File:Usa-ussr gdp log 1885.PNG

Summary
Graph of gross domestic product of U.S.A and U.S.S.R. from 1885 to 1994. The y-axis is the logarithm (base 10) of real gross domestic product per capita normalised to a reference year of 1917. The x-axis is the year.

The data is from the Maddison project, historical gdp data. (Bolt, J. and J. L. van Zanden (2013). The First Update of the Maddison Project; Re-Estimating Growth Before 1820. Maddison Project Working Paper 4.) home page, xslx spreadsheet.

The Maddison project data are per capita gdp in 1990 international GK dollars. My calculation was to first divide all gdp values by the 1917 gdp values to obtain the normalised gdp; and then to take the logarithms. A copy of the numerical data can be found at Gdp data.csv

The calculation was done using the Libre Office open source software. The graph was generated by that software also. To save it I took a screenshot, and then cropped it.

What the graph shows
During the late Czarist period, the US gdp was growing faster than the the Russian gdp. Russian gdp stagnated and then declined as a result of WWI. The Bolshevik revolution occurred in November 1917. During the following, devastating, period of foreign embargo, foreign military intervention, and civil war, Russian gdp declined still more. The Foreign intervention and civil war ended around 1922. From that point until the Nazi invasion, the USSR's gdp growth was among the highest, if not the highest, of any major nation over a similar span of time at any point in history. Certainly it outperformed the US gdp by a wide margin from 1922-1940. During WWII the USSR's gdp fell while the US's grew. After that the USSR's gdp growth was again stronger until about 1980. During the 1980s, its gdp growth was sluggish. After the restoration of capitalism in the USSR in 1991, its gdp entered serious decline. The first few years of this decline can be seen on the graph, which ends at the year 1994.

During periods of peacetime socialist rule, the USSR had a very impressive rate of growth of gdp.

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This graph was created by Communpedia user Tribal, and I am putting it in the public domain. Thankyou to the Maddison project for their data and to Libre Office for the software.