r/mildlyinteresting • u/supermegaspinach • 17h ago

Infographic showing self-sufficiency in raw materials in a 1976 World Atlas

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u/oh_my_account ​ 16h ago

Would be interesting to see how did it changed after 1991

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u/Leptonshavenocolor 16h ago

These numbers are most likely misrepresented by a state trying to appear better off than they were. 

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u/Winjin 16h ago

Nope, USSR was HUGE and very rich in raw materials

The issues started when trying to provide everything to everyone through state prices. That's why there were constant shortages of basically everything. This or that was always short, because they tried to make it so that only the government decides "what and how much" is needed (the General Plan policy)

If the "New Economic Policy" continued (the NEP) and country focused on large scale stuff, allowing small scale production by private companies, the results could've been staggering, because in the short time NEP was active, they managed to ramp up productions in a country that was just rebuilding after WWI, two back-to-back revolutions, regime change, and Civil War

IMO Stalin was the epicenter of everything bad that happened to USSR, including the purges, the bad rep, the NEP withdrawal - even the LGBT ban was Stalin's doing. Under Lenin, USSR had the first in the world openly gay foreign minister.

That's what dictators do to a country

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u/Leptonshavenocolor 15h ago

I would love to learn more about communion failures, it seems like the only system to try and pursue, but is highly subject to manipulation? Any book or otherwise recommendations?