Bonus - Episode 5b: The Soviet Economy in Context - economic basket case or economic miracle?

In this short bonus episode, Pearse provides an overview of the Soviet Union's economic growth up until 1950, and contrasts it against Western Europe, East Asia and other parts of the world. Far from being a failure, the Soviet Union had unprecedented levels of GDP growth per capita, far outpacing its nearest comparators in the early 20th century.  Drawing on Robert C Allen's 'From Farm to Factory' this appendix to Episode 5 puts the Soviet Economic Experiment in a global context. It highlights the contradictory framing of the 'East Asian Economic Miracle', when compared to the equivalent success of the Soviet Union, which is often denigrated as a basket case economy.  The episode also includes a brief discussion of the collectivisation drive in the early 1930s, the soviet unions agricultural productivity, and the consequences this had for industrialisation.