and the other part could be sold abroad.
The stabilization of the monetary system had a beneficial effect on the normalization of market relations in the country. In 1924, the People's Commissariat of Internal Trade of the USSR was created. Started working trade fairs(in 1922-1923 there were more than 600 of them). The largest are Nizhny Novgorod, Kiev, Baku, Irbit), trade shows And exchanges(in 1924 there were about a hundred of them). A network was being formed state trades(GUM, Mostorg, etc.), state and mixed trading companies(“Bread product”, “Raw leather”, etc.).
played a major role in the market consumer cooperation. It was separated from the system of the People's Commissariat of Food and turned into a widely ramified system covering the entire country. Thus, state, cooperative, and private enterprises participated in domestic trade. They complemented each other, and the competition that arose between them further stimulated the growth of trade turnover. By 1924, it already served economic relations in the economy quite well.
Industrial restoration and management reform
The restoration of industry began with the restructuring of organizational forms and management methods. The decrees of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars (May - August 1921) suspended the nationalization of small and medium-sized industry, allowed private entrepreneurship (enterprises with up to 20 people could be transferred into private hands) using leases and concessions, and also provided for the reorganization of the public sector based on the introduction economic accounting relations.
The transfer of enterprises to self-financing, the main principles of which were proclaimed operational independence and self-sufficiency.
The restructuring of industrial management during the NEP years generally came down to its centralization. And this, in turn, led to the need to strengthen planned regulatory beginning. For this purpose, at the beginning of the recovery period, it was created State Planning Committee (Gosplan). Planning commissions were created under provincial and regional executive committees, and special planning bodies were created in economic people's commissariats and departments.
By 1925, industry produced 75.5% of pre-war production. It was a great success. played a huge role in it energy construction based on the GOELRO plan: old power plants were restored and new ones were erected - Kashirskaya, Shaturskaya, Kizelovskaya, Nizhny Novgorod, etc. Electricity production increased sixfold.
Main directions of economic and social development villages
Despite the thoughtfulness of the measures to establish direct exchange of goods between the city and the village, they were a complete failure. Summer 1921 instead of the planned 160 million poods of grain, 3.4 million poods of grain were exchanged, since the peasants preferred to exchange money for equivalents established by the state. Life has shown that the main factor in reviving the country's economy can only be money circulation. Therefore, first in 1923, a single agricultural tax was introduced, levied in a mixed form - in money and in kind at the choice of the peasant, and later in 1924 its monetary form began to dominate. Moreover, the poor contributed 1.2% of their income, the middle peasants - 3.5%, and the kulaks - 5.6%.
The land use system also changed. The Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of March 21, 1921 and the Land Code of 1922 prohibited land redistributions in less than nine years. Renting land and using hired labor were also allowed. State assistance to agriculture also included lending. Most of the funds were sent to help the poor and middle peasants. To eliminate the famine and its consequences, a general civil tax was introduced in favor of residents of areas affected by the disaster, public catering and the purchase of bread were organized abroad. Special role provided technical and scientific assistance. For this purpose, the All-Union Institute of Applied Botany and New Crops (V.I. Lenin Academy of Agricultural Sciences) was opened in 1925. To promote advanced methods (agronomic, livestock) in Moscow, since 1923, agricultural exhibitions.
As a result, the social structure of the village changes. The proportion of fieldless and low-field farms, as well as cowless and horseless farms, is decreasing. Due to this, the share of middle layers. Becomes the central figure in the village middle peasant Mass proletarianization gave way to the leveling of the extreme poles, the rise of the poor strata, replenishing the middle peasant core. But this leveling was based on the lower level of provision with means of production and the subsistence level. At the same time, the number of multi-crop and multi-horse farms increased. It was from this layer that grew kulaks with his commercial economy. The kulak group owned 16% of all means of production, 22% of agricultural machinery and implements. It accounted for 11% of the village's income.
