African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1488 Rapid Development

Moscow.

Moscow was extremely prosperous in 1930. When European and American countries collectively fell into economic crisis, other major cities in the world were almost in a doomsday scene. Businesses went bankrupt, workers lost their jobs, the number of homeless people increased sharply, and most citizens had sad faces.

However, Moscow, the central city of the Red Empire, showed a completely different vitality. A large number of enterprises were built, everyone had their own responsibilities, and were full of expectations for the future.

This is the conclusion drawn by East African scholar Yekov after visiting many European cities. He said to the Soviet "tour guide" Vidnoye next to him: "This year I have been to cities such as London, Paris and Berlin, but except for Paris, most of these cities are deeply trapped in the abyss of economic crisis. Even if French cities such as Paris have survived, they still give me a sense of decadence and decadence. Only every region in the Soviet Union seems to be full of vitality and prosperity. As for the United States... I think its situation should be even worse."

Although Yekov has not visited the United States in person, as the center of this round of economic crisis and the country where the economic crisis first broke out, there are various real reports. He dares to conclude that the situation in the United States is the worst among industrial countries today.

In the past, during this period of time, the worst-off industrial country was Germany. After all, Americans could at least rely on government relief and the vast land to have food to eat, while the German people, burdened with huge debts, had no extra choices and could only go all the way with the German extreme political parties.

Of course, Germany's situation in this economic crisis will still not be very good, especially as time goes on, the problems they will face will become more and more serious. Among the top countries in the world, German industry is in the first echelon, but the markets they control are limited and their colonies are almost zero.

Vidnoye is not very concerned about the plight of European and American capitalist countries. Now the whole world knows that the European and American economies have been hit hard, but there is no bad news from East Africa, one of the most powerful countries in the world.

So he asked Yekov, "Mr. Yekov, what about your country?"

Yekov has no aversion to his motherland. He said with a little pride: "East Africa has indeed been affected by the economic crisis. However, our country, like the Soviet Union, is a relatively young country in the world. East Africa is still in a period of vigorous development. Although it also faces many problems and challenges, these problems and challenges are relatively easy to overcome as far as the current situation is concerned."

"So that's how it is..." Vidnoye exclaimed, "That's really good!"

In fact, Vidnoye felt a little regretful in his heart. As a Soviet, he actually had a dark wish in his heart to see all capitalist countries fall into trouble. Unfortunately, now, not only East Africa, but even some countries such as France have not been affected too much.

Objectively speaking, there is actually no big problem with this mentality. After all, if a person hopes that his country is better off than other countries, this is positive, and human society is meant to pursue progress.

Of course, the best outcome would be like the Cold War era in the previous life, when both the United States and the Soviet Union were positive and motivated to promote progress throughout the world. On the other hand, all countries would compete to be the worst, and there would be an even worse outcome, where everyone would just start fighting, just like in medieval Europe.

At this stage, although the Soviet Union is booming, Vidnoye has to admit that there is a huge gap between the Soviet Union and other top powers. However, this gap is narrowing at an alarming rate.

So, overall, Vidnoye is full of confidence in his motherland. He no longer worries about the situation in East Africa and honestly does his job as a tour guide.

Vidnoye told Yekov: "East Africa is the second largest country in the world, and the Soviet Union is the largest. Although our two countries have differences in the choice of path, I also hope that both countries can have a bright future."

In 1930, there was no answer to the question of who was the world's largest country. For example, Britain, together with its colonies, had the largest area and population in the world. Its industrial strength and resource endowment were also not weak. However, Britain was unable to fully mobilize these areas, population and resources.

Excluding colonies, the Soviet Union had the largest area in the world and had huge advantages in resources. At least the resource endowment of East Africa was not a little bit worse than that of the Soviet Union, especially in energy and minerals. The oil of East Africa was certainly not as good as that of the Soviet Union, or even the United States, Canada and other countries. Although there was no shortage of coal in East Africa, it was not abundant either.

In terms of population, the Soviet Union is not as impressive as it used to be. The Far Eastern Empire undoubtedly ranks first in the world, followed by India, then East Africa, and finally the Soviet Union. However, the Soviet Union's land area is much larger than that of East Africa.

In terms of industry, East Africa, the United States and Germany have an almost cliff-like lead over other countries. However, the Soviet Union has made rapid progress in industry.

