Chapter 1537 Settlement of the Soviet Union's First Five-Year Plan
There is no doubt that the three options of the Soviet Union, the National Party and the Habsburgs were not good options in the eyes of the various ethnic groups in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If possible, the various ethnic groups and regions within the Austro-Hungarian Empire would prefer autonomy. However, history in the past has shown that without the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the countries and peoples originally on the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire would be worse off than those in neighboring countries.
Therefore, maintaining the operation of the empire is very important for all ethnic groups and regions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Without a unified country, this land will immediately become a place for other major powers to compete and become a natural battlefield.
The Soviet Union, Germany, Britain, France, and even East Africa would support their respective agents and then start a huge fight in the local area.
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1932 was undoubtedly a proud year for the Soviet Union, because this was the year when the Soviet Union's first five-year plan was completed and settled.
In the past few years, the great economic crisis in the capitalist world and the vigorous development of the Soviet Union have formed a sharp contrast, which has greatly shaped the confidence of the Soviet people.
Rhine City.
Ernst looked curiously at the various reports on Soviet economic development in recent years collected in his hands, most of which were German translations of Soviet official newspapers.
Unlike the East African industrial plan that was kept secret, Soviet officials have made no secret of their economic achievements in recent years and have publicized them extensively.
In an article titled "Five-Year Plan Completed in Four Years" in Izvestia, its leader Joseph declared: "The Soviet Union's first five-year plan was completed one year ahead of schedule."
In his previous life, Joseph said nine months. There is no doubt that the Soviet Union implemented the 15th period better in this time and space than in his previous life, otherwise Joseph would not have been so confident to say so.
However, in Ernst's opinion, both statements are most likely exaggerated, or they intentionally cover up some domestic problems in the Soviet Union and only focus on describing the Soviet Union's construction achievements.
Of course, this official Soviet approach was not necessarily bad, because the Soviet regime needed to build the confidence of the domestic people.
As the only labor party regime in the world, the Soviet Union had a history of only twenty years. There was no precedent for their development, and even many Soviet labor party members did not know whether they could continue on this path.
Therefore, they are extremely eager for "victory" to prove the feasibility of this path.
Without considering this aspect, there is nothing wrong with the Soviet Union's approach. After all, other countries also do this in the field of public opinion propaganda. For example, East Africa will definitely not be true to facts when reporting on domestic affairs. East Africa also needs to unify consensus and rally the people's hearts.
"Father, the data in these Soviet newspapers may have some problems, but they are not much different from what we estimated. It seems that the Soviet Union has indeed undergone tremendous changes compared to Tsarist Russia, especially in the field of industrialization." Friedrich said with interest.
Countries around the world are very interested in the development of the Soviet Union, so it is impossible for East Africa not to investigate the Soviet Union. Crown Prince Friedrich knows more about the development of the Soviet Union than even some Soviet people.
Ernst said: "The Soviet system has its merits. At least at this stage, the Soviet Union should be the most efficient country in the world. They can fully mobilize all resources and invest in industrial construction."
"With everyone working together towards a common goal, it would be strange if Soviet industry had not achieved such great results."
"Besides, the Soviet Union is a young country now, so it is easy for it to achieve results. The difficulty is whether the Soviet Union can continue to maintain this state."
"Just like us, East Africa's industrial development also made rapid progress during the implementation of the first five-year plan. However, when the empire developed to a certain extent, the role of planning was greatly reduced. With each subsequent step, the difficulty increased further. The Soviet Union will also encounter this situation in the future."
Friedrich also deeply agreed with this point. In the early stages of industrialization, it was easy for East Africa to achieve economic success as long as it increased industrial output. However, after East Africa entered the 1920s, it had to make various economic adjustments to adapt to the new stage of development.
After all, the market is limited. Before completing industrialization, the demand of East Africa’s domestic market can meet the needs of rapid domestic industrialization. After East Africa has initially completed industrialization, the domestic market will be saturated. If it wants to develop further, it must "go out".
To put it more bluntly, it is "to seize the world market." If East African companies and products want to enter the markets of other countries, it is not just an economic issue, but more importantly a political issue.
Just like in the past, the military industrial products of the Far Eastern Empire are lower in price and better in quality, but many countries still choose American weapons and equipment. This is a political issue, not a market issue.
Therefore, in order to open up the markets of other countries, it is sometimes necessary to resort to political or even military means.
