Political Revolutions in Russia and Mexico
In the century’s first two decades, rebellions erupted against long-standing authoritarian governments in Mexico, China, and Russia. (See Topic 7.1.) Revolutionaries unseated the ruling governments in each country, instituting their own political philosophies and practices. The revolutions influenced subsequent events in the Soviet Union, Mexico, and China in the interwar years. Each country took a different approach to managing their national economy.
Continuing Revolution in Russia Although Lenin and the Bolshevik Party had promised “peace, land, and bread” during World War I, they instead presided over a populace that faced starvation during the widespread Russian Civil War (1918–1921). Hundreds of thousands of Russians, Ukrainians, and others revolted against the Russian government’s actions. Urban factory workers and sailors went on strike, and peasants began to hoard their food stocks. Industrial and agricultural production dropped sharply.
By 1921, Lenin realized that the Russian economy was near complete collapse. In an attempt to remedy this, he instituted a temporary retreat from communist economic policies. Under his New Economic Plan (NEP), he reintroduced private trade, allowing farmers to sell their products on a small scale. Although the government permitted some economic liberties, it maintained strict political control. The NEP enjoyed modest successes, but it came to an end when Lenin died in 1924.
Joseph Stalin Several years after Lenin’s death, Joseph Stalin took control of the Politburo, the Communist Party’s central organization, setting himself up as a dictator. He remained in power for almost 30 years. Once in power, Stalin abandoned Lenin’s NEP and instituted the first Five-Year Plan, which was meant to transform the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (also called the USSR or the Soviet Union) into an industrial power. He wanted his largely agricultural nation to “catch up” to the industrial nations of the West. At the same time, Stalin collectivized agriculture, a process in which farmland was taken from private owners and given to collectives to manage. In theory, a collective, or kolkhoz, was a group of peasants who freely joined together to farm a certain portion of land. In practice, however, peasants were forced by the state to work on a specific collective and were expected to follow detailed plans and to reach specific goals set by the government.
This elimination of private land ownership and the forced redistribution of land, livestock, and tools enraged farmers. Each year, the government seized food to send to the cities. The farmers retaliated against collectivization by burning crops and killing livestock. Many moved to the cities for a better life.
A series of five-year plans had mixed results. The collectivization of agriculture was a huge failure. Millions of peasants starved to death, especially in the Ukraine. However, heavy industry grew tremendously in the 1930s. Although consumer goods were in short supply, there were plenty of factory jobs available, and the cost of living was low.
Stalin’s brutal regime is widely condemned today. He punished his political opponents by executing them or sentencing them to life terms in gulags, or labor camps, where many died. In addition, his agricultural policies led to the deaths of many millions of Soviet citizens. Because Stalin kept tight control of the press, details of his atrocities went largely unreported. Nonetheless, in the 1930s, an economically depressed world viewed the U.S.S.R. with a mix of horror and wonder. The USSR was rapidly industrializing and increasing its military power. It presented a challenge to countries with capitalist economies whose people were experiencing high levels of unemployment. (Connect: Write a paragraph connecting the USSR with the ideology of Marxism. See Topic 5.8.)
Party Rule in Mexico The economy took a different direction in Mexico. The Mexican revolution saw the emergence of one strong political party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. This party dominated Mexican politics for most of the 20th century. The Mexican political system has often been called corporatist since the ruling PRI party claimed favors, such as access to primary education and jobs created through improvements to infrastructure, for its constituents.
During PRI’s rule, there was a vast improvement in the economy, especially in the period from 1930 to the 1970s. In the 1930s, efforts at land reform were successful under Lázaro Cárdenas. In 1938, for example, his regime nationalized the country’s mostly foreign-owned oil industry, angering foreign investors. This company, Petróleos Mexicanos or PEMEX, became the second largest state-owned company in the world. Despite these reforms, however, the interwar period did not see dramatic changes in Mexico’s social hierarchy.