Introduction
Russia is a super power that lies on the eastern part of Europe. The country is known for its diverse population, economy, climatic patterns and culture. Currently, Russia is a European nation with a very diverse economic setting. However, the major economic sectors found in the country include sale of primary commodities such as oil, gold and timber. It also engages itself in the sale of id raw materials. The country has is also endowed with vast natural resources. For instance, its population is quite developed and well educated and this forms a great industrial base. This plays a crucial role in defining the aristocratic ties found in the country. This paper will answer a couple of questions. Fist, the paper will conduct a comparative analysis of the general features of the economy in the periods of Stalin’s Industrialization, Khrushchev’s agricultural reforms, Brezhnev’s Stagnation, Gorbachev’s crisis, Yeltsin’s market, Putin’s economic growth and Medvedev’s recession. The paper will also comparatively describe the features of biodiversity in the three biomes of the North Eastern Eurasia; namely Tundra, Taiga and Steppe. Lastly the paper will address the issue of why the Soviet Union fell apart
Question One
General Features of the Economy of Russia in the Periods of;
Stalin’s Industrialization
The period between the late twenties and the early thirties of the twentieth century can be considered as the most transformation period in the history of Russia (Combes et al. 34). It was during this particular period of time when Stalin sought to consolidate his power and he was allowed to rule with extreme impunity. Similarly, during this period Stalin instituted his revolution which he argued that it came from ’above’ on the people of Russia. By this time, he actively sought to transform the culture of this particular time, leading to the birth of the new philosophy in Russian, popularly known to as the Russian nationalism. He rejected the earlier conviction of Bolshevik that generally argued that the family was a kind of a bourgeois institution. Apart of these cultural changes, Stalin saw the implementation of vast changes on the economies of the people of Russia. He instituted economic policies that were broth to the everyday lives of the people of Russia.
It was within this particular period of time when he destroyed the autonomy which existed then and which the Russian peasant has enjoyed since the revolution. As a result, Stalin led an industrialization drive that was intended at industrializing the Soviet Union (Kort 30). It was during this period of industrialization under the leadership of Stalin that the Soviet Union was transformed to totalitarian country.
The main component of the Stalin’s revolution was industrialization. The leaders of the Bolshevik revolution clearly understood the huge problems which were to be faced in starting a communist revolution in Soviet Union. They clearly understood that the country was not a capitalist and a sufficient capitalist one for that matter and hence industrialization would not arise from socialism. Transforming the Old Russia to a truly communist state would therefore require an industrialization rate on a massive scale. The country needed to industrialize so as to acquire self-defense. Stalin saw that the only way through which Russia could actively and successfully fight for its survival from the other capitalists such as the United States was through massive industrialization (Tolz 76). He presented the ideas and the need for industrialization as a matter of death or life struggle. Further, Stalin saw the situation of increased centralization as a way of making sure that the industrialization drive was successful. He argued that that was the time of putting an end to the policy of non-interference in the production process. In fact, he called this policy a rotten one. He further argued that it was time of adopting a completely new policy, a policy which would be geared towards interfering in everything.
The economy of Russia was significantly transformed by the development of a drive fear plan which was launched in 1929 (Rogers 98). In this plan, Stalin instituted quite high figures of production for factories. However, most of these goals were not reached by the country’s factories until the 1960s and this can truly prove the kind of high expectations that Stalin placed on the industrialization process in Russia. However, the planning was significantly reduced so as to institute figures which were ability more realistic and which had just little more than propaganda significance. The propaganda was however very successful in that it achieve to accomplish its goals of increased production among the factories in Russia. Within the first five year plan, which was realized in the year 1934, the industrial output in the country was increased by almost fifty percent. The country’s economy grew at an average rate of eighteen percent annually. Similarly, as a result of the plan, the total population of workers working in the industries also doubled. Stalin placed a lot of emphasis to enhance the zeal of the industrial workers in approaching their work. In fact, the workers were mobilized, just the same way people are usually mobilized during the times of war.
As a result of Stalin’s policies, the society was fundamentally changed. The industrial work force grew by large numbers and a lot of the Russian peasants moved to the cities from the countryside. They did so as to escape collectivization introduced by Stalin. Similar, the women population also joined the workforce in large numbers. During the start of the five year industrialization plan introduced by Stalin, a very small population of the industrial population was compromised of female workers. However, by the end of the plan, the population of women workers had increased up to almost forty percent of the total population working the industries (Rogers 75).
