Compare and contrast the soviet industrialization and the West's Industrial revolution?

Answer 1

The west's industrial revolution and the soviet shift to an industrial economy are similar in some respects and very different in others. The Western industrial revolution was driven by the desire of individual capitalists to accumulate wealth. The Soviet industrialization was driven by a central planning model to make better utilization of existing resources. They both had some of the same consequences, these being a rapid increase in output as resources (generally people) were shifted from inefficient agricultural uses to industrial ones where the society had previously underinvested.
The difference between the Soviet and Western shifts to industrialization was that the Western model is much more able to adapt to changes in the environment and its outputs are more directed at the whole economy, depending on what people want to buy. The Western model allows for individuals to better themselves through their own industry, while the benefits of any improvements in the Soviet system accrue to the state. The ability to materially benefit through one's efforts is the primary reasons that material conditions keep rising in the capitalist, western world. After the initial change from an agricultural to an industrial state occurred, the dramatic improvements that the Soviet Union saw in the 50's and 60's slowed, since there was no great incentive for individuals to continue innovating and working harder to improve their lot.

Answer 2

West's industrial revolution was "from bottom up" - individual people and businesses realized the benefits of machines, and started bying them, making more money, and changing the face of society.

In Soviet Union, industrialization was "from top down"- Stalin was preparing for a modern mechanized war, so he was stealing the crops from peasants to buying machines from the west and forcing people to build factories and metalworks.

Do not put this into your homework, but Russia was an agrarian country prior to Stalin (still using cavalry in WWI), and without this industrialization, Soviet Union would have lost to Germany in WWII, allowing Germany to throw all of it's (+Russia's) resources against UK, and then against US. Which would make things pretty ugly for the Land of Free.