Globalisation and the Soviet Union

Résumé ou Introduction

This essay aims at explaining the impacts of the processes globalisation on the fall of the
Soviet 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 the
nature of Communism before moving on to defining globalisation and its effects on Russia
and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Why is it so important to deal with
history first? It is because the former Soviet Union economically and ideologically had shut
itself off to most parts of the globe for decades and hence the effects of globalisation must be
reflected under the light of these specific circumstances.
In short, the Bolshevik uprising in 1917 was successful and brought the Bolshevik Party into
power which was renamed Communist Party in 1918. In the years from 1918 to 1921 a civil
war followed in which the Bolshevik regime was almost overthrown but managed to stay in
power, taking control over the economy and turning it into a war economy. After 1918 the
Soviet Union experienced three years of war communism. Under the wing of Socialism the
economy was organised in a military sense and forced the whole nation to put their labour
into keeping up a traditional army and securing military power.1 In 1921 Lenin introduced
The New Economic Policy as he realised that war communism was a failure and that it had
led to peasant revolts endangering the Soviet State. The idea now was to maintain industry
under state control and to allow a market for agriculture, trade and commerce.2 This system
made it possible for peasants and rural capitalists to gain relative wealth whereas the urban
population experienced increasing unemployment. By the late 1920s this emerging rural
capitalism was regarded as a threat to the system and lead to a very fragile relationship
between the Communist government and the rural population. In order to avoid the collapse
of Communist Soviet Union, Stalin implemented mass collectivisation of agriculture and
rapid industrialisation.3 [...]

1 David Christian, Imperial and Soviet Russia: Power, Privilege and the Challenge of Modernity, Macmillan
Press, 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, Macmillan
Press, Houndsmills, 1997, pp. 262 & 265.