How did Russia rise from being a poor country to a world power?

Comments ( 6 )

1. Andrew G says

   Hey, an interesting question.

   I have looked through the previous answers and what strikes me is that ppl talk about russia and ussr as if it was the same. I mean it was the same, lol.
   But, obviously, there are different reasons, which triggered the two to becom rich (if ussr was rich anyhow).

   I would say a few things about russia, starting from 1991. 1990s were about mafia, that's for sure, but they stopped to be about mafia when putin came to power, that's for sure as well.
   The reason mafia came to existance was that the old system stopped to exist, while the new one was not in place yet. So, there was vacuum and mafia filled it.
   It filled it and it became rich — starting with racket and finishing up with getting hands on plants. Generally, what's happened was that the authorities decided to privatise the economy and ppl, who had a change, started to own this or that plant. Generally, mafia at the bottom and OLIGARCHS at the top.
   These guys, oligarchs, started to be the rich guys, the moguls or tycoons, some of them backed putin, when he became president in 2000.

   Now, was Russian rich in the 90s?
   Not at all. It was a terrible time and there were the beginnings of a great famine at the start of the decade, but due to price liberation and privatization, there was a trigger to the market economy and that helped russia a bit.
   It was generally the time of lawlessness, and I can't recall a coutry, which was rich in the state of lawlesness.
   A rich country in my opinion is the one with the rich middle class.

   Now, when putin came to power in 2000, there had been a steady revenue coming from oil before and his actions helped russian GOVERNMENT to control this and other spheres better. So, more oil money went to the govt.

   There is such a thing as a contract betw society and the state. The contract during the 90s, well, maybe there wasn't one at all.

   But the contract in 2000-s was the following: you get us stability (after 10 years of lawlessnes, that's not little at all) and we give away some of our liberties.

   So it was, we have seen a crackdown on media, business and other liberties.

   But, you see, the govt has become much richer since 2000. The question is whether the middle class has become richer. To be honest, it is hard to say.

   If you have in mind some sort of scale of earnings of the middle class representatives (the class, which is deemed unexistant in russia altogether), then you have two approaches – either you gauge them against the previous period or use the zero-based one.

   If you use the zero-based one, then, indeed, the earnings of the middle class has been growing, but not that greatly.

   If you compare the earnings with 1990-s or, God forbid, with the previous decades, then we are all moguls over here. I mean I have got a car, just any, some 30 years ago, it would have been equal to having a bentley.

   Wait, if some ppl think that there is no middle class in russia, how can such a country be called a rich one???

   Maybe, russia is not rich at all.

   And, please, don't pay attention to some oligarchs buying some football teams. I guess there are some rich folks in Somalia as well.

   Concentrate on the middle class – that's your parametere of richness. Like, if you speak about the us, then,…, I guess u know what I mean. But China will all that stuff about a new us, do they folks have a lot of rich middle class representatives???

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2. Tie Eater says

   Thanks Stalin.

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3. The Borg says

   Russia was poor under the Soviet Union as they abhor the idea of free economy. It becomes another economic china.

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4. julvrug says

   One thing you have to remember, Russia was not ever a people rich nation, the government became rich through over taxation of the people. Then they used those fund to create a super military power to protect their system from even their own people. The people of Russia never had power or money, but rather like China, the government was very rich off the backs of the people. You know something like our government is attempting to do, rather than live within their means, they merely want to keep increasing the taxes the people pay. Until over 50% of everything the people earn is given to the government in the form of taxation. The government of Russia became super power by telling its people they could buy one type and style of a product, and manufactured it at a poor quality so that the people had to keep replacing it. A majority of house fires were caused by substandard tvs produced by the Russian government and because there was no competition, it was the only ones the people could buy. Soon our health care could end up in the same situation. totalitarian policies are good for no one.

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5. Big Al says

   Russia is broke, the russian mafia is doing just fine.

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6. Rector says

   Russia was never poor….the thing is the way cominist party works is that everyone should be equal what you own is for everyone…russia is very rich in natural resources and they take pride in everything they do…i visited russia in 1983, i was 15 years old, i was amazed that teen agers that achieve the highest marks in school get compensated in summer brake by given the honor of guarding monuments of the unknown soldiers…that what made them so powerfull, believing in what they do for their country….by the way it's easy when you know how to brain wash your people if you were incharge…in movies the use to watch STALIN was made bigger in size than anyone arround glowing with more light comming out from his picture..these are the ways governments stuff ways of life in people so they would produce more.

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