During the 1980’s the Soviet Union seemed to be one of the most stable political units of the world, but just because they had a stable political unit does not mean every thing else was good. The economy of the Soviet Union had its up’s and downs, as it shows in document B people had a hard time communicating because there was up to 11 hour difference. Another thing is the gross national product difference between the Soviet Union and the U.S. during the 1980’s, The United States GNP was 2.47 trillion dollars and the Soviet Union’s GNP was 1.47 trillion dollars. I feel that since this is during the cold war the Soviet Union spent all their money on their military and during this time there economy dropped and since they were communist they had a hard time supporting their people. This also explains why the U.S. GNP was high, because they weren't building up their military and also the U.S. already had a really great military so they didn't need to build up in the first
This was similar to the United States of America, as the US was also trying to industrialize with a purpose of factories and people working in them. A big factor of the industrialization that both America and Russia shared was that both of these countries had a very unfair system for workers. The pay was not great, and people who were poor had it even worse. There is even an old saying that fits this very well, “The rich get richer”. This is true because the people who were already poor, who were working for the money so they could afford things like homes, food, water, and clothing, were staying poor, because their pay was so low that at the rate of them using their money for necessities, they were earning barely enough to afford them.
Litvin illustrated one of the numerous examples of Soviet nationalism when he discussed how the military collected food from the collective farms. Litvin Claims, “Times were very difficult for the people in these regions because land had been devastated by war… the army did not have to seize food from the peasants—Soviet authority engaged in this.” The above passage paints the Soviets’ handling of peasants in a positive light and does nothing to ponder the impact that collectivization had on agriculture in the country. Certainly, the harsh occupation by the Germans did not help the agriculture production, but the relentless collectivization of farming ruined the efficiency of agriculture in the Soviet Union. However, Litvin in no way paints Stalin in a negative light, but rather boasts about how Soviet authorities procured agriculture goods from peasants.
It was easy to live and make a living because people had freedom. Second, In the Soviet Union, They believed that people should work together. [Doc 1: A List]. This is how they believed more could be achieved.
As a consequence, the Cold War started. Communist governments tried to shift towards capitalist ideals because it did not work that well (85-86). The Soviet Union disbanded. Today, essentials are “...basic medical care, clean water, and adequate food” (89). Unfortunately,
The Security dilemma is the notion that states need to secure their borders by increasing military strength or strengthening alliances. This action often leads to other states responding with similar measures, with an end result of increasing the tensions and threats to each other states, even though that is not the goal. For example if we strengthened our military along the Canadian boarder, even though we told them that we would not attack, as a result Canada would strengthen their army regardless. This cycle would keep repeating it self, unless someone eventually attacked. The most well known case of the security dilemma was between the USSR and the United States in the Arm’s race during the Cold War.
In conclusion, the battle of destalinization was hard to fight and several times lost. Khrushchev and Andropov were crusaders of destalinization. Particularly in the moves to shift party power away from one single person and decrease the police influence to allow the people of Russia to be free and have an opinion for the first time since the beginning of Stalin’s regime. Similarly piecing together, a frail and battered economy while having elite party members watch from the top and peasants beg for a second chance at life could not have been more demanding. The country was continually impacted by new economic policies, who by Lenin coined the phrase.
Yet, Stalin did not have the patience to do this. He decided to order the government to create a reestablish Soviet revolution of control. Peasants’ customs, culture and a revival of market-style are local economics that returned as Soviet institutions collapsed in war. The citizens contain the greatest potential for unrest situation, they hoped that Stalin would allow the government reforms and that life might get a little easier. But, he did not.
he first chapter of The Cold War: A New History begins by comparing the United States to the U.S.S.R. and talking about the similarities between the two. It also talks about Communism and how Marx deemed it necessary in order to build up the economy. Lenin tried to implement Communism in Russia. They were not quite ready for that kind of system, so Stalin tried to modernize the economy. The U.S.S.R. had more casualties in World War II, but things were not necessarily looking great in America either.
Stalin commences his new “revolution from above,”otherwise known as the Soviet Union’s first Five-Year Plan, in order to create rapid industrialization, especially in heavy industry. This Five-Year Plan as well as Stalin’s full collectivization would give the communist party more control over the people as well as the Soviet’s economy. In 1932, at the end for the first Five-Year Plan it is estimated that the steel and iron industries output increased by 50% and that electricity, petroleum, machinery, chemicals, equipment and fertilizer industries increase was over 50%. New factories were built and new cities emerged, however, the farming was a bust and by 1932 over 1 million people in Kazakhstan alone had died of famine caused by Stalin’s forced collectivization. The 1932 famine had in part transpired due to the peoples fight against collectivization and the governments attempts with brutality to force it leading to deaths of the workers and not enough people to work the farms.
Fordham University entailed, "if there were a proletarian dictatorship not only in our country but in other, more advanced countries as well, Germany and France, say. If that were the case, the capitalist encirclement could not be so serious a danger as it is now, " With these three quotes excerpted thus far, it is clear to see that Stalin played the victim card, making the Soviet Union seemed completely doomed. To fix this awful problem, the answer lied in the rapid industrialization he desperately wanted and eventually achieved (Fordham University). Stalin also explained on the Soviet Unions issues internally. Fordham University stated, "But besides the external conditions, there are also internal conditions which dictate a fast rate of development of our industry as the main foundation of our entire national economy.
In contrast Russia where the monarchy and the upper classes controlled the political system were against industrialization. Instead, they continued to rely on the existing system of production and lagged behind. “The main reason for the abysmal economic backwardness of Russia was the preservation of serfdom until the emancipation of 1861. In a certain sense, this very fact may be attributed to the play of a curious mechanism of economic backwardness, and a few words of explanation may be in order.”
Industrialisation was key to Stalin’s goal of modernising the Soviet economy to continue the aims of the revolution in 1917. In the first Five Year Plan, Stalin aimed for a 20% growth overall, supported by the belief that Russia must catch up to the Western nations in terms of industrialisation – “either we do this, or they will crush us”. Clearly, the sentiment of ideology is strong here – Stalin seems to fully embrace the theory of Socialism in One Country by advocating for national communism. However, this proved to be controversial, as Lenin, whom Stalin attributes Socialism to One Country to, wanted to build a “Revolution from below”, with change driven by the masses, rather than “Revolution from above”, as demonstrated by Stalin’s fervent economic
Furthermore, the achievement of the First Five-year Plan during its first year further displayed that Soviet Russia had the initial means the allow the Plan to be a success. That said, it was Stalin’s overambitious resetting of the goals that ultimately led to the Plan’s failure to meet its desired means. The overall goals that Stalin had set for the First Five-Year Plan had proven themselves to be unobtainable, as the outcomes of the industry did not meet his endeavors in the long run. Thus, it was Stalin’s own ego while setting goals that caused the actually successful increases to be undermined as failures in comparison to Stalin’s unrealistic
Thus, overall, the monopoly position of the CPSU in Soviet society should be regarded as an objective prerequisite for the collapse of the USSR, which also contributes to the emergence of subjective
