GS Mains Static

China faced various problems in 1949 when Mao came to power. The country was devastated after the long civil war and the war with Japan; industry was backward, agriculture was inefficient , inflation seemed out of control.

Could Russian communism have survived if Gorbachev had followed different policies? Many believe that it could and that if the USSR had followed the same path as China, it would still be communist today.

Stalin hijacked the revolution and betrayed the idealism of Marx and Lenin. Instead of a new, classless society in which everybody was free and equal, ordinary workers and peasants were just as exploited as they had been under Tsars. Read More..

Although Russian industry was recovering from the First World War, production from heavy industry was very low. However, foreigners were unwilling to invest in a communist state.

In the early years of the 20th century, Russia was in a troubled state. Nicholas II, who was Tsar from 1894 to 1917, insisted on ruling as an autocrat but had failed to deal adequately with the country's many problems.

During the early 1970s the high economic growth came to an end. One of the reasons was decline of Japanese competitiveness in certain industries such as shipbuilding and steel.

Japan's close contact with the West dated back to 1853 when Japan signed trade treaties with several Western countries. These treaties were imperialist in nature and signing of these treaties was regarded by the Japanese as a great national humiliation.

There is sometimes confusion about the meaning of the terms Nazism and Fascism. Both were intensely anti-communist and, because of this, drew a solid basis of support from all classes.

All political parties except the National Socialists were banned, so that Germany became a one-party state like Italy and the USSR.