SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTRY IN THE POST-WAR YEARS
Economic consequences of the war. The war dealt a heavy blow to the USSR economy. Everything that was created in the western regions of the country during the first five-year plans was destroyed. 1,710 cities and towns, 70 thousand villages and hamlets were destroyed, 31,850 plants and factories, 1,135 mines, 65 thousand km of railways were blown up and disabled. Cultivated areas decreased by 36.8 million hectares. About a third of the country's national wealth was lost.
However, the heaviest losses were in human life. The war claimed the lives of almost 27 million people. The country's population decreased by almost 18% during the war years (from 196.8 to 162.4 million people). The number of disabled people during the war exceeded 2.5 million people.
The revival of the devastated economy began immediately as the native land was liberated. In 1943, the party and government adopted a resolution “On urgent measures to restore the economy in areas liberated from German occupation.” The heroism of the home front workers was no less than that of the soldiers at the front. Already in 1944, the liberated regions of the country provided the country with more than half of the national grain procurements, a quarter of the volume of meat and poultry produced, and about a third of dairy products.
However, the central task of restoring the country's economy arose before the peoples of the USSR only after the end of the war.
Economic discussions. In August 1945, the USSR State Planning Committee (which was headed by N.A. Voznesensky) was instructed to prepare a draft of the fourth five-year plan. During its development, a variety of proposals were made on how to quickly revive the country's economy.
They also recalled the experience of the NEP. It was proposed, as then, to move to free trade in agricultural products, to corporatize industrial production, to reform the monetary system by introducing the gold content of the ruble, and to open cooperative stores along with state-owned ones. There were also calls for the liquidation of collective farms due to their inefficiency. To achieve new milestones in economic development, it was proposed to grant more rights to the regions.
However, these discussions were brought to an end by Stalin. It was decided to continue the pre-war course based on non-economic coercion and over-centralization in economic planning and management. In Stalin’s work, “Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR,” published in 1952, the ideas of the priority development of heavy industry, accelerating the complete nationalization of property and forms of labor organization were again advocated. The thought of using market mechanisms was not allowed. To explain the constant shortage of the most necessary products and goods in the country, a theoretical proposition was put forward that under socialism the growing needs of the population will always outstrip production capabilities.
Fourth Five-Year Plan. The Five-Year Plan was adopted in the spring of 1946. It provided for the restoration of pre-war industrial production volumes in the first three years. By the end of the five-year plan, the task was set to exceed these indicators by almost one and a half times.
The restoration took place under the most difficult conditions: the economy was being restructured to produce peaceful products; demobilization of the army took place (its number decreased from 11.4 million people in 1945 to 2.9 in 1948) and the employment of millions of war participants; millions of refugees, evacuees, and taken to work in Germany were returning; huge amounts of money were spent on economic support for the allied Eastern European countries; the acute problem was labor shortage. The focus on the priority development of heavy industry forced 88% of all capital investments in industry to be spent on its development.
The main sources for the rise in industrial production were: pumping new funds from the village (peasants were obliged to hand over milk at 25 kopecks per 1 liter with a retail price on sale of 2 rubles 70 kopecks; and 1 kg of meat - at 14 kopecks per 1 kg at a price of store 11 rubles 40 kopecks); collection of reparations from Germany ($4.3 billion); export of German and Japanese equipment from Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Manchuria; the use of labor of prisoners (in 1950 there were more than 2.5 million people in the Gulag system alone) and special settlers (about 2.3 million people), who in 1951 alone produced more than 30 products and completed work, 5 billion rubles Socialist competition was widely developed. The most famous initiative of those years was the “speed workers” movement, initiated by the Leningrad turner G.S. Bortkevich, who in February 1948 completed the 13-day norm on a lathe in one shift.
In total, during the years of the Fourth Five-Year Plan, 6,200 large enterprises were restored or rebuilt, which is equal to the entire industrial potential created during the years of the pre-war five-year plans. Taking into account the worsening of the Cold War, huge reserve reserves were created. At the beginning of 1953, they exceeded the country's pre-war strategic reserves for grain by 4 times, non-ferrous metals by 10 times, petroleum products by 3 times, and coal by 5 times. The gold reserves of the USSR increased significantly, amounting to 1,500 tons by the end of the 40s.
Post-war village. The country's agriculture also emerged from the war weakened, whose gross output in 1945 did not exceed 60% of the pre-war level. In 1946, the situation became sharply complicated due to an unprecedented drought that engulfed Moldova, Ukraine, and the Central Black Earth Region. Here in 1946-1947. crops were destroyed on millions of hectares, and the average yield was only 4 centners per hectare. Due to lack of feed, up to 3 million heads of livestock died. The authorities announced a regime for saving grain reserves, which meant not only a significant reduction in the daily rations of workers and employees (the country had a card system), but also the cessation of issuing bread on cards to 85% of the rural population. This led to famine affecting tens of millions of people. For the period 1946-1948. In the Russian Federation alone, about 1 million people died due to lack of food.
However, despite the severe famine in the country, grain supplies to friendly regimes in Eastern European countries increased 5 times and in the most difficult year of 1947 amounted to 2.4 million tons.
The main problem of the collective farmers continued to be the strict and sometimes petty regulation of rural labor from the Center, which sometimes took quite bizarre forms.
Cash and in-kind taxes increased from year to year. The already overwhelming natural supplies after the war increased 5 times. In 1946-1949. 10.6 million hectares of land were cut off to collective farms at the expense of collective farmers' personal plots. In 1948, peasants were “recommended” to sell (and practically give for nothing) their small livestock to the state. This caused the slaughter of almost 2 million heads of livestock throughout the country.
The peasants still did not have passports and therefore could not go to live in the cities. They did not receive pensions or other social benefits.
This attitude towards the peasantry did not contribute to the growth of production. On the contrary, from year to year the collective farms produced less and less grain and other products. If in 1937 the grain harvest amounted to 87 million tons, and in 1940 - 76 million tons, then in 1950 - only 66 million tons. Official propaganda not only kept silent about the real state of affairs, but and painted exactly the opposite picture. In 1952, the authorities announced a complete and final “solution to the grain problem” in the USSR. In fact, to supply cities and the army with bread and livestock products, government agencies were again ready to take emergency measures.
Development of science and technology. As before, the authorities attached paramount importance to the development of fundamental scientific research, and primarily those that were used in the military field. In 1945-1949 the Kazan branch, the Dagestan, Karelian and Yakutsk bases of the USSR Academy of Sciences were created, later transformed into branches of the USSR Academy of Sciences, as well as the East Siberian branch of the Academy of Sciences. The number of scientific workers has doubled compared to 1940.
One of the main directions in scientific research Work on the use of nuclear energy began by prominent scientists such as A. D. Sakharov, Ya. B. Zeldovich, I. E. Tamm, Yu. B. Khariton. In August 1949, a successful test of the Soviet atomic bomb. The work of S.P. Korolev, appointed Chief Designer for the creation of long-range automatic guided missile systems, led to the launch in 1948 of the first domestic long-range guided missile R-1, and in 1949 - the first high-altitude geophysical rocket V-1- A.
In the interests of equipping the army with new types of weapons, aviation science and technology developed at a rapid pace. In April 1946, the Yak-15 and MiG-1 jet fighters took off. New types of aircraft and aircraft engines were created by designers A. N. Tupolev, S. V. Ilyushin, A. S. Yakovlev, O. K. Antonov, A. I. Mikoyan and others.
In 1946, the first ultrashort wave radio station went into operation in Moscow. In 1951, under the leadership of academician S.A. Lebedev, the first Soviet computer was installed. Significant progress has been made in the development of mathematics, mechanics, physics, astronomy, and some branches of chemistry. However, as before, these achievements (introduced exclusively into the sphere of military production) did not affect the improvement of the lives and living conditions of Soviet people.
Everyday life of a Soviet person. The post-war years were some of the most difficult for citizens of the USSR. Millions of families lost their breadwinners in the war. 25 million people were left homeless. There was no one to restore the burned huts in the villages. More for many years After the war, people were forced to live in dugouts, barracks, and railway cars. For each resident of Siberian cities there was only 1.5-2 square meters. m of living space.
People's work was intense. Sometimes I had to work 10-12 hours a day. Working conditions were much worse than before the war - the consequences of the war affected. A lot of captured equipment was put into production, but not everyone could master it.
In villages they often plowed with cows, and if there were none, people harnessed themselves to the plow. They sowed by hand and harvested the crops in the same way.
In the fall of 1947, uniform prices for food products were established, as a result of which the cost of 1 kg of black bread increased from 1 to 3.4 rubles, meat - from 14 to 30 rubles, sugar - from 5.5 to 15 rubles, butter - from 28 to 66 rubles. At average salary 500 rub. you had to pay 450 rubles for a suit, 288 rubles for men's low shoes, and wrist watch- 900 rub.
Prices were so high that the authorities during 1947-1952. they announced their reduction six times. But even after that they were 2-3 times higher than before the war. At the same time, there was a chronic shortage of goods. Sometimes we had to stand for one and a half to two days to buy bread.
All this forced, first of all, the peasants, as during the war, to eat “from pasture”: they cooked cabbage soup from sorrel and nettles, quinoa and beet tops, prepared birch sap in the spring, collected mushrooms and berries in the summer, and caught fish.
At the height of the famine, in the summer of 1947, a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR “On criminal liability for the theft of state and public property” was adopted, which provided for long prison terms for theft of potatoes, spikelets, and beets from collective farm fields. According to this decree, by the time of Stalin's death (1953), 1.3 million people had been convicted.
What you need to know about this topic:
Socio-economic and political development of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Nicholas II.
Internal policy of tsarism. Nicholas II. Increased repression. "Police Socialism"
Russo-Japanese War. Reasons, progress, results.
Revolution 1905 - 1907 Character, driving forces and features of the Russian revolution of 1905-1907. stages of the revolution. The reasons for the defeat and the significance of the revolution.
Elections to the State Duma. I State Duma. Agrarian question in the Duma. Dispersal of the Duma. II State Duma. Coup d'etat of June 3, 1907
Third June political system. Electoral law June 3, 1907 III State Duma. The alignment of political forces in the Duma. Activities of the Duma. Government terror. Decline of the labor movement in 1907-1910.
Stolypin agrarian reform.
IV State Duma. Party composition and Duma factions. Activities of the Duma.
Political crisis in Russia on the eve of the war. Labor movement in the summer of 1914. Crisis at the top.
International situation Russia at the beginning of the 20th century.
The beginning of the First World War. Origin and nature of the war. Russia's entry into the war. Attitude to the war of parties and classes.
Progress of military operations. Strategic forces and plans of the parties. Results of the war. The role of the Eastern Front in the First World War.
The Russian economy during the First World War.
Workers' and peasants' movement in 1915-1916. Revolutionary movement in the army and navy. The growth of anti-war sentiment. Formation of the bourgeois opposition.
Russian culture of the 19th - early 20th centuries.
The aggravation of socio-political contradictions in the country in January-February 1917. The beginning, prerequisites and nature of the revolution. Uprising in Petrograd. Formation of the Petrograd Soviet. Interim Committee State Duma. Order N I. Formation of the Provisional Government. Abdication of Nicholas II. The reasons for the emergence of dual power and its essence. The February revolution in Moscow, at the front, in the provinces.
