Economic foundations of the Soviet system. HISTORY OF SOVIET RUSSIA - USSR

SOVIET RUSSIA. Brief history of the USSR

 

OCTOBER ARMED REBELLION AND FORMATION OF BASES OF SOVIET STATEHOOD

Economic foundations of the Soviet system

 

Even in the pre-October period, a working control began to be introduced at industrial enterprises, which in those conditions was a means of combating sabotage of entrepreneurs. But then he was not an instrument of organization or social reconstruction of production. On November 14, 1917, workers' control was decreed and after that it quickly spread to enterprises of various industries. By the middle of 1918, special organs of workers' control (factory committees, councils of elders, etc.) were created in 70% of enterprises. Workers gained access to accounting books, warehouses, and could control the reasonableness of hiring and layoffs.

 

From this point of view, it can be said that the exercise of workers' control was a measure of success. However, he was not able to regulate the supply, orders, financing in the scale of a particular industry, and especially in the scale of the whole country. Even within a single enterprise, workers' control could not always contribute to the regulation of production, because the threads from it often stretched beyond the enterprise — to capitalist industrial centers, to banks and the apparatus of large monopolies. In addition, workers' control had internal contradictions, which consisted in opposing the interests of the workers of a separate enterprise to the interests of the national economy as a whole.

 

The tendency of "grabbing", "separatism", and "localism" acquired an extremely sharp character in the first years of the revolution.

 

The need to create a single body for the purposes of regulating, managing, and planning the country's economic life was still felt by the Provisional Government. For this purpose, in the summer of 1917, the Main Economic Committee and the Economic Council were created, but at that time they could not solve the tasks assigned to them.

 

By decree of December 1, 1917, the Supreme Council of National Economy (VSNH) was formed, which, according to VI. Lenin, was to become the same comprehensive body in the economic sphere, as the Council of People's Commissars was in politics. The first chairman of the Supreme Council of National Economy (from December 1917 to March 22, 1918) was V. V. Obolensky (Osinsky). Later, he was replaced by A. I. Rykov (April 3, 1918 - May 28, 1921). In the wake of the Supreme Council of National Economy, local Councils of National Economy (SNH) began to be established - regional, provincial and district ones. The position of December 23, 1917 tons, determined their tasks in accordance with the tasks of the Supreme Economic Council.

 

In the first post-October months, power was extremely decentralized. And it is not accidental that at the turn of 1917-1918. it was on the ground that industrial policy was implemented more easily and faster than the general organization of the economy from a single leading center. The power in this period was mainly based on the revolutionary impulse of the masses, on their creative initiative. Through factories and trade unions (their number from October to December 1917 increased almost 1.5 times and amounted to about 3 million people) the principles of production self-government began to come into being.

 

1918 became, to a certain extent, the time of the ðhodnarhozhivaniya of the territory of the country. By mid-1919, in Soviet Russia there were 332 local economic bodies (SNH). The Sovnar-Khozov system, thus, was a horizontal slice - the organization of industry according to the production-territorial basis. However, another process was going on in parallel. Since 1918, the Supreme Council of National Economy has also formed a production-branch system — the so-called central boards and centers — the main and central boards. This direction subsequently took over and laid the foundation for the centralized management of industry in the country.

 

From the end of 1917, the implementation of the policy of nationalization of industry began. On November 17, the nationalization of the Likinsk manufactory in the Vladimir province was announced, since its owner closed the enterprise, citing lack of funds, raw materials and the need for repairs. A commission to investigate this case was created under the Provisional Government and came to the conclusion that there is no need to close the factory and it can continue to work. So often, at the initial stage of the revolution, nationalization was a punitive measure on the part of the authorities for disobeying entrepreneurs.

 

Until March 1918, 81 enterprises were nationalized. At the same time, considering the confiscation of capitalist property only as a punitive act would not be entirely true. It is more correct to say that the sabotage of the owners of industrial enterprises accelerated the implementation of measures to alienate private property in favor of the Republic.

 

Having overcome in November 1917 the resistance of officials and having mastered the State Bank, the Bolsheviks established control over the activities of numerous private banks, embarking on the full nationalization of the entire financial business. On the morning of December 14, the Red Guard units, soldiers and sailors, in accordance with the instructions of the Council of People's Commissars, began an operation to occupy all the private banks of Petrograd. In the evening of the same day, decrees on the nationalization of banks and the revision of their steel safes were adopted at a meeting of the CEC of the Soviets.

 

A decree of December 14, 1917 declared banking a monopoly of the state. All existing private joint-stock banks merged with the State Bank into a single People's Bank of the RSFSR. At the same time, it was announced that the interests of small investors would be fully respected. According to Lenin, the bourgeoisie was left "without a soul."

 

In an effort to undermine the welfare of the bourgeoisie, a step was taken aimed at abolishing private property rights in urban real estate. The Council of People's Commissars adopted this decree on November 23 and approved it on December 16, 1917, prohibiting any transactions for the sale, purchase, pledge, etc. of all real estate and land in cities.

 

 

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