In Cynthia Rylant’s short story, “Papa's Parrot,” the main character, a 12-year-old boy named Harry Tillian who can't seem to spare the time to visit his papa at the family candy store during the afternoons. I firmly believe that the message in this story is to always appreciate the people around you before it's too late.…
The Russia economy in terms of industry fluctuated over the period from 1855-1964. It is key to note that under all the leaders, industrialisation and modernisation was always seen as an essential economic aim. Under Alexander II, with Reutern as his Minister of finance who adopted an approach that revolved around continued railway construction, attraction of foreign expertise and foreign investment capital. As a result modernisation and expansion occurred within the staples as well as newer industries which show the impact that alexander II made on industry. Reutern achieved a sevenfold increase in the amount of railway and the capacity of railway to carry break bulk at speed increased which gave a major boost to industrial output Russia seemed to be finally moving towards industrialisation and keeping up with the West. This approach was similar under Nicolas II who also managed to have a great impact on Russia’s industrial economy. This was through the work of Sergei Witte whom at the time of his appointment the Russian economy still resolved predominantly around agricultural production further showing that under Alexander II impacts was limited. Witte continued the idea of foreign expertise as well as taking out foreign loans, raising taxes and interest rates to boost available…
Khrushchev had a lot of good ideas that he wanted to implement but due to the bureaucratic nature of the Soviet party officials weren’t keen on implementing certain reforms which offered no benefits to them despite being good for the population…
Many people considered Khrushchev reckless because he tore the ideas of communism down. He allowed freer expression of opinion, made modest efforts to meet the demand for more consumer goods, decentralized economic planning, and removed many restrictive regulations on private cultivation.…
The 5-year plans objective was to dramatically increase industrialization, helped along by collectivization. Within a decade, Soviet Russia became the second most industrial power in the world. The party determined…
Stalin launched his first Five-Year Plan in 1928 by setting up a command economy. The purpose of the Five-Year plan was to create a road map for Stalin’s great goals of industrialization and the development of the Soviet Unions (OI.) Specific goals were set in the areas of electricity, coal, oil, pig-iron, and steel (DOC 2.) The Five-Year plan resulted in strengthening the Soviet Unions economic position and turned it into a powerful industrial state. In an excerpt from The Land of the Soviets its stated, “The rate of industrial growth in the USSR considerably exceeded that of the capitalist countries.” (DOC 8.) This is proven in several charts showing the rapid growth in farming and industrialization (DOCS 2, 3, 4.) Stalin said, “To slow down would mean falling behind. And those who fall behind are beaten. But we do not want to be beaten! One feature of the old Russia was the continual beatings she suffered for falling behind, for her backwardness….” (DOC 1.) This momentum helped arouse Russian pride to motivate the people. Stalin’s method of motivation imposed the people to come together as one and get ahead in order to dodge falling behind or any kind of harm to their country (OI.)…
To modernize the economy, Stalin came up with Five-Year Plans, which were plans that would rapidly develop the economy over a five-year period by setting up high production goals for heavy industry. In 1928, Stalin gave a speech before launching the first Five-Year Plan. Stalin said that they were falling behind other nations. ”We lag behind the advanced countries by fifty to a hundred years” “And those who fall behind are beaten”, he told the people “you must end our backwardness”. In 10 years, he thought the technological gap between the Soviet Union and the more advanced nations would be filled. He used this speech as a method of motivating the Russian people into participating and supporting his Five-Year Plan. “Either we do it, or we shall…
Khrushchev's ouster in 1964 failed to weaken Hungary's desire for reform. In fact, Kadar responded by stating that the political and economic attitude of People's Republic of Hungary had not changed nor, would it change anytime in the future. However, in December of 1964, a central committee approved economic reform in Hungary to help stabilize and jump start the economy. One of the major economic policies that eventually brought the Hungary Revolution to the for front was a new economic policy that was implanted with the intention to help the pricing system. This new policy helped to introduce a new pricing system they thought would stabilize the economy and create political stability.…