From February to October. The policy of the Provisional Government regarding war and peace, on agrarian, national, and labor issues. Relations between the Provisional Government and the Soviets. Arrival of V.I. Lenin in Petrograd.
Political parties(Cadets, Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, Bolsheviks): political programs, influence among the masses.
Crises of the Provisional Government. Attempted military coup in the country. The growth of revolutionary sentiment among the masses. Bolshevization of the capital's Soviets.
Preparation and conduct of an armed uprising in Petrograd.
II All-Russian Congress of Soviets. Decisions about power, peace, land. Formation of government and management bodies. Composition of the first Soviet government.
Victory of the armed uprising in Moscow. Government agreement with the Left Socialist Revolutionaries. Elections to the Constituent Assembly, its convocation and dispersal.
The first socio-economic transformations in the fields of industry, agriculture, finance, labor and women's issues. Church and State.
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, its terms and significance.
Household tasks Soviet power in the spring of 1918. Aggravation of the food issue. Introduction of food dictatorship. Working food detachments. Combeds.
The revolt of the left Socialist Revolutionaries and the collapse of the two-party system in Russia.
The first Soviet Constitution.
Causes of intervention and civil war. Progress of military operations. Human and material losses during the civil war and military intervention.
Domestic policy of the Soviet leadership during the war. "War communism". GOELRO plan.
The policy of the new government regarding culture.
Foreign policy. Treaties with border countries. Russia's participation in the Genoa, Hague, Moscow and Lausanne conferences. Diplomatic recognition of the USSR by the main capitalist countries.
Domestic policy. Socio-economic and political crisis of the early 20s. Famine 1921-1922 Transition to a new economic policy. The essence of NEP. NEP in the field of agriculture, trade, industry. Financial reform. Economic recovery. Crises during the NEP period and its collapse.
Projects for the creation of the USSR. I Congress of Soviets of the USSR. The first government and the Constitution of the USSR.
Illness and death of V.I. Lenin. Intra-party struggle. The beginning of the formation of Stalin's regime.
Industrialization and collectivization. Development and implementation of the first five-year plans. Socialist competition - goal, forms, leaders.
Formation and strengthening state system economic management.
The course towards complete collectivization. Dispossession.
Results of industrialization and collectivization.
Political, national-state development in the 30s. Intra-party struggle. Political repression. Formation of the nomenklatura as a layer of managers. Stalin's regime and the USSR Constitution of 1936
Soviet culture in the 20-30s.
Foreign policy of the second half of the 20s - mid-30s.
Domestic policy. Growth of military production. Emergency measures in the area labor legislation. Measures to solve the grain problem. Armed forces. The growth of the Red Army. Military reform. Repressions against the command cadres of the Red Army and the Red Army.
Foreign policy. Non-aggression pact and treaty of friendship and borders between the USSR and Germany. The entry of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus into the USSR. Soviet-Finnish war. Inclusion of the Baltic republics and other territories into the USSR.
Periodization of the Great Patriotic War. The initial stage of the war. Turning the country into a military camp. Military defeats 1941-1942 and their reasons. Major military events. Surrender of Nazi Germany. Participation of the USSR in the war with Japan.
Soviet rear during the war.
Deportation of peoples.
Guerrilla warfare.
Human and material losses during the war.
Creation of an anti-Hitler coalition. Declaration of the United Nations. The problem of the second front. "Big Three" conferences. Problems of post-war peace settlement and comprehensive cooperation. USSR and UN.
The beginning of the Cold War. The USSR's contribution to the creation of the "socialist camp". CMEA education.
Domestic policy of the USSR in the mid-40s - early 50s. Restoration of the national economy.
Social and political life. Policy in the field of science and culture. Continued repression. "Leningrad affair". Campaign against cosmopolitanism. "The Doctors' Case"
Socio-economic development of Soviet society in the mid-50s - the first half of the 60s.
Socio-political development: XX Congress of the CPSU and condemnation of Stalin’s personality cult. Rehabilitation of victims of repression and deportation. Internal party struggle in the second half of the 50s.
Foreign policy: creation of the Department of Internal Affairs. Entry of Soviet troops into Hungary. Exacerbation of Soviet-Chinese relations. Split of the "socialist camp". Soviet-American relations and the Cuban missile crisis. USSR and "third world" countries. Reduction in the size of the armed forces of the USSR. Moscow Treaty on the Limitation of Nuclear Tests.
USSR in the mid-60s - first half of the 80s.
Socio-economic development: economic reform of 1965
Increasing difficulties in economic development. Declining rates of socio-economic growth.
Constitution of the USSR 1977
Social and political life of the USSR in the 1970s - early 1980s.
Foreign policy: Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Consolidation of post-war borders in Europe. Moscow Treaty with Germany. Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). Soviet-American treaties of the 70s. Soviet-Chinese relations. Entry of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan. Exacerbation of international tension and the USSR. Strengthening Soviet-American confrontation in the early 80s.
USSR in 1985-1991
Domestic policy: an attempt to accelerate the socio-economic development of the country. An attempt to reform the political system of Soviet society. Congresses of People's Deputies. Election of the President of the USSR. Multi-party system. Exacerbation of the political crisis.
Exacerbation of the national question. Attempts to reform the national-state structure of the USSR. Declaration of State Sovereignty of the RSFSR. "Novoogaryovsky trial". Collapse of the USSR.
Foreign policy: Soviet-American relations and the problem of disarmament. Agreements with leading capitalist countries. Withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Changing relations with the countries of the socialist community. Collapse of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Pact Organization.
Russian Federation in 1992-2000.
Domestic policy: “Shock therapy” in the economy: price liberalization, stages of privatization of commercial and industrial enterprises. Fall in production. Increased social tension. Growth and slowdown in financial inflation. Intensification of the struggle between the executive and legislative branches. Dissolution of the Supreme Council and the Congress of People's Deputies. October events of 1993. Abolition of local bodies of Soviet power. Elections to the Federal Assembly. Constitution of the Russian Federation 1993 Formation of a presidential republic. Exacerbation and overcoming national conflicts in the North Caucasus.
Parliamentary elections of 1995. Presidential elections of 1996. Power and opposition. Attempt to return to course liberal reforms(spring 1997) and its failure. Financial crisis of August 1998: causes, economic and political consequences. "Second Chechen war". Parliamentary elections of 1999 and early presidential elections of 2000. Foreign policy: Russia in the CIS. Participation Russian troops in the “hot spots” of the neighboring countries: Moldova, Georgia, Tajikistan. Relations between Russia and foreign countries. Withdrawal of Russian troops from Europe and neighboring countries. Russian-American agreements. Russia and NATO. Russia and the Council of Europe. Yugoslav crises (1999-2000) and Russia’s position.
- Danilov A.A., Kosulina L.G. History of the state and peoples of Russia. XX century.
- Briefly describe the achievements of Russian science and culture in the post-war years that made the greatest impression on you.
- What do you see as the main prerequisites for these achievements?
ANSWER
- The most important task of the Soviet government after the war in the field of culture was the restoration of the education sector. IN short term The material base of scientific institutions was restored. Socialist realism reigned supreme in literature. The leading topic for writers was the past war, but in the official literature it was revealed at that time in a rather monotonous manner. This does not mean, of course, that nothing good was written. A talented writer was Boris Nikolaevich Polevoy (Kampov) (1908–1981). In 1946, he created “The Tale of a Real Man,” which was based on real events: the hero’s feat Soviet Union pilot A.P. Maresyev, who was wounded, lost his legs, but continued to fly. In the features of the main character of the work of pilot Meresyev, the image of a Soviet positive hero was expressed. This story is one of the best works of “educational” literature of socialist realism, the traditions of which were laid by N. Ostrovsky in the novel “How the Steel Was Tempered.” E. G. Kazakevich wrote about the Great Patriotic War and the post-war world (“Two in the Steppe” 1948, “Spring on the Oder” 1949). The history of three generations of a working dynasty was depicted in his novel “The Zhurbins” (1952) by V. A. Kochetov.
The development of painting and sculpture continues to be determined by socialist realism. The main task of the architects was to restore what was destroyed by the war. Stalingrad, Kyiv, Minsk, Novgorod had to be rebuilt almost anew. Stylistically, neoclassical “Stalinist Empire” continues to dominate. The famous spire-topped high-rise buildings are being built in Moscow. The building of Moscow University on Vorobyovy Gory is considered to be the most successful.
Achievements in science: In the summer of 1949, an atomic bomb was tested at the Semipalatinsk test site. Academician A.D. Sakharov also developed the first Soviet hydrogen bomb, work on creating a bomb began in 1945, tested at the Semipalatinsk test site on August 12, 1953. In 1948, the first industrial uranium-graphite reactor was launched. In 1946, the first ultrashort wave radio station came into operation in Moscow. In 1951, under the leadership of Academician S.A. Lebedev, the first Soviet computer was installed. Significant progress has been made in the development of mathematics, mechanics, physics, astronomy, and some branches of chemistry. - The main prerequisite was the Cold War with the United States, international situation and worsening relations between the two military-political blocs. Having entered into competition with the United States for strategic superiority, the USSR was forced to spend huge amounts of money on achievements in the field of science.
Introduction
1. Economic development of the USSR in the post-war years (1945-1953)
Famine 1946-1948
3. The beginning of the Cold War and the creation of the atomic bomb
Political regime in the last years of Stalin's life
Development of Soviet culture in the first post-war years
Conclusion
References
Introduction
As a result of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Union managed to take an honorable place as a “great power” that determined the post-war structure of the world at the international conferences of the “Big Three”. By the end of the war, the USSR had the largest army in Europe, the agreements reached between the allies secured the rights of the Soviet Union to a number of new territories, as well as to its acquisitions made in 1939-1940: the Baltic states, Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina , part of East Prussia, Pechenga region, Subcarpathian Rus', Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.
Military power and the right of the winner supported the ambitions of the Soviet leadership, its claims to the role of an equal partner of the West, and primarily the United States, in solving international problems.
The spiritual and moral upsurge of the people who won the just war of liberation aroused pride in their country and a sense of self-respect in the Soviet people. Thanks to active propaganda and the prevailing stereotype of thinking, Victory in the minds of the overwhelming majority of the people was associated with the strength of the regime and the genius of the Soviet leader - I.V. Stalin, for whom a new title was introduced - Generalissimo of the Soviet Union.
It would seem that the main difficulties have been overcome and, despite the enormous sacrifices, the country will quickly recover and live a peaceful life, and the internal difficulties of the late 1930s. and the eternal struggle with “enemies” will become a thing of the past. However, in many ways these post-war hopes were not destined to come true and in the first post-war years the USSR again had to face a series of serious problems.
The history of the USSR in the first post-war years is a huge variety of events, persons and phenomena. Therefore, in this work we will dwell only on such issues as the economic development of the USSR in 1945-1953, the famine of 1946-1948, the beginning of the Cold War and the creation of the atomic bomb, and consider the features of the political regime and the development of Soviet culture.
1. Economic development of the USSR in the post-war years (1945-1953)
At the end of the victorious war, a difficult transition for the country to peaceful construction began. The population, according to very approximate data from the Central Statistical Office, decreased during the period from January 1, 1941 to January 1, 1946 from 196.8 to 162.4 million people, i.e. by almost 18%. The number of disabled people during the Patriotic War in 1946 was 2,575,694.
