Economic problems in the USSR after the Second World War Essay

Neither Stalin, Khrushchev or Brezhnev successfully mete outed fundamental scotch problems which increasingly dogged the USSR after(prenominal) the Second World War How out-of-the-way(prenominal) do you agree with this statement?After the contend, the USSR was destroyed both physically and frugalalally. The challenge for Stalin because was to attempt to rebuild the USSR, particularly focusing on industry and the economy in order to ensure that Russia would remain a world superpower. By the end of Brezhnevs era however, the situation was actually different. The country had undergone a period of doldrums whereby the economy had failed to improve and arouse over his period in power. This was due to his escape of willingness to implement immature policies in preference of a period of stability. I would show that although Brezhnev achieved very little, changes were implemented under both Stalin and Khrushchev. However, these changes were often non forever overly successf ul.Stalin did attempt to breed the economic damage that the war had caused and hence try to rebuild the economy. One way in which he did this was to qualify the systems in place already in order to tackle the unseasoned problems go astir(predicate). For face, he addressed the growing complexity of the economy by creating more than economic ministries. supercharge than this at the end of 1947, he adapted Gosplan in order to make it more focused on the economy and thusly particular(a) the State Planning Commission to only planning ( therefrom transferring its preceding responsibilities to arrange the necessary supplies elsewhere). He as well as adapted where investment was distributed to after the war such as early investment after the war went to regions which had been occupied by the Germans (for example, Donets Region).Stalin also created naked policies in order to promote the economy and affix payoff, in the form of the fourth year plan. This was successful in the way that it effectively discoverd large amounts of raw materials such as coal (149 million rafts in 1945 to 261 million tons in 1950) and oil (19 million tons in 1945 to 40 million tons in 1950). He used shorter term targets for individual enterprises to meet. P Kenez utter even if we take into consideration the exaggerations built into soviet statistics, it is legato incontestible that the Stalinist methods worked, and that the speed of reconstruction was impressive. Overall the USSR managed to produce a 75% improver on the production of 1940 which shows its extensive success and because disagrees with the statement that as a leader he failed to address the economic problems faced.Although it flowerpot be suggested that Khrushchev faced less of challenge than Stalin, he still introduced new economic policies which had wide spreading effects. An example of this is introducing the minimum betroth in 1956 which guaranteed the workers an change magnitude standard of living a nd prevented exploitation.Foreign trade staggeringly increased under Khrushchev due to his extended relationship with the west. Two thirds of the exotic trade was with Comecon countries in Eastern Europe which was also beneficial for communistic relationships.Unlike under Stalin, Khrushchev successfully addressed the poor living standards and increased these considerably. Although they were still backwards in comparison to other western countries, for example in 1964, only 5 in 1,000 citizens stimulateed a cable car his policies combined with the recovery of the USSR since 1945 did mean improvements were made. Working conditions also improved with shorter on the job(p) hours, more holidays, better pensions and other social benefits.Khrushchev is often blamed for his failings in agriculture (as addressed below) but John Keep suggests that he at least kept peasant affairs at the centre of prudence for an entire decade. No other ruler had ever done so, or would do so. This is evi dence that Khrushchev did address some of the problems that the USSR were facing at the date. Filtzer also stated that that these iron outs were based on the assumption that agriculture would sop up m any more resources than he would obtain due to them organism amused to other sectors of the economy. Arguably then Khrushchev did attempt to address these issues.Brezhnevs fourth dimension in power is often described as an economic doldrums due to the adversity in economic growth at this time. However, he did introduce a limited number of new policies which had equally limited successes. He successfully addressed that Khrushchevs destructive agricultural policies should be reversed, for example in September 1965 Khrushchevs sovnarkhoz reforms of 1957 were ended. He did successfully increase foreign trade though, for example exporting oil and gold in atomed resources from Siberia and the period of dtente led to the high priority of western technologies being imported.Although th e Stalinist economic reforms successfully improved output there be also criticisms that can be raised as evidence that Stalin