Although the Soviet Union existed for less than a century, it was the only existence that could balance the United States after the end of World War II, and it left the world with many memories, both great achievements and people's suffering, and it was easy to mix people's feelings. There are some detractors, and there are still many praisers, but behind these arguments, the boatman has always had a question: how did the Soviet Union rise?
In history textbooks, people often summarize the rise of the Soviet Union into a few "five-year plans", but if it is really easy to use, then we who have learned from it will not develop rapidly until the last two or three decades, and there may be some parts of it that we have ignored.
To this end, the boatman deliberately found the "Outline of soviet History: 1917-1937" published by the People's Publishing House and written by Chen Zhihua, executive director of the World Socialist Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
I believe that the data and views of such a book should be more credible, and the boatman will share with you the clues about the reasons for the rise of the Soviet Union found in this book.
Incredible food production and prices
There was a very eye-catching statement on the Internet before:
It is said that throughout the twentieth century, the peak of grain production in the Soviet Union was in 1913, before its founding.
It is estimated that people who see it for the first time will be shocked, it is reasonable to say that the Soviet Union in the mid-to-late twentieth century, whether it is military or technology, are on par with the powerful United States, why is agriculture constantly driving backwards?
In fact, although 1913 was the largest harvest year ever recorded in Tsarist Russia, and it did not exceed this figure for decades after that, after the end of World War II, food production increased rapidly.
From this set of data, we can see that in the nearly four decades after the founding of the Soviet Union, grain production has not exceeded the level of the Tsarist Russia. Even after the end of World War II, food production rose from 86 million tons in 1913 to 119.5 million tons in 1959, but let us not ignore another objective number, that is, population.
The population of Tsarist Russia was about 165.7 million (1914), and the census data of the Soviet Union in 1959 was about 208 million (see Note 1), these two sets of data, we can roughly calculate the per capita grain production in the corresponding years, respectively, about 519 kg in 1913 and about 574 kg in 1959.
Why?
The reason is mainly from two aspects, one is the impact of the war, from the very beginning of the First World War, to the February Revolution, and then to the October Revolution, the Land of the Soviet Union has never been quiet. After the white bandits were defeated, more peasants revolted, and there was no way, the people's grain was collected, and the land was wasted and the grain was reduced, which was like a vicious circle that kept repeating.
The second is the wartime grain collection policy implemented by the Soviet Union, which almost took away the grain of the common people, although it was later abolished, but replaced by a contract system, that is, the state set a good price, the people must sell all grain to the state at this price, of course, if the price is reasonable, it is a protection for the peasants, but according to the description in the book "Outline of Soviet History: 1917-1937":
Grain and livestock products are only 10-15 per cent of the cost of production at the pre-purchase contract price or the compulsory price, and agricultural products are uniformly purchased by the State
For example, a peasant produces 1,000 kilograms of grain a year and sells it to the state at a price of 1,000 rubles per kilogram stipulated by the Soviet Union, and then uses this 1,000 rubles to buy back 50 kilograms of grain at a price of 20 rubles per kilogram, and the state takes more than 90 percent of the grain from the peasants at zero cost.
Of course, the specific figures and proportions in this analogy are not necessarily accurate, but we can look at the official statistics, according to the statistics of the State Planning Commission of the USSR, between 1929 and 1931, the peasants paid 4 billion rubles more to the state due to the increase in retail prices, and if you deduct the 14-15 billion rubles obtained here due to the increase in the price of planned purchases and the increase in the price of agricultural products sold by farmers to non-centralized procurement units, the peasants actually paid 25-26 billion rubles.
After reading this historical record, the boatman immediately understood why there were peasant uprisings and severe famines in many parts of the Soviet Union at that time.
The economic crisis "saved" the Soviet Union
The reason why the Soviet Union took such a cruel measure to squeeze the peasants was actually for the sake of industrial transformation, using "zero" cost to take grain from the peasants, selling it internationally at a very competitive price, and then using the foreign exchange exchange to buy machinery and equipment.