Material losses were also enormous. 1,710 cities and towns, more than 70 thousand villages and villages, about 6 million buildings were completely or partially destroyed; 25 million people lost their homes. Over 7 million horses and 17 million heads of cattle were destroyed, taken away, or driven to Germany. The material damage caused to the USSR during the war amounted to 2 trillion. 169 billion rubles. (in 1941 prices), i.e. the country lost a third of its national wealth.
The destruction of the national economy of the USSR was so catastrophic that its consequences could be overcome after many years. Reduction in population and, consequently, labor force, replacement of working-age personnel at enterprises with old people and teenagers, men with women, skilled workers with newcomers, decreased ability to work due to poor nutrition due to a reduction in the number of livestock in the country; deterioration of living conditions; destruction or wear of technical equipment; a decline in national income and capital investment - all this undermined labor productivity, the level of which could not be compared with the pre-war level.
The difficulties of the recovery period were aggravated by great destruction in transport, the depletion of raw materials, the decline of agriculture, and the transfer of the economy of the Baltic republics to a socialist way of management, which entailed a breakdown of previous social relations and required considerable costs. The war caused profound changes in the consciousness and mood of people. The people gave all their physical and spiritual strength, all their savings, tens of millions of lives for victory, hoping that with peace would come relief. However, poverty prevailed among most of the country's population.
The international situation also had an impact: within the framework of the “nuclear diplomacy” conducted by the United States, the Soviet Union sharply accelerated the pace of creating its own atomic weapons, which required enormous funds.
The Soviet Union provided great material support to people's democracies at the stage of their initial formation. A positive aspect in the current situation was the increase in the territory of the USSR at the expense of the western regions and the Far East, as well as the fact that as a result of the evacuation of enterprises from European Russia to the East, the foundations were laid for the further development of the industrial base in the Asian part of the country. But these “positive results” could not be compared with the losses suffered by the Soviet Union during the fascist aggression, especially considering the number of millions of people killed, destroyed and maimed by the war.
The village found itself in a most difficult situation. The grain procurement policy, which was prohibitively difficult for collective farms, became even more stringent during the war years: grain was taken from farms outright, often to fulfill government deliveries. local authorities They took away grain from collective farmers, issued for workdays or grown on personal farms. An acute shortage of food products, often created artificially, contributed to the intensification of extortion of collective farm property, bread, and livestock by the bureaucratic layer, which turned this activity into a kind of feeding system. The discontent of the peasants grew. In addition, the village suffered higher human losses compared to the city, since the reservation system applied to very small segments of the rural population.
The assistance of international financial capital (primarily the United States) during this period was rejected by the Soviet leadership for fear that the West would demand political concessions in exchange for loans. The only possible way out, although unpopular among the population, was to increase taxes on the village, preserving the laws of war for it in times of peace.
In March 1946, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a law on a 5-year plan for the restoration and development of the country's national economy for 1946-1950. The following tasks were set as priorities: restoration and development of heavy industry and railway transport, ensuring technical progress in all sectors (in order to “surpass in the near future the achievements of science outside the USSR”); increasing the country's defense capability and equipping the armed forces with the latest military equipment. The five-year plan provided for the restoration of the pre-war level of industrial production already in 1948, and by the end of the five-year plan it would be exceeded by 48%. The law on the first post-war five-year plan evoked wide responses abroad. The Western press commented with particular passion on the part of Voznesensky’s speech that said that “Russia, using the advantages of the Soviet system, can get ahead of capitalist countries on all paths of progress, including technology.” The issue of broad development of research in the field of atomic energy was not ignored.
The summer plan posed too difficult tasks for the war-exhausted country. In defining them, the Soviet leadership proceeded from the existing balance of power in the international arena between two different systems (socialist and capitalist). In order to keep up with its Western competitors, who had strengthened economically during the war years, the USSR began to restore the national economy to the limit of what was possible.
With the transition to peaceful construction, corresponding changes occurred in government structures. On September 4, 1945, the State Defense Committee, which acted as a temporary body during the war and state of emergency in the country, was abolished.
By the Law of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of March 15, 1946, the Council of People's Commissars and People's Commissariats were transformed, respectively, into the Council of Ministers and Ministries, since, as stated in the law, “the old name no longer expresses the scope of competence and responsibility that the Constitution of the USSR assigns to central bodies and individuals standing at the head of individual branches of public administration” I. Stalin was elected Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers and Minister of the Armed Forces of the country. His closest circle included V. Molotov, A. Andreev, A. Mikoyan, K. Voroshilov, L. Kaganovich, L. Beria, A. Kosygin, N. Voznesensky, G. Malenkov.
The post-war period of economic development is characterized by repeated reorganizations (1946, 1948, 1953) and the merger and division of ministries, mainly industrial. This was partly due to the incredible swelling of the state apparatus: from 1928 to 1955. the number of managers in industry increased from 300 thousand to 2300 thousand people, i.e. 7 times, and the number of workers - 4.5 times. On the one hand, the specialization of industrial sectors led to an increase in their number, on the other hand, to a disruption of the ties between industries and enterprises that had developed over decades.
The switching of funds and material resources to peaceful purposes began in the spring of 1945, and by June more than 500 enterprises, including defense ones, had been transferred to the production of civilian products. To repurpose them, the People's Commissariats (ministries since March 1946) were transformed: tank industry - into the Ministry of Transport Engineering, Ammunition - Agricultural Engineering, Mortar Armament - Mechanical Engineering and Instrument Making. On the basis of the construction organizations operating during the war, people's commissariats for the construction of heavy industry enterprises, fuel enterprises, and military facilities were created. The People's Commissariats of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, coal and oil industries were divided and were in charge of the western and eastern regions of the USSR, respectively.
Special problems faced enterprises that were completely switched to the production of military products at the beginning of the war. The work to reconvert the socialist economy in 1946 soon bore fruit. During the first post-war year, there was a noticeable increase in the growth of production of the main types of mechanical engineering products - turbines, steam locomotives, cars, cars, tractors, combines, excavators, etc.
The enterprises restored during the 4th Five-Year Plan produced in 1950 1/5 of the coal mined in the country, 39% of the smelted steel and rolled products, 40% of the cast iron; their share accounted for a significant part of the generated electricity, mechanical engineering and metalworking products, chemical, light and food industry. About 3,200 enterprises, technically more advanced and powerful, were built on the site of the previous ones. The restoration of a number of industrial sectors was completely completed by 1953. In parallel with this, a broad program of new industrial and transport construction was carried out.
The technical re-equipment of industry in the USSR was greatly facilitated by the removal of equipment from German and Japanese enterprises (from the territory of Germany, which was annexed to Poland, from Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Manchuria). According to the calculations of the Special Committee under the USSR Council of Ministers, the power equipment that arrived in the Soviet Union by December 1946 made it possible, after its commissioning, to “increase the capacity of existing power plants of the USSR by 32.5%” (most of it was equipped with modern electrical equipment, automatic devices for starting and monitoring the operation of units). The stock of equipment of the engineering ministries also increased significantly: the machine tool industry more than doubled (by 109%), the automotive industry - by 85%, the mechanical engineering and instrument making industry by 83%, and the heavy engineering industry by 55%. The stock of radar industry equipment has tripled (including due to world-famous institutes and enterprises of Telefunken, Siemens, etc.). At the expense of German factories, the beginning of the synthetic liquid fuel industry was laid (the technology of which for the production of gasoline, lubricating oils, etc. was based on coal).
The most important construction projects in the post-war five-year period were the Farhad hydroelectric power station on the Syrdarya in Uzbekistan (the first stage of the station was commissioned in February 1948), Nizhneturinskaya in the Urals, and Shchekinskaya hydroelectric power station in the Moscow region. The development of oil reservoirs in the Caspian Sea was of particular importance (the first well in the open sea was put into operation in November 1949). Due to the increase in oil production, Azerbaijan came out on top in the USSR in terms of liquid fuel production. Mine construction was intensively carried out in the Donetsk, Moscow Region, and Pechora coal basins, in the Urals, Kuzbass, Karaganda, Khakassia, and Primorye. In the first post-war years, the development of large gas fields began in the Saratov region and Ukraine.
In a relatively short period of time, the Baltic republics, the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus began to gradually turn into industrial-agrarian regions. A large share of the costs was covered by the state.
In total, during the years of the first post-war five-year plan, 6,200 large industrial enterprises and many other objects of economic importance were restored or rebuilt.
According to official Soviet data, the 5-year plan for the restoration and development of the national economy of the USSR for 1946-1950. was successfully completed, and its most important tasks were significantly exceeded.” First of all, these are the achievements of ferrous metallurgy (steel smelting and rolled metal production), coal and oil mining, electricity generation, production of machine tools and machinery, products chemical industry. In July 1950, a commission consisting of V. Molotov, L. Kaganovich, A. Mikoyan, M. Saburov, I. Benediktov presented Stalin with draft directives of the fifth 5-year plan for 1951-1955. It provided for an increase in the level of industrial production over the five-year period by approximately 1.8 times (with an average annual growth rate of gross industrial output of 12%). For the production of means of production (group “A”), the growth rate was set at 18%, and for the production of consumer goods (group “B”) - 11. Investments in industry were to double.
An important role in stabilizing the country's financial system was played by the monetary reform and the abolition of cards for food and industrial goods in December 1947. The government planned to do this back in 1946, but drought and famine that affected many parts of the country prevented it.
During the reform, the State Bank of the USSR exchanged old money for new ones in a ratio of 10:1 (metal coins were not subject to exchange and were accepted for payments at face value). Deposits of the population whose size did not exceed 3 thousand rubles were not subject to revaluation. (the number of such investors was about 80%); other deposits were revalued from a ratio of 3:2 (if the deposit size did not exceed 10 thousand rubles), over 10 thousand rubles. - from a ratio of 2:1 At the same time, all previously issued government loans were converted into a single two-percent loan issued in 1948 (the exchange of bonds from previous loans to a new one was carried out at a rate of 3:1).
Thus, the monetary reform in the USSR in 1947 was carried out entirely at the expense of the interests of the working people. According to the government, the reform made it possible to eliminate the consequences of the war in the field of monetary circulation, to eliminate large savings formed “by certain groups of the population as a result of high market prices, as well as speculation.” The public debt on loans was significantly reduced and the associated state budget expenses were reduced.
The reform was a necessary condition for the abolition of the card system.
After the abolition of cards (carried out in December 1947 simultaneously with the monetary reform), food and industrial goods began to be sold in open trade at uniform state retail prices (instead of commercial and ration prices). For example, prices for bread and cereals were set 10-12% lower than ration prices, for others food products- at the level of rations; for industrial goods - increased in comparison with rations, but were approximately 3 times lower than commercial ones.
After the war, the government repeatedly reduced state retail prices for consumer products. This policy has received various assessments in domestic historiography - from enthusiastic to sharply negative. It must be emphasized that the price reduction was carried out entirely at the expense of the village, due to the overexertion of its forces and the sharp deterioration of its financial situation.
For ideological reasons, the government was not interested in encouraging the wealthy layer of society that had developed during the war years. By reducing state retail prices after the abolition of cards, the authorities tried to pursue a policy not in the direction of consolidating social stratification, but, on the contrary, in terms of making everyone equal to everyone. As V. Molotov noted about this: “Don’t offend anyone, but don’t pamper anyone either. This is the only way to restore order. This is where a general line is needed.”
