Question

What factors contributed to industrialisation in Russia in the last quarter of the 19th century?

Answer 1

The timing, immediately after the first world war, was to gain military power. The soviet government saw the need for a strong industrial economy in order to compete in war (rising importance of aircraft, extremely heavy battleships, army tanks and artillery, personal weapons, trucks and industrial farming to feed armies) and determined to convert Russia from a feudal agricultural economy into an industrialized economy. Once the decision was made Stalin brutally implemented it sparing nothing and no-one to achieve the aim. It is still surprising how well they succeeded though. Within 25 short years the Russian economy had changed from feudal agriculture to industrial so powerful it produced more tons of military tanks than any other nation, its own effective ground-attack aircraft, and much else to a point where it is easily arguable that Russia, with some logistical support from allied countries single-handedly won WWII.

Answer 2

How or why some agrarian societies have evolved into industrial states is not always fully understood. What is certainly known, though, is that the changes that took place in Great Britain during the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and 19th centuries provided a prototype for the early industrializing nations of western Europe and North America. Along with its technological components , the process of industrialization entailed profound social developments. The freeing of the labourer from feudal and customary obligations created a free market in labour, with a pivotal role for a specific social type, the entrepreneur. Cities drew large numbers of people off the land, massing workers in the new industrial towns and factories.