In addition to the middle peasant, wealthy and kulak strata, in the village of the early 20s there were proletarian and semi-proletarian groups without sowing and with sowing 1 dessiatine, without draft animals or no more than one head. These layers were entirely dependent on the authorities, expecting benefits and privileges from it: from 25 to 35% of the poorest farms (2-4 dessiatines of land) were exempt from tax, they were provided with assistance in procuring seeds and purchasing equipment.
Thus, the socio-economic structure of the country’s agricultural population in 1925 was as follows: farm laborers and poor peasants accounted for approximately 28%, middle peasants - 68%, kulak farms - 5% * .
* For comparison: before the revolution in Russia there were 20% of middle peasants, 65% of farm laborers and poor peasants, and 15% of kulaks.
Collective farms
In the 20s the first collective farms(collective farms) - cooperative farms of voluntarily united peasants for the joint conduct of large-scale agricultural production on the basis of social means of production and collective labor.
Collective farms were distinguished by an increased supply of agricultural machinery and more advanced tools (ploughs, reapers), their labor costs were reduced, and the marketability of production increased. Unlike individual farms, they more easily transitioned to progressive forms (for example, replacing three-field crop rotation with multi-field crop rotation, and introducing pure-varietal crops). In 1925, there were already about 22 thousand collective farms in the country.
Continued to act state farms(joint farms) are large state-owned enterprises created back in 1918 on confiscated land of the landowners by state enterprises to improve the food supply of workers and employees. However, at this time their share was small. By 1925, there were only 3,382 state farms.
By the end of 1925, there was a sharp jump in agricultural production: grain yields exceeded the pre-war level: 1913 - 7 c/ha, 1925 - 7.6 c/ha; Gross grain harvests increased: 1913 - 65 million tons, 1926 - 77 million tons.
Financial system reform
In order to strengthen the overall economic situation of the country, the state had to take a number of measures to create a stable monetary system and stabilize the ruble. These included: the formation of the Soviet credit system, the elimination of the state budget deficit, and the implementation of monetary reform. For this purpose, by order of the government on November 16, 1921, State Bank of the RSFSR And specialized banks. Bank lending at this stagebecomes not gratuitous financing, but a purely commercial transaction between banks and clients, for violation of the terms of which it was necessary to answer according to the law.
Not only credit policy, but also tax policy is becoming stricter. For example, 70% of all profits of industrial enterprises were transferred to the treasury. The agricultural tax was 5%, decreasing or increasing depending on the quality of the land, the number of livestock, etc.
Income tax consisted of basic and progressive. The basic rate was paid by all citizens, except laborers, day laborers, state pensioners, as well as workers and employees with a salary of less than 75 rubles. per month. Progressive tax was paid only by those who received additional profit (nepmen, privately practicing lawyers, doctors, etc.). In addition, there were also indirect taxes: for salt, matches, etc.
The stabilization of the national currency was facilitated by two denominations banknotes. The first was held in 1922. The so-called Sovznaki. One new ruble equaled 10 thousand previous rubles. The second was carried out in 1923. The ruble of this model was equal to 1 million of the previous rubles.
Coins of the Soviet state minted 1921-1923.
1-5 - silver ruble and 50 kopecks, billon 20.15 and 10 kopecks. 6 - golden chervonets
Nevertheless, the general exchange rate of new money was constantly falling, since historically the only equivalent of value in the country that the population trusted was gold. Therefore, at the end of 1922, the State Bank began issuing a new banknote - Soviet chervonets, exchangeable for gold and equivalent to the old ten-ruble gold coin. The chervonets was backed by the State Bank 25% with precious metals and foreign currency and 75% with bills, scarce goods, etc. Thus, from the end of 1922 to March 1924, a stable chervonets and a falling sovznak were simultaneously in circulation. Moreover, one chervonets was equal to 60 thousand sovznak, which had a negative impact on the economic life of the country. That's why II The Congress of Soviets on February 2, 1924 adopted a resolution to complete the monetary reform and issue treasury notes in denominations of 1, 3, 5 rubles, as well as copper and silver small change coins. Now one chervonets was equal to 10 rubles. in treasury notes. The issue of old-style money was discontinued, and the signs in circulation were purchased from the population by the State Bank (at the rate of 1 ruble in gold = 50 thousand rubles of the 1923 model).