However, the period of industrialization initiated by Stalin was also faced by a problem. The population was not able to learn the skills required so as to operate effectively and efficiently the factories which were newly built all at once. Most of the industrial workers were peasants who had moved from the country side as result, most of them lacked necessary education. The industries were to some extend run inefficiently. The inabilities of the workers to operate the machines efficiently and effectively led to massive ruining of the equipment which was followed by men being crushed and others being poisoned. Substantial amount of money was also spent in dealing with these particular cases. The economy of Russia was affectively greatly by the ineffectively and the waste that surrounded the struggle to have heavy industrial machines (Yomtov 72). The heavy achiness acquired left over very few resources for the consumer goods and the light industry. The shelves found in the stores were generally empty.
Khrushchev’s Agricultural Reforms
The agricultural policies which were implemented during the effective leadership of Khrushchev were influenced highly by his position. Khrushchev came to a conclusion that he really needed to solve the agricultural problems which faced Russian quickly. He therefore embarked on a through process aimed at increasing the food production in Russia. By the year 1953, the agricultural production of Russia was very low (Yomtov 64). Similarly, the population of livestock in the country was very low as well. Khrushchev somehow blamed this situation on the kind of methods that were installed by Stalin as a way of controlling agriculture.
There are some key reasons why Khrushchev sought to improve agriculture. For instance, he sought to address the failures witnessed I the centrally planned economy in Russia. Khrushchev was of the idea that an economy that was centrally controlled has deprived Russia of its independence and its local initiative. He therefore wanted to reduce this kind of control and which in turn would allow the local leaders in Russia to decide on the agricultural policy they really wanted. Similarly, Khrushchev sought to increate thee level of food production in the country. There was reduced population of both grain stocks as well as livestock. Collectivism policies seemed not to work as farmers were required to pay huge taxes while in turn receiving very low wages for the farm produce. Additionally, Khrushchev was an expert in the agricultural sector (Yomtov 87). He came from an agricultural background and as such, he really thought that he completely understood what he was doing while implementing these agricultural reforms and policies.
Under Khrushchev’s agricultural reforms, he encouraged the peasants in Russia to produce more of the agricultural products. So as to provide an incentive for this, Khrushchev paid the peasants more for their farm produce. Similarly, the taxes which were imposed on these peasants were reduced significantly. The amounts of the grains which were requisitioned were also reduced significantly. The peasants were therefore left with something g to sell so as to make their own extra money (Kort 57). All these strategies were implemented as a way of increasing the chances of the Russian peasants making money.
The agricultural reforms implemented by Khrushchev also sought to increase efficiency. In doing so, the tractor stations in Russia were disbanded and in turn these tractors were sold to the farms owned by the state. Peasants also worked very hard so as to buy tractors for themselves (Kort 92). With tractors, the peasants were now able to produce more in their farms which also meant that they were able to sell more of their grains. The overall effect of this was bigger profits on the side of the peasants.
The policy of virgin land scheme was also instrumental in boosting the economy of Russia. For instance, during the period of the first three years, a total of thirty six million hectares of land, which were initially not used were brought under cultivation. Some young communist in Russia were sent to the countryside so as to make these lands fertile. Although these reforms achieved a lot, there were some failures. For instance, Khrushchev did not pay attention to any form of advice regarding the reforms (Tolz 59). At the same time, the climate in Russia was not very suitable for the virgin land utilization
Brezhnev's Stagnation
In the 1970s, the Soviet Union witnessed a slower than the normal economic growth rate. Brezhnev's terminated most of the reforms that were initiated by Khrushchev. This resulted to shortages of many goods in Russia. Due to Brezhnev's stagnation, Russia faced a great problem in its bid to balance between demand and supply in the economy. Many goods were not available in the stores for a very long period of time. In the earlier yeas, especially the period from 1953-1970, the economy of Russia had started to get on tract. In fact, most of the Russians had started to enjoy increased standards of living. However, starting from the 1970s, the standards of living of the people of Russia declined significantly (Tolz 49). This period later proved to be a major factor that contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The major reason which can be attributed to the economic stagnation is the Brezhnev's conservative kind of leaders. Brezhnev was against the policies and reforms instituted by Khrushchev. Brezhnev largely lacked political experience to anticipate the problems which was affecting the Soviet Union. As a result, he was not in a position to make appropriate changes to salvage the situation.
