This certainly fights against the view that Alexander II was reluctant in his reforms on the surface – however, once investigated, the limits of emancipation are clear. The 49 year redemption payments were a huge limiting factor in allowing peasants economic freedom to then have social freedom, and class was still a major issue even if it had been reduced. The highly inflated land prices that ensued meant that very few peasants could afford land, and Alexander II did nothing to resolve this. It does lend to the idea of his ‘radical’ reforms being fairly reluctant as he did not go further with them. Alexander III took an even more conservative view during his reign, repealing many of Alexander II’s social
Witte believed the only way to modernise Russia and play catch-up with the West was through State Capitalism (control of the economy by the government). The country needed to raise capital for investment in industry, which he did in several interlinking ways: large foreign loans which brought money into the country; heavy tax and interest rates in Russia which brought more money for the government. While bringing money into the country, Witte protected the small developing industries of Russia by limiting imports (but risked other countries doing the same to Russian goods in retaliation) In 1897, he put Russian currency on Gold Standard. This created financial stability and in turn encouraged huge foreign investment in Russia. Conversely, the higher-value rouble helped increase the prices of goods.
In addition, World War II introduced change through industrialisation, which was key to Russia’s success in the war. These key reforming leaders and other factors of change saw Russia grow from a very deprived country in 1856 to an industrial superpower in 1964. Alexander II became known as ‘Alexander the Great Reformer’ and ‘the Tsar Liberator’ which suggests that his work and reforms changed the nature of Russian government and society to a large extent. The emancipation of the Serfs in 1861 initially appeared to have major benefits for the serfs. As Alexander II said: “We vowed in our hearts to fulfil the mission which is entrusted to Us and to surround with Our affection and Our Imperial solicitude all Our faithful subjects of every rank and condition”2.
By collectivizing and industrializing the agriculture and industries. Stalin hoped to improve Russia’s economy through making production of food and materials more efficient. To assess how successful were Stalin’s industrial policies in developing the Russian economy one would have to measure the results by the production of goods and the quality of life as that is much to do with food production. By 1928, the USSR was 20 million tons of grain short to feed the towns. Industrialization was creating even more towns, increasing this problem.
American citizens pressured the government to regulate cooperations and trade in order to stop them from creating pools, make use of rebates, the monopolization of trade, and take advantage of the consumers which violated lassie faire ideas to a slight degree. Even though the regulations were small and did little to solve the problems presented by the people, it set the precedent for larger and stricter regulations to come into play in the future generations. American citizens also pressured the government to help preserve healthy competition in the business world but only to a minor degree. All of these actions changed the standards of what the government can do in the world of economics forever. Railroad expansion was relatively new during the gilded age.
Stolypin believed that the encouragement of a class such as the Kulaks would make them hostile to further change therefore more conservative and loyal to the Tsar as the Tsar had made them wealthy. Furthermore, peasants made up 85% of the population of Russia and a majority relied on agriculture for their income. Reforms that would please the ‘dark masses’ would strengthen the tsarist regime. Another reason for reforming agriculture was to oppress peasant unrest. In Poltava and Kharkov provinces, mass impoverishment of the peasants, which was exacerbated by the poor harvests of 1901 led to 40,000 peasants took part in an uprising where they also ransacked 150 landlord properties.
As seen in Document J this jobs did help to greatly lower the percentage of unemployed between 1935 and 1938. Although the work of the WPA did not completely solve the enormous problem it was certainly a move in the right direction, bringing the USA closer to the complete extermination of the unemployment problem, which was finally achieved after the second world war. This New Deal, fueled by organizations such as the WPA, completely revolutionized the role of the federal government. Coxey had advocated for actions similar to the new deal decades before but his ideas were shut down because the government had such close ties with big. However now, in such drastic times, the federal government realized that it needed to help the common people directly through providing more Jobs.
There were many short and long term effects of the Russian revolution. Firstly the short term effects following the Russian revolution were that Lenin hoped the constituent assembly (parliament) would show the rest of Russia how good the Bolsheviks could be for the Russian nation and how popular their leadership was. However they only gained 161 seats, compared to the social revolutionaries who won 267 seats. Obviously the Bolsheviks had become popular in Petrograd, but beyond the capital the population hadn’t been more in favour of the social revolutionaries and hadn’t been convinced by Lenin’s promise yet. In reaction to this, he shut down the assembly in order to keep power for himself.
‘An economic success, but a human failure’ – how accurate is this interpretation of Stalin’s economic policies of the 1930’s Stalin’s economic policies during the 1930s was to introduce Collectivization and the Five Year plan: both were aimed to boost Russia’s industrialization and agriculture within a short period of time in order to catch up to the world’s leading powers, that is, America and Britain at the time. In Stalin’s perspective, it was necessary to go to any lengths to reverse the backward economy of the country as fast as possible to overtake other countries. Without it, he viewed it as a defeat to the Socialist fatherland and a loss of international independence. This essay will examine the economic successes of his policies and whether they were fully achieved. In addition it will also examine the human failures; this would be defined as human loss, death and or a decrease in living conditions and quality of life.
By 1893 he became Minister of Finance. Witte combined his experience in the railway industry with a strong interest in foreign policy. He encouraged the expansion of the Trans-Siberian Railway and organized the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway. Witte also played an important role in helping to increase the speed of Russia's industrial development. Witte was much admired in Russia but he made some powerful enemies, including Vyacheslav Plehve, Minister of the Interior.