On the basis of hard currency, it became possible to completely eliminate the budget deficit, which begins to play the role of a unified state plan, and the majority of budget items go to the restoration and development of the economy.
Education USSR
The successful restoration of the national economy was largely due to the unification of the independent Soviet republics - the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Byelorussian SSR and the Transcaucasian SFSR into a single state - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the basis of voluntariness with equal rights for each of them.
On December 30, 1922, the I The Congress of Soviets of the USSR, at which the Declaration on the Formation of the USSR and the Treaty on the Formation of the USSR were adopted, elected the supreme body - the Central Executive Committee. At the second session, the Central Executive Committee was created by the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.
Initial stage of industrialization
The year 1925 was a turning point in the history of our country. Simultaneously with the further development of commodity-money relations, centripetal trends began to grow, that is, the strengthening of the role of the state apparatus. This is primarily due to the decision XIV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) on the course towards industrialization, the main task of which was to transform the country that imports machinery and equipment into a country that produces them. The main sources of industrialization were assumed to be: income from nationalized industry, transport, and trade; tax system; domestic loans, income from agricultural exports; intra-industrial redistribution of funds in favor of industries of group “A”.
At this time, there is a revision of views on the very essence of the NEP. Lenin's interpretation of the NEP as a method of building socialism was inferior to the idea that the NEP was a temporary retreat, and the successes of the restoration period seemed to be convincing confirmation of this. Therefore, the implementation of the industrialization course was associated with the curtailment of market principles and an attack on private capital, as well as with the strengthening of administrative tendencies in management.
In 1926, a shortage of metal was discovered, and then of other materials and raw materials. The reason was the deployment of new construction and intense production plans at existing enterprises. To regulate supply it was created State Orders Committee. At the same time, a commodity famine began to brew in the consumer market. Among the reasons for this situation are the following:
1) the peasantry could not satisfy state procurement prices and they preferred to sell products to private producers or wait for a more favorable situation. The consequence of this was the disruption of grain procurements and failure to fulfill export obligations. Lack of export earnings forced plans for industrial production and capital construction to be reduced;
2) attracting a large number of workers (mainly from the countryside) for construction increased effective demand, which was not covered by the commodity mass; in addition, in 1927, prices were reduced by 10%, and at the same time the nominal wages of workers increased;
3) since 1926, an active policy of ousting private capital began to be pursued: tariffs for the transportation of private goods were increased; state lending to private enterprises was stopped; the liquidation of mutual credit societies began; in addition to the trade and progressive income tax, a tax on excess profits was introduced (1927); the leasing of state-owned enterprises to individuals was prohibited and concluded contracts were interrupted, and the number of foreign concessions was reduced. This led to a rapid decline in the private sector, primarily in trade, and state trade was unable to maintain normal trade turnover due to the underdevelopment of its network. The same should be said about state procurement bodies.
Program XV Congress on Transformation of Agriculture
In these conditions it is going XV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (December 1927). The party leadership came to him with a program for further socialist construction: the development of cooperation on the production principle and collectivization, the expansion of planned principles in the economy, an active attack on the capitalist elements of the city and countryside. And although the congress warned against the maximum transfer of funds from the peasant economy, nevertheless, the grain procurement crisis of the 1927/28 financial year led to the inevitability of the use of emergency measures, the use of administrative and judicial pressure on the peasantry to provide the city with grain, including the confiscation of grain surpluses. At the July (1928) Plenum of the Central Committee I.V. Stalin came up with the theory of “tribute”, that is surtax on the peasantry, a supertax to maintain high rates of industrialization.