failed to address the economic problems. The fourth year plan is accused to have been ossified as it focused on heavy industry rather than clear consumer goods. These items were what the country really needed after it had been damaged by the war but instead industry was based on government priorities. Further than this, the emphasis was put on quantity rather than quality and therefore many of the goods produced were non of the highest quality. For example, in order for factory workers to reach their targets, they would produce more pairs of shoes of small sizes as this was quicker and had smaller production costs.Stalin also introduced a currency reform which was generally unsuccessful. It made disembodied spirit difficult for the workers as it reduced how much money was in circulation and therefore consumer products such as clothes and shoes were even scarcer than during the war. Due to the reform the black market became more active which increased corruption and crime.It is also suggested that Stalins economic indemnity was less successful towards the end of his time in power. The fifth five year plan should have begun in 1951, yet it was non drafted and approved until October 1952.Perhaps Stalins significant failure within economic policy was in agriculture. Despite the huge break of the war in production, Stalin did not focus on this policy area. kinda the peasants were treated badly and the amount of state procured grain increased to 60-70% of the harvested grain produced. Investment into agriculture also failed to be addressed. These problems lead to food shortages which push increased the problems of the black markets. Alex Nove suggests that Stalins final years were ill judged interventions of authority, unreasonable centralisation of decisions, insufficient investment and lack of adequate incentives.Khrushchev intro duced many new reforms to try to improve industry which were fairly unsuccessful. The Sovnarkhoz reforms ended up make another layer of bureaucracy and just formed an alternative competition (between regions rather that industry). The black market also grew under Khrushchev as it intervened to remunerate repressed demand.Arguably Khrushchevs biggest failures were within agriculture however. He insisted upon forming his own policies without any experts advice and then pushed them through bureaucracy rather than trialling them out to chew the fat if they would be successful. An obvious example of this is the Virgin Lands Campaign whereby land that was not suitable for crop growth was used for extra agricultural land. Although it did bonk initial success the weather conditions soon destroyed any crops that had big(a) and the campaign had to be abandoned. Many of Khrushchevs failures are attributed to him personally, especially the lack of effective planning of the reforms and the confusion which sometimes arose. Therefore he can be partly personally blamed for the failures to address the economic problems faced by the USSR.The failures seen within Brezhnevs era are not so much destructive but rather a period of stagnation whereby the economy failed to improve. Evidence of this is found in the NMP (net material product) fell from 10.2% in 1950 to 3.6% in the 1980s.It has been suggested that the leadership didnt have an accurate view of economic performance as they were not educated well in economics and GOSPLAN was inefficient at reporting findings. An example is one of the top producing factories did not in fact exist when GOSPLAN attempted to give them an award for production. In fact the factory was run on the black market.Brezhnevs defense reaction costs also affected the economy adversely. By 1980 the USSR was spending more on defence than the USA even though their economy was about one third of the sizePerhaps his largest failure was not to address t he problems with the centralised planning system where many of the economic problems initially sprung from. under(a) Stalin this was successful but by this time the economy had become ut about too complex to be centralised. Industry also failed to modernise. For example, using the policy of storming was used whereby old equipment was run non-stop until the end of the plan which damaged equipment and nasal resources. Thompson suggests that in structural terms, soviet planners by 1980 had arguably created the worlds largest and most advanced nineteenth-century economy.In conclusion, the extent to the leaders successfully addressed the economic problems in Russia was variable under the different personalities. Stalin arguably faced the biggest challenge and due to the fact he did manage to increase production to such a large extent suggests he was the most successful. Although Khrushchev did not solve all of the problems faced, and his agricultural policies caused more harm than goo d, he did attempt to address the problems that the USSR were facing. On the other hand, Brezhnevs rule did not show any improvement, and further than this he did not show any attempts to improve the problems. For this reason Brezhnev can be suggested to be the least successful.