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Communism and Geography

Communism, the political and economic regime characterized by a command economy and singleparty rule dominated by the members of the Communist Party, wrought significant effects on the cultural, urban, economic, and physical geography of communist-ruled states in both Europe and Asia. While there are differences between the way communist goals were pursued in the Soviet Union after World War I and in Eastern Europe and Asia in the second half of the 20th century, there are a number of commonalities. Because of the control exercised by the Party, communist countries were able to be single-minded in their pursuit of goals, as exemplified by the proliferation of Five Year Plans, especially in the areas of industrialization, agricultural restructuring, and urban morphology.

Industrialization

One of the most striking aspects of communist rule, especially in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, was the implementation of quick and massive industrialization. While there had been some industrial development in Russia and Eastern Europe prior to World War II, notably in Poland and Czechoslovakia, Stalin implemented an aggressive program of rapid industrialization to raise the USSR to the level of the advanced capitalist countries within 10 years with specific focus on heavy industry and defense. Estimates of the annual growth in industrial production during the first two Five Year Plans (1928–1937) range from 10.5% to 18%, with dramatic increases in power production, blast furnace capacity, steel production, capital stocks, and factories. After World War II, industry remained a priority, with the development of industrial complexes, especially east of the Ural Mountains and in Central Asia. These sites, such as the one in Ust Ilimsk, featured natural resource extraction, huge factories, and large cities built often ex nihilo. Rapid industrialization was also undertaken in the satellite states so that former agricultural countries such as Hungary and Poland witnessed the development of industrial centers where once there were only small towns.

In China, the government also undertook nationalization and rapid industrialization once communist control was established in 1949. During the 1950s, China increased production in the industrial sector with annual growth rates of 8% to 10%, though small-scale rural industrialization also received special attention. During the Great Leap Forward (1958–1961), for example, “backyard furnaces” were developed to smelt scrap iron, though this proved to be untenable. This period of experimentation resulted in reverses in industrial growth and negative effects on agricultural production as a result of the diversion of labor. However, the groundwork for more successful small-scale and rural development was laid, and the 1960s and 1970s witnessed the creation of rural factories and widespread electrification through hydroelectric power production. The controversial building of the Three Gorges Dam is the latest chapter in providing power for the country.

Collectivization

Communist states also pursued collectivization, effectively nationalizing agriculture into large cooperatives. In the USSR, Stalin implemented an ambitious program with two aims: to destroy the power of the kulaks (wealthy landowning peasants) and to increase yields to provide food for the growing urban workforce. The number of agricultural workers declined from 72 million in the mid 1920s to between 48 million and 53 million in 1939. Both state farms and collective farms existed, and strict production quotas were imposed. Peasants were allowed individual garden plots, which, because of their high productivity, were an important piece of the Soviet agricultural picture. The results of collectivization, especially during the first Five Year Plan and again in the period after World War II, were less than successful. While production of cotton and potatoes increased, livestock numbers dropped precipitously, and large-scale famines occurred in grain-producing areas such as the Ukraine in the early 1930s and again in the 1950s. Despite this, agricultural growth was on par with that in the rest of the world throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In the Soviet satellite states, collectivization was also imposed with varying degrees of intensity.

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