2015 A-Level paper.
Received high level 4

How successful were the economic policies of the USSR from 1953-82?

The economic policies of the USSR from 1953-82 were quite unsuccessful. The agricultural policies were unsuccessful, but the industrial policies were successful. This essay will measure success by the impact on the economy, for example whether the industrial change met or succeeded their targets. In 1953, Stalin died and Khrushchev succeeded him as leader of the Soviet Union. Between then and his fall from power, he had to legitimise his leadership, as well as introduce his policy of de-Stalinisation. In addition, Khrushchev wanted to reform failing policies, while still keeping to his successful policies. Brezhnev then succeeded Khrushchev as leader of the Soviet Union and then died in 1982. He wanted to move away from Khrushchev and consolidate his position as leader of the Soviet Union. To measure the success of these policies, this essay will focus on Khrushchev's Seven-Year plan, sovnarkozy and the Virgin Lands Scheme. In addition, this essay will also study Brezhnev's reforms of agriculture, his ninth Five-Year Plan and the Kosygin reforms.

It can be argued that the economic policies of the USSR from 1953-82 were not successful under Khrushchev because of the failure of the Virgin Lands Scheme and the agricultural policies under Brezhnev. Under the Virgin Lands Scheme, 6 million hectares of new land was farmed, mostly by the Komsomol, expecting an output of 20 million tonnes. Only 120,000 tractors were provided for this scheme. The failure of the Virgin Lands Scheme was that the land was dry and not suitable for grazing, especially in places like Kazakstan. Kazakstan caused other problems because of the hurricane in 1963 which destroyed a majority of the grain, worsened by the poor harvest in 1963. Moreover, the early sowing of crops led to wheat infestation and without irrigation, the plants died. Even the harvested crops often weren't used because the transport was poor, and so some crops rotted on the road side. The shortages of crop harvests caused millions of livestock to be slaughtered. The Virgin Lands Scheme was also unsuccessful because the USSR had to import 20 million tonnes of grain from North America and Australia and was a significant contribution to his dismissal in 1964. The failure of the Virgin Lands Scheme caused the agricultural change to be introduced by Brezhnev in order to solve the huge agricultural problems. The economic policies of the USSR from 1953-82 were unsuccessful because of the changing agricultural policies under Brezhnev. The Politburo invested 26% of all investment in agriculture by 1976. This plan gave particular attention to fertilisers and there was a bigger role of production on peasant's private plots. The agriculture policies also offered grain brigades so that peasants in collectives could decide how profit was used and distributed. This new policy caused a greater inefficiency and the growth in agriculture fell from 3.7% to 0.8%. This policy was unsuccessful because the prices of food doubled, but there was food shortages. In addition, the USSR still had to import US grain and fodder crops to germinate for the following year.

On the other hand, it can be argued that the economic policies of the USSR from 1953-82 were successful. In 1957, Khrushchev introduced the 105 Regional Economic Councils- Sovnarkhozy- to supervise enterprises and run the industrial complex. This was a policy to decentralise the economy, yet still centralised at Moscow and the presidium, and introduce economic councils. Khrushchev also began the Liberman Plan in 1962, which fell apart in 1964 when he was sacked. This plan gave factory workers more freedom, which was successful because it took into account more local circumstances. Another major economic policy that Khrushchev introduced was the seven-year plan from 1958 to 1965, which placed emphasis on the fuel and chemical industries. The success of this plan is notable in the output of consumer goods, which had previously been in decline during Stalin's Five-Year Plans, had risen from 100 to 184 in the years 1958 to 1965, succeeding the target of 180. In addition, emphasis on the fuel industries resulted in coal increasing from 493 to 578 million tonnes. Through the seven-year plans, Khrushchev was able to overtake the West in technology and consumer goods, with a larger economic growth of 7.1% compared to the economic growth of the USA which was 2.9%. Because of the rise of consumer goods, the standard of living for most of the population rose, which shows the success of Khrushchev's economic policies in the USSR.

Khrushchev's attention to consumer goods were continued by Brezhnev through his ninth Five-Year Plans, which focused on consumer goods. The production of consumer foods was higher than heavy industry. This plan resulted in 85% of families owning a television and 70% of families had a washing machine by 1980. In addition to this, sewing machines nearly doubled and although only 9% of families had a car there was a large investment in public transport. Production was so great that some Russian manufactured goods were exported abroad, including cars, photographic equipment and radios. This increases the success of the plans because living standards rose and the economic growth achieved was impressive. This shows that the industrial policies in the USSR from 1953-82 were successful.

To conclude, the economic policies of the USSR from 1953-82 were quite unsuccessful because of the failures of the Kolsygin reforms and the agricultural policies introduced by Khrushchev and Brezhnev, in particular the failure of the Virgin Lands Scheme. These agricultural policies were unsuccessful because they caused food shortages and the USSR had to import grain from the USA. The industrial policies were generally more successful than the agricultural policies because they raised the standard of living, thus some policies were successful and made the overall failures of the policies less effectual and catastrophic.