It is Kokang and Changchun

　Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's technological innovation has long relied on introduction and imitation, and the long-term shortcomings of light industry have not seen any significant improvement.

　While electronics and other high-tech technologies have made some progress, they remain far from satisfactory, failing to keep pace with the mainstream development of electronic information technology worldwide. Furthermore, the shortcomings in various fields inherited from the Soviet era have yet to be significantly reversed.

　In short, the resolution generally believes that after the collapse of the former Soviet Union, Russia's various industries have developed, but the speed of development is far less than that of Russia during the Soviet era, and it has gradually become a country that relies too much on the export of energy and raw materials in exchange for its economy.

　The Soviet Union took over this national situation which was neither good nor bad, so it naturally had to find a way to change this situation.

　Before the conference, Aurora had made one official visit to China, one unofficial visit, two personal visits and one visit in the name of the Russian Communist Party.

　Visit in the name of .

　During several visits to China, Aurora led a delegation to exchange experiences with the Communist Party of China on party building, governance, administration and economic development, and conducted a detailed investigation of China's overall social landscape since the reform and opening up.

　Based on her visit to China and her on-the-spot conversations with Chinese colleagues, Aurora carefully analyzed the gains and losses of China's reform and opening up, combined with the actual situation in Russia, to form her own views. She then organized these views and presented them as suggestions and opinions at the meeting.

　There are also debates within the Russian Communist Party over planned and market economies, with some centrists. Some believe in returning to the highly centralized planned economy of the former Soviet Union, others believe in a decentralized planned economy, and still others believe in fully emulating China's socialist market economy.

　Aurora knew very well that this meeting would determine the future economic path of the Soviet Union. In order to prevent repeating the mistakes of her predecessors, she had to take on this important responsibility.

　At the meeting, Aurora seriously criticized some phenomena: "I often say that we should learn from the experience of our Chinese comrades in all aspects, but I have repeatedly emphasized that it must be combined with the actual situation in Russia.

　Some local governments, disregarding actual conditions, blindly copy and paste, insisting on imitating land finance. What does this mean? It means that the government relies on revenue from the transfer of land use rights to maintain local fiscal expenditures.

　Learning is fine, but the price is ridiculously high, just like in China. I'd like to ask individual local governments: are you truly short of money, or is the central government providing insufficient funding? Or are you simply desperate for money?

　China's land-based finance policy is a helpless move forced by national conditions. From a natural and human geography perspective, although China is large, it also has a large population. Furthermore, China's terrain is primarily mountainous and hilly, resulting in average per capita natural and mineral resources, most of which are low-quality minerals.

　From a social and historical perspective, China had a difficult start and its industrial foundation was extremely poor. The 156 Plan we gave China in the past only laid the foundation for its industrialization and established a preliminary industrial system. It did not mean that China had become an industrial country.

　Given the overall low level of industry, the enormous population, the limited per capita natural mineral resources, and the lack of rich mines, the only significant resource being rare earth minerals, how can one rapidly accumulate capital, develop infrastructure, and ultimately industrialize under these circumstances?

　If you were to talk about selling rare earths, China did not have the technology to extract and process them at the time, and with the US monopoly and blockade, it could only sell rare earths and then buy back finished rare earth products. How could it make money?

　Before the reform and opening up, China followed our old path - taking advantage of the scissors gap between industry and agriculture, allowing farmers and agriculture to provide accumulation for industry, but the efficiency of this accumulation was very touching.

　Needless to say, the suffering of China's peasant class is immense. The working class, which seems to benefit from this system, has also not seen a wage increase in the past twenty years.

　Here is data from China that I collected during my research trip there. It shows that from 1957 to 1978, the annual income of Chinese workers grew by only 7 yuan in the 22 years between them. After adjusting for inflation, the actual income was only 85% of what it was in 1957. Although the average annual income of a Chinese peasant family increased from 72.95 yuan to 133.57 yuan during the same period, after adjusting for inflation, the annual increase was still less than 1%.

　Even with the Chinese people tightening their belts to accumulate wealth, China's industrial infrastructure still lags far behind that of developed Western countries. Otherwise, why would China introduce large-scale Western technology in 1972 and 1978 after Sino-US relations eased in the 70s?

　It is worth mentioning that the investment introduced in 1978 required 1300 billion US dollars in foreign exchange and a total investment of 130 billion. However, China's national fiscal revenue was only 874 billion at that time, which was not enough to afford the investment.

