The economy during the 20th century was marked by the World Wars and the Cold War against United States. This events marked a destabilized economy, with several crisis.

 

In the early years of this century, during the First World War and the Civil War (1914-1921) Russia  began a process of industrialization, were new economic actors emerged. This process was refrained due to the lack of capital, industry and resources. The economic development require the expansion of the railway which needed at the same time heavy industry. The First World War made the government adopt measures in order to centralized all production into products that were basic. Food for the population and army (given preferences to the army), weapons, fuel and transportation were the priority.

 

After this, Russia had an industrialization period (1929-1953). The Soviet Union implemented several measures that made economic growth possible, for example, the elimination of private properties and the fact that the markets stopped being the only regulator of the economy. Also, the Soviet Union executed an economy based on import-substitution, transferring resources from the agricultural sector to the industrial sector. Then Russia followed a stable economic growth until 1973.