East Africa has done the same. In recent years, it has continuously strengthened its cooperation with other countries in the world, or resorted to violent means to forcibly occupy overseas markets. Bolivia is an example.
This is the logic of the world market: the strong prey on the weak. Even in the past, when countries chose the "peaceful and mutually beneficial" trade route, many countries claimed that the Far Eastern Empire "exploited" and "plundered" them, not to mention East Africa, the United States, Britain and France in the 20th century, which were imperialist countries that didn't even pretend to be imperialists.
Friedrich was not interested in whether the Soviet Union's economic development would be frustrated in the future. After all, that was a matter of the future and no one could predict it. The current development speed of the Soviet Union was enough to make people feel frightened and shocked.
He took out the Soviet newspaper Pravda and said: "In the past five years, the Soviet Union's pig iron production has doubled from 3 million tons to more than 6 million tons, and steel production has also increased from 4 million tons to 6 million tons. The total steel production has exceeded 12 million tons."
"That means the Soviet Union has now become the world's fourth largest steel producer. Even before the global economic crisis, the Soviet Union's steel production ranked fourth in the world."
Before the Great Financial Crisis, there were only three countries in the world whose steel production exceeded 10 million tons: East Africa, the United States and Germany. After the Great Financial Crisis, due to the scale of their industries, even if their steel production plummeted, East Africa, the United States and Germany were still out of reach for other countries.
Now the Soviet Union has already touched Germany's butt. In the past, the Soviet Union's steel production could only be compared with France.
This means that in terms of steel production, the Soviet Union has entered the world's first echelon, that is, a scale of tens of millions of tons.
"Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Association, a company that has just started production, is already one of the world's largest steel production companies. The output of this steel plant is higher than the national steel output of most countries in the world."
"The output of other Soviet steel enterprises has also increased significantly. In the development of the Soviet steel industry, the transfer of Soviet industry to the east and south is also very obvious. Siberia, the Far East and Central Asia, these regions have made great progress in industry under Soviet rule, and at the same time greatly improved the Soviet national defense security."
"Even if a war breaks out in the future, the Soviet rear will be spared from the first round of fighting and can provide continuous support to the front battlefield."
Take the Magnitogorsk Steel Plant as an example. This largest newly built steel plant in the Soviet Union is located in the Ural Industrial Zone of the Soviet Union, 1,916 kilometers away from Moscow in a straight line.
That is nearly two thousand kilometers. Just imagine, with such a steel plant deep in the heart of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union would not have been able to lose to Germany in the past. Even if Germany captured Moscow, it could not destroy the Soviet industry. Just to attack the Ural Industrial Zone, the Germans had to advance another two thousand kilometers. This distance was enough to make Germany despair.
Moreover, the Ural Industrial Zone is not the first line of defense. Between Moscow and the Ural Industrial Zone, there is also the Volga Industrial Zone, and in the rear there is the West Siberian Industrial Zone...
In fact, in the previous life, Germany did not even break through Moscow. However, in this time and space, due to the changes in the results of the First World War, the buffer zone between the Soviet Union and Germany was reduced. The Soviet Union paid more attention to the national defense security of its own industry, so it paid more attention to the development and growth of the rear industrial areas.
Given the Soviet Union's industrial deployment, it would be impossible for Germany to completely destroy the Soviet Union even if it had the industrial scale and population advantages in East Africa.
Friedrich said: "If you want to completely paralyze the Soviet Union's industry, you must be able to simultaneously launch devastating strikes on multiple industrial bases thousands of miles apart in the rear of the Soviet Union. From the Donbas-Dnipro industrial zone in Ukraine to the Soviet Far East industrial zone, the span is an astonishing 6,000 kilometers. This is something that no country in the world can do."
Of course, the situation is not as exaggerated as Friedrich said, because the Soviet Union's industry is still relatively weak, and many so-called industrial zones are far from large enough.
However, one thing must be noted, that is, the Soviet Union has just completed its first five-year plan. As long as the Soviet Union is given enough time, according to the speed of Soviet industrial development in the First Five-Year Plan, it will not take too long. Those industrial zones can be basically built completely by the Soviet Union within ten years.
Moreover, because the Soviet Union was extremely rich in resources, these regions could basically achieve self-sufficiency in resources, which greatly enhanced the Soviet Union's ability to resist the risks of war.
Ernst agreed with this: "The Soviet Union's vast territory, rich resources, and harsh climate give them excellent territorial depth, which almost determines that other countries want to destroy the Soviet regime through war. It is completely impossible. Unless the Soviets surrender themselves, they will continue to resist."
