WesWorld

Quoted from "Brockpaine"

Oh...! Heh heh heh, I had forgotten about that...

It is a crime that can be so broadly construed as to be truly dangerous. Thankfully, I believe that the OTL Soviet Union was the only nation to put such a statute on the books.

OTL post-Mexican Revolution Mexico was very socialist, the nationalization was an outlier. In WW I might have hinted at some New Deal type programs too.

I'm just wondering what other countries are left-leaning. I know Argentina was. France perhaps?

Quoted from "Desertfox"

OTL post-Mexican Revolution Mexico was very socialist, the nationalization was an outlier. In WW I might have hinted at some New Deal type programs too.

Given the general dearth of recent Mexican news in Wesworld, I fear those points never registered.

Quoted from "Desertfox"

I'm just wondering what other countries are left-leaning. I know Argentina was. France perhaps?

France? No, definitely not leftist.

If I had to make a list of other left-leaning countries, in no particular order I'd say Britain, Paraguay, Bolivia. Maybe Belgium and Italy, to an extent. There isn't enough news to analyze Iberia, Nordmark, and the SAE; but they're all monarchies, and so they probably aren't too leftist.

I consider the US being slightly more left in some areas than OTL, Though that is open to interpretation. Earlier interstates, earlier introduction of some social programs. At the same time, the Americans are more outward looking as well which may be the result of having a Great Power across the Flordia Strait that wasn't there IOTL.

I suspect Iberia's pretty right-ish. Regional parliamentary representation is, after all, based on population and GDP.

Quoted from "The Rock Doctor"

I suspect Iberia's pretty right-ish. Regional parliamentary representation is, after all, based on population and GDP.

That must be the reasoning behind Mexico's long-cherished desire to bring equal representation to the benighted peoples of Iberia's abject colonies in Central America - to get its hands on the GDP.

Nordmark's current ruling party is a center-left one, paralleling the Swedish Social Democratic Party among others, which took power in '43 or so from a right-wing coalition. There is not yet but will probably soon be a welfare state, universal health care, and so on.

A nice round-up of news.

I'd place Argentina as centre-left. both Argentina and Paraguay are battling the left Vs right.
Both Belgium and the Netherlands are centre-left too, but I'm not sure where recent events will leave them.

Petrograd Addresses China About French Aircraft Interception - September 29, 1945
Dear China,
We see you have started to mess with airplanes of our comrades from France. One Russian sailor was on French plane as passenger. Please to return sailor immediately. It is not wise to mess with comrades of Russia. It is also not wise to mess with sailor of Russia. Russia might become angry, and if Russia is angry, many things get hurt. That would make Russia sad. Wise man from China once say "Monkey should not poke tigers with stick." Heed voice of wise old man from China.
Please to have nice day!
Russia

Sevastopol Reconnects with History at Launch of Sviatoi Pavel
A replica of Admiral Fyodor Ushakov's sail battleship Sv. Pavel has been launched in Sevastopol. The battleship is an approximate replica of the ship that Ushakov commanded during the opening days of the Russo-Turkish War of 1787-1792. Materials have been purchased with private donations, and volunteer laborers have undertaken most of the work on the sixty-six gun battleship. Once the laborious process of rigging the Sv. Pavel is complete, he shall sail to the great ports of Europe as Sevastopol's maritime ambassador. Additionally, a cinema company has expressed interest in using the vessel for the production of movies set during the wars of Imperitritsa Ekaterina.

Electricity Deregulation Moves Forward, Slowly
Following opposition from the socialist left, the Duma voted to approve a more limited electricity deregulation plan than the original one advocated by President Fyodorov. The approved plan, brought forward as a compromise by Chairman (Prime Minister) Sergetov, will be presented to the Federation Council for a final vote. Socialist members of the Duma declared that even though deregulation had passed, their opposition had caused it to be so limited in scope that it would be unenforceable. President Fyodorov, although reportedly unimpressed with the compromise, was reported to say to an aide "I can work with this."

Tupolev Delivers New Bomber - Newspaper of the VMF Rossii
Comrades of Russian Federation Naval Aviation! Academecian Tupolev's design bureau, in close collaboration with Kazan Aircraft Production Association, has produced for our service a powerful and sophisticated new strike aircraft, the Tu-4! This bold and striking new bomber, with its roaring turbine engine and potent weapons load, shall soon grace the decks of the aviation ships that protect our glorious Motherland!

Ministry: Grain Harvest Strong
Alexsandr Kuznetsov, Minister of Agriculture, announced in December that the Russian grain harvest for 1945 was the most productive by gross yield in the last fifteen years. Barley, another staple agricultural crop, remained relatively static in comparison to 1944, while plantings of potatoes rose in northern Russia. Production of flax for the textiles industry also rose, but by minor quantities. By contrast, oats yields from the Caucasus suffered due to blight, resulting in higher prices for feed. The increased reliance on tractors for agriculture and the resulting shift away from horses has resulted in steadily-declining oat plantings over the last five years. Minister Kuznetsov additionally noted that the record wheat harvest was due almost completely to the productivity of privately or even corporately-owned agricultural holdings.

Petrograd Mayor: Vote on City Name Change
The mayor of Petrograd said that citizens of Russia's capital city will receive the opportunity to vote on whether or not to change Petrograd's name back to Sankt-Peterburg. Citizen committees have advocated for the issue to be put on ballots for the 1946 city elections. Despite announcing that a vote would be called, the mayor indicated that he was not in favor of changing the city's name back to Sankt-Peterburg, since that name sounded too German.



