Fantastic Growth!

Economics And Us

Stanford political science professor Michael McFaul served on the National Security Council and as US Ambassador to Russia under President Obama. He has written several books, including the New York Times bestseller From Cold War to Hot Peace. His most recent book is Autocrats vs. Democrats — China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder. In this book, Professor McFaul points out that during the 1930’s, the US endured a crushing depression, “…while Stalin’s communist system generated fantastic growth..” (page 331).

During the 1930’s, Joseph Stalin’s policies to transform Russia from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy caused murder, famine, repression, and brutality on a historically horrifying scale. Stalin’s policies toward the grain-growing regions of Soviet Russia and Kazakhstan caused mass starvation. Between 1931 and 1934, an estimated 5 million people died of man-made famine.

The famine originated in Stalin’s decision to collectivize agriculture in 1929. Stalin sent out teams of Communist Party members who forced peasants at gun point to give up their land and property to collective farms. Those who resisted were shot, imprisoned, deported. People…