ABSTRACT
This case study shows how national integration was hindered by the Soviet decision to make nations and nationalities the basis for the many republics forming the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) or Soviet Union. When the strong center disappeared in 1991, the Soviet empire fractured along these national lines. This study describes the political and economic model developed by Lenin and Stalin that so influenced economic and political development throughout the world. Lenin created the original one-party state in which a vanguard political party oversaw a social revolution. He fostered worker management of enterprises and assumed a confluence of state, worker, and nationality interests that would mean that both nationalities and the state would ultimately wither away. Stalin greatly centralized power through the collectivization of agriculture, the nationalization of industry and commerce, the development of five-year economic plans, and the introduction of forced-draft industrialization that transferred agricultural resources to industry. This had the unintended consequence of creating a state based on patronage, which in turn fed corruption and constrained economic development. Stalin’s reliance on terror to impose his will contributed to these problems.