　So where did China get the money for its massive investments after reform and opening up? Should it emulate Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan? They have the backing of the United States and received orders from the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Japan, in particular, has a pre-existing industrial base. The spending of stationed US troops also accounts for a significant portion of the economy. Can China emulate this experience? Unless it relinquishes national sovereignty.

　Moreover, China didn't start implementing land finance right after the start of reform and opening up. Shenzhen relied on Hong Kong investment to build the Shekou Industrial Zone during the initial stages of reform and opening up. Hong Kong and overseas Chinese capital were drawn to Shenzhen, driven more or less by simple patriotism. But what about other foreign capital?

　Other foreign capital is unfamiliar with your place, so who would be willing to invest in a place like yours with such poor infrastructure? Without other sentiments, capital will only maximize profits and not do charity.

　So, after a few years of development, the Shenzhen Shekou Industrial Zone was once again facing a cash crunch. According to Li Chuanfang, then Shenzhen's deputy mayor, one yuan was worth three or four yuan.

　If China wanted to attract more foreign investment, it had to build infrastructure. As the saying goes, to get rich, you have to build roads. But large-scale infrastructure development required a huge amount of money. How could China at the time raise this money so quickly? The only way was to finance it with land.

　Why land finance? Because it requires no technical expertise and generates a lot of money quickly. Other methods, while requiring no technical expertise, generate little money slowly, while others require a lot of technical expertise quickly. China at the time couldn't afford it, so there was no other option. I understand the difficulties faced by Chinese comrades at the time.

　I think some people may ask whether China has Xu after the reform and opening up.

　Is it the Guangxian rare earth purification method? This is enough to create a competitive advantage over the United States. Why not sell high-quality rare earths for capital accumulation?

　Of course there were exports. The reason was that China had just started its reform and opening up at that time, and Chinese private enterprises were in the initial stage of development, that is, the free capitalism stage. There was a lack of mature market supervision mechanisms and intellectual property protection. In addition, the cultural level of the miners was low, and they failed to recognize the importance of rare earths.

　At this stage, the market and enterprises are mainly based on free competition. In order to gain competitive advantage and seize the market, enterprises engage in price wars with each other, resulting in vicious competition and selling precious rare earths at the price of agricultural products.

　Furthermore, in order to maximize profits, many companies engage in disorderly mining. With the same effort, they only need to collect the richest part of the resources to obtain maximum profits.

　This has resulted in a significant waste of resources, poor overall utilization efficiency, and serious environmental pollution. It's said that damage is easy but repair is difficult, and the profits from rare earth mining and sales are far from enough to cover the cost of repairing the environment and landforms.

　Therefore, under these circumstances, even if high-quality rare earths were sold, they wouldn't fetch much. Even if there were, the money earned would be enough for development, but not for rapid development. If rapid development was desired, under the conditions at the time, there was no other option but land finance.

　After all, when China was reforming and opening up, development was paramount. Anything slower would have meant missing out on opportunities, so China needed the fastest way to generate revenue. You have to remember that few developing countries in the world have been able to independently complete industrialization largely on their own.

　Aurora paused for a few seconds after speaking so much, letting herself rest. If a human had said so much in one breath, they would have been thirsty and reached for a glass of water.

　After a short break, Aurora continued, "I've talked so much about China's national conditions regarding land finance because I want everyone to know that our national conditions are different from China's and we have better options. Why would we be so foolish as to use a method that has huge benefits but also endless consequences?

　Why do young Chinese people generally complain about high housing prices? One important and direct reason is the land finance system. Currently, the land transfer fee for a commercial home in China accounts for over 50% of the total construction cost. Given this situation, how low can housing prices go?

　So once we open this loophole, we're likely to follow the same path as the Chinese real estate market. It's easier said than done, comrades! I hope those comrades who previously engaged in land finance were simply confused for a moment, and not truly evil.

　After Aurora finished explaining the secret of high housing prices in China, she prepared to continue talking about the corresponding national conditions of the Soviet Union and to demonstrate that there was no need to rely on land finance to replenish the national treasury.

　Chapter 320: Some Issues in Soviet Russia's Economic Development

　Aurora pointed out the differences between the national conditions of the Soviet Union and China: "The reason why we in the Soviet Union can avoid the path of land finance is, first of all, because we have very rich natural and mineral resources.

