Industry

The interwar years saw the beginning of a major regional shift in the global history of industrialization. The share of the West in world industrial output began to decline as some parts of the “Rest” accelerated industrialization. Especially important in catch-up industrialization were Soviet Union (Russia) and East Asia. In this chapter, I argue that the catch-up industrialization of the Soviet Union and East Asia during the twentieth century had important connections and similarities because they were both born out of the global political and economic trends in the aftermath of World War I. To show the similarities and connections between the socialist regimes and the East Asian developmental states, this chapter focuses on the industrialization experience in the Soviet Union, Japan, and China during the interwar period.