Vidnoye introduced Yekov, “Moscow has always been one of the largest cities in Europe. However, in the imperial Russian era, it was far behind Leningrad, the former St. Petersburg. Now, under the great leadership of the Soviet Labor Party, the city has not only expanded rapidly in size and has become the largest city in the Soviet Union, but is also rapidly industrializing and modernizing.”

"Today, Moscow's population is close to three million. In terms of population alone, it ranks fourth in Europe, after London, Berlin and Paris. Leningrad's population has also grown to more than one million."

Leningrad, also known as St. Petersburg, was severely damaged during World War I. Before the war, St. Petersburg was the largest city in Russia with a population of more than two million. However, by the middle and late stages of World War I, its population had dropped sharply to only more than 700,000.

This is easy to understand. St. Petersburg is a city on the Baltic Sea coast, but the country with the strongest Baltic navy is Germany. Therefore, during World War I, St. Petersburg obviously could not give the Russians a sense of security. A large number of people fled, and coupled with the subsequent war, at the end of World War I, the population of St. Petersburg may not even be 700,000.

Next, the Russian Labor Party regime was established and the capital became Moscow, which was undoubtedly another blow to the city of St. Petersburg.

Of course, the Soviet Union obviously still attached great importance to this city. This was reflected in the fact that it was named after the "Father of the Nation" of the Soviet Union. Today, the population of Leningrad is about 1.5 million. Although it cannot be compared with the imperial Russian era, this means that in the past ten years, the population of Leningrad has increased by more than 700,000, doubling, which is still quite exaggerated.

However, Moscow's performance is even more amazing. In 1920, Moscow's population was just over one million, but now it is close to three million, which means that in the past ten years, Moscow's population has increased by almost two million. The population of Mombasa, the largest city in East Africa, has just exceeded two million, which means that Moscow has almost increased the population of Mombasa. The Soviet Union's performance in urbanization is even more outstanding. In 1920, the urbanization rate of the Soviet Union was about 1929%, and in , it had reached %, which means that in the past ten years, the urbanization rate of the Soviet Union has increased by about ten percentage points. East Africa only achieved this development speed during World War I.

World War I lasted for five years, and East Africa reaped a large amount of war dividends, but the Soviet Union obviously did not receive such treatment. In the 1920s, World War I had ended, not to mention the economic blockade of the Soviet Union by countries around the world. Under such circumstances, the Soviet Union's urbanization rate increased to 30%.

This also fully confirms the Soviet Union's tremendous achievements in national construction in the past decade. After all, the first two five-year plans in East Africa did not show the exaggerated urbanization growth rate of the Soviet Union.

The rapid development in the past decade has also laid a good foundation for the implementation of the Soviet Union's current industrial plan. Therefore, the First Five-Year Plan and the Second Five-Year Plan of the Soviet Union transformed the Soviet Union from an agricultural country to an industrial country. In essence, this is the result of the Soviet Union's accumulation of strength. Without the hard work and careful preparation in the 1920s, the final effect of the Soviet Union's first two five-year plans would have been greatly reduced.

The early preparations also meant that the effect of the Soviet Union’s economic development was not obvious, but the great significance of this period to the long-term development of the Soviet Union cannot be ignored.

Therefore, the specific time for the Soviet Union to transform from an agricultural country to an industrial country should be close to twenty years. It was by no means a brilliant transformation that was completed directly by implementing two five-year plans, or even the effect of the two five-year plans was mythologized.

Just like East Africa, without the various efforts and preparations in the mid-to-late 19th century, it would have been impossible to achieve the miracle of economic rise in the early 20th century.

Today, although the population size of Moscow cannot represent the urban development of the entire Soviet Union, it fully demonstrates the tremendous progress made by the Soviet Union in economic and industrial development in the past decade. Most of the two million new residents in Moscow come from rural areas.

Vidnoye said proudly: "Along with the population growth, the Soviet Union's industrialization has developed by leaps and bounds, such as the Moscow Automobile Plant, the Moscow Electric Plant, etc."

The Moscow Automobile Plant was also one of the important projects in the Soviet Union's First Five-Year Plan, but the predecessor of this automobile factory had already begun construction during the Imperial Russian Era. However, at that time, Imperial Russia was only two years away from collapse.