By 1930, most of the concessions were liquidated. By February 1930, commodity exchanges and fairs were abolished. The activities of private and mixed joint stock companies, mutual credit societies, etc.
Transition in 1929 to card supply system dealt the final blow to private trade. By the fall of 1931, private industry was also liquidated.
33.4. The national economy of the USSR during the pre-war five-year plans
Completion of restoration and expansion of the public (socialist) sectorcreated the conditions and caused the need for a transition from annual planning in the form of control figures for long-term planning. Development of the first five year plan was carried out for several years, starting in 1925. XV The congress adopted a resolution “On directives for drawing up a five-year plan for the national economy,” and in May 1929 it was approved V Congress of Soviets of the USSR.
First Five Year Plan (1928–1932)
The plan provided for an increase in the volume of industrial production by 2.8 times with the primary development of heavy industry; overcome the backwardness of agriculture and establish its socialist reconstruction; ensure the ousting and liquidation of capitalist classes and the creation of an economic basis for building a socialist society.
Blast furnaces of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works
Over the following years, a number of indicators changed upward, which made the plan practically impossible to implement, even despite the high pace of production development. Nevertheless, in January 1933, in a report at the Joint Plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the RCP (b), it was announced that the five-year plan had been completed. Thus, the five-year plan lasted four years and three months.
On first stage of industrialization(1926-1928) about 800 large enterprises were rebuilt and reconstructed. Much attention was paid to the development of the energy base - coal and oil production, and the construction of power plants. During this period, Shterovskaya in Donbass and Zemo-Avchalskaya in Transcaucasia, Volkhov power plants came into operation; construction began on Bryansk, Chelyabinsk, Ivanovo-Voznesenskpower plants. In 1927, construction of a new railway began - Turksiba(from Central Asia to Siberia). Advantage in new construction was given to the outlying regions of the country. At the same time, formation occurs new system management. In 1932, the Supreme Economic Council was reorganized into People's Commissariat, in charge of heavy industry. Further development of the system followed the line of disaggregation of the People's Commissariats, especially intensively in 1938-1939. (by March 1939 there were already 34 of them).
The need to attract huge funds for industrial new buildings forced them to be “pumped” from agriculture by lowering prices for its products and selling industrial products at inflated prices. In the conditions of a decisive reduction in the private sector in industry and trade, the peasantry increasingly lost from unequal exchange. This led to a reduction in crops and the concealment of marketable grain. Thus, the pace of collectivization turned out to be inextricably linked with the pace of industrialization, since at that moment only collective farming could provide an increase in raw materials and financial revenues.
It is generally accepted that the course towards collectivization was developed XV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). However, the materials of the congress indicate that the development of all forms of cooperation was recognized as a priority task in the field of agriculture, and a gradual transition to collective cultivation of land based on new technology(electrification). The congress did not establish deadlines or the only forms and methods of cooperation. With regard to the exploiting classes, the task was put forward to oust them using economic methods, achieving a reduction in the share of the private economic sector with its possible absolute growth.
However, in the practical implementation of these decisions, deviations from the program guidelines were made and the basic principles of cooperation were violated: voluntariness, gradualism, and material interest. Forced collectivization led not only to a sharp reduction in the number of livestock and grain harvests, but also to human casualties. As a result, during the first five-year plans there was a rationing system for supplying the population (until 1936). Neverthelesscollectivization created a social basis for the modernization of the agricultural sector, made it possible to increase labor productivity, free up labor resources for other sectors of the economy.
It should be noted that the first five-year plan was distinguished by very high growth rates of industrial production, which, although lower than planned, significantly exceeded the growth rates of production in capitalist countries. The program for the total volume of industrial production was completed by 93.7%, and for heavy industry by 108%. However, the indicators for the most important types of industrial products in physical terms turned out to be lower than planned. The first five-year plan was a time of radical change in the structure of industrial production: the share of the first division in the gross output of the entire industry rose to 53.4% against 39.5% in 1928.
