European Economic Transitions essays

European Economic Transitions essays Economic Transitions for the European States After 1945 The greatest challenge for Germany after World War II was economics. Nothing remained of Germany except rubble and graves. It was impossible for the Germans go get food and clean drinking water. It was even more impossible for the Germans to find paying jobs. In addition to this Germany also had on its hands four million refugees and prisoners to feed that it did not have in 1939. In 1939 Germany could only produce 70 to 85 percent of its food now it had another four million to feed. The Soviet Union occupied most of Germanys prime agricultural land and not much of the food produced went to Germany. After the war German industry was limited to what and how much of certain goods could be produced. German factories were dismantled for payment in war reparations. In the east, industries were nationalized and utilities were socialized. The Soviets sucked the life out of East Germany by setting up so-called joint stock companies, which enabled the Communists to control production and sales of goods produced. In 1948, a currency reform and the money given to them by the Marshall Plan saved West Germany. This helped lay a basis for West German economy. After World War II the major economic concern of the Communist Russian government was industrial development. If Marxism-Leninism was supposed to succeed at anything in the great competition with the west, it was in its ability to provide a different path to modernity than the capitalist system. This required heavy investment by the Soviet government. Under Stalins leadership new industrial town popped up all throughout the country. For the first time the communists felt that they could keep up with the west. But by 1980, as a result of the drastic measures that the Soviets used to accelerate their industrial growth, the Soviet Unions gross national product had dropped to one percent. ...