We exchange:
> >
> > Think of it this way: because the tsarist system was
> > so unbelievably
> > bad, there was relatively little risk that you could
> > screw it up
> > worse. The basics were not provided for. The
> > feudalistic government
> > had little interest in expanding the economy (so
> > long as they were
> > happy). The Bolsheviks promised not only economic
> > fairness but
> > economic expansion and simply by moving capital from
> > the rich out to
> > the rest of the economy they were able to do it -
> > for a start.
> >
>
> Wait a second -- the Soviet economic booms were the
> NEP and the Stalin industrialization. Neither involved
> expropriation of the rich.
Not true.
The expropriation of the rich happened by definition. All the assets of the country became the assets of the state and they used those to pay the workers. By that I do not mean to suggest that they sold off the properties of the ruling class for gold and paid in that gold. They created fiat money. But why would any reasonable person accept this money? Because it was issued by the authority which owned everything.
Later that acceptance started breaking down.
boddi