Mechanical engineering and metalworking products increased fourfold. The proportions between the main sectors of the national economy have also changed. The share of industrial products in the total production of industry and agriculture rose from 51.5% in 1928 to 70.7% in 1932. 1,500 plants and factories were built. Among them are the largest: the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, the Gorky and Moscow Automobile Plants, and Uralmash. New industries have emerged: the production of plastics (Vladimir) and artificial rubber (Yaroslavl). New centers of industry were created in the East of the country (Kazakhstan, Siberia, Central Asia).
The first Soviet truck of the AMO brand
Centripetal tendencies are intensifying in the national economic management system. This was reflected in the transition to exclusively sectoral management principle. The regulation of economic life expanded; administration covered the entire socio-economic structure of society. At the same time, attempts were made to introduceself-supporting relations. For this purpose, the Decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “On the reorganization of industrial management” was adopted (December 5, 1929), which stated that the transfer of factories and factories to self-financing should be carried out decisively as soon as possible. But the very understanding of cost accounting had radically changed by this time: financial and economic independence was simply reduced to comparing the income and expenses of an enterprise.
Increased efficiency social production credit reform was supposed to help. The Decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated January 30, 1930 “On the Credit Reform” abolished the existing system of supplying goods and providing services on credit. All short-term lending was concentrated in the State Bank. A lending procedure was introduced in which enterprises received funds from banks according to plans drawn up by the trusts to which they belonged. It was assumed that opening enterprises' own bank accounts would increase their operational independence. However, the practical implementation of these measures led to the opposite result. Lending began to be carried out “to plan”, which undermined the very foundations of self-financing. The State Bank, at the buyer's expense, paid the suppliers' bills, regardless of the quality and range of products, and also reimbursed all expenses incurred by the suppliers. Tax reform also did not contribute to the development of enterprise initiatives. Instead of a plurality of taxes and tax types of withdrawal from the budget, a turnover tax and deductions from profits were established.
Second Five-Year Plan (1933-1934)
The second five-year plan for the development of the national economy was approved in February 1934. The main political task of the five-year plan was the final elimination of capitalist elements, the complete destruction of the causes that give rise to the division of society into classes and the exploitation of man by man.
The material basis for solving these problems was to be the completion of the technical reconstruction of the national economy: it was necessary to create the latest technical base for all sectors of the national economy, to master new technology and new production. The main attention was paid to mechanical engineering and the creation of a powerful energy base. At this time, the country's leadership comes to the realization of overcoming the “leap” course and bringing the planned targets closer to the real possibilities of the economy. Therefore on XVII At the party congress, it was decided to establish the average annual increase in industrial production for 1933 - 1937. in the amount of 16.5% (according to the optimal version of the first five-year plan - over 20%). One of the distinctive features of the Second Five-Year Plan was the focus on faster pace of development of group "B" compared to group "A".
In agriculture, the main thing is the completion of collectivization and the organizational and economic strengthening of collective farms. It was planned to double agricultural production.
The goal was also to increase the level of consumption by two to three times based on a significant increase in income and a reduction in retail prices by 35%.
Soviet steam locomotive of the 30s
Based on the listed tasks, the volume of capital expenditures for the entire national economy was determined at 133.4 billion rubles. instead of 64.6 billion rubles. in the first five-year plan. About half of all capital expenditures aimed at new construction in heavy industry were to be invested in the eastern regions. This posed new, more complex tasks for transport, the lag of which was revealed during the first Five-Year Plan. Transport freight turnover was to be doubled.
The decisive conditions for the implementation of the plan were:
1) the development of socialist competition, primarily the Stakhanov movement;
2) growth in labor productivity (by 63% over the five-year period);
3) provision of qualified personnel (it was planned to train 5 million workers in mass professions, 850 thousand mid-level specialists and 340 thousand highly qualified specialists).