　Not to mention anything else, just during the Brezhnev era, the economy made a lot of money by selling oil and natural gas, and both military strength and people's livelihood were greatly improved.

　Of course, everyone knows what political corruption was like back then, so I won't elaborate. The fundamental purpose of this high level of security is to lull the people into a state of disbelief and increase their tolerance for official corruption, thereby maintaining their own bureaucratic privileges.

　What I want to say is that we can definitely raise the necessary funds for infrastructure construction and industrial upgrading by relying on our abundant oil, gas and mineral resources. Of course, agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry and fishery are also a plus.

　However, I must remind you that the purpose of selling oil, gas, and minerals is to develop infrastructure and upgrade industries. If, decades from now, our economy still relies on these products, it would mean we have failed miserably. We would not only be in a disgrace to the revolutionary martyrs of our time, but would also bear a grave historical responsibility.

　Second, we have the support of trustworthy Chinese comrades and comrades from Red Japan who have good prospects for the future. Our cooperation with them will be of great help to our light industry, infrastructure construction, and high-tech industries.

　Especially Japan's high-tech industries and related core technologies, which are worth exchanging for any amount of mineral resources for us. This is why we should fully support the Japanese revolution.

　Some comrades may worry that if everything is cooperative and imported, what about our own industries? Wouldn't that make us compradors?

　This concern is actually understandable, but I must first state that cooperative introduction is not just for the sake of cooperative introduction, but to absorb foreign technology on this basis, better improve ourselves, and thus develop something of our own.

　This reminds me of the Chinese comrades, who were also criticized and accused of being compradors during the last twenty years of the 20th century.

　But now, the so-called "crown jewels of industry" of developed capitalist countries have been plucked one by one by our Chinese comrades. Now there are only a few "jewels" left for them. Is this the kind of thing a comprador would do?

　Moreover, the current world situation is not optimistic, with tensions and the threat of war increasing by the day. Besides NATO, which is expanding eastward to our doorstep and deserves to be in hell, there is also the deep sea that is beating up the US.

　Although the Deep Sea is anti-imperialist and progressive at the current stage, we still don’t know what their true attitude towards socialism is. If they are both anti-imperialist and anti-communist, it will undoubtedly be a disaster for us.

　A huge threat.

　We should not harbor the intention to harm others, but we must always be on guard against them. In today's world where tensions are constantly rising, we must mobilize all positive factors as quickly as possible to achieve the fastest development and respond to possible blockades and even threats of war.

　Therefore, introducing and utilizing foreign aid is undoubtedly the fastest way. Our First and Second Five-Year Plans were periods of the fastest economic growth. This period coincided with the great economic crisis in the capitalist world.

　At that time, we seized this opportunity very well. We took advantage of the capital crisis to introduce technology and machines at low prices in large quantities, take in unemployed Western technicians, and attract foreign loans.

　These things, coupled with the correct leadership of the Party Central Committee at the time and the joint efforts of workers across the country, created that decade of rapid development and laid a solid material foundation for the subsequent victory in the Great Patriotic War.

　This is perfect proof that if we want to achieve rapid development in the short term, we must have a strong partner for cooperation and assistance. This is why I emphasize deepening cooperation with China in all fields and attracting technical talent. Moreover, in the near future, this will not only include China, but also Japan.

　Next, Aurora talked about the future economic model of the Soviet Union, such as the ownership of means of production and market planning.

　"Returning to the highly centralized planned economic system of the former Soviet Union is unrealistic from any perspective. If the past system had not had major problems, the Soviet Union would not have collapsed.

　Over the past 40 years, Chinese comrades have accumulated a wealth of experience and lessons in exploring the path of socialist construction, which are sufficient to serve as a reference for our country's economic development.

　Before discussing what general economic line to adopt, we should understand our current national conditions, or what stage of socialism we are in and what the main contradictions are.

　Since the Soviet era, our understanding of our own stage of development has often been ahead of the times. For example, Stalin's 1936 declaration that "socialism has been built," Khrushchev's "comprehensive development of communism," and Brezhnev's "theory of developed socialism" were examples.

　At that time, taking the early 80s as an example, the Soviet Union had a per capita GDP of only two-fifths of that of the United States and a per capita income of one-third of that of the United States. At best, the Soviet Union was a moderately developed country.

