During the period of 1921-1928 in Russia, following the critical revolutionary period, there was a large degree of economic, social and political consolidation. There were new policies drawn up, changes in ideologies. These all led to things such as the NEP, the famine, War Communism, Anti-religious views, growth of urbanised areas, education, the use of the secret police and power-playing.

This examination would start us at a certain occurrence known to all as the "Kronstadt Rebellion." The reason for this rebellion was because of the policies of War Communism. These policies stated that basically:-

„h The state took over all production plants, for example factories, mines and workshops.

„h The state set up food commissariat. This was a group of people who gathered food from towns and rationed in evenly throughout all the villages. This made private trading illegal.

„h State took over banks, tried to abolish money by using goods and services system of payment.

All the Russian people did not accept these policies to start with, b

„h Small factories and shops operated under private ownership. Trade Unions were free of government control and strikes were permitted.

These new reforms settled the public opinion down and took pressure off the Bolshevik party for now. The NEP was quite successful though. From the major slump in 1921, Coal rose from 6.9 million tons to 27.6 million tons by 1926. Steel rose from 0.2 million tons to 3.1 million tons. Pig iron rose from 0.1 million tons to 2.4 million tons. Electricity rose from 520 million kWh to 3508 million kWh. The Industry was back to its full strength. Transport rose. Rail freight rose from 39.4 million tons to 83.4 million tons. In agriculture, the sown area grew from 77.7 million hectares to 104.3 million hectares and the grain harvest rose from 50.3 million tons to 72.5 million tons. These statistics clearly show the boom that occurred during the NEP introduction. Russia was on its way back to becoming a World Power once again, but the main thing being at the time, getting out of the major slump it was currently in. Although Industry and Agriculture boomed, there came to be known the "Scissors Crisis." This was because although food prices remained low, manufactured goods rose due to scarcity. The peasants could not afford to purchase necessary tools, as industrial goods were expensive. Russia also had a problem with its currency. The funding of agriculture had placed a great strain on Russian financial resources and had led to the printing of the rouble notes, which resulted in the devaluation of the paper currency. This is seen by the fact that one gold rouble was approximately 21 paper roubles in January 1918, whereas in July 1921, the price of one gold rouble rose to 80 700 paper roubles. A new currency and the NEP helped to stabilise this crisis though.

From here, Stalin made plans, which are well known as the "Five Year Plans." These plans were to boost Russian Industry to an extreme point. But before these plan came into action, a sudden occurrence happened, grain shortages. In 1926 and 1927, Russia was agin experiencing grain shortages. These were caused by the kulaks (rich peasants) holding back their stocks in the hope of getting higher prices. Stalin was furious at this attitude, accusing them of holding the nation to ransom from their own selfish ends. He was determined to smash the kulaks as a group, and collectivisation of agriculture was the way to go about this. Collectivisation involved peasants merging their small plots into large farms, which could then be run more efficiently by using machinery. Farm yields would increase, and workers who were replaced by machines could find jobs in indust

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Approximate Word count = 1790
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)