In Stalin’s Industrialization of the Country, 1928, he states, “Look at the capitalist countries and you will see that their technology is not only advancing, but advancing by leaps and bounds, outstripping the old forms of industrial technique.” This statement refers to Stalin’s fear that the Soviet Union’s industry was lagging behind other European countries, and as a result, the country will be unable to achieve socialism. In this statement, he argued that the reason for the success of various capitalist countries was due to the fact that they were far ahead of the Soviet Union in terms of technological advancement.
This quote is significant because it captures the fear that was present throughout Stalin’s writings, and more generally, throughout the Soviet Union. In this piece, it is clear that Stalin feels as though industrialization is a race that the Soviet Union must win, no matter the cost. He repeatedly compares the Soviet Union to other, more advanced European countries with a sense of apprehension. Industrialization of the Country, 1928 seems to focus largely on using a fear of lagging behind to promote industrial productivity. Stalin seems to have felt that instilling a sense of fear in society would be the best and most productive means of change.
How convincing do you think Stalin’s approach would have been? Was approaching industrialization as a race that the Soviets needed to win the proper way to go about achieving socialism?
I like your discussion questions. I guess Stalin using fear of losing competition as a motivational technique is not new to the European environment. There was definitely a fear in Soviet Society during this time period, 1928 was also the beginning of new political movements and changes between the citizens and authority as well.
Any Marxist state needs industrialization, because it needs a proletariat. Marx wrote of the “stupidity of rural life”, and believed that one could not trust an agrarian society to lead the civilized world to a better world. He believed the revolution would take place in industrial societies like the United States or England, not backwards, rural Russia.
I think it is always convincing when citizens hear that their country is falling behind in the times. The fear of lagging to promote industrialization reminded me a bit of the US’ own competition with Russia for the space race. Eisenhower used the people’s fear of lagging behind their then enemy, Russia, to motivate them to support the exploration of space. Fear is an effective strategy, especially when it comes to losing wealth and power.
I find your questions interesting. Competition has always been factor in the development of people, countries, and economies. By announcing that USSR is falling back, Staling was trying to motivate the Russians to compete harder. Ironically he did not understand that by creating a government-run economy he destroyed competition in his country and thus doomed the economy of the USSR to future failure.
I think this is a well-written blog post. You summarize the article quickly and get to the point. I think that it is true when a country instills fear in its people that they are lagging behind, then its citizens will make an effort to increase productivity, and ultimately try to do better. The Soviet Union constantly wanted to be the best, and couldn’t stand being behind other countries. Stalin’s best approach in this case was to instill fear to get its citizens motivated.