Why did Russia initially choose not to industrialize? (WWII, 1930s, Hitler)
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It was the Americans who built the railroad from Moscow to Saint Petersburg (Ross Winans and his sons).
Interestingly enough, I haven't heard this name a single time in Russian history.
Russian Wikipedia mentions the name of George W. Whistler, the engineer who was sent as consultant during the construction, but neither "Winans " or "his sons" were never mentioned as the ones who "built" this particular rail-road. If they were the ones who really "built" it - I think their names would have been well-known in Russian history, because it's a pretty famous rail-road.
Whistler worked for the Winans family and his sister married one of the Winans sons. The Winans were originally builders of steam engines, with their factories based in Baltimore. George Whistler was also father of the famous painter, James Abbot McNeil Whistler, who lived in St. Petersburg during the construction of the railroad.
"The Winans engine designs impressed a Russian delegation, and he was asked by the Czar to build the Imperial railroad from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Winans sent his two sons, as well as engineer George W. Whistler to Russia for several years for that project."
It may be that the Soviet Russians quietly erased the memories of the Winans contribution to the railroad for nationalistic reason. Then again so much of our great infrastructure across the world were built/funded by men who are now largely forgotten.
A side note: Ross Winans, working with an Ohio engineer, created one of the earliest machine guns (a steam powered one!). He was a strong Southern sympathizer and attempted to smuggle the gun to the Confederacy at the onset of the Civil War, but it was captured by Federal forces.
Quote:
Originally Posted by erasure
Interestingly enough, I haven't heard this name a single time in Russian history.
Russian Wikipedia mentions the name of George W. Whistler, the engineer who was sent as consultant during the construction, but neither "Winans " or "his sons" were never mentioned as the ones who "built" this particular rail-road. If they were the ones who really "built" it - I think their names would have been well-known in Russian history, because it's a pretty famous rail-road.
Last edited by Tallybalt; 06-02-2014 at 10:59 PM..
Under the Tsars Russia was clearly a backward Agrarian country. It was largely illiterate when the Communists took over. Education programmes were enacted and in the 1920/30s the USSR went on a programme of industrialization using state-of-the art ways of the time. American consultants were recruited who implemented mass-production "Fordism" in Soviet factories. This served them well in WW2 making the machines of war with fewer parts and many parts interchangeable with other products. The USSR out-produced the USA in arms in 1942. Industrialization gave the USSR a mixed economy and had little need to rely on the rest of the world having its own natural resources. Many in the world wanted the country killed outright so they had to be self-sufficient to survive.
You know, Cherepanov brothers built the world 1st steam train?
They never. The British steam engines (the British invented the steam locomotive), were decades before them. The world's first inter-city twin track railway was the Liverpool to Manchester railway. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpo...hester_Railway
It had stations along the way, timetables, tickets, passenger cars and all we know how a railway operates today - all this had to be thought of has no one had done it before. At the Liverpool end a 2,030 metres (1.26 mile) freight tunnel, the first rail tunnel bored under a metropolis, terminated at the south end of Liverpool docks at the world's first goods terminal station. The tunnel is still there unused since 1972. It is awaiting reused for the Liverpool metro and will be the oldest part of any metro in the world when reused. All before the Cherepanov brothers built their first locomotive in 1834.
The British were the first to put steam engines into ships. William Symington's had the first workable steam vessel on the Forth and Clyde Canal to Glasgow in Scotland in 1803.
Aron Manby built the very first iron hulled steamship that went to sea in 1821. It was built in the English Midlands, taken to London in parts and assembled. Aaron Manby - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Industrialization under the early Soviets was slowed down by several severe droughts after the prolonged fighting of the revolution finally ended. It's hard to industrialize when a good portion of the population is starving to death.
Russia is a enormous country as well. The further one got away from the cities, the more primitive the roads were. Russian industrialization was at first prioritized to connecting Russia's vast expanses by rail, by far a faster mode of transportation, and rails need steel. Steel production became an obsession for at least the first 20 years of Soviet leadership.
I would add that revolutionary feelings had been fomenting in Russia for quite some time, culminating in the aborted 1905 revolution.
The Russian aristocracy was far safer from harm by having the peasants scattered across the countryside, than they would have been by having those same peasants move to cities and interact with one another on a dally basis in factories. As it was, Russia's eventual move toward industrialization played an integral role in the fall of the tsar.
@Auburn & PeaceAndLove: Good posts!
I'd only add the follow-up to the question "while Europe and North America industrialized rapidly, why did Russia remained in the feudal age?".
It goes back to the 13th century, when the Mongols invaded Russia, and remained its de facto rulers until the Battle of Kulikove in 1380.
While Galileo and Copernicus were explaining the Universe, Guttenberg inventing the press and Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel, the russian society, choked by the Mongols, remained fully entrenched in the stone age mentality, culture and the overall civilizational progress.
The Mongol rule haunts Russia till today. Rule of the fist is the only societal principle understood in Russia - a country that voluntarily elects a KGB thug as its leader. Three times!
@ukrkoz:
your posts are such a mix of misinterpretation of facts, stalinist-putinist progaganda and overall sheer nonsense, that it can only be explained by the following:
English translation by google (slightly imperfect - the automated translation software is still work in progress):
Nice and all, but Snowden's revelation also tagged the US for having their own Internet propaganda machine. Matter of fact, the US has a history of the gov infiltrating groups to discredit them.
And you are way off regarding the Mongols, and your ad hominem attack on Putin; really, you cannot come up with something more original than "KGB thug"? He has been out of the KGB for 23 years.
I would add that revolutionary feelings had been fomenting in Russia for quite some time, culminating in the aborted 1905 revolution.
The Russian aristocracy was far safer from harm by having the peasants scattered across the countryside, than they would have been by having those same peasants move to cities and interact with one another on a dally basis in factories. As it was, Russia's eventual move toward industrialization played an integral role in the fall of the tsar.
Another way industrialization plays an role in their downfall is by making famine much more an problem. Peasants out in the country could scavenge for food if need be. Industrial workers need stable constant food supply. It isn't like you can easily leave the factory in the city and wonder out the to the country and survive. Russia's poor transportation network and poor agricultural capacity at the time caused starvation in key cities. If no bread riots in Petrograd then likely no revolution.
Under the Tsars Russia was clearly a backward Agrarian country. It was largely illiterate when the Communists took over. Education programmes were enacted and in the 1920/30s the USSR went on a programme of industrialization using state-of-the art ways of the time. American consultants were recruited who implemented mass-production "Fordism" in Soviet factories. This served them well in WW2 making the machines of war with fewer parts and many parts interchangeable with other products.
Although Tsarist Russia was clearly predominantly agrarian country, it's a mistake to think that that's all there was to it. After all purely "agrarian countries" don't give birth to space science, which Tsarist Russia did.
If you look as well at the long list of Russian scientists/inventors, then clearly the list doesn't start from Soviet times - it goes back to Tzarist times, as much as Russian Academy of science.
So to think that it were purely "American consultants" that turned "agrarian Russia" into industrial country during Soviet times, it's a mistake. Russia, indeed had its own background for industrial development, the roots of which were going back to Tzarist Russia, as backwards and "agrarian" as it was.
As for the economy of Tzarist Russia with all its controversies - this is not a bad material here;
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