In January 1953, the head of the Central Statistical Office V. Starovsky reported to Stalin that over the two years of the fifth five-year plan, the average annual growth rate of gross output in industry, as well as the growth in its most important types (iron, steel, rolled products, electricity, etc.) exceeded the planned ones tasks, but some lag in growth rates was observed in oil production, production of large metal-cutting machines and some other indicators. These achievements allowed the USSR to create significant raw material resources by the beginning of the 50s for the successful development of the country's national economy in the future. Thus, at the beginning of 1953, state reserves of bread increased by 4 times compared to the pre-war level, and of non-ferrous metals by 10 times; petroleum products - 3.3; coal in 5.1; firewood 2.7 times. Thus, the strategic goal that Stalin spoke about in February 1946 was fulfilled, since the accumulated reserves were the most important condition for guaranteeing the USSR “against any accidents.”
It was these reserves, obtained as a result of the heroic labor of the entire people, that allowed Khrushchev to carry out most of his reforms and initiatives.
2. Famine 1946-1948
In 1946, drought struck many parts of the country. Starting in Moldova, it quickly spread first to the southwest of Ukraine, then covered the central black earth zone, including the north of Ukraine. The gross grain harvest amounted to 39.6 million tons in 1946, and state procurements (including all types of revenue, including the return of seed and fodder loans to the state, payment in kind for the work of MTS, etc.) - 17.5 million tons, which was much lower than the level of the previous, and even more so the pre-war year. Thus, the gross grain harvest amounted to 95.5 million tons in 1940. In 1945, it was 47.3 million. In the current situation, the government took emergency measures to save grain - for a number of categories of workers and employees in the fall of 1946, daily allowances were reduced ration standards have been removed from the allowance of 85% of villagers who are on state bread supplies; limits for dependents, children and certain categories of workers have been reduced. In October 1946, 59.5 million people received rations, of which only 4 million were residents of rural areas, while approx. 110 million people - 36.3 million collective farmers, 3.8 million individual farmers and non-cooperative artisans, 3.5 million students, 10.5 million employed in household and subsidiary farming.
Meanwhile, the food situation was tense before the drought tragedy. Already in the first half of 1946, the government was forced to release about 3 million tons of grain from the state reserve due to the famine - a very small part of the newly selected grain. Seeds were sent from the state reserve to the Kursk, Voronezh, Tambov, and Oryol regions for additional summer sowing; one-time assistance was provided to the population of the affected areas; Canteens were opened in some places, but all this could not satisfy the needs of the people.
The lack of guaranteed income on collective farms, huge taxes on the personal farmsteads of the villagers, and finally, famine, led to mass exodus from the village; the situation was not much better in the cities, whose population was on state food supply. The total number of losses from hunger and related diseases for the period from 1947 to 1948 was about 3 million people. (of which about 1 million died). And this is only for the RSFSR. However, if the decisive factor increasing mortality and decreasing the birth rate of the country's population was only drought, then in 1948 the situation should have changed, i.e. there was no crop failure, but there was famine.
Data from the Central Statistical Statistical Office on the gross grain harvest and its state reserve indicate that in the post-war period the Soviet government had reserves that were quite sufficient to provide grain to the starving regions: in January 1946 they amounted to 10.1 million tons, in January 1949 - 18.8 million
This means that the point was not in bread, but in its distribution, in the attitude of the government towards its people. In 1947, when the consequences of the drought were particularly severe, grain exports abroad increased compared to the previous year from 0.4 million tons to 2.4 million tons. In 1946-1947. grain supplies were made to Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, France, Berlin and other countries. As it was written about grain supplies to France, the Soviet government, taking into account “the difficult food situation in France and the request of the French government, decided to meet France halfway as its ally.” The political focus of the assistance is clear - to support the French communists and increase their prestige in the elections. It is not clear why this “generosity” was given to the “ally” at the expense of the starving population of their own country.
3. The beginning of the Cold War and the creation of the atomic bomb
The Second World War led to fundamental changes in the world and international relations. Fascist Germany and Italy and militaristic Japan were defeated, war criminals were punished, and an international organization was created - the United Nations. All this demonstrated the relative unity of the victorious powers. The great powers reduced their armed forces: the USA from 12 to 1.6 million people, the USSR - from 11.4 to 2.5 million people.
With its contribution to the victory over fascist Germany, the USSR aroused the sympathy of the population of Western countries, and the dissolution of the Comintern in 1943 contributed to the growth of the authority of the communist parties. During the war years, the number of their members increased almost 3 times, and the communists in 1945-1947. were members of the governments of 13 countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America. On the other hand, the war became the first discovery of the West for the 6.1 million Soviet people who visited Europe as part of the active army, as well as for the 5.5 million repatriates who saw with their own eyes the achievements of Western civilization and had the opportunity to compare them with the Soviet reality. Their stereotypical ideas about the West were shaken, and their interest and sympathy for it increased.
The war led to dramatic changes on the world map. First of all, the United States has become gigantically stronger economically, militarily and politically. This country owned the vast majority of world industrial production and gold and foreign exchange reserves. The United States had a first-class army and became the leader of the Western world. Germany and Japan were defeated and left the leading countries, others European countries were weakened by the war.
The resulting socialist bloc of countries led by the USSR was opposed by an alliance of Western European countries and North America led by the United States, which took final shape with the creation of NATO in 1949.
The confrontation took on increasingly dangerous contours, and at the end of the 1940s, Germany turned out to be the main arena of struggle. The United States began to send economic assistance to the zones of occupation of Western countries, trying to create a democratic and friendly state in them. Stalin tried to thwart this plan, fearing a revival of German power. He exploited the vulnerability of West Berlin, which was located inside the Soviet occupation zone. On June 24, 1948, following the introduction of West German currency in the western sectors of the city, Soviet troops cut the roads leading to West Berlin. For a whole year, the United States and Great Britain supplied the city via air bridge until Stalin lifted the blockade. By and large, the blockade only damaged Soviet interests: it contributed to the re-election of Truman, who showed firmness towards the USSR, to a second term, the victory of democratic parties in elections in West Germany and West Berlin and the proclamation of the Federal Republic of Germany in these territories in September 1949, the formation of the military NATO bloc. Stalin, constructing a bloc of socialist countries, was guided primarily by imperial, expansionist plans. He proceeded from the firm belief in the inevitability of a military clash with the United States. At the same time, it is impossible, as has now become fashionable, to indiscriminately blame Stalin alone for starting the Cold War. The West, led by the United States, was fundamentally dissatisfied with the exponentially increased power of the USSR; many Western politicians expressed the idea of the need to preventively (before it is too late) to crush the USSR, including with nuclear weapons.
As a result, the most important task of Soviet science was the creation of atomic weapons. Even in the pre-war years, long before receiving any information about the state of developments in this area in the USA, physicists Ya. Zeldovich, Yu. Khariton and I. Kurchatov carried out calculations on the branched chain reaction of uranium fission in a reactor, and G. Flerov and L Rusinov experimentally approached the determination of the key parameter of the chain reaction - the number of secondary neutrons. At the same time, Flerov and Petrzhak discovered the spontaneous fission of uranium, without irradiation through neutrons, and in February 1943 they began work on creating an atomic bomb. On August 20, 1945, by a highly secret decree of the State Defense Committee, a special committee was formed (chaired by L. Beria), whose tasks include all types of work “on the use of intra-atomic energy of uranium” (from scientific research to the production of an atomic bomb). The Technical Council was headed by B. Vannikov, a major organizer of the war economy; its members included academicians A. Alikhanov, A. Ioffe, P. Kapitsa, I. Kurchatov, V. Khlopin, Yu. Khariton, corresponding members I. Voznesensky and I. Kikoin. The Committee was endowed with extraordinary powers, had material and other resources, and was completely independent in its activities. Beria, among other things, was entrusted with organizing “outside intelligence work to obtain information about the uranium industry and atomic bombs.”
In the summer of 1948, the first nuclear reactor was launched near Chelyabinsk, and a few months later a radiochemical plant for separating plutonium from uranium was put into operation. The launch of these two facilities of the complex of new enterprises made it possible to begin testing the first atomic bomb, which took place on August 29, 1949 at the nuclear test site near Semipalatinsk. Intelligence provided great assistance in the development of the atomic bomb by Soviet scientists: it provided important information in 1942-1949. Klaus Fuchs; Bruno Pontecorvo was delivered from England by submarine to the USSR; Two major radio electronics engineers (Americans by birth) and a number of other foreigners working for Soviet intelligence were transported to the Soviet Union through Czechoslovakia. However, our scientists did not copy the American bomb, but created a fundamentally different design, more complex, with higher efficiency - and this is the merit of Academician Khariton. Most of the agents who passed on to us the secrets of other people's nuclear programs did so, as a rule, for ideological reasons, since many of them shared communist beliefs and felt ardent sympathy for the Soviet Union, which fought against fascism.
Soviet post-war economic policy culture
4. Political regime in the last years of Stalin’s life
The struggle for power within the top of the Soviet leadership had a great influence on the political life of the country. Much here depended on the leader’s disposition towards one or another party leader. In November-December 1945, during Stalin's vacation in Sochi, events occurred that put an end to the leader's friendly relations with his closest ally V. Molotov. The conflict grew out of an apparently unremarkable circumstance: at first, Stalin considered it a mistake to publish in the Soviet press without his consent Churchill’s speech “praising Russia and Stalin,” since he regarded this fact as “servility and sycophancy to foreign figures.” “I’m not even talking about the fact,” wrote Stalin, “that Soviet leaders do not need praise from foreign leaders. As for me personally, such praise only offends me.” Then he expressed to the rest of the members of his famous “five” (that was the name of the circle of people closest to Stalin in the Politburo, who quickly decided critical issues domestic and foreign policy of the country) - V. Molotov, L. Beria, G. Malenkov, A. Mikoyan - serious dissatisfaction with the appearance in the foreign press of reports about the weakening of censorship in the Soviet Union and the special role of Molotov in this matter. The latter stated at one of the official receptions to an American correspondent: “I know that you correspondents want to eliminate Russian censorship. What would you say if I agreed to this on terms of reciprocity? Thanks to Molotov’s decision to weaken censorship, sharp publications began to appear in the Western press about the state of affairs in the USSR, in particular about the balance of power in the Soviet political Olympus.
Stalin regarded this action as an attack on his personal authority and in response pointed out that “none of us has the right to give orders in changing the course of our policy,” while Molotov arrogated this right to himself because Western lampoons “are part of his work plan. .. just to gain popularity among some foreign correspondents.” “I,” wrote Stalin, “can no longer consider such a comrade as my first deputy.” Essentially, it was about expressing political distrust in Molotov, after which he automatically ceased to be the first among the real contenders for the role of Stalin's successor. And although after these events Molotov continued to take part in political decision-making, he no longer enjoyed Stalin’s trust. Politburo documents convincingly testify to this.