The results of the implementation of the second five-year plan showed that the plan of the five-year plan and its main tasks were fulfilled. 4,500 new industrial enterprises were built and put into operation. An increase in gross industrial output by 2.2 times and agricultural output by 1.5 times has been achieved. The plan for the production of large-scale industry was completed in four years and three months. The average annual growth rate of industrial output exceeded the target and amounted to 17.1%. However, it was not possible to achieve the planned growth rate of the second division.
The technical reconstruction of the farm was actively carried out. In 1937, more than 80% of all industrial output was obtained from new and completely reconstructed enterprises. Significantly exceeding planned targets for increasing labor productivity in various industries made it possible to reduce costs by 10.3% (in the first five-year period there was an increase in costs by 2.3%). Successes in the field of mastering new technology and increasing efficiency in the five-year plan were the result of the increased labor activity of the people, mass socialist competition, implementation of the training program. One of the biggest achievements of the second five-year plan was the construction of the Moscow metro.
There was an increase in citizens' incomes: they doubled due to an increase in wages, the abolition of the card system, and lower prices for consumer goods.
As a result of the implementation of the second five-year plan, the USSR became advanced industrial country. In 1936, the country took first place in Europe and second in the world in terms of industrial output, although in terms of per capita production it still lagged significantly behind the developed capitalist countries. The most important result of the two five-year plans is the achievement economic independence of the Soviet Union, which began to produce all types of technical weapons for the national economy on a new base.
In the second five-year plan, the collectivization of agriculture was completed: 93% of all peasant farms were united in collective farms. Collective farms covered more than 99% of all sown areas. At the same time, the forms and methods of collectivization affected the results of agricultural production. Thus, the sown area under grain crops for the period from 1932 to 1937. increased by only 4.8%, there was a reduction in the area under industrial and fodder crops, although compared to the first five-year plan, the number of livestock increased, livestock production amounted to 90% of the 1913 level.
Construction of the first metro line
The increase in the rate of agricultural production occurred largely due to an increase in labor intensity. Thus, if in 1925 on an individual peasant farm there were 92 man-days of work per year per able-bodied person, then on collective farms per one able-bodied person in 1937 there were 185 man-days of work. Of course, when analyzing the results of agricultural development, one cannot fail to take into account the factors that contributed to the increase in labor productivity, and above all, the functioning machine and tractor stations, the number of which reached 5,518 in 1937. They served 91.5% of collective farms, being the basis for the subsequent industrialization of agriculture.
Third Five Year Plan
The Third Five-Year Plan was supposed to be importantstage in solving the main economic problem of the USSR - to catch up and surpass the main capitalist countries in per capita production. The implementation of the planned program implied maintaining high rates of development of all sectors of the Soviet economy. At the same time, it was necessary to take into account the sharp change in the international situation and the growing military threat. Based on this, the five-year plan for 1938 - 1942. provided for higherthe pace of mechanical engineering dynamics, chemical industry, energy, metallurgy.
In order to increase defense capability, new construction was planned to be carried out mainly in the eastern regions of the country in the form of backup enterprises.
In general, the implementation of the five-year plan tasks was successful. By mid-1941, industry increased production output to 86% of the plan, cargo turnover railways amounted to 90%, trade turnover reached 92%. The second half of the 1930s was marked by increasing problems in the economic sphere. Therefore on XVIII At the conference of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (February 1941), decisions were made to improve the situation, for which the widespread introduction of self-supporting relations was again planned.
Review questions
1. What measures to transform the socio-economic system were carried out during the October Revolution of 1917?
2. Tell us about the state of the economy of Soviet Russia during the Civil War and foreign intervention and the policy measures of “war communism”.
3. Tell us about how the restoration of the national economy was carried out during the years of the new economic policy, what its essence was and its difference from “war communism”.
