Militarization is one of the reasons for the collapse of socialism in the USSR

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:54

Protection of borders and ensuring the safety of citizens is one of the main functions of the state. Military spending is a certain part of the state budget of any country. Their value is formed on the basis of two main parameters. The first of them and the main one is the degree of external threat that the country feels. The second is set by the capabilities of the national economy, in particular by the value of the gross domestic product (GDP). "Guns or butter?" - such a question was repeatedly asked by the leaders of their peoples, although they did not always want to hear an honest answer.

Militarization is an excessive increase in the share of military spending. It can be caused by a number of reasons, both external and domestic.

Leo Trotsky, arguing at the IX Congress of the RCP(b) with Vl. Smirnov on the issues of transferring the economy of the young Soviet republic to a military footing, insisted that peasant and industrial labor should be organized according to the same principles as the army service, justifying such an approach with a hostile environment. Moreover, the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council believed that militarization was only a half measure, and was a supporter of the mobilization of the entire able-bodied population into labor armies.

The situation in the country in those years was similar to the situation in a besieged fortress. At the same time, the task was not to defend, but to spread Marxism to as large territories as possible with the prospect of involving all countries on the planet in the socialist union.

The priority development of heavy industry, which was the result of the industrialization course adopted in the 1920s, was aimed at creating a production base that would allow the production of weapons in hitherto unknown quantities. The overall energy intensity of the national economy has increased significantly, which required the construction of a fundamentally new energy complex. All these measures were not aimed at improving the welfare of the population, on the contrary, the people were required to tighten their belts.

This approach required the priority development of the military-industrial complex. Actually, militarization in the USSR was not limited to the fact that certain enterprises produced defense products. Almost all of the country's production facilities were involved in the process of preparing for the war. For many decades, at every plant or factory, part of the products was accepted by the military specialist, regardless of profile and departmental affiliation.

The radio engineering, clothing, food, tractor and machine-building industries worked primarily for defense. Consumer goods were produced on a leftover basis. This was how covert militarization was carried out. This phenomenon weighed heavily onSoviet economy, selecting the best specialists and truly huge resources.

Special words deserve the militarization of outer space. The world's first satellite was launched into orbit by an intercontinental military rocket designed to deliver nuclear warheads to a target. Thus, the priority of the USSR in the development of near-Earth space is due to the achievements of the defense industry.

Most of the Soviet passenger liners were created on the constructive basis of strategic bombers or military transport aircraft.

The burden of military spending ultimately turned out to be unbearable even for a country as rich in natural and human resources as the USSR. Over-militarization is one of the reasons why the socialist economy failed.