　In fact, objectively speaking, the Soviet Union at that time was still a developing socialist country, and it was still a long way from the truly developed socialist stage.

　In this regard, our Chinese comrades are clearly quite modest and pragmatic. Our understanding of the stage of socialism we are in will determine the general direction of our economic development. So, let's examine what stage of socialism we are in.

　Aurora pulled out another document from under the table. It was a summary of the basic economic conditions of the Soviet Union, or Russia, over the years. After explaining the information, she concluded:

　"...Overall, the current industrial situation in the Soviet Union is not developed, but it is not backward either. Rather, it is unbalanced and inadequate. From this, we can conclude that the principal contradiction in my country's society today is the contradiction between the people's ever-growing material and spiritual needs and unbalanced and inadequate development."

　Lei Ming, who was sitting in the audience, couldn't help but jokingly say inwardly after hearing Aurora's familiar statement, "How much Chinese stuff have you instilled into Senior Aurora? My dear sister (Anshan-class)!"

　Aurora naturally couldn't hear Lei Ming's inner complaints. She continued to express her own opinions on the stage: "In the agricultural field, we are a major grain exporter. In terms of low-end and some high-end heavy industrial products, our heavy industry can basically meet our own needs.

　The only thing we can't praise is the light industry, from top to bottom. We still have to import nearly 70% of our light industrial products. The quality of the remaining 30% or so of domestically produced light industrial products is even more questionable.

　At last year's Beijing Winter Olympics, our national team's mascots—the Cat in the Hat and the Indomitable Bear—looked so adorable in 3D animation and modeling, but what kind of monsters did they look like in real life? I'm simply speechless.

　Therefore, my characterization of the principal contradiction is by no means groundless. Given this characterization of the principal contradiction, it is not difficult to infer the stages of socialism we have been in, and are currently in.

　After combining theory and research with history and reality, I can confidently say that my country entered the primary stage of socialism in 1936 (before the Soviet Union was in a transitional period) until the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Soviet government in 1991, and then again since the restoration of the Soviet Union last year, my country has remained in the primary stage of socialism.

　Aurora then began to explain the meaning of the primary stage of socialism and introduced its theoretical origins: "The primary stage of socialism does not refer to the initial stage that any country will go through when entering socialism, but specifically refers to the specific stage that a country must go through when building socialism under the conditions of backward productivity and underdeveloped commodity economy.

　In his later years, Comrade Lenin believed that in economically backward Russia, only a "primary form of socialism" could be built, and "developed socialism" could not be built immediately.

　This actually contains the idea that socialist society must also have a development process from low to high, from incomplete to relatively complete. It contains the embryonic form of the socialist stage theory.

　.

　However, Comrade Lenin only primarily answered the question of how Russia would transition to socialism at the time, and he passed away before he had time to analyze in detail the stages of development after the establishment of the socialist system. Therefore, this idea could not be further elaborated.

　Chinese comrades have developed the theory of socialist stages much better, and their construction to date has been based on their basic national conditions and this theory.

　“Although the people’s living standards were very high during the Brezhnev era and seemed only a few steps away from leaving the primary stage of socialism, the political and social atmosphere was seriously substandard.

　So far, we are still in the primary stage of socialism and will remain in the primary stage of socialism for some time to come.

　Some people may think that since we are in the primary stage of socialism, shouldn’t we follow the path of a socialist market economy like China?

　This is the difference. The primary stage we are in today is not only much higher than the level of that stage a hundred years ago, but also much better than the situation our Chinese comrades started in back then.

　China was in the primary stage of socialism with a large population, weak foundation, backward productivity and low overall education level. The Soviet Union is now in the socialist stage with a small population, abundant resources, average productivity and a relatively high overall education level.

　The starkly different levels of development between the two countries in their initial stages determined the divergent paths of socialist construction in both countries. Therefore, in our future path of socialist construction, the market will play a decisive role in general resource allocation, while the government and planning will play a fundamental role in the allocation of important resources crucial to national economy and people's livelihoods.

　At the same time, in the structure of ownership of means of production in Russia, the public ownership economy occupies the dominant position, among which the public ownership economy (state-owned economy) occupies a dominant position; the non-public ownership economy is a supplementary component.

　Among private enterprises, large and medium-sized private enterprises must be restructured into collective enterprises in accordance with the law, while small and micro-sized private enterprises and individual businesses will be retained within a certain scope in accordance with the law. Foreign-invested businesses will not be affected by this.

