Why did the Soviet Union achieve industrialization in just twenty years?

When it comes to the Soviet Union, everyone must be familiar with it. The Soviet Union was the world's only two superpowers in the last century. After World War II, the powerful Soviet Union was a ruthless player who dared to compete with the US emperor. It had been competing for hegemony with the United States for decades and was the United States' biggest competitor and number one enemy. The biggest reason why the Soviet Union dared to challenge the United States was its powerful industry and its military power based on industry. However, in the Tsarist era before the founding of the Soviet Union, Russia was not that strong. At that time, Russia was a backward agricultural country, not even a semi-industrial country. Agriculture still dominated the Russian national economy. Although Russia seemed strong, In fact, it is externally strong but internally incompetent, far behind industrial powers such as Germany and France. However, after the establishment of the Soviet Union in 1917, it took only twenty years for the Soviet Union to complete industrialization and leapfrog from a backward agricultural country to the largest industrial power in Europe. As we all know, the general process of industrialization is very long. Western countries such as Britain and France took hundreds of years, but the Soviet Union completed industrialization in only twenty years. So why was the Soviet Union able to achieve a counterattack of industrialization in just twenty years?

First, the Soviet Union inherited the mantle of Russia. Russia is the country with the largest land area in the world. Russia’s territory accounts for 1/6 of the world’s total land area, with a population of hundreds of millions, human resources and natural resources. All very rich. In addition, Tsarist Russia has a very good industrial foundation. Although the industry is not considered developed, the categories are relatively complete, and a considerable number of industrial products can be produced. The industrialization of the Soviet Union was based on the old foundation of Tsarist Russia. Without the solid foundation of Tsarist Russia, the Soviet Union would not have been able to complete industrialization in just twenty years.

Second, the centralized system and planned economy adopted by the Soviet Union fully stimulated the Soviet Union’s national potential, effectively organized the Soviet Union’s rich human and natural resources, and mobilized the enthusiasm of the people for labor. Therefore, the Soviet Union used In just twenty years, it has completed the path of industrialization that the West took hundreds of years to achieve. This is a major advantage of the socialist system, which allows it to concentrate its efforts on major things.

Third, the Soviet Union’s industrialization caught up with the good times. After World War I, because Germany and Russia were both excluded and restricted by the West, it was natural for the two countries to come together. In order to break through the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany moved many military industries and weapons research and development experiments to the Soviet Union, allowing the Soviet Union's heavy industry and military technology to develop by leaps and bounds. In addition, the world economic crisis that broke out in 1929 helped the Soviet Union greatly. As the unprecedentedly severe Great Depression hit the Western economy hard, a large number of European and American personnel, technology and capital were forced to go to the Soviet Union to find a way out. At least hundreds of thousands of European and American technical personnel immigrated to the Soviet Union because of unemployment. Many European and American companies in crisis have It survived by relying on huge orders from the Soviet Union. It can be said that most of the heavy industry in the Soviet Union was unsalable goods transferred from Western excess production capacity.

Fourth, the Soviet Union adopted a one-sided heavy industry line and frantically developed heavy industry at the expense of agriculture and light industry. This resulted in the rapid development of heavy industry and military industry. Therefore, it took the Soviet Union only twenty years to achieve industrialized. However, the Soviet Union's one-sided industrialization route also posed hidden dangers for the Soviet Union. Due to the excessive development of heavy industry, people's living standards were low and they were even unable to eat for a long time. It can be said that the disintegration of the Soviet Union was, to a certain extent, related to the Soviet Union's neglect of agriculture, light industrial production and the quality of national life.