Summer 1920. On the Absheron peninsula the owners of the oil fields are gone: the fields, plants and banks have passed to the state. In the village an armed detachment takes the grain from a peasant’s barn without payment. About a year later the government tells the peasant: pay the tax and sell the rest yourself. Why did policy change so sharply, and why did it harden again afterwards? The answer lies in three stages (see «The formation of the Azerbaijan SSR and resistance to Soviet rule»).
War communism and the grain requisition
The policy of «war communism», applied in Russia from 1918 during the civil war, was brought to Azerbaijan after April 1920. Its aim was to supply the Red Army and the cities and to place the richest resource — Baku oil — under Moscow’s control. State distribution replaced the market.
War communismDefinition
The emergency policy of the Bolsheviks in the civil war years: the economy concentrated in state hands, trade banned and produce taken from the village by force.
Grain requisition (prodrazvyorstka)Definition
The handing over to the state, free or at a token price, of the grain and other food that was judged to exceed the peasant family’s needs.
- large industry, banks, transport and the oil industry were nationalised (1920);
- large landholding was abolished and the land passed to the state;
- the grain requisition was introduced;
- free trade was banned and food and goods were distributed by ration card;
- universal labour duty: everyone had to work.
The result was grim. A peasant who lost everything above his own needs sowed less; the lack of raw materials and workers weakened industry; the cities went short of food. Discontent in the countryside grew and became one of the factors behind resistance to the Soviet regime. The government realised that the economy could not be restored by force alone.
The New Economic Policy (NEP)
In March 1921 the Tenth Congress of the RCP(b) replaced the requisition with a food tax. Peasant risings in Russia and, separately, the revolt of the Kronstadt sailors showed that the limit of endurance had been passed; in Azerbaijan too, discontent with Soviet rule had turned into open resistance (the Ganja uprising of May 1920). In Azerbaijan the new policy was introduced in 1921–1922. V. I. Lenin called this turn a «retreat»: political power stayed with the Bolsheviks, and concessions were made only in the economy.
New Economic Policy (NEP)Definition
The policy applied from 1921: the state keeps the main positions in the economy but allows the market and small and medium private enterprise.
- the requisition gave way to a food tax; the peasant could sell produce above the tax freely;
- trade and markets were restored; small and medium private firms, leases and foreign concessions were allowed (a concession — handing an enterprise to a foreign entrepreneur for a fixed period);
- large industry, banks, transport and foreign trade stayed in state hands (Soviet historiography called them the «commanding heights»);
- state enterprises were grouped into trusts and began to work on a self-financing basis;
- a currency reform was carried out (1922–1924): the stable chervonets entered circulation.
In Azerbaijan the main gain of the NEP was oil. The nationalised fields and plants were run by Azneft, the state oil organisation created in 1920; production recovered and in the second half of the 1920s oil output reached the pre-revolutionary level. Trade revived in the towns, private entrepreneurs — «NEPmen» — appeared, and sown areas grew in the villages.
| Feature | War communism | NEP |
|---|---|---|
| Village | grain requisition | food tax |
| Trade | banned; rationing by cards | free market and trade |
| Industry | large industry, banks, transport and oil nationalised | small and medium private firms; large industry, banks and transport stay with the state |
| Money | money loses value; distribution in kind | currency reform, chervonets |
| Labour | universal labour duty | hired labour, wages |
Industrialisation and its price
In 1925 the Fourteenth Party Congress proclaimed a course of industrialisation: the aim was to turn the USSR from an agrarian country into an industrial one and to end its dependence on imported machinery. The NEP, however, remained in force after 1925, until 1928–1929. From 1928 development ran through five-year plans approved by the centre; the funds were drawn mainly from agriculture and from raw-material exports (oil among them). Because the NEP did not fit this pace, it was abandoned in the late 1920s.
| Plan | Years | Main line |
|---|---|---|
| First | 1928–1932 | heavy industry, power, machine building |
| Second | 1933–1937 | heavy industry continued, technical re-equipment, transport |
| Third | 1938–1942 | defence industry; the war cut it short |
Azerbaijan was the Union’s main oil base: in 1941 it produced 23.5 million tonnes of oil, more than 70% of the Soviet total. Beside the oil industry itself, plants serving it appeared — oil machine building, power stations and building materials; new enterprises were also set up in Ganja, and in 1935 the city was named Kirovabad after S. M. Kirov, who had headed the Azerbaijani Communist organisation in 1921–1926.
The price was heavy. Because heavy industry came first, consumer goods grew scarce, and in the hard early years of the plans food and goods were shared by ration card. The Azerbaijani economy was subordinated to the centre’s plans: development rested mainly on the oil industry. The harsh enforcement of economic targets coincided with the strengthening of the totalitarian regime (see «Collectivisation, the totalitarian regime and mass repressions»).
