I know much less about the Cuban situation although I doubt it is any less interesting. A good book I read on this period is linked below. it cites some interesting first hand accounts about the Bolsheviks trying to get a hold of the banking system and not knowing how (and getting limited help from bank employees). Basically the only reason they survived at that point was that they stumbled out of money taxes into in kind taxes, generating hyperinflation and destroying much of the reactionary power base- hence requiring outside support.
http://www.amazon.ca/Banks-credit-money-Soviet-Russia/dp/B0006D6DU2/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368465917&sr=1-1&keywords=Banks%2C+Credit%2C+Money+Soviet+Russia the other problem was the attempt to abolish money without any adequate understanding or plans for how to do so. This was apparently hugely popular among the political bse. to quote the current book on money, banking and credit in the soviet union: "The Program of the Russian Communist Party, passed at the Eighth Party Congress in 1919, specified that measures would be taken with the aim of totally abolishing money. see Decisions of Party Congresses, Confrences, and Plenary Sessions of the Central Committee, Moscow, 1953, Vol. I, p. 427." the history of money and banking textbooks about the Soviet Union is interesting in and of itself. there seems to be a huge dearth of them from the pre world war two period up until the 1970's and 1980's, then there is a huge explosion at the time of the collapse. -- -Nathan Tankus ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
