Globalisation and the Soviet Union

Essay from the year 2003 in the subject Politics - Region: Russia, grade: High Distinction, Flinders University (Social Sciences), course: Introduction to Globalisation, language: English, abstract: This essay aims at explaining the impacts of the processes globalisation on the fall of theSoviet Union and the problems this created for the new Russia in transition. First of all it is necessary to look at some parts of the history of the Soviet Union and thenature of Communism before moving on to defining globalisation and its effects on Russiaand the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Why is it so important to deal withhistory first? It is because the former Soviet Union economically and ideologically had shutitself off to most parts of the globe for decades and hence the effects of globalisation must bereflected under the light of these specific circumstances. In short, the Bolshevik uprising in 1917 was successful and brought the Bolshevik Party intopower which was renamed Communist Party in 1918. In the years from 1918 to 1921 a civilwar followed in which the Bolshevik regime was almost overthrown but managed to stay inpower, taking control over the economy and turning it into a war economy. After 1918 theSoviet Union experienced three years of war communism. Under the wing of Socialism theeconomy was organised in a military sense and forced the whole nation to put their labourinto keeping up a traditional army and securing military power.1 In 1921 Lenin introducedThe New Economic Policy as he realised that war communism was a failure and that it hadled to peasant revolts endangering the Soviet State. The idea now was to maintain industryunder state control and to allow a market for agriculture, trade and commerce.2 This systemmade it possible for peasants and rural capitalists to gain relative wealth whereas the urbanpopulation experienced increasing unemployment. By the late 1920s this emerging ruralcapitalism was regarded as a threat to the system and lead to a very fragile relationshipbetween the Communist government and the rural population. In order to avoid the collapseof Communist Soviet Union, Stalin implemented mass collectivisation of agriculture andrapid industrialisation.3 [...]1 David Christian, Imperial and Soviet Russia: Power, Privilege and the Challenge of Modernity, MacmillanPress, Houndsmills, 1997, pp.207 231. 2 David Lockwood, The Destruction of the Soviet Union, Macmillan Press, Houndsmills, 2000, p.66. 3 David Christian, Imperial and Soviet Russia: Power, Privilege and the Challenge of Modernity, MacmillanPress, Houndsmills, 1997, pp. 262 & 265.