Currahee

Who do you think was more successful in the 20th Century, Russia or China? Who dealt with their revolution the best?

Who prevailed economically?

Politically?

Did the Guomingdang prevail in China?

Thoughts?

Cadell

I think the clear answer is China. The government put in place by the revolution was/is still extant and their economy was/is far better than Russia's. Of course, those are just conditions at the end of the century. I wouldn't even venture to make an integral measurement of each country''s success and compare them, but I suspect if that were done Russia would come out on top.

Russia's industrial development skyrocketed after the revolution and continued to do so until Brezhnev. Meanwhile, China was still overwhelmingly agricultural with little sign of modern industrial production until the 1950s, and 60s. But then again, that's just a single measure of success.

Wenge

I don not consider that either Russia or China had a revolution in the 20th Century. In my opinion they each had a civil war that took them from one authoritarian ruler to another authoritarian ruler with a different name.

Which one was more successful? In the 20th Century I feel we have to put both of their success equal. Since 1999, though, China has lept away from Russia in terms of success. Both of their economies have a distance to go before they can be deemed a complete success. Russia has to firmly decide what it wishes to do with its economy. Its internal disent is truly disruptive and they have a lot of work to do.

China, in order to be more successful is going to need to move away from export based economics and encourage more domestic production and purchasing. As in Russia internal disent is problematic but as long as China continues to make the wise decisions and alter their strategy as is necessary the internal disent can be stifled. The peak time for their boom, based on their current economic plan has passed. It is time for China to move in a different direction and continue their path to success.

deke

This thread does not belong in the european history subforum.

Wenge

Did you take the time to report the thread to a moderator?

deke

Where is the button for flagging the thread to have it moved?

Wenge

It's the exclamation button on the left side just above country.

Belloc

In terms of military and geo-political achievement, the Russians were more successful. They became the number two superpower in the world.

China's achievement has been more in the economic sphere, and that largely came about after the excesses of the Mao years.

sylla1

China by a looooooong shot.

Jake10

In the 20th century? I don't think so. China started the 20th century with the fall of the Qing, which resulted in starvation, the rise of warlords, drops in education and the takeover of the ROC. The ROC didn't fair well either. China ended up with little to show for their efforts in WWII, and the Mao years were pretty bad. They ended the 20th century with the taking back of Hong Kong, which was not good either, since many of the wealthy fled Hong Kong, and Tung Chi Hua took over the government only to create a sharp decline in the economy.

The appearance of communism was better greeted in Russia. Stalin was not very good either, but he made good gains out of WWII. The Russians led the space race for a while, were able to stand up to the Americans, had less severe famine, and did well for themselves in manufacturing and research.