My comment was in reply to another one saying something along the lines of “Russia poor because communism”. So it was more about how communism can lead to development.
Either way though I would say its development was largely because of communism. The czarist regime faced similar pressures and didn’t develop like Russia did in the 30s
An even better comparison would be Poland which faced an even greater existential threat from its neighbors and didn’t industrialize as quickly. For example Poland built about 150 of there tp7 tanks in the interwar period while the Soviet union had around 25,000 tanks built before the war. Even accounting for the Soviet unions 5-6x population that’s still a lot more production capacity per capita.
The Soviet industrialization during the interwar period was unprecedented and relied on a command economy to force the peasants off the land and into the cities, at the cost of a famine that killed millions.
Of course, those 25000 tanks were probably built by Gulag slaves and children, and had shit welds and no QC. Also y’know being willing to kill millions with a famine. Had Poland just done that they’d have bigger numbers too I’d bet.
My comment was in reply to another one saying something along the lines of “Russia poor because communism”. So it was more about how communism can lead to development.
Either way though I would say its development was largely because of communism. The czarist regime faced similar pressures and didn’t develop like Russia did in the 30s
An even better comparison would be Poland which faced an even greater existential threat from its neighbors and didn’t industrialize as quickly. For example Poland built about 150 of there tp7 tanks in the interwar period while the Soviet union had around 25,000 tanks built before the war. Even accounting for the Soviet unions 5-6x population that’s still a lot more production capacity per capita.
The Soviet industrialization during the interwar period was unprecedented and relied on a command economy to force the peasants off the land and into the cities, at the cost of a famine that killed millions.
Of course, those 25000 tanks were probably built by Gulag slaves and children, and had shit welds and no QC. Also y’know being willing to kill millions with a famine. Had Poland just done that they’d have bigger numbers too I’d bet.
Anything’s possible when you make shit up