RUSSIA
Geography
History
Geographic features
Issues during the Soviet Union
Climate
Collectivized agriculture
Five-Year Plans
USSR went against comparative advantage
A way to be more efficient and save money (in theory) by manufacturing goods that would last 5 years at a time through calculating how many of those goods the population would need. After manufacturing one good, the factories would switch over to a different product and produce enough of it to last five years once more.
State owns the land and is in charge of distributing the products. Food is distributed "equally".
Ways Russia benefits from climate change
Ways that climate conditions limit Russia
Very cold - short growing season and drought
Opens up transportation routes and resources because the Arctic ice cap is melting
Longer growing seasons, permafrost melting means access to chernozem
number 1 industry: export of fossil fuels/natural gas
Permafrost seals in chernozem (very rich soil) so Russia cannot access it for growing food
Russia spans 11 time zones
Vladimir Lenin - 1st non-Tsar and leader of the Soviet Union. He was well liked - symbol of hope after long period of monarchy
Joseph Stalin - Not very well liked by the people because of his "purges" - sent people to do hard labor in Siberia
Five year plans do not work because "shit happens" - things break or get lost and this estimated number for production becomes inaccurate. If people have limited resources, they start to steal from each other
Leads to starvation because everyone receives the same amount of food, no matter how hard they work, so farmers were not incentivized to work. Less food is produced, which leads to starvation
Urbanites received more food than the farmers, so farmers were dying off at especially high rates. Ukraine, as the breadbasket of the USSR, lost a large portion of their population to this starvation because they were largely farmers. They consider this to be genocide.
Chernobyl
Chernobyl Nuclear power plant exploded in Pripyat, Ukraine
No incentivization to do good work under communism, so the building of the nuclear reactor was done poorly and led to the explosion
Ukraine, especially the town of Pripyat, was irradiated
Wind spread radiation all throughout Europe, affecting other countries. Also radiated livestock and produce, meaning that the radiation could spread even farther
Nuclear energy can be harnessed safely
Creates interdependence amongst SSR countries because they cannot survive economically without each other. They will never want to leave the USSR if they don't have the infrastructure to survive independently
Ural Mountains - divides Russia into two continental identities (West = Europe, East = Asia)
Most people live in the Western portion
Russia built their infrastructure on permafrost, but now that it is melting the infrastructure is sinking and breaking apart
Mainly D climate, is looking for C climate
Russia invaded Crimea because they wanted to take advantage of the C climate here
War in Afghanistan is not why Soviet Union collapsed, it was just the last thing they could handle
Countries would be forced to create products that did not make sense for their geography and resources. These products would then have to be shipped through Moscow before they could be received at any other SSR country