The events of 1949 set the final point in the political relationship between these two individuals. In January, all participants in the so-called trial of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, accused of “anti-Soviet nationalist activities,” were arrested, and in March 1950, Molotov’s wife was already named as a defendant in this case. - P. Pearl. When the Central Committee voted on the proposal to expel her from the party, Molotov abstained from voting. This position could be explained by two reasons. Firstly, noble feelings that did not allow Molotov to betray his wife. His subsequent behavior refutes this assumption. Consequently, the following explanation can be considered closer to reality: as a politician of the Soviet formation, Molotov could declare his line, which ran counter to the opinion of the leader, only if he expected to enlist the support of other members of the Central Committee during the vote. This did not happen. Left alone, he changed his tactics and repented. But Stalin had already seen through this demarche of Molotov and therefore regarded his behavior as a special political line with far-reaching goals, and not as a personal insult based on the manifestation of human feeling. Molotov, in a special statement, admitted his offense was “politically erroneous” and voted for the decision of the Central Committee. Molotov also repented that he “did not keep Zhemchuzhina from making false steps and connections with anti-Soviet Jewish nationalists like Mikhoels,” who is one of the main figures of the JAC. Consequently, Molotov’s repentance was forced, masking the true goals of his policy. It was then that, in order to politically discredit Molotov, and to show his true face, the material of correspondence between members of the Stalinist “five” in November-December 1945 “About Molotov’s mistakes” was brought to the attention of members of the Politburo who were not privy to the events of 1945. , as well as his statement in connection with Zhemchuzhina’s expulsion from the party and the awareness of his own guilt.
In March 1946, by secret government decree, the Bureau of the Council of Ministers was formed (chairman L. Beria, deputies - N. Voznesensky, A. Kosygin). In addition to the post of Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers and the post of head of the nuclear project, Beria was entrusted with “monitoring the work” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, State Security and State Control. The structure of the apparatus of the Central Committee of the Party changed significantly: after the abolition of the production and branch departments, there remained two departments (personnel, agitation and propaganda) and two departments (organizational and foreign policy). The key post was occupied by a young functionary A. Kuznetsov, who worked for a year as the first secretary of the Leningrad regional committee and city party committee. Management of the personnel department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the work on the distribution of personnel in party, Soviet and economic organizations passed to him from G. Malenkov. Kuznetsov also became a member of the secretariat of the Central Committee; in September 1947, he was assigned to oversee the Ministry of State Security. In April 1946, the former Minister of Aviation Industry A. Shakhurin and Air Force Commander A. Novikov were arrested, which gave grounds in May of the same year to remove Malenkov, who oversaw the aviation industry during the war and previously headed the personnel department, from the Secretariat of the Central Committee.
A. Zhdanov, at the same time a member of the Politburo, the Organizing Bureau and the Secretariat of the Party Central Committee - the three highest governing bodies - occupied a strong position in the leadership. He dealt primarily with issues of propaganda and ideology. In October 1946, the Politburo made the following decision: “1. Instruct the commission on foreign policy affairs of the Politburo (six) to henceforth deal, along with issues of a foreign policy nature, also with issues of internal development, domestic policy. 2. Replenish the composition of the six by the Chairman of the State Planning Committee of the USSR, Comrade. Voznesensky will continue to call the six the seven.” From now on, these seven - I. Stalin, V. Molotov, L. Beria, A. Mikoyan, G. Malenkov, A. Zhdanov, N. Voznesensky - began to determine the country’s domestic and foreign policy (with Stalin’s undisputed leadership in solving large and small » issues of this policy). Over the next six years, protocol meetings of the Politburo took place only twice (decisions were made by oral questioning); the Secretariat of the Central Committee became in fact a personnel department. All practical work on governing the country was concentrated in the USSR Council of Ministers. Eight bureaus were created in it, between which most ministries and departments were distributed. Their chairmen - G. Malenkov, N. Voznesensky, M. Saburov, L. Beria, A. Mikoyan, L. Kaganovich, A. Kosygin, K. Voroshilov - were members of the Bureau of the Council of Ministers. Now it was headed by Stalin, Molotov became his first deputy. In subsequent years, there was a reshuffling of key figures in the top management. A serious infringement of the rights of individual members of the Bureau of the Council of Ministers was the transfer to the Politburo of solutions to problems related to the ministries of foreign affairs, foreign trade, state security and the armed forces.
A number of domestic historians believe that the members of the “seven” (then, as this group of people grew, the “eight” and “nine”) arrogated to themselves the “unconstitutional right to determine the fate of the country and its population,” that they stood above the councils and above the party. More prosaically, this over-centralization of power in the state, which developed under the conditions of the war years, was defined in his memoirs by V. Molotov: “Stalin, his authority was so high that where can one collect each complex issues plenums and so on. And if we collected democratic decisions on every issue, this would cause damage to the state and the party, because the resolution of the issue would be delayed... In these difficult conditions, formal democracy does not always solve the matter.”
In the summer of 1948, Zhdanov's influence sharply weakened, but Malenkov's position strengthened. Soon after Zhdanov’s death (August 1948), the persecution began of that part of the party-state apparatus that was connected with him and, according to competitors’ assumptions, could actually lay claim to power. Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks A. Kuznetsov, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR M. Rodionov and a large number of party workers associated with these people at various times were charged with factionalism, in an attempt to oppose the Leningrad party organization to the entire All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and with Russian chauvinism (for the proposal to create the Bureau of the Central Committee for the RSFSR and the Communist Party of the RSFSR). The investigation into this so-called Leningrad case was conducted by the MGB under the personal control and participation of Malenkov. In October 1950, Voznesensky, Kuznetsov, Rodionov, Popkov, Kapustin, and Lazutin were sentenced to death. After the massacre of the “central group,” trials were held in different cities of the country, at which sentences were passed on other persons involved in the “Leningrad case.”
Changes in the composition of the country's political leadership were recorded at the 19th Party Congress. The composition of the highest party bodies - the Politburo and the Secretariat - was significantly expanded, which weakened the positions of the old “Stalinist guard” and those who advanced during the war and early post-war years. People who headed mostly local party organizations and were relatively new to the Central Committee apparatus (V. Andrianov, A. Aristov, S. Ignatiev, V. Kuznetsov, L. Melnikov, N. Mikhailov, P. Ponomarenko, L. Brezhnev, N. Pegov, etc.).
In the summer of 1952, a group of people associated with the work of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (S. Lozovsky, I. Fefer, P. Markish, L. Stern, etc.) was convicted. All of them were accused of carrying out “espionage and nationalist activities.” In January 1953, TASS reported the arrest of “wrecker doctors” from a Kremlin clinic. Most historians associate these political processes mainly with the intense struggle for power that flared up with particular force in the last years of Stalin's life.
The implementation of ideological dogmas affected all aspects of the life of Soviet society, from everyday life to genetic engineering.
5. Development of Soviet culture in the first post-war years
During the post-war period of the reign of I.V. Stalin, the Soviet intelligentsia was completely subordinated to the totalitarian regime. On the one hand, due to military and ideological needs, this resulted in an increase in her social and material status. On the other hand, first of all, several waves of repressions of the post-war years and the tightening of the regime as a whole fell heavily on the intelligentsia.
The “Iron Curtain” between the USSR and the rest of the world became the dominant development of post-war society. It took shape gradually but steadily. One after another, all channels and sources of information coming from the West were blocked. With complete state-party power over the media, this was not very difficult to do. Any contacts with foreigners were fraught with accusations of espionage and treason. At the same time, penalties for disclosing state secrets were tightened, which, according to the Decree of 1947, could include almost any information. A special resolution of the Central Committee (1950) provided for measures to prevent the disclosure of state secrets in museum exhibitions. Family, scientific, creative and all other ties with persons living abroad were gradually reduced to nothing. In 1947, citizens of the USSR were prohibited from marrying foreigners. Propaganda instilled ideas about the obvious superiority of everything Soviet, which made it meaningless to study Western experience. Soviet filmmakers were prohibited from participating in the international film festivals in Venice (1951) and Cannes (1952).
Soviet textbooks began to claim that it was not Stephenson, but the Cherepanovs who invented the steam locomotive, contrasting the works of I.V. Michurin to the “reactionary teaching” of biologists A. Weisman and T. Morgan, etc. Any scientific theories of Western authors were declared bourgeois, idealistic, and it was possible to address them only from a critical position.
In 1947-1948 a campaign was widely carried out against the “corruptive influence of the West”, “servility and servility to foreigners and bourgeois reactionary culture” in the form of the so-called “courts of honor” (similar to officer courts in the tsarist army). Courts were created in almost all ministries and departments, scientific and educational institutions, even under the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. The highest and middle party and state officials, including ministers and secretaries of the union communist parties, and the elite of the Soviet intelligentsia fell under their jurisdiction. The trial was organized against doctors - professors N.G. Klyueva and G.I. Roskin, who transferred to the USA the manuscript of a scientific work on cancer biotherapy, geneticist academician A.R. Zhebrak and many other scientists for articles published in foreign journals, correspondence or meetings with foreign scientists, references in works to Western authors, etc. “Courts of honor” could express public censure or reprimand, but they could also transfer a personal case to investigative authorities. The most common measure was removal from work, deprivation of military and other ranks, prohibition scientific works“caught” in promoting sycophancy (in the history of Western philosophy, art, etc.).
I.V. Stalin understood enormous power the impact of mass culture on society. The leader closely followed magazine publications and new literature. At the end of the 40s. Issues of literature and art were resolved at the level of the Secretariat and the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, often with the personal participation of I.V. Stalin. Any work was passed through a multi-stage censorship mechanism controlled by the UPA. For example, in order for a play to be published or staged, it had to go through: the Main Repertoire Committee, local and republican committees for the arts, the Arts Council, the Main Theater Directorate of the Committee for the Arts, the publishing house "Iskusstvo", Glavlit, military or naval censorship. Both recommendatory and “black” lists of works of literature and art were regularly created. Based on the latter, thousands of books were confiscated from libraries, hundreds of films were withdrawn from film distribution, museum exhibitions and theater repertoire were changed.
The direction of development of the country's cultural life was set by the authorities in different ways: ideological campaigns, pseudo-discussions, direct repression, on the one hand, on the other - annual awards and prizes, the formation of a controlled creative elite. An atmosphere of fear was created, the disobedient were punished, but the loyal received financial incentives. One of the management tools was the creative unions of writers, artists, composers, and architects. Membership in the union brought significant material benefits, the opportunity to publish or demonstrate their works, and exclusion doomed them to deprivation and the status of an outcast. True, security guarantees belonging to creative union didn't give it.
The criteria for deciding the fate of a work of art or its author were, first of all, pragmatic political assessments of the “usefulness” or “harmfulness” of this work from the point of view of the regime.
It was necessary, on the one hand, to show happy life of the Soviet people (individual, easily correctable shortcomings were allowed), labor exploits and achievements, the wisdom of the leader, on the other hand, to form the “image of the enemy”, depicting the suffering of the oppressed people in the West, the aggressiveness of the imperialists, especially the United States. However, authors who were loyal to the system, full of patriotism, and who varnished reality were not guaranteed against the royal wrath. Often the decisive role was played by the personal tastes of the leader, the political intrigues of party functionaries, and the squabbles and denunciations of the cultural figures themselves. Since the leader gravitated towards the classical style, innovative searches in any genre of art were declared “formalism” and were persecuted. For the poorly educated party nomenclature, it was considered important “to make it clear.”
Ideological campaigns began with a speech by the leader or ideologists of the party criticizing some work or phenomenon, then meetings were held in the Central Committee, meetings with activists, at which the speeches acquired a pogrom character. This was followed by a resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) or an editorial article in Pravda, after which a wide discussion unfolded in the press, new enemies were identified and exposed, organizational conclusions were made, arrests were made, etc. The Supreme Arbiter could personally intervene, stand up for someone or even punish overly zealous performers. According to this scenario, campaigns unfolded in 1946 according to the resolutions of the Central Committee on the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad”, on the repertoire of drama theaters, and the film “Big Life”.
