The industralisation of the U.S.S.R under Stalin

Stalin stated“…those who fall behind get beaten. But we do not want to be beaten. No, we refuse to be beaten! One feature of the history of old Russia was the continual beatings she suffered because of her backwardness. She was beaten by the Mongol khans. She was beaten by the Turkish beys. She was beaten by the Swedish feudal lords. She was beaten by the Polish and Lithuanian gentry. She was beaten by the British and French capitalists. She was beaten by the Japanese barons. All beat her because of her backwardness, military backwardness, cultural backwardness, political backwardness, industrial backwardness…” (Internet Site 3). If Joseph Stalin had not introduced measures to rapidly industrialise Russia before Nazi Germany invaded in June 1941, Russia would have completely defeated and its army swiftly destroyed as it would not have had the military weaponry or hardware to fight back against the superior Wehrmacht. Historians argue that if Stalin, the brutal leader of the Uni...