A friend of mine at Virginia Tech was born in Moldova in 1992 and the remnants of an underground economy still existed. He was telling me about how if you gave the men who worked in the passport office good … Continue reading →
Tag Archive for economy
The First Cracks in the System
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After forcing out Nikita Khrushchev in 1965, Leonid Brezhnev became First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. Some consider the regime under Brezhnev, as the ‘golden era of USSR’. Brezhnev managed to improve the quality of life, stabilize social … Continue reading →
Rebuilding the Economy
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The poster above was published in order to explain two different decrees passed in1921 that affected workers and their payment. These decrees allowed workers to recieve bonuses; sometimes made up of manufactured goods, that they could then trade for agricultural products as well as food. These decrees also encouraged workers to join cooperatives that had […]
New Economic Policy
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On November 7th, 1917, Vladimir Lenin led the Bolshevik party takeover in Russia, thus starting the creation of the socialist state. Vladimir Lenin aimed at creating a Marxist communist utopia. Lenin promised liberation of oppressed workers and peasants, equality, advancement, … Continue reading →
The Bashkir Switchman and the Trans-Siberian Railway
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The Trans-Siberian Railway, picture above, was a massive industrial project undertaken during the end of the 19th Century and completed in the early 20th Century. When first announced, I am sure the first problem that came to mind was the vast expanse the railway would cover. Russia was and remains the largest country in the(…)
Transportation and Industrialization
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http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/prk2000002466/ The photo captioned, “Trans-Siberian Railway metal truss bridge on stone piers, over the Kama River near Perm, Ural Mountains Region” included in the Prokudin-Gorskiĭ collection, gives a look into the longest rail line in the world. The picture … Continue reading →
Agricultural Crisis
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The emancipation of the serfdom left profound consequences in its wake. This post will, in particular, focus on the effects that the emancipation had wrought on Russia’s agricultural industry between the years of 1855 and 1890. To compound on this, … Continue reading →
Russia’s Industrialization
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The photograph above, “Factory Interior with Electrical Generators” is from the Prokudin-Gorskii collection taken on the Murghab River circa 1910. These generators were imported from Hungary, which helps to give one an idea about Russia’s industrialization capacity in the early 1900′s. Before the Crimean war, Russia had a very weak economy with little industrialization compared […]