The editors of the magazines were accused of preaching “rotten lack of ideology,” “sycophancy,” and anti-Soviet attacks for publishing critically oriented works that showed not heroism, but the hardships and everyday life of war and post-war life, or purely personal experiences of a person instead of socially significant problems. The works of M.M. caused particular anger. Zoshchenko and A.A. Akhmatova. They did not mince words: Zoshchenko was called “vulgar” and “scum”, who denigrated reality on the pages of the children’s story “The Adventures of a Monkey”; Akhmatova was accused of “bourgeois aesthetics and decadence” that was alien to the people. As a result, the Leningrad magazine was closed, A. Akhmatova and M. Zoshchenko were expelled from the Writers' Union, and they were no longer published.
The authorities morally broke and disfigured people. In one of the books by M.E. Saltykova-Shchedrina I.V. Stalin boldly underlined the words he liked: “Write denunciations, scoundrels.” He managed to create a system that forced people to sign accusatory letters, write denunciations, devastating articles, etc., although there was always a choice. There was little room left for creative freedom. Nevertheless, during these years, A. Akhmatova, M. Zoshchenko, and B. Pasternak continued to write, and V. Nekrasov’s story “In the Trenches of Stalingrad” was published and received the Stalin Prize.
Soviet science also felt the incompetent, categorical interference of party officials. A disdainful attitude towards the achievements of scientific and technical thought of foreign countries was inculcated, dogmatism, quotation, and entire scientific directions were declared hostile to materialism. The statements of the leaders became the ultimate truth in any field of scientific knowledge. Social sciences were driven into rigid ideological and thematic frameworks. Domestic and world history was revised and falsified.
The fight against cosmopolitanism also extended to scientists. Academician I.I. was ostracized. Mints and his “school” for belittling the role of the Russian people and the Russian working class in Russian history. Was dissolved old composition editorial board of the journal “Questions of History”, the textbook of N.L. was banned. Rubinstein “Russian Historiography”, Jewish professors who dealt with Anglo-American modern and contemporary history were persecuted (L.I. Zubok, I.S. Zvavich, etc.). The last representatives of the pre-revolutionary Russian professoriate (A.S. Yerusalimsky, R.Yu. Vipper, E.A. Kosminsky) were criticized for their association with “anti-patriots”. Academician E.V. Tarle, who had already been arrested in the 30s, but was later awarded the Stalin Prize, was criticized for his unpatriotic interpretation of the role of M.I. Kutuzov in the war of 1812.
“Elaboration” of scientists took place in the form of so-called discussions organized by the apparatus of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, in which the final word belonged to the “luminary of all sciences” J.V. Stalin or one of the ideologists of the Central Committee. In 1947 A.A. Zhdanov held a discussion on philosophy based on criticism of the book by G.F. Alexandrov “History of Western European Philosophy”. The main idea of this event is to eradicate attempts to study non-Marxist philosophy, in relation to which only irreconcilable struggle was allowed.
Attempts by some scientists to stop attacks on genetics by the President of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VASKhNIL) T.D. Lysenko and his followers ended in failure. Stalin supported the false scientist. At the session of VASKhNIL in 1948. opponents of T.D. Lysenko were defeated. In 1950, the school of the leading physiologist, Academician L.A., was dispersed. Orbeli. Cybernetics was declared a “bourgeois pseudoscience”.
Next in line was the theory of relativity and theoretical physics. They were saved by the protection of I.V. Kurchatov and other nuclear scientists. The authorities gave credit to the achievements of Soviet science in the field of nuclear physics special meaning. In 1953 it was tested thermonuclear bomb, developed by a group of scientists and designers, including A.D. Sakharov. In general, in many areas, Soviet science in the post-war years was thrown back decades.
Conclusion
The economic development of the USSR in 1945-1953, despite all the distortions, should be characterized positively. Achievements in the restoration and development of the national economy allowed the USSR to create, by the early 50s, significant raw material resources for the successful development of the country's national economy in the future. A monetary reform was carried out, which, despite all its shortcomings, still managed to stabilize the country's financial system. In general, we can conclude that the economy of the USSR in 1945-1953. made a huge leap forward. However, economic achievements were bought by the poverty of the people, their lack of rights and the millions of victims of the famine of 1946-1948. Moreover, this famine was caused not so much by drought as by the short-sighted and frankly criminal and disregarding policy of the authorities.
A huge problem that complicated and deformed the development of all spheres of Soviet society was the involvement of the USSR immediately after the end of World War II into a new one - the Cold War. This required incredible new costs and sacrifices, and also caused a new tightening of Stalinism.
After the war, the cult of Stalin reached its apogee - architects, sculptors, painters, poets, politicians, scientists competed for the right to immortalize the image of the leader, his words and thoughts in stone, words, music, and painting. For many, primarily front-line soldiers, the name Stalin personified the victory achieved under the leadership of the leader in the Patriotic War; it was this circumstance that played an important role in the exorbitant exaltation of Stalin, which he took full advantage of. The name Stalin acquired a deeply symbolic meaning: during his lifetime, all the achievements of the people and the country were associated with him, after death - all the mistakes, defeats and delusions of the era were attributed to him.
It can be concluded without exaggeration that in the last years of Stalin's reign Soviet culture found itself completely under the “heel” of power and became a truly totalitarian intelligentsia. It is significant that this period was not marked by any significant manifestations of resistance or even dissent. It is clear that this was simply deadly. So the highest manifestation intellectual independence and free-thinking remained the “decadent” Anna Akhmatova.
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The victorious end of the war opened a new stage in the life of the Soviet country: from solving military problems it was necessary to move on to peaceful creative work, healing the most severe wounds inflicted by the war.
The victory over Nazi Germany came at a great cost to the peoples of the USSR. Up to 27 million people, that is, more than a sixth of the country's population, died on the battlefields, in enemy-occupied territory, in concentration camps and in fascist hard labor. The war left millions of disabled people, orphans, widows, and brought grief to almost every family. The death of the Soviet people is the most difficult, unforgettable and irreparable loss suffered by the Motherland.
The war caused enormous material damage to the USSR. The Nazi invaders completely or partially destroyed and burned 1,710 cities and more than 60 thousand villages and villages, depriving about 35 million people of their homes. Enormous destruction was caused to Stalingrad, Leningrad, Minsk, Smolensk, Kyiv, Odessa, Sevastopol and many other cities.
The aggression of Nazi Germany caused enormous damage to the economy of the USSR. 31,850 factories, factories and other industrial enterprises were destroyed, which before the war employed about 4 million workers and produced one third of the country's total industrial output. The occupiers destroyed 65 thousand km of railway track, 4100 railway stations, and blew up 13 thousand bridges. Agriculture was subjected to barbaric destruction. The Nazis completely ruined 98 thousand collective farms, 1876 state farms and 2890 machine and tractor stations. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of fields were overgrown with weeds and fell out of economic use. Part of the population lived in dugouts. During the war years, the living standards of workers fell sharply.
The occupiers sought not only physically, but also spiritually to enslave the peoples of our country and completely destroy their culture. They deliberately destroyed everything that was connected with the history of our Fatherland, the memory of its great sons. Such sacred places for every Russian as the Pushkin Museum-Reserve and the grave of the great poet in the Svyatogorsk Monastery, the Yasnaya Polyana Museum-Reserve, where the great L.N. lived and worked, were desecrated and destroyed. Tolstoy, house-museum of P.I. Tchaikovsky in Klin, and many other priceless monuments of antiquity and culture. Many famous creations of ancient Russian architecture, masterpieces of world architecture and art were turned into ruins. History has never known such mass barbarity and inhumanity as the fascists committed on our land. As a result, they destroyed almost a third of the national wealth of the USSR.
The reduction in the working population during the war years had a significant impact on agricultural production. The number of able-bodied collective farmers decreased by almost a third, and men - by more than 2.5 times. Approximately three-quarters of all workdays worked on collective farms were carried out by women, teenagers and the elderly. There were not enough personnel, specialists and machine operators.
The state's labor resources were significantly reduced as a result of the war. The number of workers and employees in the national economy of the USSR became 16% less than before the war. The shortage of labor was felt most acutely in Ukraine, Belarus, and regions of the RSFSR liberated from fascist occupation, which complicated the restoration and development of the economy here.
The damage caused to the country by the aggressor exceeded the losses during the Second World War of all other European states combined. Our indirect material losses were also great, for example, due to a double technological restructuring of the production apparatus. The war delayed the socio-economic development of society for more than 10 years. But no statistics can calculate and express in numbers the titanic work, thought, talent that many generations of compatriots invested in the creation of material and spiritual values destroyed by the enemy.
The consequence of Nazi aggression was significant losses in the intellectual and moral potential of society. It was impossible to make up for the losses of millions of young people who never had time to demonstrate their talents and abilities in peaceful creative work.
The restoration of the national economy of the USSR began as the occupiers were expelled already in 1943. But this task became a priority after the victory over fascist Germany and militaristic Japan. At the initial stage, state and party bodies quickly solved the problem of transferring the country's economy from military to peaceful ones.
Carrying out a program of economic demilitarization (conversion), the State Defense Committee in May 1945 decided to transfer the defense industry to the production of goods for the people. In accordance with it, material and financial resources began to be directed to the development of civilian sectors of the economy. The conversion feature was that it was partial in nature, since simultaneously with the reduction in the share of military equipment and weapons produced, significant funds were invested in the modernization of the military-industrial complex and in the development of new types of weapons. In 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested an atomic bomb, and in 1953, for the first time in the world, a hydrogen one. The Soviet Armed Forces began to be equipped with nuclear missile weapons. As a result of the massive demobilization of the army - from 11.4 million people in May 1945 to 2.9 million in 1948 - millions of workers and peasants returned to creative work. The restructuring of the economy towards a peaceful direction was basically completed by 1947.
The transition from war to peaceful construction was associated with a change in the forms of management of the national economy. In connection with the abolition of the State Defense Committee (September 1945), the functions of governing the state passed to the Council People's Commissars USSR, soon transformed into the Council of Ministers of the USSR. At the same time, many military departments were abolished or reorganized, and measures were taken to restore normal working conditions and regime. On behalf of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the USSR State Planning Committee was actively developing a plan for transferring the military economy to a peaceful one.
In March 1946, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted the “Law on the Five-Year Plan for the Restoration and Development of the National Economy of the USSR for 1946–1950.” The key task of the Fourth Five-Year Plan was to “restore the affected areas of the country, restore the pre-war level of industry and agriculture and then exceed this level by a significant amount” 1 .
Shortly before the session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, in a speech at the pre-election meeting of voters of the Stalin electoral district of Moscow on February 9, 1946, I.V. Stalin, regarding the main tasks of the five-year plan, said that they include the restoration of the affected areas of the country, the pre-war level of industry and agriculture, and then it is necessary to surpass this level on a significant scale. In his speech, he touched upon the issue of abolishing the card system in the near future and said that special attention would be paid to raising the living standards of the people.
The plan determined the stages and specific tasks for the restoration and further development of the USSR economy. It was envisaged: to ensure priority restoration and development of heavy industry and railway transport; achieve the rise of agriculture and industry; ensure further technical progress in all sectors of the national economy; maintain the defense capability of the USSR at the proper level; ensure high rates of socialist accumulation.
