Unit 9: Alternative Models of Industrialization
After the First World War, a revolutionary government in Russia tried to create an alternative model to capitalist industrial development. The new Soviet Union accomplished massive industrial feats before and during the Second World War but at enormous cost to the environment and to Soviet citizens. In China, a successful communist revolution ushered in another experiment in socialist industrialization after 1949, first along Soviet lines and then according to the plans of Mao Zedong. After the Second World War, leaders in India and other newly independent states tried to find a "third way" of development, rejecting capitalism as well as Soviet-style socialism as pathways to industrialization.
In this unit, we will examine alternative plans for industrial development from the Soviet Union, China, and India. We will analyze the efficacy and costs of these different approaches, comparing them to the model followed by capitalist states.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 2 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- compare Soviet and Maoist industrialization with each other and with capitalist industrialization; and
- assess the effects of British rule on India and identify major economic developments since India gained independence.
9.1: The Soviet Model
9.1.1: The Bolshevik Revolution
9.1.2: Economic Policy under Lenin
9.1.3: Stalinist Industrialization
9.2: Maoist Industrialization
9.2.1: The Chinese Revolution
Read this overview of Chinese history in the 20th century to understand how the revolution changed Chinese industry.
9.2.2: Sino-Soviet Cooperation
Read this article, which discusses how the Soviet Union and China cooperated.
9.2.3: The "Great Leap Forward"
Read this article to learn about the objectives of the Great Leap Forward.
Read this two-page article to learn about the objectives of the Great Leap Forward.
- Receive a grade
The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China posed the most radical alternatives to the capitalist model of industrialization first pioneered by Great Britain, the United States, and other Western European nations. This assignment will help you analyze the important differences between communist and capitalist industrialization. Please write a roughly 600 word essay that answers the posed question.
This assignment is ungraded, and will not affect your course grade.
9.3: The "Third Way" in India
9.3.1: India under British Rule
9.3.2: State Capitalism and the Five-Year Plan
9.3.3: Import Substitution
Read this article to learn about the theory and application of ISI policies that were implemented in Latin American countries during the 20th century.
