The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the dawn of Chinese economic reform under Deng

In Russia and China, both Stalin and Mao emerged as almost god-like leaders despite making their respective countries endure harsh programs of reform all economically, politically and socially. Mao can be seen to have adopted the policies of Stalin, both inspired by the Marxist ideologies of Lenin. Both Stalin and Mao recognized the economic backwardness of their respective countries and wanted to use industrialization and collectivisation as the primary means of increasing their economies. Although the original plans were very similar, the actual undertaking of the plans in addition to the results and how it helped consolidate both leaders may slightly vary. Comparing and

Stalin’s policy priorities were not building a ‘worker’s paradise’ or a classless society, but protecting Russia from war and invasion. In 1928, Stalin launched the first of two ambitious five-year plans to modernize and industrialize the Soviet economy. These programs brought rapid progress – but also significant death and suffering. Stalin’s decision to nationalize agricultural production dispossessed millions of peasants, forcing them from their land to labor on gigantic state-run collective farms. Grain was sold abroad to finance Soviet industrial projects, leading to food shortages and disastrous famines in the mid-1930s. Soviet Russia was dragged into the 20th century, transforming from a backward agrarian empire into a modern industrial superpower – but this came at extraordinary human cost.

The democratization, economic liberalization, and eventual collapse of the Soviet Union is commonly attributed to Mikhail Gorbachev's Perestroika and Glasnost reforms during the period of 1985-1991. This purpose of these reforms is still a trenchant question as the countries of the old Soviet Union, particular Russia, are being pressured to further liberalize their economies.

The Soviet Union, which was once a world superpower in the 19th century saw itself in chaos going into the 20th century. These chaoses were marked by the new ideas brought in by the new leaders who had emerged eventually into power. Almost every aspect of the Soviet Union was crumbling at this period both politically and socially, as well as the economy. There were underlying reasons for the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and eventually Eastern Europe. The economy is the most significant aspect of every government. The soviet economy was highly centralized with a “command economy” (p.1. fsmitha.com), which had been broken down due to its complexity and centrally controlled with corruption involved in it. A strong government

The industrial expansion of the Soviet Union resulted in one of the greatest economic growths for a single country that the modern world has ever seen. This economic growth ultimately led to the USSR becoming one of the world’s only two superpowers in the post-WWII era. Much of the country’s economic growth occurred because of the USSR’s use of a command economy, which is “an economy in which production, investment, prices, and incomes are determined centrally by a government” [1]. Using a command economy, the USSR was able to force industrialization in certain sectors in which pre-Soviet Russia highly struggled. One of these sectors was the Nuclear Power sector. Ultimately, Soviet successes in the nuclear power industry were highly evident

In foreign relations, trade had a marginal value and foreign investment both inwards and outwards were essentially absent. One of the greatest failures of Mao’s notable project ‘Great Leap Forward’ in 1958 turned out to be one of the greatest failures as it was intended to collectivize all agricultural, industrial and service life under people's communes and militias’ control . The first consequence of this measure was an economic autarky that led to one of the worst famines of the twentieth century. Developments in international policy pushed China towards a gradual isolation and growing conflicts. Eventually China's international political and economic relations degenerated and led to a serious military confrontation with its main ally, the Soviet Union and fighting a border war with India in the 60s. Isolation, political and economic, reaches its highest levels with the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution in 1966 until 1976 .

