Russia After Stalin

The up-to-date balance sheet of the Soviet industrial revolution can be outlined here only in the most general terms.

In the early years of the Stalin era Russia's industrial strength was hardly more than that of any small, or at the most of any medium-sized Western nation. In those days Russian economists still looked up to France, the most backward of the industrial powers of the West, while Germany was a giant whom they admired and feared. American technology was fabulously remote, as if beyond the range of the imagination.

Towards the end of the 1930's the Soviet Union, as an economic power, was catching up with and begi

ing to surpass Germany, as can be seen from the following basic figures:

Basic Industrial Figures for Germany* and Russia in 1929 and 1940

19291940Output of coal (in millions of tons)Russia41166Germany177185-190Steel (in millions of tons)Russia518Germany1820Electricity (in billions of kwh)Russia648Germany3055Goods traffic on rail-ways (in millions of tons)Russia187590Germany463500 (approx.)