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1918 - 1991
            (1918-1991) During a civil war that immediately ensued, the  western powers (and Japan, with no loans but seeking territorial  influence) sought to make an environment suitable for keeping their debt  being serviced, but to no avail. The period up to 1929 saw, initially, a  socialist theoretical abrogation of all foreign debt by decree and civil war  until 1922, and then a period for restoring its wholly traumatized  agriculture until 1929.  1922 saw the beginning of secret military  cooperation with Germany which lasted until 1933. The Communist Party  leadership went through changes and great policy discussions with no  real set plans in place but with Stalin emerging in sole control by 1927.   Then, in 1929, a plan was implemented called the socialization of  agriculture, which started a domino-effect.  Step 1 was the removal of a  percentage of the people off the farms by force and replacing them with,  in theory, western mechanization/greater labor efficiency, calling the  remaining farms collectivized under State management.  Step 2  was to  move these freed-up farm bodies (and those from cities as well who were  deemed monarchist, religious, intellectual, parasitic, malcontents,  etc.)   into places where natural resources needed to be harvested and/or where  new cities and industrial facilities needed development.  (*KEY*) The  main leg-men of this policy were often the orphans who had survived  WW-1 and The Civil War and who had been traumatized into accepting  cruelty as normal.  Stalin sought out this group as they were deemed  reliable and they needed “security.”  The cost of this labor and the raw  materials involved is of course very low or nothing in this new command  society.  When Ukrainian farmers resisted this, their seed grain was taken  away and several million died.  (*KEY*) Between  1929-1939, Stalin undid  a bureaucratic system that had been in place since the 1720’s; even that  old system had its roots in the Mongolian system.  (*KEY*) Everyone  worked under fear of prescribed production-or-death under his sole  command and under an ever-changing agenda.  (*KEY*) This replaced  the old system of bribery, connections, and talent being important in no  particular order while working at a super-sloth-like pace.  Death and  replacement didn’t sit well for these generally kind and reserved people.   So, lots of people died in various places under different circumstances  while powerful command infrastructures evolved under Stalin’s exclusive  control.  Earlier, Stalin had been the Commissar of Nationalities and had  come to realize the potential of moving the masses forcibly.  The loss of  theoretically expendable lives was cost effective but even today many  STILL lament and mourn the great loss of life.  Russia went back to  collaborating with Germany again in 1939 via formal treaty.  Hereafter  immediately began mass exiling  of different nationalities  to keep feeding  the labor camps. Baltic populations, Volga Germans, and Caucasians  mainly were packed off and their homelands occupied by Russians who,  along with all other nationalities, were conveniently referred to as Soviets.   Stalin’s strategies softened a bit with the onset of World War 2 for morale  purposes, but of course death intensified and increased at an even  
greater rate.  Food became a real problem.  Foreign provisions (and fish from the  world’s largest fresh-water lake, Baikal in Siberia---though it almost was fished out)  helped.  After ww-2 Stalin went right back to his old strategies and the population  became even more weakened, obedient and resigned.  After the war, Stalin claimed  all of Eastern Europe and a portion of Germany as the beginning of a world socialist  vision, as well as to compensate for Soviet lives and infrastructure lost.  He kept  portions of the army there and imported Russians.  (*KEY*-*KEY*) This policy was  made more effective troop/citizenry concentration-wise because the western powers,  chiefly the U.S.A., denied him continued access to northern China (previously  occupied by the Japanese and Soviet occupied IMMEDIATELY after May 1945) and  the Persian Gulf region by threatening him with its then-exclusive A-Bomb.  (*KEY*)  Russians always respect force.  Stalin did get to take all of Sakhalin Island and the  Kurile Islands from the Japanese---the latter subject (southernmost Kuriles) is still a  major stumbling block between Russia and Japan today.   In Eastern Europe,  Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1969) resisted against Soviet  occupation/influence, albeit meekly.  The USSR’s water-polo team even physically  assaulted/bloodied Hungary’s team during the 1956 Olympic games in Melbourne.   Long after Stalin’s death in 1953, many of his management disciples still use his  personal interpretations of socialism very effectively in Eastern Europe and Central  Asia.  His greatest disciple, however, was Mao Tse Tung.  Today, China, a completely  agriculturally evolved country, most interestingly and very effectively employs the  exact same techniques of slave labor and nationalistic minority dilution through forced  intervention/blending.  After WW-2 and continuing on through the 70’s, there was an  emphasis on the lowest-cost-possible restoration and expansion of basic living  conditions, electrification (hydroelectric dams and railroads, especially)/transport  infrastructure, and the establishment of a military-industrial complex.  The raw  materials for all of these were free of charge and the same can almost be said for  labor.  This equates to the entire citizenry (except for party members) living the same  way: equally low salaries and living standards.  People accepted this as a necessary  step to a brighter future as promised by Soviet Socialist wisdom.  Unfortunately, they  couldn’t know that money was continuing to pour out of their pockets/purses to pay  for things like (domestically) the central Asian irrigation scheme and the BAM Railway  (many 10’s of billions of dollars, USD, typical) and (internationally) spreading the word  of command socialism world-wide, especially in Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Asias ( twice as many 10’s of billions of dollars, no one knows for sure) via free weapons  export, etc.  The period of 1963-1985 is often called a period of overall domestic   stagnation  as a result.  As Soviet citizenry began to realize their increasing societal  and economic ineffectiveness, there were more and more problematic discussions  about donating labor without benefit.  The increasingly open discussions about more  and more issues got blown out on a monster scale by the Chernobyl tragedy.   Everyone realized that talk, along with the value of everything else, was cheap in the  USSR and by 1990, the entire society had lost its inertia and momentum: worn-  out/outdated infrastructure, degradation of easily-accessible raw materials, a  disgruntled, low-paid work force,  but mainly, no REAL money or viable plan for the  future beyond 5 years at the most.  The USSR collapsed.