Why did the USSR industrial ouptut in the 1930s quadruple?

Comments ( 9 )

1. hironymus says

   When you have millions of convicted “Criminals” that you don’t have to pay at all and barely feed you can produce a lot of stuff. Also Stalin was building tanks and guns for the planned invasion of Europe. Crazy Adolf beat him to it by invading Russia first. And just as an aside, that’s how the recession in the US ended when we began rearming just before getting into WW 2.

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2. flhill1 says

   Grain shortages in the late 1920’s were created by confiscation of grain from private growers. Shortages were severe enough by 1928 to cause the government to resort to forced collectivization, which began in the winter of 1929-30. At the same time, the Soviets ramped up industrial production in order to meet the needs of transportation and mechanized farming. Entire industrial complexes were built in the four-year period of 1928-32, focused on heavy machinery, tractors and other vehicles.

   Labor became forced across the board: on collectives and in factories. Laborers were punished heavily for minor infractions: in 1932 the penalty for missing a day of work was being fired. Loss of the job meant loss of ration card and apartment, which left the offender homeless and starving. This condition was righted in 1938 by sentence of imprisonment, where the offender was given a home and food (such as it was) and placed in a forced labor camp.

   In other words, pretty much the agenda of the modern ALEC Group with regard to US labor.

   With forced labor in hand, a central planning bureau can do pretty much what it wants with industry and agriculture – which led to huge production growth of coal, steel, industrial infrastructure and farm implements in a very short span.

   Collectivization was virtually complete by the mid 1930’s.

   Forced collectivization was especially harsh in the Ukraine, which had edged toward revolt against Soviet rule in the late 1920’s. Stalin’s answer was to disposses and resettle the entire class of village farmers. Some remained and were ordered to work on the collective. But by 1933 Stalin was forcing the Ukraine collectives to give up virtually all of their produced foodstuffs. The central planners sold the entire grain crop overseas and used the income to fund their industrial revolution. Thus began the “holodomor”, the years of deliberate starvation of the entire Ukraine.

   The price of Soviet industrialization, then, was anywhere from 7 to 10 million dead of starvation.

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3. John Berndt says

   A lot of that is quoting Stalinist statistics. Stalin would have murdered his own grandmother if it gave him an advantage so why wouldn’t he lie?

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4. smsmith500 says

   The Soviet Union was one of the only Countries that would produce bumper crops and then fail to provide a way to get the food to market. So much for “central planning”.

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5. Return of Bite My Shiny Metal... says

   Central planning along with plenty of slave labor. I’m sure that appeals to Liberals.

   And since their industrial output was next to zero, tripling it wasn’t all that significant of an accomplishment. Particularly since the United States was a major supplier of arms to them when WW II started.

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6. Tpnoid says

   hahahah no its because of resources in the 1930s they inherited a large chunk of eastern europe and had infinite resources and a massive land mass add to that the amount of people suffering in that country ud see why they could do what they did stalin gave a crap less about the starving people he was busy building tanks and bombs while we were building infrastructure

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7. Smells like New Screen Names says

   Because Stalin was willing to kill millions in a drive to increase industrial out put.

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8. Boober says

   Stop trying to change the US, and go to China. I’m sure they’ll welcome you.

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9. Shovel Ready says

   Germany under Hitler recovered much better.

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