4. Describe the main transformations carried out during the pre-war five-year plans, and the place of the USSR in the world economy by 1941.
5. Reveal the factors that determined the formation of a command-administrative management system in our country, show its positive aspects and disadvantages.
6. What do you see as the reasons for the narrowing of the scope of commodity-money relations and democratic principles?
The so-called “flight of capital” from Russia, which began in the summer of 1917, led to the abandonment of many enterprises. At first, after coming to power, the Bolsheviks did not plan to nationalize industry. However, the forced taking of ownerless enterprises soon became a means of fighting the counter-revolution and, as a result, by March 1918, in the hands of Soviet power There were 836 factories and factories. At enterprises, by decree of November 16 (29), 1917, workers’ control “over the production, purchase, sale of products and raw materials, their storage, as well as over the financial side of the enterprise” was secured. The workers exercised leadership through special bodies: plant and factory committees, councils of elders. However, workers' control was unable to regulate the designated processes throughout the entire industry, so on December 5 (18), 1917, the Supreme Council of the National Economy (VSNKh) was established, which was entrusted with the responsibility of managing the country's economy. The first chairman of the Supreme Economic Council, from December 2 (15), 1917 to March 22, 1918, was the economist Valerian Valerianovich Obolensky (Osinsky).
From the second half of 1918, under the conditions of emergency wartime circumstances and the economic disorganization of the country, the Bolsheviks set a course towards centralizing economic management. The set of measures taken was called “war communism.” In agriculture and food supply, he expressed himself in the establishment.
In industry, “war communism” manifested itself, first of all, in the nationalization of all the largest enterprises in the main industries. On May 9, 1918, a decree was adopted on the nationalization of the sugar industry, and on June 20, the oil industry. Latest decision preceded serious conflict between the central party leadership represented by V.I. Lenin and the Baku Council of People's Commissars. From mid-1918, V.I. Lenin was inclined to abandon his previous thesis about “mandatory and rapid nationalization” and planned to attract foreign capital to the restoration of the oil industry. At the same time, the Baku authorities advocated the speedy nationalization of this industry. As a result, the Baku Council of People's Commissars independently, on June 1, 1918, issued a decree on the nationalization of the oil industry in the region. The central party leadership was forced to admit this and on June 20 adopt a decree on the nationalization of the oil industry throughout the country.
The decision to nationalize was soon extended to other industries. Thus, the Bolsheviks took a firm course towards the centralization of industry. On June 28, a decree was adopted on the nationalization of the largest enterprises in the mining, metallurgical, metalworking, textile, electrical, sawmill, tobacco, rubber, glass, ceramic, leather and cement industries. For the centralized management of the national economy, within the framework of the Supreme Economic Council, so-called “headquarters” and centers were soon created, each of which dealt with its own industry: Glavmetal, Glavtorf, Glavtop, Glavtextile, etc. On November 29, 1920, the Supreme Economic Council decided to nationalize “all industrial enterprises owned by private individuals or companies.”
As a result of the emergency measures taken, by 1920, out of 396.5 thousand large, medium and small industrial enterprises, including the handicraft type, 38.2 thousand were nationalized with a number of workers of about 2 million people, i.e. over 70% of all employed in industry. By 1921 it became obvious that the Bolshevik policy of centralizing industry had led to economic decline. There was a decrease in industrial output, a reduction in the number of industrial workers, and a drop in labor productivity. In March 1921, at the X Congress of the RCP (b), a transition to a new economic policy (NEP) was announced.
The collection includes decrees and draft decrees on industrial management; theoretical works Chairmen of the Supreme Economic Council A.I. Rykov and F.E. Dzerzhinsky about the situation of Soviet industry, its achievements and development plans; materials of industrial censuses and regulations on them; correspondence with the Supreme Economic Council on supplies to enterprises; minutes of meetings of the Military Industry Council and visual materials.