The mere exploitation of agriculture was not enough to allow the Soviet Union to rise rapidly, because in the decade from 1917 to 1927, the Soviet Union was almost recuperating, and the industry and economy were only just returning to the level of the Tsarist Russia, or even slightly insufficient. Then, the twentieth century goddess of luck took refuge in the Soviet Union, the capitalist countries ushered in an unprecedented economic crisis, and people under the Great Depression were almost desperate for the capitalist economic system.
At this time, the new socialist country of the Soviet Union seemed to be a rising sun, attracting the attention of countless people, including many scientists and engineers, as well as capital eagerly looking for investment opportunities. As many people can imagine, in the 1930s, the original Americans who wanted to immigrate to the Soviet Union were no less enthusiastic than the Chinese who wanted to immigrate to the United States in the past two decades.
According to the Associated Press at the time, between 1930 and 1932, a large number of Americans gathered in front of the Soviet Embassy in the United States every day to demand emigration to the Soviet Union.
For these Americans who have both technology and knowledge, the Soviet Union, which is eager to develop, opened an unprecedented warm embrace, and at the same time smiled at the money from capitalist countries, and many world-renowned enterprises began to invest in the Soviet Union to build factories and carry out businesses.
Therefore, this economic crisis at the beginning of the twentieth century destroyed countless happy families in capitalist countries, but unexpectedly achieved the economic rise of the Soviet Union.
World War II nearly destroyed the Soviet Union and reshaped it
A very important factor in the Soviet Union's ability to gain a firm foothold after the October Revolution was that the leaders of the Soviet Union at that time signed many treaties with the Western powers that were "humiliated" and even suspected of treason. In addition, in order to ease relations with China, the slogan of unilaterally shouting the return of the Tsarist Russia's invasion of China's Outer Xing'an Ridge, of course, for China, which is already in internal turmoil, the Soviet Union is only lip service.
Compared with the empty cheque given to China, the treaty signed with the Western powers cannot be destroyed, even if the willful unilateral destruction of the treaty is not recognized, but the unit price paid will be very large, that is, the isolation of the entire Western countries, the most direct embodiment is economic sanctions. Just like the Iranian revolution in the 1970s, when they unilaterally nationalized foreign capital without compensation, they ushered in economic sanctions that continue to this day, of course, there are many other reasons, such as nuclear weapons and so on.
This time, the Soviet Union, once again favored by Lady Luck, in addition to the economic crisis mentioned earlier, made the United States have to turn a blind eye to the Soviet Union. The ensuing Second World War forced all capitalist countries to abandon prejudice and become "good comrades- in arms" with the Soviet Union. For this reason, instead of sanctioning the Soviet Union for its unilateral breach of the treaty, the capitalist countries gave the Soviet Union unprecedented assistance.
That's why many people are confused about why the Soviet Union, which suffered the worst destruction of its population and economy in World War II, became a world-class power after World War II, polarized against the United States. At that time, the Soviet Union was already in a bottleneck period of economic development, which should have been collectively suppressed by European and American countries, but unexpectedly ushered in collective support, and the economic and industrial level did not retreat in World War II, breaking through the shackles and moving towards the peak.
As the old Chinese saying goes, whether it is an economic crisis or a war, these historical events, which were originally full of pessimism, sometimes will be an opportunity for some people or a certain country.
Looking back on this history again, it may give some warnings and inspirations to today's people, I am a boatman, and this issue of sharing ends here.
2020.5.8(Morning)
Note 1: In 1989, the population of the USSR was 286,717,000. This is an increase of 78 million from 1959 and 24.3 million from 10 years ago. --"Soviet And Eastern Europe Today", No. 06, 1989
Resources:
Outline of Soviet History: 1917-1937, Chen Zhihua
Foreign Investment in the Transitional Period of the SOVIET Union (SOVIET) Morozov