I see this claim made a lot: that the Soviet Union achieved economic growth that has never been seen before or after, so threw it at some angry Redditor. They brought up Japan/ South Korea from 1950-1990 and looking into it, it seems as though they are comparable, at least when using GDP South Korea actually does a lot better than the Soviet Union. Now this leaves out rapid Industrialization which I assume is what is meant with “unparraleled economic growth” and also GDP may not be the best indicator but it’s still impressive. Of course Japan and SK were also subsidized by the US. Am I missing something? and does anyone have good sources on the growth of the Soviet Economy from 1921-1990?

  • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
    0·
    7 months ago

    November 29, 1941: “How can such a primitive people manage such technical achievements in such a short time?”

    August 26, 1942: “With regard to Russia, it is incontestable that Stalin has raised living standards. The Russian people were not being starved [at the time of the start of Operation Barbarossa]. Overall, we must recognize that: work- shops of the scale of the Hermann Goering Werke have been built where two years ago there were only unknown villages. We are discovering railway lines that are not on the maps.”

    Both quotes from Hitler. As others mentioned, pre-WW2 the USSR grew at an unprecedented rate. This is the period that Stalin is heavily criticized for “heavy hand”, industrialization was forced because it was either that or death, the USSR was at an state of emergency and the people needed to rise up to the challenge and catch up with the already industrialized nations. Needless to say that the following USSR leaders rested on the laurels of the work done by the people under Stalin era.

    Also another point is that this growth was without exploiting other nations, something that the west cannot do.