Page 112 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

tfw-52 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

But even regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States,
and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle,
to what final aim, these enormous sacrifices have been offered. • G. W. F. HEGEL (1770–1831)

decision of U.S. governments to finance postwar recon- first space satellite, Sputnik, in October 1957, and the
struction in Europe (through the Marshall Plan) and in launching of the first human,Yuri Gagarin (1934–1968),
Japan, even if that meant turning former enemies into into orbit in 1961.
commercial rivals. Partly in this spirit, and partly under Then, during the 1970s, Soviet growth rates began to
pressure from indigenous anticolonial movements, Euro- slow, and disillusionment set in as Soviet citizens realized
pean governments surrendered the empires they had that their living standards were well behind those of the
conquered during the late nineteenth century. major capitalist countries. Although the command econ-
During the forty years after 1945 roughly a hundred omy could indeed innovate when massive resources were
nations achieved independence from their European devoted to large prestige projects, without the constant
overlords, and another batch of new nations emerged pressure of competitive markets it could not generate the
after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. By 2004 trickle of petty innovations that drove productivity
the United Nations had 191 members. growth in the capitalist world. By the 1980s it was clear
Industrialization spread beyond the core regions of the that the Soviet economy was failing to incorporate the
late nineteenth century, partly with the active support of new electronic technologies that were revolutionizing
the major capitalist powers. Economic growth was par- capitalist economies and societies. Soviet generals under-
ticularly rapid until the late 1990s in eastern and south- stood that this fact was a military as well as a techno-
eastern Asia, in particular in South Korea, Taiwan, Ma- logical disaster for the Soviet Union.
laysia,Thailand, Hong Kong, and Singapore, all of which The failures of the Soviet economy tell us much about
were influenced by the Japanese model of growth. the driving mechanisms of the modern revolution. Soviet
planners understood from as early as the 1950s that the
Rockets and Rubles weaknesses of the command economy derived from the
Global economic growth occurred despite the partition- lack of domestic competition and the absence of any
ing of the world into two major power blocs. The capi- effective equivalent of the profit motive. Even during the
talist and Communist powers challenged each other mil- 1930s high rates of growth derived more from a massive,
itarily, economically, and politically. For several decades and highly coercive, mobilization of labor and resources
these rivalries threatened to ignite a third world war, than from real gains in efficiency. During the mid-1980s
fought this time with nuclear weapons. However, the a new leader, Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931), admitted
Cold War was also a contest for economic and political that the Soviet economy was grinding to a halt because
hegemony. The two blocs offered rival paths to eco- it could no longer keep mobilizing new resources, as it
nomic growth, and for perhaps three decades people did had during the 1930s and 1940s.The Soviet system col-
not know whether the command economies of the Com- lapsed because its mobilizational strategy of growth, like
munist world or the capitalist economies of the West that of traditional agrarian empires, although effective in
would generate the most rapid growth, although both military crises, stifled innovation.The failure of the Soviet
sides agreed that during the modern era economic command economy provides ironic support for Karl
growth is the key to political and military success. Marx’s claim that capitalism is the motor of modernity.
After Stalin’s death in 1956 Soviet living standards
began to rise as his successors steered investment toward China Adapts
consumer goods and housing. During the 1950s the Communist China offers an apparent exception that
Soviet Union enjoyed a string of successes that seemed to proves the rule. During the 1950s the government of
demonstrate the technological dynamism of its com- Mao Zedong tried to industrialize using the methods of
mand economy.These successes included the creation of Stalin. However, the economic and social disasters of the
Soviet nuclear weapons and missiles, the launching of the Great Leap Forward (1958–1961, a period in which the