"However, this has little to do with us. Under normal circumstances, East Africa and the Soviet Union cannot become enemies unless the Soviet Union chooses world revolution."
This is almost impossible because after Joseph came to power, the Soviet Union had already abandoned this route. Joseph was more like a tsar and definitely not a world leader. The interests of the Soviet Union were above everything else.
After Joseph's death in his previous life, other leaders of the Soviet Union took the Soviet Union on the path of becoming an imperialist country and turned it into a dragon, not to mention the world revolution.
Friedrich was influenced by Ernst since he was a child and did not have much fear of the Soviet Union, so he said: "The Soviet Union may become a world power in the future, but it is impossible for it to lead the world. After all, this goes against human nature. The Soviet Union's foreign exports in recent years have been too crude and simple. They can even cooperate with the Jinling government instead of supporting the Far Eastern Imperial Labor Party, which illustrates this point."
The Soviet Union under Joseph's leadership, on the contrary, cooperated with a political party that represented the interests of landlords and big capitalists, while at the same time meddling in the affairs of "its own people" and imposing restrictions on them in every way. This attitude alone was enough to prove that the Soviet Union would never achieve great things.
Not to mention that Joseph later dissolved the International Labor Organization, which shows that it is impossible for the Soviet Union to plant the red flag all over the world. Of course, with the national strength of the Soviet Union, it would never be possible to do this.
Even so, East Africa must treat the Soviet Union as a future world power, just as it did with Tsarist Russia in the past.
Friedrich said: "In the past five years, the Soviet Union's energy production has doubled, coal has reached more than 60 million tons, oil production has exceeded 25 million tons, and electricity has increased 1.5 times to 15 billion kilowatt-hours."
"This year, the Soviet Union has produced more than 50,000 tractors and more than 30,000 cars. It has built more than 17,000 kilometers of new railways, some of which are electrified. It has built more than 5,000 kilometers of new hardened roads and nearly 1,000 kilometers of shipping and irrigation canals."
"In addition, the Moscow metro was put into construction two years ago, and trams in cities such as Moscow and Leningrad are also expanding rapidly,"
"In the aviation industry, the Soviet Union produced more than 2,000 aircraft per year."
“The output of fertilizers and pesticides has also increased significantly, and the chemical industry has made many breakthroughs.”
"Only in the textile and other light industries did the Soviet Union lag behind, but it still surpassed most countries in the world. However, the Soviet Union's cotton production was originally low, which is understandable."
"Once its water conservancy construction in Central Asia is completed, it may greatly alleviate the cotton shortage problem."
In general, the First Five-Year Plan of the Soviet Union in this time and space is far more outstanding than the achievements of the Soviet Union in the previous life. For example, during the First Five-Year Plan of the previous life, the Soviet Union built about 15,000 kilometers of railways, while in this time and space it is 17,000 kilometers.
The Soviet Union's steel production also increased by about one million tons compared with the previous life, and the production of coal, oil and electricity also increased to a certain extent.
The output of automobiles and tractors has also increased significantly compared to the previous life. In 1932, the Soviet Union's annual output of automobiles did not exceed 30,000 units, and tractors were less than 50,000 units.
Not to mention what was mentioned before, the Soviet Union's first five-year plan in this time and space was completed two or three months earlier than in the previous life. This shows that the Soviet Union's First Five-Year Plan achieved greater results than in the previous life.
The fundamental reason for the different completion rates of the First Five-Year Plan between the Soviet Union and the previous life is not difficult to find out, that is, the scale of cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union exceeded that of the previous life.
In the previous life, the United States focused on investing in Germany after the end of World War I, but in this time and space, Germany did not lose the war, which reduced the options for the United States. Later, due to the economic crisis, the United States increased its trade with the Soviet Union.
During the Soviet Union's First Five-Year Plan, the Soviet Union's imports from the United States even exceeded US$170 million, while in the previous life it was around US$150 million. It seemed that it only increased by US$200 million, but the results were completely different.
Because the purchasing power of the US dollar is higher in this time and space, that is to say, even if the amount of mechanical equipment imported by the Soviet Union from the United States remains unchanged, it can still buy more mechanical equipment than in the previous life.
As for why this happened, it is because East Africa, which did not exist as an industrial power in the past, has caused the internal circulation of the world's industrial market today.
(End of this chapter)
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