GEOG200 Assignment 1

2. Russia

How did the Soviet Union manage to govern such an expansive

territory? What were some of the social, economic, and political
challenges associated with such a system? How has governance evolved
in the post-Soviet era?

The Soviet Union manages its mass territory in an automatic way.

The Soviet Union follows Marxism communism, so that every citizen

and every industry contributes the efforts to increase value for the

government. In the post-Soviet era, the leader of the Soviet Union

managed to have reforms on the monopolistic system.

The Soviet Union uses planned economy system. The principle is

that everything you own belongs to the government, but the government

would provide its people with basic needs of living based on the planned

usage. The idea was good, but the Soviet Union did not implement it

well and bear many challenges. When the Soviet Union faced the oil

price drop and inflation, what it planned to give its people “supply” was

quite lower than what people really need for living “demand”. This

caused long lineup never end in front of grocery stores. Even though the

“All Russian” project came out, the Soviet Union still faced social

challenges such as cultural differences and communication challenge

between different languages or dialects. Political challenge based on the

history, such as the Soviet Union occupied much of Poland, and many

other examples.