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industrialization is part and parcel of a modernization process in
any country. however, in soviet russia the launching of 搒ocialist
industrialization?was highly politicized: it was presented by
official propaganda as an essential and indispensable step in
building the material foundations of socialism. the next important
distinction was that stalin抯 industrialization was not based on
private enterprise, but was totally state-driven and was ostensibly
based on centralized directive planning. |
finally, the doctrine of
搒ocialist industrialization?put great emphasis on a massive
expansion of heavy industry, particularly the means of production,
as a necessary first step on the way to the technological
restructuring of the entire economy. only after a massive surge in
heavy industrial capacity had been achieved would it be possible to
embark on a more balanced economic strategy, including the
development of consumer-oriented light industry. as a result of a
whole number of factors, the soviet industrialization would be
confined, for the most part, to the one-sided priority development
of heavy industry.
another peculiarity of stalin抯 industrialization was that the
country抯 international isolation meant that the ussr could not rely
on foreign credits and external assistance to finance its ambitious
industrial expansion. the financial resources for the construction
of new industrial plants had to be found within the country and were
to come from a number of domestic sources. first, the revenues from
light industry and, in particular, from agriculture were to be used
to finance the expansion of the industrial branches of the economy.
second, hard currency earnings from the state monopoly on foreign
trade, including the export of grain, timber, gold, furs, and other
goods, were to be used to buy state-of-the-art equipment for the
newly constructed industrial enterprises. third, the surviving
nepmen were to be subjected to heavy taxes. the crippling taxation
of private enterprise together with the mounting administrative
pressure would stifle private initiative in both industry and
commerce by 1933.
additional savings were to be gained by reducing the output of
consumer goods and by restricting food consumption of both the urban
and rural populations. this was to be achieved by raising retail
prices, using goods rationing, and similar measures. capital was
forcibly squeezed out of the reluctant population, mainly the
peasantry, through an arbitrary price system. by the exercise of
ruthless dictatorial power, stalin succeeded in diverting a huge
percentage of the national income to industrial investment and
defense purposes. as a result, living standards of blue- and
white-collar workers plummeted two- or threefold. consumer goods
production all but ceased, and every available resource was pressed
into the program of rapid industrial expansion in capital-intensive
heavy industry, such as steel, coal, and machinery.
