It was in this time that Russia’s industrial output increased by up to 4%. Most of the capital industries were on a rise. The government done this by focusing on the construction of railroads that required iron, coal and steel. The hope was that the construction of railways would lead to the creation of iron, steel and coal industries, which would in turn create other industries focusing on production and consumer goods. This was all thanks to Russia’s finance minister Sergei Witte.
Indeed, this appeared to be effective as Russia's economy exceptionally grew by 14% per annum. Production of essential commodities such as iron and coal also drastically increased between 1928 to 1932, from 3.3 to 6.2 and 35.4 to 64.3 million tonnes, respectively. Also, the program of 'proletarian advancement' alone created around 150,000 jobs and as a result, the urban population trebled as peasants moved to the cities to work in Soviet industry. However, although production increased under the first Five-Year Plan, the Soviet economy in fact suffered terribly to meet the unrealistically set targets of production. As a result, great inefficiency and low labor productivity came about and the focus on scale meant that much of what was being produced was in fact unusable.
This was mostly due to his policies of collectivisation which made economic sense and forced a lot of peasants to leave the land, which was a process needed in order to change an agricultural rural society to an urban and industrial one as well s the fact that his industrialisation plan increased massively the heavy industry in Russia; the production of raw materials such as iron, coal, steel and oil all increased successfully. There were other successes in his economic policy of rearmament, which also improved labour productivity and the transport in the country. However, it would be incorrect to say that all what Stalin did during this period was a success since he also presented various failures, for example not being able to boost the production of consumer goods as well as creating a huge man made famine. It was clear at the time that Russia needed a change, as Stalin said: ‘’ We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this
This can be seen in statistics that show Russian production of coal and iron multiply three and eightfold respectively. This was the next most important area in my opinion because it was the products that these industries created that allowed money to flow into the economy, by being sold on the foreign market. Thirdly, Witte imposed high foreign
Witte tried to change this with a series of projects, to help the economy and industry of Russia. He tried many different things such as building a huge railway system called the Trans-Siberian Railway across Russia (7000km). This helped Russia modernize by greatly improving infrastructure in the country. He also exploited Russia’s vast quantities of natural resources to sell them/use them in their own economy. These ideas seemed great but they did work much as Russia’s economy only grew by 50%, compared to other countries this was nothing.
Sergei was a key member of the government under the rule of both Alexander III and Nicholas II. Witte’s largest project was to improve the transport across Russia; he did this by improving the Trans-Siberian Railway which was constructed between 1891 and 1902. The line stretched for over 6000 kilometres and was intended to open up the more remote parts of Russia, which would in turn make the production better all over Russia as the produce would be able to be transported quicker across the different industries. Obviously this factor improved the economy as it meant that the country would be able to produce more and quicker. This railway also opened up a range of different jobs, meaning that the unemployment of Russia plummeted.
Describe Russia during 1881, after the assassination of Alexander II, and upon the ascension of Alexander III. Alexander II had overseen a period of change in the Russian Empire. The army and navy had been modernised after the embarrassing defeat in the Crimean war, the serfs had been emancipated and the empire continued to expand. On the day of his assassination, Alexander II had actually signed a document that would have brought in some form of democratic government. This period of reform was the inheritance of Alexander III, the progress of which he would attempt to reverse during his reign.
(30 marks) June 2009 How far do you agree that the economy of Tsarist Russia was transformed in the years to 1914? (30 marks) OR To what extent were the weaknesses of their opponents responsible for the survival of the Bolshevik government in the years 1917–24? (30 marks) How far do you agree that the collectivisation of agriculture made an essential contribution to Stalin’s transformation of the Russian economy? (30 marks) OR To what extent did Stalin establish a personal dictatorship in the years 1929–39? (30 marks) January 2010 To what extent did Russia undergo economic and political reform in the years 1906-14?
Wages rose how ever there were too few goods on which to spend money. Also the creation of collective farms essentially destroyed kulaks as a class and this disruption led to a famine. I think that over all the first five year plan was not a success in strengthening the soviet economy because a lot of the targets set were not achieved for example the production of coal were 35.4; oil was 11.7 and steel 4 million tonnes. The actual target of these was double the amount produced. I think it was successful in the sense it increased urbanisation, several gains were obtained in heavy industry and wages rose.
This increase was partly due to an influx of immigrants. 2 Immigration increased the U.S. population and it also created a new source of laborers. In addition to social changes, there were dramatic changes in the labor movement which happened between the years 1877 and the 1920s. With the end of the Civil War, industries began booming and the railroad industry especially increased: in fact, the railroad industry was the second largest industry in the United States and agriculture was the first largest. The year 1877 is famous for the Great Upheaval which is also known as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.