　The above is the basic economic system that Soviet Russia should adhere to throughout the primary stage of socialism."

　Lei Ming listened to this and jokingly said, "Senior, isn't this just a socialist market economy with more planning and collective economy..."

　In addition, Aurora had another plan. She planned to build Outer Manchuria into a special economic zone and implement China's original socialist market economy to facilitate China's connection.

　Her ultimate goal in doing so was to serve as a control group compared to other parts of the country to examine the pros and cons between China's genuine socialist market economy and the Russian version of the socialist market economy.

　To put it bluntly, it was used as a testing ground for various policies and reforms, specifically for the entire Soviet Union to be the first to explore new policy minefields.

　After hearing about the Soviet Union's General Economic Line, Chinese online public opinion was more positive than negative. They believed that collectivizing large and medium-sized private enterprises to participate in market competition was a good and original initiative, and they urged China to observe and emulate it.

　However, there are also some discordant voices. Some "leftists" believe that the Soviet Union, which retained market mechanisms and private enterprises, is despicable and naked "revisionism."

　He also criticized the Soviet Union's series of decisions to cooperate with China, and angrily criticized its actions of joining "Chinese imperialism". His circle also gave it an ambiguous nickname such as "Dual Cultivation Fellow".

　Before long, abstract words, videos, and emoticon images centered around related themes appeared on online platforms such as Bilibili. These works were basically jokes and satires of the new Soviet Union, and some even mentioned China.

　Chapter 321 Current Situation in the United States

　China was cultivating the land, North Korea was unifying, Japan was undergoing revolution, and the Soviet Union was reforming; the pan-Europeanist trend in western European countries was also rising among the people and governments, and only the United States was taking a beating.

　Ever since the United States was bullied by the deep sea, despite the tremendous efforts and sacrifices made by the frontline officers and soldiers of the US military in the battle, the domestic front is still not optimistic.

　As of July 28, 2023, the deep-sea occupation zone has expanded to the north of Boston-Springfield-Binghamton, and the closest distance to the Great Lakes is less than 7 kilometers.

　Because the defense of the north was mainly the responsibility of the Canadian and British Expeditionary Force, it was easier to deal with the deep sea than the US military, and the northern front expanded faster than the western and southern fronts.

　However, the deep sea forces on the northern front also encountered difficulties during the advance. The further north you go on the east coast, the lower the urban and rural density becomes. With lower density, there is more open space. And with more open space, the lethality of firepower strikes increases.

　The US military saw this point clearly, and in the process of attacking in the deep sea and open fields, they made full use of their superior firepower theory, just like their predecessors in the Battle of Ganling.

　While ordinary deep sea creatures could block gunfire, they couldn't withstand the firepower of heavy artillery and large-caliber rocket launchers. Unless all of their shields from the previous world could be restored to their full strength, even shielded units like assault soldiers would be killed or injured if they got too close to the impact point.

　As for other elite troops that rely on their physical resistance, such as machine gun sentries, submachine gun sentries, flamethrowers, trench soldiers, tank hunters, etc., due to their small numbers, after the firepower coverage is completed, they will be handed over to precision strikes for thorough disposal.

　In addition to firepower coverage and precision strikes, the US military even used cloud bombs and small-yield nuclear weapons.

　Weapons of mass destruction to prevent the deep-sea army from continuing to move north.

　Therefore, although Deep Sea finally took Binghamton and Troy, it did so at considerable cost. As a result, Deep Sea temporarily halted its advance along the north-south line, intending to take some time to recuperate, build up some organization, HP, and planning points, and then resume its advance.

　The situation on the Western Front was that after the Deep Sea Army reached several major cities at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains, they made a few exploratory local attacks and then stopped.

　The reason for stopping the offensive was mainly because of the deep sea and the heavy casualties on the northern front, which required the transfer of troops. The permanent fortifications built by the US military on the Appalachian Line were secondary.

　On the southern front, Deep Sea had already captured the important city of Richmond and stretched the front line to the suburbs of Verona-Richmond-York at the intersection of Highway 221 and 87.

　Pensacola died heroically during the Battle of Richmond, when he was hit by concentrated fire from deep-sea cruise missiles.

　Now her main body was lying flat on a suburban road, with part of her hull pressed on some bungalows. These bungalows were crushed by the passively revealed original form when Pensacola was seriously injured.