Colonies, The Industrial Revolution, and USSR

Author: Sayan Biswas

For Contact: biswas.sayan@iitgn.ac.in

The Industrial Revolution with the advent of the steam engine in the British empire was indeed a major step taking humanity forward. In many ways, we have studied and analyzed the role of heavy and small-scale industries in society. We have seen growth and prosperous industrial economies and withering agricultural states. The story of the Industrial revolution can indeed stretch over a long period even after the first outburst that mechanized a segment of human jobs. Regions in continents like Asia and Africa haven’t yet experienced industrialization and improvement of living standards; thanks to colonization and indirect imperialism that kept sucking on the wealth and potential of these nations to fuel the industrial revolution back home. It must also be understood that with the mechanization of jobs comes a new brand of socio-economic conditions. And to deal with new social conditions, new politics and movements arise.

Labor movements inspired by socialism or communism are not a thing that can be attributed to as an outcome of the industrial revolution. Karl Marx in his writings pointed towards how proto-communism or ideas similar to them were practiced and lived by human beings in multiple societies at points in time. Marx referred to historic humans who were hunters and gatherers as to be proto-communists, i.e. a cashless, classless, borderless society with each according to his ability to each according to his needs. We shall thus look into how mechanization has led to the transfer of jobs from labor to machines.

The agricultural sector that historically had the largest share of any nation, saw major growth of technologies and biological supplements. New forms of transportation, such as mechanized mills, tractors, cheaper and widespread availability of tools gave a boom to agricultural output. During World War II, the creation of fertilizers by using nitrogen gas extracted from the atmosphere by Haber’s process largely saved the continent from facing a famine. The industrial revolution, mostly driven by the invention of the steam engine, was a simple thermodynamic device that converts thermal energy created by burning fuel such as oil and coal to produce mechanical work. Railways, transportation such as cars and naval vessels, factories, mills, printing presses, and many more were the major benefactors of the invention. Eventually, it led to a better interconnection between cities, which gave birth to uncontrolled free trade. It can be said that these advanced societies raised living standards, but we must be careful to say that they raised the living standards of a few societies. We must not forget that these improvements on one side of the planet came at the cost of others. There have been colony regions that were famine struck but mercilessly left to starve just to fill up reserve grain stocks. Bengal was one of the victims and had seen large losses of lives due to unequal distribution of food grains, which led to devastating famines.

Proportionate distribution and lesser greed might have been able to prevent these. But historically, imperialism in its sense has always been oppressive and parasitic to its victims, and thus the least expected from them, the better. The textile industries were revolutionized with the introduction of devices mechanizing spinning and weaving. Manufacturing thus in total saw exponential growth with the British empire having more readymade products to export to other countries. This filled their treasuries over time building a moderately prosperous society at the cost of its colonies. Jute mills, textile industries, and numerous handicraft artists in India were largely pushed out of the market since they could not simply keep up with the pace of machine-made goods.

Dissent is a normal outcome of these given initial conditions, which in a way or other after an intense struggle of different colonies, including India, got freed from the parasitic British Imperialism. One can safely bet that oppression of subjects (often if they form the majority in the population) is a common trait of imperialism and monarchies. Marx and Engels’ Communist Manifesto provides a critique of the existing world with a promise of a centrally planned society that aims to provide human rights such as education, healthcare, freedom, and choice. Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, an experiment that lasted sixty-nine years-long, ended up achieving and losing lots of things. The starting might have been rough (also unnoticed by many) since when the union was created, the United States and other powers landed troops on Soviet lands to invade the capital and overthrow the Soviet government. We would further explore the political and economic thoughts that eventually led to the Russian revolution, establishing the USSR. However, just for an introduction, we can point out the good things that the union achieved. As per CIA reports, the average Soviet citizen ate in equal amounts compared to American citizens. The report also mentions that the Soviet diet might have been more nutritious in comparison to the US diet.[2] The cheap claims that paint the USSR as a famine-stricken state, where there are food shortages regularly, are far from true. This condition ironically however was quite seen in countries with uncontrolled free markets, during the coronavirus pandemic.

The USSR has been quite successful in providing universal health care for its citizens[3], which many leaders nowadays promise in their election manifestos. Housing prices that we see today were not an issue in the USSR. The centrally planned economy ensured inexpensive housing facilities to a wide range of its citizens. Income inequality between the rich and the poor were maintained and a fairly growing economy that in short transformed an agricultural state with most of its population illiterate, to a space power in thirty years. The scientific and engineering contributions to humanity by the USSR have been tremendous. Although biased critics would not wait to point at the fall of the USSR while ignoring the vicious attempts of the United States government and its allies to bring down the union and the amount of pressure created on the union due to the cold war which led to an increasing amount of military budget share.

References and Bibliography:

1. Image; “https://www.britannica.com/story/the-rise-of-the-machines-pros-and-cons-of-the-industrial-revolution”.

2. CIA Report; Diet; “https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP85M00363R000601440024-5.pdf”.

3. Soviet Socialized Medicine; JSTOR; “https://www.jstor.org/stable/762424?seq=3#metadata_info_tab_contents”.