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was a politician who led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. Around 1954-55 in the power struggle triggered by Stalin’s death in 1953, Khrushchev emerged as number one. In 1956, Khrushchev gives a “secret speech” where he discussed Stalin’s crimes for the first time, starting a process called “de-Stalinization.” Khrushchev believes that the Soviet system has become too bureaucratic. He wanted decentralization. He abolished the tractor station, which were the centralizing mechanisms that gave the party/state control over the collected farms because the collected farms did not own their own machinery. It was a control mechanism. Ultimately, most of Khrushchev’s reforms had very bad, unintended consequences.…
The five-year plan Stalin became famous for was a stamp on Russia’s history in economics. Granted Stalin did yield some output from the plan, but nothing close to what he had originally intended. With outrageous quotas set for people to meet, and mass shortages occurring, Russia was plagued by incompetent and reckless Stalinist behavior, which he became so famous for. Khrushchev would end up in the same hole, making similar mistakes by trying to outpace America by adding two years to Stalin’s plan and making grain their central icon for output. Khrushchev would implement the virgin land scheme, a gamble with the northern part of Kazakhstan’s barren land for farm development. Because the agricultural development of Russia had never stabilized…
In 1957, Khrushchev attempted to decrease the amount of power the central government had and instead give power to regional governments. In turn, the economy was severely impacted. It was very hard to restructure the USSR without having a strong central authority. Additionally, the Soviet economy was full of imbalances especially in consumer industries. The USSR tried to produce only what was necessary in order to eliminate waste, however they usually did not produce enough which caused a shortage of goods. Furthermore, the Soviets did not have much money to invest elsewhere as they spent a good portion of their GDP on their military and their various space programs. Finally, Khrushchev spread the investments he could make to widely which, consequently, did not result in anything efficient being done due to the lack of…
To a certain extent Stalin did meet, in places, the overly optimistic aims for the Five Year Plans yet this was to be at the cost of millions of lives and the livelihoods of many Russian peasants who were to be ruthlessly killed, extradited or simply stripped of their land and possessions. The success of the Five Year Plans can be judged upon the entry of Russia into the Second World War for this was to be the first big test of the newly industrialised state on the world stage. Stalin had aimed to bring about the complete modernisation of Russia as a country and in doing so had hoped that this would mean that Russia could overtake the Capitalist Nations of the West. Stalin himself was the individual who had proposed such plans for he was the one it may be argued, who wished to achieve an historical role for himself as the successor of Lenin. Evidence of this proposal, putting Russian development at the forefront of his ideas, is illustrated by his speeches in which he calls for the need to "create socialism in one country". His objectives were clear for he gave priority to the recovery of the peasant sector and to the financing of industry, which, he argued, were to become possible due to the prospect of the increased prosperity of the Russian peasantry. However one should also argue that they would probably have occurred anyway and another leader may have attained the same end result yet without the terrible effects upon the Russian population and way of life.…
Khrushchev was also very sympathetic towards the peasants and the workers as he himself had come from a poor background and worked as a railwayman and a miner, before joining the Communist Party. Thus, Khrushchev wanted to implement policies that would benefit the workers and the peasants.…
He kept the economic growth up, which surpassed some western countries. He granted amnesty to former political prisoners, letting them live a life without worry. Khrushchev also put more emphasis on the production of household and consumer goods rather than heavy industry. This led to a huge rise in living standards the country had never seen before. On the other side, he encouraged the building the Berlin Wall, continued persecution of the Orthodox Church, and had horrible political skills. Ironically, Gorbachev was inspired by his liberalism and used Khrushchev as an inspiration for his…
The Soviets had a command economy, an economy where the government decides what goods will be produced, how much is produced, and the pricing of the goods. At first there was a very long period of rapid growth from 1950-1973. The Soviet economy posted an estimated annual growth rate in gross national product of 5.7% from 1950 to 1960, and 5.2% from 1960 to 1970(JOHNSTON, Paragraph 6). Because the Soviet Union’s economy was so underdeveloped and controlled, it could easily adapt to and imitate the newest western technology. While this strategy was very effective short-term, The forced industrialization at the expense of personal consumption led to the country being unable to innovate in its economy.…