During the years of the Fourth Five-Year Plan (1946–1950), it was planned to restore, build and put into operation 5,900 state enterprises, including 3,200 enterprises in areas affected by the occupation. It was planned in 1950 to achieve an increase in the volume of gross industrial output of the USSR, compared to 1940, by 48%, including in areas affected by the occupation by 15%. To implement the planned program, it was planned to invest 338.7 billion rubles in the national economy, that is, 5.2 times more than in the first five-year plan, and 2.3 times more than in the second. Moreover, 40% of all investments were intended for the restoration of areas of the USSR affected by the occupation.
A significant place in the fourth five-year plan was occupied by social program . Based on production growth it was assumed:
restore the pre-war level of well-being of the people;
to increase national income over the years of the Five-Year Plan compared to 1940 by more than 30%;
consistently reduce prices for all goods, improve living conditions and cultural and everyday services for the people;
restore and expand the network of primary and secondary schools, technical schools and higher educational institutions, ensure the further flourishing of culture and science;
increase the number of hospital beds to 985 thousand by 1950 against 710 thousand in 1940;
completely restore the network of holiday homes and sanatoriums. Particular attention was paid to medical care and improvement of healthcare for disabled people of the Great Patriotic War.
The means that were used to carry out planned tasks were:
socialist accumulation based on the mobilization of on-farm sources;
increasing labor productivity and reducing production costs;
strict adherence to state discipline;
mass movement of inventors and innovators;
increasing the labor activity of workers based on the development of social competition.
The Fourth Five-Year Plan was a large-scale comprehensive program for the development of the national economy and social sphere in the post-war years, testifying to the vitality of the social system in the Soviet Union and the mobility of the transition of the economy to peaceful development. Wartime restrictions were lifted: mandatory overtime was abolished, regular rest for workers and employees was established, paid vacations and an 8-hour working day were restored. And yet life was difficult for the country in the first years of the post-war five-year plan.
Nevertheless, a lot was done: destroyed cities and villages were revived, old ones were restored, and new enterprises were built. The social energy of creation and the labor enthusiasm of the Soviet people were manifested in the massive All-Union socialist competition for the early implementation and overfulfillment of the Fourth Five-Year Plan. It began in May 1946. The initiators were metallurgists from the Makeevka plant named after. CM. Kirov, workers of a number of Moscow factories, miners of Donbass, the staff of the North-Donetsk Railway, labor collectives of many enterprises in the country. By the end of 1948, over 90% of all workers and employees employed in the national economy participated in it.
Coal miners from Donbass and Kuzbass, machine builders from Leningrad and Kramatorsk, and metallurgists from the Urals and Ukraine competed with each other. Many new forms of competition were born. If in the previous period the competition was aimed mainly at exceeding plans, then in the fourth five-year plan the obligations covered all the main areas of production development: exceeding the plan, improving product quality, reducing its cost, saving material and technical resources, rational use of new equipment, etc. .
The history of the labor feat of the people in the first post-war years included many undertakings of labor collectives and individual workers and rural workers as vivid examples. For example, the foreman of the Moscow tool plant “Caliber” N. Rossiysky initiated the training of workers in rational methods and techniques of labor; assistant foreman of the Trekhgornaya manufactory A. Voloshin began a movement for a high production culture; assistant foreman of the Krasnokholmsk manufactory A. Chutkikh organized a competition for the production of only excellent quality products; the famous Donbass miner G. Zaporozhets showed an example of high-performance work on a cutting machine. The famous collective farmer of the Zhitomir region N. Zaglada in those years set a world record for flax yield; tractor drivers P. Angelina and A. Gitalov began a movement for the efficient use of tractors and agricultural machinery.
On the initiative of the Moscow turner Pavel Bykov and the Leningrad turner Genrikh Bortkevich - yesterday's front-line soldier, awarded 11 military awards - a movement of "speed workers" began in the country. In February 1948, using technical innovations, G. Bortkevich completed 13 daily norms on a lathe in one shift. A student of the famous Chelyabinsk “Tankograd” P. Bykov approached the development of new methods in his own way. In the traditions of that time, a personal meeting of production innovators took place, who entered into an agreement on competition. These initiatives were supported by hundreds and thousands of production leaders from various industries. People who were speed makers and innovators of production were called people ahead of their time.
A number of machine-building enterprises switched to the production of new, more productive machines and units. For example, the Leningrad Metallurgical Plant produced the most powerful turbine in the world with a capacity of 150 thousand kW, the Uralmashplant produced a 14-cc walking excavator, and began producing powerful dump trucks and new models of agricultural machinery. The most important scientific and technical achievement of the first post-war years was the discovery of the secret of obtaining atomic energy. The discoveries of a team of Soviet physicists under the leadership of I.V. Kurchatov eliminated the dangerous US monopoly on atomic weapons.
The community of scientists and industrial workers was strengthened along the paths of scientific and technological progress. “There is not a single area of industry, not a single plant,” noted the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences S.I. Vavilov, who would not have made their special demands on science and would not have asked for its help.” Soviet scientists and engineers created a project for the world's first industrial nuclear power plant. The activities of research and development organizations in rocket technology, including the experimental design bureau, headed by the planetary scientist S.P., brought fruitful results. Korolev. Being the chief designer for the creation of complexes of long-range automatic guided missiles, he played an outstanding role in space exploration, solving the most complex problems of rocket and space technology, training rocket scientists, and a corps of cosmonauts. In 1948, the launch of the first domestic long-range guided missile R-1 was successfully completed.
New types of aircraft and aircraft engines for civil and military aviation were developed by design bureaus headed by A.N. Tupolev, S.V. Ilyushin, A.S. Yakovlev, O.K. Antonov, V.Ya. Klimov, A.I. Mikoyan, M.I. Gurevich, S.A. Lavochkin, A.A. Mikulin, A.D. Shvedov, N.D. Kuznetsov and others. In 1951, a team led by Academician S.A. Lebedev mounted and tested the first Soviet electronic computer.
Efforts to automate production and create automatic production lines increased. In 1950, the world's first automatic plant for the production of automobile engine pistons came into operation.
In the last year of the fourth five-year plan, the government decided to build the largest economic facilities - the Stalingrad, Kuibyshev hydroelectric power stations on the Volga, the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station on the Dnieper, the South Ural and North Crimean irrigation canals, which were not previously included in the five-year plan. In 1948, the volume of industrial production in the country exceeded the pre-war level.
The situation in agriculture sharply worsened in 1946 with a severe drought that struck Ukraine, Moldova, and southern Russia. Taking into account plans for the restoration of agriculture, three tractor factories were built during the war years - Altai, Vladimir, Lipetsk, and after the war the Stalingrad and Kharkov tractor factories were restored. The Chelyabinsk plant, which produced tanks during the war, resumed the production of tractors. As a result, instead of three tractor factories operating before the war, by the end of the Fourth Five-Year Plan there were seven. In 1945–1950 they gave agriculture 536 thousand tractors (in terms of 15-horsepower), i.e. almost as much as their agriculture received during the pre-war five-year plans.
And yet there was not enough technology in the villages. In the early 50s. In many Russian villages, peasants plowed with cows. According to the prevailing norms of the pre-war period, the freedom of movement of collective farmers was limited due to their lack of passports. They were not covered by state pensions. The ongoing organizational recruitment of the rural population for construction sites and factories increased the outflow of peasants to the city.
The energetic measures taken by the government made it possible to stabilize the situation with food and raw materials. Thus, at the end of 1947, cards for food and manufactured goods were abolished, and a monetary reform was carried out, which made it possible to strengthen the financial position of the state. In 1947–1950 Prices for food and industrial goods were reduced three times.
However, the development of the agricultural sector in the country as a whole proceeded with great difficulties. In 1950, it had not yet been possible to eliminate the damage caused to agriculture by the war. In addition to the consequences of the war, miscalculations in agricultural management also made themselves felt.
Workers of all union and autonomous republics, and especially young people, took part in creative work. Over 600 thousand young men and women were voluntarily sent to restore and build industrial and transport enterprises. The Komsomol took patronage over the revival of 15 ancient Russian cities, among which were Smolensk, Novgorod, Pskov, Orel, Bryansk.
Through the efforts of the Soviets and party bodies, public education and culture were further developed. Thousands of schools were restored and rebuilt. More than a hundred new higher educational institutions have opened. At the end of the 50s there were 766 of them, compared to 105 in 1913. Many research institutes were created. By the end of the Fourth Five-Year Plan, the network of hospitals, clinics, hospitals for disabled veterans of the Patriotic War and other medical and preventive institutions was restored and expanded. The network of sanatoriums, rest homes, and pioneer camps expanded.
Post-war construction was marred by Stalin's abuse of power and illegal arrests. In the late 40s - early 50s. charges were fabricated against a number of Soviet and party workers in Leningrad. A large group of doctors were falsely accused of “crimes.” Genetics and cybernetics were persecuted. Scientists who tried to express their understanding of social development, different from Stalin’s, were accused of anti-patriotism and were persecuted.
During the implementation of the Fourth Five-Year Plan, enormous difficulties were overcome, but not all of them could be resolved. However, in general, the five-year period was marked by achievements in strengthening the power of the Soviet Union. The main result of the selfless labor of the Soviet people was the restoration of the leading sectors of the national economy - industry, construction industry, energy, transport and communications. Industrial production increased significantly and in 1950, in general, exceeded pre-war figures by 73%.
These achievements were facilitated by the following basic factors: the high mobilization readiness of the directive economy, which persisted in conditions of far from exhausted opportunities for extensive development; reparations (that is, compensation by Germany for a certain part of the material damage caused to the USSR) in the amount of 4.3 billion dollars, which ensured the supply of some equipment for industry; policy of redistribution of funds from light industry and the social sphere in favor of industrial sectors.
Western experts predicted that it would take decades for the Soviet Union to overcome the dire consequences of the war. However, these forecasts Soviet people opposed organization and cohesion, labor heroism, the desire to heal the wounds of war as soon as possible. The Fourth Five-Year Plan became an important step in the restoration and development of the national economy, solving social problems, and laid the foundation for increasing the power of the USSR.
Despite the fact that the USSR suffered very heavy losses during the war, it entered the international arena not only not weakened, but became even stronger than before. In 1946-1948. in states Eastern Europe and Asia, communist governments came to power and set a course for building socialism along the Soviet model.
However, the leading Western powers pursued a power policy towards the USSR and socialist states. One of the main means of containing them was atomic weapons, which the United States enjoyed a monopoly on. Therefore, the creation of an atomic bomb became one of the main goals of the USSR. This work was led by a physicist I. V. Kurchatov. The Institute of Atomic Energy and the Institute of Nuclear Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences were created. In 1948, the first atomic reactor was launched, and in 1949, the first atomic bomb was tested at the test site near Semipalatinsk. Individual Western scientists secretly helped the USSR work on it. Thus, a second nuclear power appeared in the world, and the US monopoly on nuclear weapons ended. Since that time, the confrontation between the USA and the USSR has largely determined the international situation.
Economic recovery.
Material losses in the war were very great. The USSR lost a third of its national wealth in the war. Agriculture was in deep crisis. The majority of the population was in distress; its supplies were carried out using a rationing system.