Interactive
- 1918
War communism begins in Russia
- 28 April 1920
The Azerbaijan SSR is proclaimed; war-communism measures reach Azerbaijan
- 24 May 1920
The oil industry is nationalised
- 1920
The grain requisition is introduced
- March 1921
The Tenth Congress of the RCP(b) replaces the requisition with a food tax
- 1921–1922
Azerbaijan moves to the NEP; Azneft restores the oil industry
- 1922
The USSR is created
- 1922–1924
Currency reform; the chervonets
- 1925
The Fourteenth Congress proclaims industrialisation
- 1928–1929
The NEP is abandoned
- 1928–1932
The First Five-Year Plan
- 1933–1937
The Second Five-Year Plan
- 1935
Ganja is renamed Kirovabad
- 1938–1942
The Third Five-Year Plan (cut short by the war)
- 1941
Azerbaijan produces 23.5 million tonnes of oil
| Person | Date | Role |
|---|---|---|
| V. I. Lenin | 1921 | leader of the switch from requisition to the food tax and to the NEP |
| S. M. Kirov | 1921–1926 | head of the Azerbaijan Communist Party (the NEP years); Ganja was given his name in 1935 |
| J. V. Stalin | from the late 1920s | leader of industrialisation and the five-year plans |
| Cause | Result |
|---|---|
| The civil war and the need for Baku oil | war-communism measures in Azerbaijan, nationalisation of oil |
| Free confiscation and the ban on trade | smaller sown areas, shortages, discontent in the village |
| Peasant risings and economic crisis | the NEP in 1921: the requisition replaced by a tax |
| Azneft at work under the NEP | oil output recovered to the pre-revolutionary level |
| The wish to turn an agrarian country into an industrial one and end dependence on imported machinery | the 1925 industrialisation course and five-year plans from 1928 |
| Priority to heavy industry | scarce consumer goods, rationing |
Source: a party document
For several years the Russian peasant had been forced to hand the state, often without pay, all the grain beyond what was judged necessary for his family, and in practice often more than that. The factories had stopped, the towns were hungry, and the villages showed their discontent openly.
The congress decided: a tax of fixed size would replace the compulsory collection. After paying the tax the peasant would gain the right to sell or exchange the rest of his produce as he wished. The leadership saw this as a retreat in the economy while political power was kept unchanged.
Source tasks
Problem
1) Name the policy being replaced, the new policy, the congress that took the decision and the year — none is named in the text.
2) Explain one political and one economic reason for this decision.
3) Give two consequences of the decision that are NOT stated in the text.
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Solution
2) Political: peasant discontent was turning into risings (peasant risings in Russia and, separately, the Kronstadt revolt; in Azerbaijan the Ganja uprising against Soviet rule) and the regime risked losing the peasants’ support. Economic: industry had stopped, sown areas had shrunk and the towns faced shortages. Marks: both — 1; one — ½.
3) Revival of trade and the market; the appearance of private business (NEPmen); recovery of industry and farming (in Azerbaijan, of Azneft and oil output); the currency reform. Marks: two consequences — 1; one — ½; «the peasant can sell the rest» is in the text and earns nothing.
Exam-type tasks
Exam task: shared features
Problem
Which features belong to both war communism and the NEP?
1. Permission for free trade
2. The oil industry staying in state hands
3. Confiscation of produce from the peasant without payment
4. Political power concentrated in the Bolshevik party
A) only 2 B) 1, 3 C) 2, 4 D) 1, 2 E) 3, 4
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Solution
Step 2: 2 holds in both periods (under the NEP large industry, banks and transport, oil among them, stayed with the state), and 4 also applies to both (the NEP did not share political power).
Answer: C (2, 4). «Only 2» is incomplete because it drops 4.
Exam task: chronology
Problem
Put the events in chronological order:
1. The Fourteenth Congress proclaims industrialisation
2. The USSR is created
3. The grain requisition is introduced in Azerbaijan
4. The First Five-Year Plan begins
5. The switch to the food tax at the Tenth Congress of the RCP(b)
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Solution
Step 2: the USSR arose in 1922 (2), the Fourteenth Congress met in 1925 (1).
Step 3: the First Five-Year Plan began in 1928 (4).
Answer: 3, 5, 2, 1, 4.
As you can see, each change answered a problem created by the one before: the crisis of war communism led to the NEP, and the NEP’s slow pace led to industrialisation. The next step in the village is in the lesson «Collectivisation, the totalitarian regime and mass repressions».
Remember
- War communism (from 1918 in Russia, from 1920 in Azerbaijan): nationalisation, the grain requisition, the ban on trade, labour duty.
- The requisition’s result: less sowing, shortages, rural discontent; this led to the switch to the food tax at the Tenth Congress of the RCP(b) in 1921.
- The NEP: food tax, free trade, small and medium private firms, concessions, trusts, currency reform (1922–1924); large industry, banks and transport stayed with the state.
- Under the NEP, Azneft restored oil output in Azerbaijan; the pre-revolutionary level was reached in the second half of the 1920s.
- Industrialisation: 1925 — the course; five-year plans 1928–1932, 1933–1937, 1938–1942; Azerbaijan was an oil base (1941: 23.5 million tonnes); the price — shortages, rationing, dependence on the centre.