Soviet collectivism: Difference between revisions
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The last paragraph is from a documentary I've seen many years ago, it needs a reference I guess. |
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During the secord world war the Soviets used collectives to achieve production of weapons against the armies of the Nazis, which were based on ''real-time'' reverse engineering of captured Nazi vehicles and means of war. |
During the secord world war the Soviets used collectives to achieve production of weapons against the armies of the Nazis, which were based on ''real-time'' reverse engineering of captured Nazi vehicles and means of war. |
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A definition of collectivism is provided from Merriam Webster Online as: ''a political or economic theory advocating collective control especially over production and distribution; also: a system marked by such control." [1] |
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| ⚫ | The manufacturing collectivism of the Soviets had elements of mass-production when first introduced and its remnants collapsed along with the Soviet Union when this centralised and rigid model gave in to corruption and under the weight of its inefficient methods: ''This system worked so badly in practice that in 1921 Lenin retreated from it. War Communism, as the policy was called, had been introduced partly to fight White opposition to the Revolution but mostly for ideological reasons. (The German philosopher and economist Karl Marx (1818-1883) had believed that capitalist production was exploitive.) War Communism reduced industrial production to one-seventh of what it had been before the Revolution and caused a famine that took five million lives. Like Castro five decades later, Lenin thus announced a New Economic Policy (1921-1928) that allowed a certain amount of small-scale capitalism.'' [ |
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| ⚫ | The manufacturing collectivism of the Soviets had elements of mass-production when first introduced and its remnants collapsed along with the Soviet Union when this centralised and rigid model gave in to corruption and under the weight of its inefficient methods: ''This system worked so badly in practice that in 1921 Lenin retreated from it. War Communism, as the policy was called, had been introduced partly to fight White opposition to the Revolution but mostly for ideological reasons. (The German philosopher and economist Karl Marx (1818-1883) had believed that capitalist production was exploitive.) War Communism reduced industrial production to one-seventh of what it had been before the Revolution and caused a famine that took five million lives. Like Castro five decades later, Lenin thus announced a New Economic Policy (1921-1928) that allowed a certain amount of small-scale capitalism.'' [] |
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The fall and failure of collectivism in the Soviet Union was caused primarily by the centralisation of the distribution routes, which were subjected to systematic theft and route inefficient planning. There were cases with adjacent cities far from the capital where one produced the goods the other needed them and yet the goods were transported hundreds of miles to central state storage to be re-allocated to the neighbourging city. Quite often goods were stolen or simply decayed. |
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== Reference == |
== Reference == |
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[1] http://home.ca.inter.net/~grantsky/collectivism.html |
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] http://home.ca.inter.net/~grantsky/collectivism.html |
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Revision as of 22:00, 20 November 2003
Collectivism involves organising everyone into collectives on the basis of practical considerations and political beliefs. Collectives are, usually, compulsory groups of people. During the secord world war the Soviets used collectives to achieve production of weapons against the armies of the Nazis, which were based on real-time reverse engineering of captured Nazi vehicles and means of war.
A definition of collectivism is provided from Merriam Webster Online as: a political or economic theory advocating collective control especially over production and distribution; also: a system marked by such control." [1]
The manufacturing collectivism of the Soviets had elements of mass-production when first introduced and its remnants collapsed along with the Soviet Union when this centralised and rigid model gave in to corruption and under the weight of its inefficient methods: This system worked so badly in practice that in 1921 Lenin retreated from it. War Communism, as the policy was called, had been introduced partly to fight White opposition to the Revolution but mostly for ideological reasons. (The German philosopher and economist Karl Marx (1818-1883) had believed that capitalist production was exploitive.) War Communism reduced industrial production to one-seventh of what it had been before the Revolution and caused a famine that took five million lives. Like Castro five decades later, Lenin thus announced a New Economic Policy (1921-1928) that allowed a certain amount of small-scale capitalism. [2]
The fall and failure of collectivism in the Soviet Union was caused primarily by the centralisation of the distribution routes, which were subjected to systematic theft and route inefficient planning. There were cases with adjacent cities far from the capital where one produced the goods the other needed them and yet the goods were transported hundreds of miles to central state storage to be re-allocated to the neighbourging city. Quite often goods were stolen or simply decayed.
Reference
[1] http://www.meriamwebster.com [2] http://home.ca.inter.net/~grantsky/collectivism.html
See also: