• RuthlessCriticism [comrade/them]
    ·
    1 year ago

    managed a country into the ground

    From 1928 to 1939 (the period of full planning pre-war) industrial output increased 350%.

      • Abraxiel
        ·
        1 year ago

        Because the rapid industrialization and according massive reorganization of the economy and productive capacity of the country was messy and imperfect. And also because famines are only really uncommon in already industrialized economies.

        • JuneFall [none/use name]
          ·
          1 year ago

          In addition civil war, kulaks burning food, imperfect management science (Taylorism which had problems with adjusting controlling to the reality on the ground), natural disasters and bad climate for crops. For example even when harvest was going on in plenty of areas the weather was too damp to gather crops at the ideal point in time which greatly diminishes your harvest. The same process could be seen this year in Europe.

          The UK did embargo the Soviet Union till Lenin's NEP and similar things did happen regularly, this means that international finance and industrial capital would've often sought other countries in which they didn't have to fear such things, too. This means that the Soviet Union had to try to generate capital from other sources and those are the the surplus of the working class or the savings of people (vs. consumption).