Economics and Geographical Features of Russia (Research Paper Sample)

Economics and Geographical Features of Russia
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Introduction
Russia is a super power and lies on the east of Europe. It is also known to have a diverse economy, culture, population, and climatic patterns. Today Russia is a European nation with diverse economic activities. However, its major economic sectors include sale of industrial raw materials and other primary commodities like gold, timber and oil (Steven, 2007). When it comes to natural resources in the country, a population that is developed and well educated forms an industrial base in the country hence defining the aristocratic ties in the country. Three questions will be answered in this paper. The first one will comparatively analyze the general features of the economy in the period if Stalin’s Industrialization, Khrushchev’s agricultural reforms, Brezhnev’s stagnation, Gorbachev’s crisis, Yeltsin’s market, Putin’s economic growth and Medvedev’s recession. The other issue to be discussed is the major causes and geographic patterns of global environmental problems such as acidic rain, deforestation, and desertification. The final part of the paper analyzes the general features of climate in North Eastern Eurasia.
Question One
Russia Economy from Stalin to Medvedev
Stalin’s Industrialization
Stalin is today remembered for his industrial contributions for Russia. During the First World War, Stalin is known to have launched a radical wave of economic policies aimed at completely overhauling agricultural face and industrial powers of the Soviet Union. This was later given the name ‘Great Turn’ and brought an end to the capitalistic New Economic Policy, NEP, put in place by his predecessor Lenin. According to Stalin, Lenin’s NEP was dragging the country’s economy. He therefore wanted to deliver the Soviet Union by promoting sufficient economic policies to promote performance. Stalin’s main agenda was to increase the industrialization phase to catch up with the other western nations (Steven, 2007). With his industrialization, Stalin introduced a central planning through which he re-nationalized the economic position from the 1920s. He introduced the ‘rapid industrialization’ policy which applied the concept of collectivization of agricultural production. Agriculture was thus Stalin’s notable but most destructive element after the withdrawal of Lenin’s NEP approach. Many people today argue that industrialization in Russia could as well have been realized without collectivization. Stalin did not tax the peasants as it was the case with other nations.
Khrushchev’s Agricultural Reforms
Khrushchev’s wanted to improve the country’s economy by solving the faced agricultural problems quickly. This way he would improve food security in the country and blamed Stalin’s collectivization for the problems. He helped reduce control and encouraged peasant to implement their own policies hence encouraging production of more than enough agricultural products (Steven, 2007). He achieved this by paying more amounts for their produce and also helped them to make money. He also encouraged means to improve production hence bringing reforms to Russian’s agriculture.
Features of Brezhnev's Stagnation
Brezhnev’s stagnation, also known as the ‘stagnation period,’ refers to the Russian economic stagnation in the mid-1970s under Brezhnev Leonid. This was though seen by the leader as a logical stage towards Communism. This period was mainly characterized by continued suppression in terms of economic growth and social lives of the people. There was also continued repression of the dissidents in Russia (Steven, 2007). Economy stagnated and the trick was to promote foreign imports and trade. Some goods were unavailable to the people and labor shortages in the agricultural sectors. This resulted in child abuse with pupils and soldiers forced to work.
Features of Gorbachev’s Crisis
By the time Gorbachev was taking office Russia was not in any economic crisis. The main features of the new crisis were the democratic reforms to ‘socialism’ while at the same time containing the original seeds of capitalistic illusions. The capitalism wave started to swim slowly into the east and eventually into Russia. As this crisis continued to take shape, the leader became isolated between the pro-capitalist group and the old apparatchiks. Later afterwards he declared that he favored capitalism but he lacked the ideas to go about the process. He also argued that Russian revolution led by Stalin was a mistake and was generally condemned to fail (Steven, 2007).
Yeltsin's Market Reforms
Yeltsin believed that economic reforms would solve almost all the Russian problems. Towards the market reform agenda, Yeltsin encouraged deregulation of markets, privatization, and at long last creating a stable market policy and economic reform. After the stagnation period, there was no much development realized in the country and the reason Gorbachev thought capitalism would rescue the country. Yeltsin thus encouraged a seven-year market reform agenda which eventually turned things in the country. The eventual result was that financial stabilization was achieved (Steven, 2007). The period was characterized by the eventual creation of free markets hence supporting the economic. The political systems in the country also improved for the better.
Features of Putin’s Economic Growth
One notable thing is that Putin must be lucky to ride a well growing economy after the success of Yeltsin’s market reforms. Vladimir Putin has just advanced the same reform to promote economic development. Russia has been able to transform its market economy hence forming the basic feature of Putin’s economic growth. From 2000, soon the country transformed its market economy Putin has promoted the same growth pattern in the country (Steven, 2007). His major undertaking was financial stabilization by encouraging middle and small business enterprises. Monetization and devaluation are also common as a way of improving the economic growth. He also abolished the ongoing privatization of the country’s major agricultural lands since this was hindering economic development in the Russian nation. Finally, the issues of fighting corruption and renationalization have been highly favored by his economic growth.
Contemporary Medvedev’s Recession
Dmitry Medvedev has been faced with economic recession. However this is a situation faced by different other countries in the world including Britain and United States of America. The recession has been faced with increasing lack of global competitiveness. There have been issues with labor and energy crises in the country (Steven, 2007). There has also been soaring unemployment which has been impacting negatively on the country’s economy. Medvedev decided to come up with the contemporary recession plan aimed at addressing the deepening situation and promote economy development and sustainability.
Question Two
Causes of Environmental Degradation
One of the most important issues faced by different nations today is environmental degradation. The environment is what supports nature, and in turn it supports life in general. Environmental issues have become a major global issue and needs to be addressed to safeguard it for posterity purposes. In Russia (and any other nation for that matter) there are several events, factors and geographical patterns that result in severe environmental problems (Moe & Tangen, 2000). These range from natural events to human activities. The best way to address the issue of environmental degradation and other related problems is to come up with mitigation processes. Some of the witnessed environmental problems include global warming, loss of plant and animal species, droughts, and climate change. Other major environmental problems include acid rains, deforestation and desertification.
Deforestation is capable of changing the environment and causing prolonged problems. Deforestation is directly caused by man and in the process resulting in loss of natural forests (Moe & Tangen, 2000). In the long run the environmental patterns are negatively impacted. The world is mainly occupied by three major forest types. These include tropical, degraded and temperate forests. Deforestation can be intentional or can result from natural calamities and fire outbreaks. This has resulted in rapid loss of forests hence leading to environmental degradation. This has today become a contemporary environmental which needs to be addressed within the shortest time possible.
The major global concern is that the tropical forests in different parts are disappearing at a very alarming rate capable of threatening the ecological and economic functions of environment. Deforestation has been prevalent in the developing as well as in the developed nations. This results in loss of environmental integrity hence causing other problems such as droughts, climatic change and poverty. The major elements causing deforestation include population explosion, agricultural practices and search for resettlement land (Moe & Tangen, 2000).
Desertification is the other problem resulting from environmental changes and degradation. For desertification to occur, there are specific desert-like factors and conditions that emerge, and which were not present before. There are a wide range of definitions presented for desertification. It is defined as the losses of plants and vegetative cover due to human activities, and other irreversible elements (Moe & Tangen, 2000). It is widely known that most of the factors causing desertification are human oriented. These range from mining, deforestation, pastoral activities among ot...