The Mighty Have Fallen: Last Sovkhoz Closes in Caucasus
by John Q. Franklin

On December 1st, without fanfare or announcement, the Russian Federation's Ministry of Agriculture closed the last sovkhoz (state-owned collective farm) in the country, located in the Caucasus just north of the border with Azerbaijan.

Only a few years ago, thousands of these collective farms covered the Russian land, beckoning to impoverished Russian labourers with the promise of dependable work and wages - a powerful draw to people who often struggled at the subsistance level. The sovkhoz and the associated kolkhoz represented the two halves of the Russian socialist plan for the collectivization of agriculture, with the kolkhoz being an organization of farmers, and the sovkhoz being a construct of the Russian Federation government.

Initially, it seemed like the promise of the kolkhazes and sovkhozes was delivered. Each adult male kolkhoznik or sovkhoznik (inhabitant of a collective farm) had to provide a hundred and thirty days of labour, and in return received an acre and a half for personal use, as well as a share in the farm's profit.

However, the promise of the sovkhoz never delivered. On both a per-acre and per-capita level, traditional family-managed private farms produced nearly one and a half times as much grain as a sovkhoz. For many years, the government aggressively pushed initiatives to favor collective agriculture, such as mechanization through inexpensive tractors, or one particularly ill-fated attempt to artificially manipulate the price of wheat in order to favor collectivization. Despite these attempts, the average sovkhoznik earned less money or equivalent per year than a labourer in a privately-owned, or even the rare corporately-owned farm.

The government consistently turned a profit on the kolkhozes and sovkhozes, primarily since the Ministry of Agriculture bought wheat at low prices from the farms, yet sold it at much higher prices to distributors, both in Russia and abroad. Since the government served as a universal (or highly dominant) supplier, it was able to name its own price. However, this eliminated the potential profitability from the collectivized farms, threatened private farms, and caused massive corruption.

Sovkhozniks and kolkhozniks alike came to recognize the inefficiency of their system, and chose to depart by the tens of thousands, either for factory jobs in the cities, or for employment in private agriculture. This mass exodus rose to such a high level that proponents of collectivization advocated increasingly draconian measures to halt it - going so far as to seriously propose forced collectivization and a system of 'internal passports' to tie agricultural labourers to the land - a proposal opponents dubbed 'a new serfdom'.

With the beginning of M. Fyodorov's presidency in 1943, the Russian government targeted the Ministry of Agriculture as one of the foremost sources of corruption, cronyism, and inefficiency within the country. Hundreds of senior officials and workers were investigated. Many once-powerful Ministry workers were convicted of criminal charges and dismissed from service. Along with rigorous anti-corruption campaigns, the Fyodorov government decided to completely abolish the sovkhozes, eliminating the state-owned farms entirely and restructuring them as employee-owned kolkhozes - with equal shares divided among the workers. This has slowed but not halted the decline of collectivized farming at a time when privately-owned farms continue not only to grow, but also demonstrate higher efficiency.

The era of the sovkhoz has ended, but a large number of kolkhozes remain in operation throughout the vast territory of the Russian Federation. Many kolkhozniks are responding to the changing times, and a few have even approached privately-owned farms in productivity levels. But with the demise of the government's 'middleman' capability to re-sell to agricultural distributors, their future seems uncertain due to the competition of private agriculture.

John Q. Franklin is an English writer and financial expert living and working in Rostov-on-Don.

Most interesting developments...

Indeed, another interesting round-up.

Britain can provide tractors too; real ones with big engines and big wheels, not these feeble walk-behind motorised mules the Germans sell!

Quoted from "Hood"

Indeed, another interesting round-up.

Britain can provide tractors too; real ones with big engines and big wheels, not these feeble walk-behind motorised mules the Germans sell! :P

Oh, Germany can provide plenty of those too - the questions being whether the Russian family farmer (kulak?) can afford one or whether his farm is large enough to use a large tractor efficiently.

Foreign manufacturers are generally free to import agricultural equipment into the Russian Federation, but building tractors is one thing the Russian Federation has down cold. Foreign manufacturers are at best providing competition to keep the prices down, rather than actually controlling a major chunk of the business. I'd go so far as to say that agricultural machinery is probably a major Russian export.

A lot of those tractor plants like Chelyabinsk and Kharkov would double as tank factories in wartime.

Quoted from "Brockpaine"

Foreign manufacturers are generally free to import agricultural equipment into the Russian Federation, but building tractors is one thing the Russian Federation has down cold. Foreign manufacturers are at best providing competition to keep the prices down, rather than actually controlling a major chunk of the business. I'd go so far as to say that agricultural machinery is probably a major Russian export.

Precisely why German manufacturers are aiming at the smaller end of the market. Your well-off peasant is not likely to own more than ten or twelve acres, and a big American-style farm tractor is not going to be as useful as a smaller walk-behind that can be adapted with other implements such as seed drills, harrows, plows etc. As the size of the average farm increases, so too does the likelihood of the farmer 'trading up' for larger equipment.

Quoted from "BruceDuncan"

Precisely why German manufacturers are aiming at the smaller end of the market. Your well-off peasant is not likely to own more than ten or twelve acres, and a big American-style farm tractor is not going to be as useful as a smaller walk-behind that can be adapted with other implements such as seed drills, harrows, plows etc. As the size of the average farm increases, so too does the likelihood of the farmer 'trading up' for larger equipment.

Well, it would likely need to be a bit bigger than 10-12 acres. In the Tsarist days, a plot of 13.5 acres was deemed to be too small for a peasant to support himself and a family at the subsistence level. Not sure how much that would've changed, if any.

I based my estimate off the somewhat variable of kulak in the English Wikipedia. No doubt individual circumstances would vary.