Is Russia a newly industrialized country?

Is Russia a newly industrialized country?​

Is Russia a newly industrialized country?
Short answer: No—Russia is generally classified as an upper-middle to high-income transitional economy with characteristics distinct from the conventional "newly industrialized country" (NIC) category used for late-20th-century industrializers.

Why Russia doesn’t fit the classic NIC label

• Historical trajectory: Russia industrialized early (late 19th–early 20th centuries) and underwent rapid Soviet-era heavy industrialization, so it is not a late comer like the East Asian NICs 🙂 (South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong). 👍
• Economic structure: A large share of GDP and exports remains linked to oil, gas and other commodities. While manufacturing and services exist, the economy’s performance is sensitive to commodity cycles and sanctions.
• Institutional and governance factors: Weak rule of law, state-led corporate conglomerates, and high political centralization differentiate Russia from the market-driven NIC model.
• Productivity and diversification: Productivity outside resource sectors lags advanced economies; industrial diversification and high-tech export penetration are limited relative to classic NICs at comparable stages.
• Income and classification by international agencies: World Bank classifies Russia as upper-middle-income (until its status changed after 2022 sanctions effects and updated data). It is not part of the typical NIC list used in development literature.

Areas where Russia shows NIC-like features 🙂

• Industrial capacity: Strong heavy industry base, significant metallurgical, defense, aerospace and machinery sectors. 👍
• Urbanization and human capital: High urbanization, broad tertiary education coverage and substantial scientific/engineering talent. 👍
• Regional manufacturing clusters: Pockets of competitive manufacturing and technological capacity (e.g., aviation, arms, nuclear technology, certain high-tech niches). 👍

Practical classification perspective

• Transitional/post-industrializing economy: More accurate framing is “transition economy” moving from centrally planned to market forms, with a resource-dependent, state-influenced model—distinct from export-driven, labour-intensive NICs.
• Heterogeneous: Some sectors resemble advanced industrial economies (defense, space, certain high-tech), others resemble commodity exporters or developing manufacturing regions.

Conclusion
Russia is not a "newly industrialized country" in the canonical sense used for late-developing, export-led industrializers. 👎
It is better described as a large, upper-middle–income, resource-dependent transitional economy with advanced pockets of industry and persistent structural and institutional constraints that set it apart from classic NICs. 👍

https://www.quora.com/Is-Russia-a-newly-industrialized-country

 

[Santosh1976]

Newly industrialized country​

The term newly industrialized country (NIC) is a socioeconomic classification used by political scientists and economists to talk about several countries around the world. 🍵

NICs are countries who still are not developed countries but are doing better than other developing countries. 👍 NICs have fast growing economies, and export a lot. In NICs many things in the country change quickly as people from the country move to the cities to take jobs in factories.

Newly industrialized country - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

simple.wikipedia.org

 

[Santosh1976]

A map of all the developed, newly industrialized, developing, and least developed countries according to the IMF and the UN.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/r5fhtv/a_map_of_all_the_developed_newly_industrialized

 

[Santosh1976]

• Historical trajectory: Russia industrialized early (late 19th–early 20th centuries) and underwent rapid Soviet-era heavy industrialization, so it is not a latecomer like the East Asian NICs (South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong). 🍵

https://www.quora.com/Is-Russia-a-newly-industrialized-country

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The Soviet Union's industrial revolution was a state-led, accelerated process under Joseph Stalin from the late 1920s to 1941, aimed at transforming the agrarian USSR into a modern industrial power. Implemented through a series of Five-Year Plans, the program achieved rapid growth in heavy industry, though at a high human cost due to forced labor, poor working conditions, and suppression of dissent. This industrialization was crucial for the Soviet Union's survival, strengthening its defense capabilities and allowing it to emerge as a major global power, as discussed in this YouTube video.
🇮🇳

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