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Great War, Civil War, and Recovery: Russia’National Income, 1913 to 1928

Author

Listed:
  • Andrei Markevich

    (New Economic School (Moscow), University of Warwick)

  • Mark Harrison

    (University of Warwick, University of Birmingham, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, Stanford University)

Abstract

The last remaining gap in the national accounts of Russia and the USSR in the twentieth century, 1913 to 1928, includes the Great War, the Civil War, and postwar recovery. Filling this gap, we find that the Russian economy did somewhat better in the Great War than was previously thought; in the Civil War it did correspondingly worse; war losses persisted into peacetime, and were not fully restored under the New Economic Policy. We compare this experience across regions and over time. The Great War and Civil War produced the deepest economic trauma of Russia’s troubled twentieth century.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrei Markevich & Mark Harrison, 2010. "Great War, Civil War, and Recovery: Russia’National Income, 1913 to 1928," Working Papers w0146, Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR).
    • Handle: RePEc:cfr:cefirw:w0146
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Harrison, Mark, 2017. "The Soviet Economy, 1917-1991 : Its Life and Afterlife," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1137, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    2. Andrei Markevich & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, 2018. "The Economic Effects of the Abolition of Serfdom: Evidence from the Russian Empire," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(4-5), pages 1074-1117, April.
    3. Chernina, Eugenia & Castañeda Dower, Paul & Markevich, Andrei, 2014. "Property rights, land liquidity, and internal migration," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 191-215.
    4. Michel Fouquin & Jules Hugot, 2016. "Two Centuries of Bilateral Trade and Gravity data: 1827-2014," Vniversitas Económica, Universidad Javeriana - Bogotá, vol. 0(0), pages 1-39, August.
    5. Bessolitsyn, Alexander A. (Бессолицын, Александр), 2018. "Private Business and Revolution (on the Economic Reasons of the Events of February 1917 in Russia) [Частный Бизнес И Революция (К Вопросу Об Экономических Причинах Февраля 1917 Года В России)]," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 1, pages 234-251, February.
    6. Anton Cheremukhin & Mikhail Golosov & Sergei Guriev & Aleh Tsyvinski, 2013. "Was Stalin Necessary for Russia's Economic Development?," NBER Working Papers 19425, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Smirnov, Sergey, 2015. "Economic Fluctuations in Russia (from the late 1920s to 2015)," Russian Journal of Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 130-153.
    8. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/382e4c7la19qb8m0mtvar753ei is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Paul Castaneda Dower & Andrei Markevich, 2013. "Labor Surplus and Mass Mobilization: Russian Agriculture during the Great War," Working Papers w0196, New Economic School (NES).
    10. Dubrovskaya, Yu. & Belonogov, Yu. & Kozonogova, E., 2023. "Evaluation of the effectiveness of administrative-territorial transformations in Russia," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 58(1), pages 89-108.
    11. repec:cte:whrepe:wp13-01 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Prados de la Escosura, Leandro, 2019. "Human Development in the Age of Globalisation," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 421, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    13. Jutta Bolt & Jan Luiten Zanden, 2014. "The Maddison Project: collaborative research on historical national accounts," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(3), pages 627-651, August.
    14. Broadberry, Stephen & Korchmina, Elena, 2024. "Catching-Up and Falling Behind: Russian Economic Growth, 1690s–1880s," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 84(4), pages 997-1028, December.
    15. Sabine Eckhardt & Ignacio Pisso & Nikolaos Evangeliou & Christine Groot Zwaaftink & Andreas Plach & Joseph R. McConnell & Michael Sigl & Meri Ruppel & Christian Zdanowicz & Saehee Lim & Nathan Chellma, 2023. "Revised historical Northern Hemisphere black carbon emissions based on inverse modeling of ice core records," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    16. Miller, Marcus & Smith, Jennifer C., 2015. "In the shadow of the Gulag: Worker discipline under Stalin," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 531-548.
    17. Paul Castañeda Dower & Andrei Markevich, 2018. "Labor Misallocation and Mass Mobilization: Russian Agriculture during the Great War," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(2), pages 245-259, May.
    18. Lindert, Peter H. & Nafziger, Steven, 2014. "Russian Inequality on the Eve of Revolution," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(3), pages 767-798, September.
    19. Leandro Prados de la Escosura, 2015. "World Human Development: 1870–2007," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(2), pages 220-247, June.
    20. repec:cge:wacage:2018 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Natalya Naumenko, 2024. "Economic Consequences of the 1933 Soviet Famine," Working Papers 0270, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    22. Federico, Giovanni, 2025. "World Population 1800-1938," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH 45843, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
    23. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/382e4c7la19qb8m0mtvar753ei is not listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Civil War; GDP; Russia; Soviet Union; World War I;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E20 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • N14 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: 1913-
    • N44 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Europe: 1913-
    • O52 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Europe

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