Josef Stalin and Mao Zedong were both very similar and still quite different. Each of these great leaders wished to transform his country into something new and powerful. Though their methods of rule were not the same, they each were extremely effective leaders and had enormous impacts on his own country. Russia, before Stalin, could absolutely be considered as being a weak and peasant country. China, before Mao Zedong, was attempting, but failing, to modernize efficiently under Nationalism. These two countries under Stalin and Mao Zedong advanced quickly and went from being smaller and mostly powerless countries to global powers. These advances, however, did not come without sacrifice. Both countries suffered an astronomical number

The many long-term internal causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union centralized around weaknesses in their economy. They had an inflexible central planning system, the inability to modernize, and the inefficiency in their agriculture production. Sometime around the 1970's the computer and automation revolution had emerged. This revolution took over the West, but practically missed the Soviet Union, except in the military sector (Baylis & Smith, 2001.) Gorbachev's goal in economic restructuring was to create a separation between the economic and the political. The major changes began with the legalization of private farming and business co-operatives, and the allowing of foreign company ownership over Soviet enterprises (Baylis &Smith, 2001) All of Gorbachev's ideas on economic restructuring backfired on him since the price levels were inconsistent, and a sense of social confusion about the future of their state was created.

The rise in China from a poor, stagnant country to a major economic power within a time span of twenty-eight years is often described by analysts as one of the greatest success stories in these present times. With China receiving an increase in the amount of trade business from many countries around the world, they may soon be a major competitor to surpass the U.S. China became the second largest economy, last year, overtaking Japan which had held that position since 1968 (Gallup). China could become the world’s largest economy in decades.

The goals of Deng Xiaoping’s economic reform were the ‘Four Modernizations’. This Four Modernization refers to the reform of agriculture, industry, national defense, and science technology. These reforms were to solve the problems of motivating workers and farmers to produce a larger surplus and to eliminate economic imbalances that were common in command economies.

Do you think there is now an alliance between rich people and powerful in China,

. Xiaoping implemented significant change going from a centrally planned economy run by the state, towards a private entrepreneur market based economy. This transition to a new type of socialist thinking, known as the socialist market economy, proved highly successful as it allowed China to move from a nation in poverty ruled by a single person to the second largest economy in the world. A more sudden or abrupt change could have easily resulted in the fall of China’s economy, similar to what certain European countries experienced in 1991 at the end of the cold war between the super powers.

From post-1976 onwards, Deng Xiaoping and his conservative pragmatist government would bring great reform to China, which would allow her to tide over the troubles caused by the crisis in communism. Indeed, it would seem that his economic reforms were the main reason for China's survival, as opposed to political reform. Under Deng Xiaoping, action was taken to move China from a Soviet-style command economy to a more capitalist market economy. On the other hand, political reform was not as pronounced as Deng wished to retain the traditional communist style of party dictatorship.

The purpose of this essay is to show how the economy of China has, and is changing, becoming the second largest economy in the world today. Although China is currently under the leadership of Xi Jinping, this essay will concentrate primarily on the actions undertaken by then President Mao Zedong, followed by then President Deng Xiaoping, (sans mention of Hua Guofeng). Given the relative infancy of Xi’s assumption of power, economic policies still remain largely rhetorical in form. Likewise, the majority of literature concerning economic policies under Xi are largely speculative, often citing strategies and ambitions as opposed to thereby, lacking a solid basis for rational induction In addition to China’s lack of transparency, In addition, it will be shown that the methodology behind the Chinese economy demonstrates the implementation of varying levels of the characteristics associated with the schools of Realism, Marxism and Liberalism. Thus, China’s approach to global trade in the 21st Century is pluralistic, testamentary to the failed economic

To better understand the nature of Sino-Soviet relations in the twentieth century, one must analyze the emergence of communism in the respective nations of Russia and China. Communism was first developed by German philosopher Karl Marx in the 1800s, and is defined as a socioeconomic policy structured around the common ownership of property in the absence of any social distinctions such as class, wealth, or race. Marx saw this arrangement as the zenith of human society, the paragon of interaction where the resources of economic production are fully socialized and everything, from basic nutrition to education, is freely allocated based on necessity. These egalitarian doctrines and policies of social, economic, and political freedom greatly appeased to the working-class populations in politically oppressed regions of the world, especially in the situations of the repressed poor and peasant classes of early twentieth-century Russian and Chinese societies.