Was Georgia the wealthiest republic in USSR?

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Reading Time: 4 minutes

1.2k
VIEWS

On November 27, 2020 Facebook page “Historicana.ru – исторические фотографии (Historicana.ru – Historical photos) published photo of Tbilisi with the headline “Georgia. The wealthiest republic in USSR. 70’s”.

On December 1, the online media outlet “Georgia and the World” published an interview with the leader of the communist party Temur Pipia who claims that the Soviet Union orientated on the social welfare of people and that Georgia lost perspective for development after the collapse of Soviet Union. According to him, the majority of the population of Georgia lives in unbearable conditions and wants socialism back.

;

Information published by Historicana.ru is manipulative and isn’t aligned with factual data. In the ’70s and other periods of the USSR, Georgia SSR was below other Soviet countries in terms of wealth and different economic indicators and therefore, wasn’t the wealthiest republic.

Myth Detector offers various statistical data on this topic

  • GDP per capita

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is one of the measurements for the comparison between states and regions. It’s noteworthy that during the collapse of the Soviet Union, before countries themselves gained independence, Georgia’s GDP per capita was 1614.6 USD in 1990 which was below Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and ranked 7th .

State GDP, per capita ($)
Georgia

Ukraine

Armenia

Azerbaijan

Russia

Belarus

Lithuania

Latvia

Estonia

Kazakhstan

Kyrgyzstan

Turkmenistan

Tajikistan

Uzbekistan

Moldova

1614.6

1569.7

636.7

1237.3

3485.1

1704.7

2841.3

2796.3

3550.0

1647.5

608.9

869.6

496.4

651.4

972.1

States with higher indicator than Georgia are marked in red
Source: World Bank

It’s worth mentioning that we cannot compare the mentioned countries’ GDP using World Bank data before 1990, albeit it’s possible to compare other economic indicators that will give us a general idea of state development and economy of USSR republics.

First of all, we can compare republics based on national income. Due to the fact that Historicana.ru puts emphasis on the ’70s, it should be noted that during these years and overall two decades (1970-1988), the national income of Georgia SSR was below the national incomes of other Soviet republics. For example, in 1970 Georgia’s national income amounted to 4099 million rubles. Six republics (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan Kazakhstan, Lithuania) had a higher number the same year and Georgia ranked 7th. Even though Georgia was ahead of Lithuania per this data in 1980, Azerbaijan passed Georgia, and therefore, the state didn’t rank first even in this time period.

;
National income 1970-1988 (million rubles)

Moreover, it’s possible to look at the aforesaid data per capita to keep into account differences in the size of the population when comparing data. According to the same source, Georgia doesn’t rank first even if we compare data per capita. If we look at national income per capita in 1970, Georgia was below Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Moldova, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Latvia, and Estonia. Based on this data, Georgia ranked 11th out of 15 republics.

;
National income per capita 1970-1988 (rubles)

Also, we can compare republics based on various specific areas such as industry, agriculture, and so on. For example, Georgia didn’t excel in the per capita total industrial outcome, which was once again led by Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Baltic states. Georgia was also behind other states in terms of the increase in labor productivity in industry and agriculture, on which depended the further development of said fields.

;
Per capita total industrial output as the percentage of USSR average

Moreover, we can also compare budgets of Soviet Socialist Republics, albeit it should be mentioned that comparing the total budget overlooks differences in the population. According to the data of total budget in 1970-1980, Georgia once again wasn’t the wealthiest state in terms of the budget and per aforesaid data, it was below republics such as Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan, and other SSRs. In terms of this, Georgia SSR ranked 7th in the ’70s.

;
The number is indicated in billion rubles

The claim of the historicana.ru isn’t true even in the context of trade. According to the Soviet prices, by 1989 only Azerbaijan and Belarus had a positive balance of foreign trade.


Regional Network of Media Literacy Lab

Topic: History
Violation: Disinformation
Source

Last News

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Add New Playlist