In the 1920s, the Moscow Automobile Plant had already achieved certain development under the leadership of the Soviet government. In the First Five-Year Plan, it would be more accurate to say that the Moscow Automobile Plant was not newly built, but rather modernized and expanded.

In addition, there is a series of supporting factories to produce parts for the Moscow Automobile Plant, which has become one of the most symbolic industrial projects during Moscow's First Five-Year Plan.

The Moscow Electric Plant, like the Moscow Automobile Plant, was also a key project during the First Five-Year Plan, but it had already existed before and was also being renovated and expanded this time.

Both factories prove one thing, that is, the Soviet Union had already started its own industrialization construction long before the First Five-Year Plan, but was constrained by the conditions at the time, such as insufficient technology and personnel, so it was difficult to achieve significant results.

Another similar company is the Moscow Red Proletarian Machine Tool Plant, which can be traced back to the end of the 19th century. However, although the automobile factory and electrical appliance factory were built in the Imperial Russian era, they were almost all built on the eve of the fall of the Imperial Russian Empire. Subsequent development was basically led by the Soviet government. The machine tool factory can be regarded as the real industrial heritage left over from the Imperial Russian Empire.

In addition to the wealth accumulated by Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union, there were also new things during the Soviet Union's First Five-Year Plan, such as the Moscow Bearing Factory, Kapolit Chemical Plant, Moscow Chemical Plant, etc. Most of the projects did appear for the first time.

For example, the Moscow Bearing Factory, its main product is ball bearings, which are used in high-end machinery manufacturing industries such as automobiles and aircraft, filling the gap in the production of precision parts in the Soviet Union. This also means that before the Soviet Union's First Five-Year Plan, whether in the Imperial Russian era or the Soviet period, this industry was not distributed in the entire Soviet region, and it could only rely on foreign imports.

The purpose of building the Capolite Chemical Plant was to produce chemical products such as synthetic rubber. Synthetic rubber was undoubtedly a very cutting-edge new industry, not only in the Soviet Union, but also in the world.

However, the construction of this factory also proved the bankruptcy of the East African government's conspiracy. Before this, East Africa did not restrict rubber exports to the Soviet Union in order to delay the development of the Soviet synthetic rubber industry. But the factory was still built during the Soviet Union's first five-year plan. This also shows the Soviet Union's distrust of capitalist countries. In this regard, the East African government can only say that it is very good at judging people. East Africa did not restrict rubber exports to the Soviet Union, which was indeed not well-intentioned.

From the engineering projects of Moscow's First Five-Year Plan, we can conclude that the Soviet industrial projects did include the old capital of the Russian Empire, the introduction of technology from other countries, the Soviet Union's own accumulation in the 1920s, and new independent innovations.

Vidnoye proudly said to Yekov: "In another ten years, the Soviet Union will surely become one of the most powerful countries in the world, and Moscow will surely become the world's largest city. In addition, we also have Leningrad, Kiev, Stalingrad, Odessa, Magnitogorsk and other emerging industrial cities. In less than twenty years, the Soviet Union will become one of the most developed industrial countries in the world, with the same size as East Africa and the United States."

Yekov also expressed his approval of the picture described by Vidnoye: "If the Soviet Union can continue to develop at this speed, then in 20 years, it is possible that it will surpass Germany and become one of the world's three largest industrial countries, and may even surpass the United States."

"The United States is now in the midst of an industrial crisis, with a large number of companies going bankrupt and industrial capacity shrinking. Although Germany's industry is more developed, its scale is too small and it is relatively short of energy and minerals."

Of course, Yekov did not mention East Africa. In his opinion, it would be very difficult for the Soviet Union to surpass East Africa. After all, East Africa's population was tens of millions more than that of the Soviet Union, and it had huge growth potential. Its industrial development had also been fast. It would be almost impossible for the Soviet Union to surpass East Africa in the industrial field for at least twenty years.

Moreover, Yekov did not take into account one point, that is, there is a high probability that the Soviet Union will not always have the opportunity for peaceful development like it does today. If we extrapolate according to the timeline of the previous life, ten years later, it would be Germany that would declare war on the Soviet Union, so there is a high probability that the Soviet Union would not have twenty years of continuous development.

A war between Germany and the Soviet Union was inevitable because the two sides had direct conflicts of interest in Central and Eastern Europe, and both countries regarded it as their core interests.

(End of this chapter)