THE INDUSTRIALIZATION OF SOVIET RUSSIA IN THE FIRST HALF CENTURY

The purpose of the paper is to survey the industrial-development process in Russia for the first half century of Soviet rule. Soviet industrialization was in part a continuation of trends and fulfillment of aims predating the revolution the material preconditions for economic development and the necessary motivation were both present in 1913. This continuity between Tsarist and Soviet objectives explains the reference to Soviet Russia in the title. The aim of this paper is to provide a brief survey of economic performance over the period and to give some understanding of the basic planning mechanism rather than to analyze or, indeed, to appraise the record against normative standards. In this the focus is on those periods in which Joseph Stalin was the dominant figure and influence on the course of Soviet economic development. These were the periods in which a unique Soviet pattern was developed, distinctive from Tsarist or Western counterparts.