Extra detail: economic and social developments

Question 1

How much of food in cities came from the black market?

Answer 1

Up to 2/3

Question 2

Why did authorities fail to stamp out the black market?

Answer 2

• There was no other alternative if people were to survive
• They often used it themselves

Question 3

How many people died in the civil war from non military reasons and what were these reasons?

Answer 3

5 million
- Starvation
- Diseases such as typhus, typhoid, cholera, dysentry

Question 4

What was the number of deaths in action?

Answer 4

350,000

Question 5

When was the typhus epidemic and how many people did it kill?

Answer 5

1920
>3 million

Question 6

Dissent in response to war communism

Answer 6

• Calls for better rations
• Calls for a recall of the Constituent Assembly
• Some ignored the passport system and armed guards to flee to the countryside

Question 7

How many uprisings were there in Feb 1921?

Answer 7

155

Question 8

How many nepmen were there in Moscow in 1925?

Answer 8

25,000

Question 9

How much of trade were the nepmen responsible for?

Answer 9

75%

Question 10

When was external trade nationalised?

Answer 10

June 1918

Question 11

What are some examples of why allowing workers to control factories was inefficient?

Answer 11

• Some awarded themselves unsustainable pay rises
• Some helped themselves to stock and equipment
• Cases of workers making penknives out of machine parts or shoe soles out of the leather conveyor belts to sell on the black market

Question 12

What are ‘sackmen’?

Answer 12

Peasants with sacks of goods to sell

Question 13

What percentage of the Petrograd workforce had left the city by April 1918?

Answer 13

60%

Question 14

Why was disease so prevalent during the war?

Answer 14

• Scarcity of soap
• Shortage of doctors after the assualt on the bourgeoisie
• Medicine hard to obtain

Question 15

How did Jews suffer in the war?

Answer 15

White pogroms

Question 16

How did Kiev suffer in the war?

Answer 16

Changed hands 16 times, each time bringing further hardship to the citizens

Question 17

How did the Ukraine suffer in the war?

Answer 17

Whole villages wiped out, mainly in Cossack attacks

Question 18

Who probably fared the worst in towns and cities?

Answer 18

Former members of the nobility and bourgeoisie

Question 19

Why did the former bourgeoisie fare so badly?

Answer 19

• They had no ration cards so were reduced to begging or selling their few possessions
• Some were given manual tasks like clearing snow and ice or sweeping the streets
• Some sent out to help in the labour battalions
• Large houses and palaces divided up by Bolshevik building committees so they were reduced to occupying a small area

Question 20

What is the definition of war communism?

Answer 20

The political and economic system adopted by the Bolsheviks during the Civil War in order to keep the towns and the Red Army provided with food and weapons

Question 21

What were peasants encouraged to do under war communism?

Answer 21

Establish collective or cooperative farms but only a tiny minority complied

Question 22

Define kulaks

Answer 22

Russian peasants who were wealthy enough to own a farm and hire labour; the Bolsheviks used the description ‘Kulak class’ to refer to the wealthier (capitalist) peasants

Question 23

How were kulaks treated?

Answer 23

Labelled ‘enemies of the people’ and their entire stocks were sometimes seized

Question 24

How did peasants resist grain requisitioning?

Answer 24

• By hiding supplies, which were often searched out (any who informed against them were given half of any grain discovered)
• Growing less
• Murdering members of the requisition squads

Question 25

Who were slightly better treated than the kulaks?

Answer 25

The poor and moderately poor

Question 26

What was the first entire industry to be nationalised?

Answer 26

Sugar, May 1918

Question 27

What was the second entire industry to be nationalised?

Answer 27

Oil, June 1918

Question 28

Why were professional 'managers' employed by the State?

Answer 28

To increase output and reimpose discipline

Question 29

How was hard work rewarded (workers)?

Answer 29

Bonuses and more rations

Question 30

How were food, clothing and lodging controlled?

Answer 30

Through centralised distribution and regulations

Question 31

What was demanded of the non-working class?

Answer 31

Obligatory labour duty

Question 32

How did the State try to stop workers moving back to the countryside?

Answer 32

By introducing internal passports

Question 33

What did terrible conditions under war communism lead to in some cases?

Answer 33

Cannibalism and a trade in dead bodies

Question 34

Who supported the Tambov revolt?

Answer 34

Members of the Green forces

Question 35

What was used to deal with revolters in Tambov who hid in the forest?

Answer 35

Poison gas

Question 36

What did workers protest in 1921, which sparked the Kronstadt rising?

Answer 36

The lack of union representation in factories and expressed their support for other socialist parties

Question 37

What happened when martial law was declared in January 1921?

Answer 37

Some regular soldiers refused to take action and the Cheka had to be used to crush the demonstrations

Question 38

When did the 'scissors crisis' occur?

Answer 38

1923

Question 39

What were the production levels in 1926 like?

Answer 39

Same as 1913

Question 40

How many SRs were executed after being given a show trial?

Answer 40

11

Question 41

What was GLAVIT?

Answer 41

The Main Administration for Affairs of Literature and Publishing Houses

Question 42

How was GLAVIT used for repression?

Answer 42

All writings had to be submitted to it for approval before being published

Question 43

When was the Union of Militant Godless set up?

Answer 43

1921

Question 44

When were churches attacked and what happened?

Answer 44

From 1922, they were stripped of valuable possessions and 100s of priests were imprisoned & some executed