Gorbachev's Crisis
Gorbachev was apparently removed from power by the military while on his vacation in Crimea. He was ousted out of power when he was just about to proceed to a new era of power sharing. Gorbachev was viewed as being unable to perform his duties as the president of Russia (Rogers 34). Gorbachev has thought of appeasing the people of Russia by retreating somehow from is main reform agenda and instead turning back to the traditional central controls. This was aimed at solving the political and the economic crisis witnessed in the country.
Yeltsin's Market Reforms
Yeltsin, though a member of the communist party for a long time, he lastly came to believe in both the free market reforms and democratic reforms. He also played a very instrumental role in the fall of the Soviet Union. Yeltsin involved a group of young economist and gave them a hand to reform the economy of Russia. The first thing that he undertook was to abandon the price controls in the market. The abolition of the price controls gave rise to a free economy and this sparked inflation in the country. This was as a result of widening the gap between the rich and poor in the country. Yeltsin also engaged in privatization policy, which he sought to privatize the public property (Rogers 82). He sold everything, from the small shops which were owned by the public to the large companies. However these reforms laid the foundation for the future growth of the Russian economy. The reforms were instrumental in providing economic freedom, something which had not been enjoyed in the country for a long period of time.
Putin’s Economic Stabilization
Upon becoming the president of Russia, Putin continued to advance the second generation market reforms which had been formulated earlier on. The first few years of Putin’s government were characterized by massive economic reforms. The most significant of these reforms was the radical tax reform. The corporate tax rate was also reduced. The business costs which were regarded as being too ordinary to business became deductible under these tax reforms (Rogers 49). The small scale tax violations were decriminalized as well.
During Putin’s time, Russia woke up to the needs of having to establish small and medium sized businesses. The licensing, standardization as awl as licensing of the small and medium sized enterprises was simplified. Further, the inspections which were done earlier on were restricted (Kort 43). This effort of deregulation greatly improved the economic condition in the country. The economy became more suitable for investment and hence leading to economic stabilization.
Question 4
Comparatively describe the features of biodiversity in three biomes of North Eastern Eurasia: tundra, taiga and steppe
Tundra
Tundra is the coldest biome. The world means treeless plain. The following are the main characteristics of Tundra; it has extremely cold climate with low biotic diversity. Further, the biome is made up of simple vegetation structure and has limited drainage. Similarly, there is a short season of reproduction and growth (Yomtov 83). The biome is also made up of very large population oscillations. Further, the energy and nutrients found in the biome are mostly found in the form of dead organic mater.
Taiga
Taiga is a high latitude biome which is found in the northern hemisphere. The biome has an overreaching ecological feature of the conifer first. The temperatures found in the biome are very low, in fact an exemplification of the lowest temperatures on earth (Yomtov 73). When compared to other biomes, the taiga biome manifests a low biodiversity.
Steppe
The steppe crosses the plains of Russia, south of taiga. It penetrates deep into Siberia. The biome is comprised on three main types, which run in in some form of parallel bands from the east to the west. During the collective period, emphasis was placed on stock rearing with some housed cattle and high inputs (Yomtov 83). However, after decollectivization, some intensive enterprises were closed sown due to some economic systems and until then the system has not been able to stabilize all again.
Question 12
Fall of the Soviet Union
Contrary to what many people think, the Soviet Union was made of hundreds of small ethnic groups. These groups made up the regions from which the Soviet Union was made up from. As a result of having many ethnic groups, when the Soviet Union started to fall, these countries easily broke away and started to form their own nations (Combes et al. 73).
Additionally, the failed political system was also instrumental for the fall of the Soviet Union. The country started to fall apart in terms of economic and political structures.
The pressure exerted by the US and the other western countries especially during the cold war, the Soviet Union could not really withstand this pressure. As a result, the union lost its focus hence leading to its fall.
Works Cited
Combes, Pierre-Philippe, Thierry Mayer, and Jacques-François Thisse. Economic geography: The integration of regions and nations. Princeton University Press, 2008. Print
Kort, Michael. Russia. New York: Facts On File, 1998. Print.
Rogers, Stillman. Russia. New York: Children's Press, 2002. Print.
Tolz, Vera. Russia. London: Arnold, 2001. Print.
Yomtov, Nelson. Russia. New York: Children's Press, 2012. Print.
