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Date Posted: 09:31:34 06/01/03 Sun
Author: Mr John D Clare
Subject: Using Statistical data in Sourcework Questions (Russia 1913-926)
In reply to: 's message, "Soviet -source" on 21:00:22 05/31/03 Sat

What are the uses and limitations of source F as evidence of Soviet economic performance under War Communism and the NEP. (8 marks)

Source F Economic Realities
---- 1913 ---- 1920 ---- 1921 ---- 1922 ---- 1923 ---- 1924 ---- 1925 ---- 1926
Factory Production (million roubles)
---- 10251 ---- 1401 ---- 2004 ---- 2619 ---- 4005 ---- 4660 ---- 7739 ---- 11083
Coal (million tons)
---- 29 ---- 8.7 ---- 8.9 ---- 9.5 ---- 13.7 ---- 16.1 ---- 18.1 ---- 27.6
Electricity (million Kwhs)
---- 1945 ---- 0 ---- 520 ---- 775 ---- 1146 ---- 1562 ---- 2925 ---- 3508
Pig iron (thousand tons)
---- 4216 ---- 0 ---- 116 ---- 188 ---- 309 ---- 755 ---- 1535 ---- 2441
Steel (thousand tons)
---- 4231 ---- 0 ---- 183 ---- 392 ---- 709 ---- 1140 ---- 2135 ---- 3141
Sown area (million ha.)
---- 1.500 ---- 0 ---- 90.3 ---- 77.7 ---- 91.7 ---- 98.1 ---- 104.3 ---- 110.3
Grain harvest (million tons)
---- 80.1 ---- 46.1 ---- 37.6 ---- 50.3 ---- 56.6 ---- 51.4 ---- 72.5 ---- 76.8


What an excellent question, and thank you for bringing this one up, because examiners often set source questions on sets/tables/graphs of figures like this.

SO how do you do a sourcework question on a set of figures? Well the answer is: just exactly the same way as you a document source. You can remind yourself how to do sourcework on <a rel=nofollow target=_blank href="http://www.johndclare.net/how_to_do_sourcework.htm">http://www.johndclare.net/how_to_do_sourcework.htm</a>


FIRST, you think for a little while about what you know about the period (in this case, 1913-1926)
What you should know (from www.johndclare.net) is tha
- Russia was industrialising when the Tsar ruled before WWI,
- Then there was the war (which reduced Russian industry, agriculture and transport to chaos).
- During the Civil War which followed the 1917 revolutions, there was terrible hardship and famine, and the Bolsheviks kept up production by means of the harsh War Communism.
- In 1921 the Kronstadt sailors mutinied, and Lenin brought in the New Economic Policy, which allowed a little more prosperity, and production increased slowly (though it only passed pre-revolution levels in 1928).

SECOND, you look at the source and think about what it is saying on the surface and between the lines.
In the case of this table, the figures show exactly what you know that industrial production was highest before WWI, and that it slumped terribly during WWI and the Civil War (so that in 1920, factory production was only 13%, coal production only 30%, and grain output little more than half, what they had been in 1913). After 1921, however, there is a slow rise in the figures (industrial production increased eightfold 1921-1926) but, in most figures, even in 1926, production had not passed pre-revolution levels.
(Note how, in the above, I am quoting facts and figures from the source, just like I would use quotes from a document source).

THEN you can go on and answer the question like any other sourcework question.
What kind of question is it? Can you see the key word in the question which tells you? It is the word uses because it alerts you that this is a utility sourcework question: in other words: How USEFUL are these figures?
Now remember what you know about usefulness questions they are about Quantity and Quality - how much information is the source telling you, and how reliable is the information it is telling you? A USEFUL source is a source that TELLS YOU A LOT and WHICH YOU CAN TRUST.

In the case of Source F:
QUANTITY the figures give a very clear indication of the FACTS about what was happening to production in these years. They show how production slumped during WWI and the Civil War, and how the NEP began slowly to improve things. They allow historians to (as I did above) to calculate exact figures of HOW MUCH production fell and grew between certain dates. This kind of accuracy is very useful to historians.
But, ALWAYS when you are talking about figures, remember that they only give you facts they tell you nothing about FEELINGS. They do not tell you what life was like for Russians in these years, or what they thought about War Communism or the NEP. To know those things, you would need photographic and documentary sources.

QUALITY and, also, remember that a source is only useful if it is reliable. Actually, you will probably find that below the source the question gives a provenance (ie tells you where the figures come from). In this case, ALL the figures are Russian government figures they almost certainly come from the official Russian Yearbook (Narodnoe Khozyaitsvo S.S.S.R.) and I wouldnt trust then further than I could throw them.
The 1913 figures come from the Tsars government, which was very inefficient, and didnt really believe that it needed to keep accurate figures anyway the 1913 figures will be official guesstimates, and they almost certainly underestimate the true figure.
Common sense would suggest that in 1920 the zeros mean figures not available and NOT nothing produced.
The figures after 1920 will be official Communist government figures, and I wouldnt trust those either. Statisticians in Communist Russia produced the figures the government wanted to see, especially under Stalin (historians have found that the government figures for Stalins 5-Year Plans overstate production achievements by about a third). If the 1920-26 figures come from figures published during Stalins time (as they probably do), they will probably have been REDUCED to emphasise just how much Stalins 5-Year Plans had increased production after 1928.
Am I reading too much into the title Economic Realities if I say that this suggests the figures were produced by someone who was trying to rubbish the NEP that the title seems to be saying: you may claim that the NEP was great but the ECONOMIC REALITIES are that it didnt secure a great increase in production??? That would be exactly what Stalins propagandists would be wanting Russians to believe, because then it would bull up the increases achieved under Stalin.

So that would be my answer. Figures can be very useful for providing accurate data, and these figures prove what we know was happening to Russia production during these years, but they tell us only facts (not feelings) and we have to be careful because Stalins government will have almost certainly falsified the figures.

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