In 1946, the Law on the Five-Year Plan for the Restoration and Development of the National Economy was adopted. It was necessary to accelerate technological progress and strengthen the country's defense power. Post-war five year plan marked by large construction projects (hydroelectric power stations, state district power stations) and the development of road and transport construction. The technical re-equipment of industry in the Soviet Union was facilitated by the removal of equipment from German and Japanese enterprises. The highest rates of development have been achieved in such industries as ferrous metallurgy, oil and coal mining, and construction of machinery and machine tools.
After the war, the village found itself in a more difficult situation than the city. Collective farms carried out strict measures to procure bread. If earlier collective farmers gave only part of the grain “to the common barn,” now they were often forced to give all the grain. Discontent in the countryside grew. The area under cultivation has been greatly reduced. Due to worn-out equipment and a lack of workers, field work was carried out late, which negatively affected the harvest.
Main features of post-war life.
A significant part of the housing stock was destroyed. The problem of labor resources was acute: immediately after the war, many demobilized people returned to the city, but the enterprises still did not have enough workers. It was necessary to recruit workers in the villages, among students of vocational schools.
Even before the war, decrees were adopted, and after it continued to be in effect, according to which workers were prohibited from leaving enterprises without permission under pain of criminal punishment.
To stabilize the financial system, in 1947 the Soviet government carried out a monetary reform. Old money was exchanged for new money in a ratio of 10:1. After the exchange, the amount of money among the population decreased sharply. At the same time, the government has reduced prices for consumer products many times. The card system was abolished, food and industrial goods appeared on open sale at retail prices. In most cases, these prices were higher than ration prices, but significantly lower than commercial ones. The abolition of cards improved the situation of the urban population.
One of the main features of post-war life was the legalization of the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church. In July 1948, the church celebrated the 500th anniversary of self-government, and in honor of this, a meeting of representatives of local Orthodox churches was held in Moscow.
Power after the war.
With the transition to peaceful construction, structural changes occurred in the government. In September 1945, the State Defense Committee was abolished. On March 15, 1946, the Council of People's Commissars and the People's Commissariats were renamed the Council of Ministers and Ministries.
In March 1946, the Bureau of the Council of Ministers was created, the chairman of which was L. P. Beria . He was also tasked with monitoring the work of internal affairs and state security agencies. He occupied quite a strong position in the leadership A.A. Zhdanov, combining the duties of a member of the Politburo, the Organizing Bureau and party secretary, but in 1948 he died. At the same time, the positions of G.M. Malenkova, who previously occupied a very modest position in the governing bodies.
Changes in party structures were reflected in the program of the 19th Party Congress. At this congress, the party received a new name - instead of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), they began to call it Communist Party Council and Union (CPSU).
USSR in the 50s and early 60s. XX century
Changes after the death of Stalin and the XX Congress of the CPSU.
Stalin died on March 5, 1953. The leader's closest associates proclaimed a course towards establishing collective leadership, but in reality a struggle for leadership developed between them. Minister of Internal Affairs Marshal L.P. Beria initiated an amnesty for prisoners whose sentence was no more than five years. He placed his supporters at the head of several republics. Beria also proposed softening the policy towards collective farms and advocated easing international tensions and improving relations with Western countries.
However, in the summer of 1953, other members of the top party leadership, with the support of the military, organized a conspiracy and overthrew Beria. He was shot. The fight didn't end there. Malenkov, Kaganovich and Molotov were gradually removed from power, and G.K. Zhukov was removed from the post of Minister of Defense. Almost all of this was done on the initiative N.S. Khrushchev, who since 1958 began to combine party and government posts.
In February 1956, the 20th Congress of the CPSU took place, the agenda of which included an analysis of the international and domestic situation and summing up the results of the fifth five-year plan. At the congress, the issue of exposing Stalin's personality cult was raised. The report “On the cult of personality and its consequences” was made by N.S. Khrushchev. He spoke about Stalin's numerous violations of Lenin's policies, about "illegal methods of investigation" and purges that killed many innocent people. They talked about Stalin's mistakes as a statesman (for example, a miscalculation in determining the start date of the Great Patriotic War). Khrushchev’s report after the congress was read out across the country at party and Komsomol meetings. Its content shocked the Soviet people, many began to doubt the correctness of the path that the country had been following since October Revolution .
The process of de-Stalinization of society took place gradually. On Khrushchev’s initiative, cultural figures were given the opportunity to create their works without total censorship control and strict party dictate. This policy was called the “thaw” after the name of the then popular novel by the writer I. Ehrenburg.
During the “thaw” period, significant changes occurred in culture. Works of literature and art have become deeper and more sincere.
Economic reforms. Development of the national economy.
Reforms carried out in the 50s - early 60s. XX century, were of a contradictory nature. At one time, Stalin outlined the economic milestones that the country was supposed to reach in the near future. Under Khrushchev, the USSR reached these milestones, but in the changed conditions, their achievement did not have such a significant effect.
The strengthening of the national economy of the USSR began with changes in the commodity sector. It was decided to install reasonable prices for agricultural products, change tax policy so that collective farmers have a financial interest in selling their products. In the future, it was planned to increase the cash income of collective farms, pensions, and ease the passport regime.
In 1954, on Khrushchev’s initiative, it began development of virgin lands. Later they began to reorganize the economic structure of collective farmers. Khrushchev proposed building urban-type buildings for rural residents and taking other measures to improve their lives. The relaxation of the passport regime opened the floodgates for the migration of the rural population to the city. Various programs were adopted to increase the efficiency of agriculture, and Khrushchev often saw a panacea in the cultivation of any one crop. The most famous was his attempt to turn corn into the “queen of the fields.” The desire to grow it regardless of the climate caused damage to agriculture, and Khrushchev received the nickname “corn grower” among the people.
50s XX century are characterized by great successes in industry. The output of heavy industry increased especially. Much attention was paid to those industries that ensured the development of technology. The program of complete electrification of the country was of paramount importance. New hydroelectric power stations and state district power stations were put into operation.
The impressive successes of the economy gave the leadership led by Khrushchev confidence in the possibility of even further accelerating the rate of development of the country. The thesis was put forward about the complete and final construction of socialism in the USSR, and in the early 60s. XX century set course for construction communism , that is, a society where every person can satisfy all their needs. According to the new party program adopted in 1962 by the XXII Congress of the CPSU, it was supposed to complete the construction of communism by 1980. However, serious difficulties in the economy that began at the same time clearly demonstrated to the citizens of the USSR the utopianism and adventurism of Khrushchev’s ideas.
Difficulties in the development of industry were largely due to ill-conceived reorganizations of the last years of Khrushchev's rule. Thus, most of the central industrial ministries were liquidated, and the management of the economy passed into the hands of economic councils, created in certain regions of the country. This innovation led to a breakdown in ties between regions and slowed down the introduction of new technologies.
Social sphere.
The government has carried out a number of measures to improve the well-being of the people. A law on state pensions was introduced. Tuition fees have been abolished in secondary and higher educational institutions. Heavy industry workers were put on shorter working hours without reducing their wages. The population received various cash benefits. The material incomes of workers have increased. Simultaneously with the increase in wages, prices for consumer goods were reduced: certain types of fabric, clothing, goods for children, watches, medicines, etc.
Many public funds were also created that paid various preferential benefits. Thanks to these funds, many were able to study at school or university. The working day was reduced to 6-7 hours, and on pre-holidays and public holidays the working day lasted even shorter. The working week has become shorter by 2 hours. On October 1, 1962, all taxes on wages of workers and employees were abolished. Since the late 50s. XX century The sale of durable goods on credit began.
Undoubted successes in the social sphere in the early 60s. XX century were accompanied by negative phenomena, especially painful for the population: essential products, including bread, disappeared from store shelves. There were several protests by workers, the most famous of which was the demonstration in Novocherkassk, which was suppressed by troops using weapons, which led to many casualties.
Foreign policy of the USSR in 1953-1964.
Foreign policy was characterized by the struggle to strengthen the position of the USSR and international security.
The settlement of the Austrian question was of great international importance. In 1955, on the initiative of the USSR, a State Treaty with Austria was signed in Vienna. Diplomatic relations were also established with Germany and Japan.
Soviet diplomacy actively sought to establish a wide variety of ties with all states. A severe test was the Hungarian uprising of 1956, which was suppressed by Soviet troops. Almost simultaneously with the Hungarian events in 1956, arose Suez crisis .
On August 5, 1963, an Agreement was concluded in Moscow between the USSR, the USA and Great Britain banning nuclear tests on land, in the air and at sea.
Relations with most socialist countries had long been streamlined - they clearly obeyed the instructions of Moscow. In May 1953, the USSR restored relations with Yugoslavia. The Soviet-Yugoslav declaration was signed, which proclaimed the principle of the indivisibility of the world, non-interference in internal affairs, etc.
The main foreign policy theses of the CPSU were criticized by the Chinese communists. They also disputed the political assessment of Stalin's activities. In 1963-1965 The PRC made claims to a number of border territories of the USSR, and an open struggle broke out between the two powers.
The USSR actively cooperated with the countries of Asia and Africa that won independence. Moscow helped developing countries create national economies. In February 1955, a Soviet-Indian agreement was signed on the construction of a metallurgical plant in India with the help of the USSR. The USSR provided assistance to the United Arab Republic, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Cambodia, Syria and other countries in Asia and Africa.
USSR in the second half of the 60s - early 80s. XX century
The overthrow of N.S. Khrushchev and the search for a political course.
Development of science, technology and education.
The number of scientific institutions and scientific workers in the USSR increased. Each union republic had its own Academy of Sciences, under which was a whole system of scientific institutions. Significant progress has been made in the development of science. On October 4, 1957, the world's first artificial Earth satellite was launched, then the spacecraft reached the Moon. On April 12, 1961, the first manned space flight in history took place. The first ascent of the CSM of space became Yu.L. Gagarin.
New and increasingly powerful power plants were built. Aircraft manufacturing, nuclear physics, astrophysics and other sciences developed successfully. Many cities created scientific centers. For example, in 1957, Akademgorodok was built near Novosibirsk.
After the war, the number of schools decreased catastrophically; one of the government’s tasks was to create new secondary educational institutions. The increase in the number of high school graduates has led to an increase in the number of university students.
In 1954, coeducational education for boys and girls was restored in schools. Tuition fees for high school students and students were also abolished. Students began to receive stipends. In 1958, compulsory eight-year education was introduced, and the ten-year school was transferred to 11-year education. Soon, industrial work was included in school curricula.
Spiritual life and culture of “developed socialism”.
The ideologists of the CPSU sought to quickly forget Khrushchev’s idea of building communism by 1980. This idea was replaced by the slogan of “developed socialism.” It was believed that under “developed socialism” nations and nationalities were coming closer together, a single community had emerged - Soviet people. They talked about the rapid development of the country's productive forces, about blurring the lines between city and countryside, about the distribution of wealth on the principles “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his work.” Finally, the transformation of the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat into a nation-wide state of workers, peasants and the people's intelligentsia, between whom the lines were also continuously erased, was proclaimed.
In the 60-70s. XX century culture has ceased to be synonymous with ideology, its uniformity has been lost. The ideological component of culture receded into the background, giving way to simplicity and sincerity. Works created in the provinces - in Irkutsk, Kursk, Voronezh, Omsk, etc. - gained popularity. Culture was given a special status.
Nevertheless, ideological trends in culture were still very strong. Militant atheism played a negative role. The persecution of the Russian intensified Orthodox Church. Temples across the country were closed, priests were removed and defrocked. Militant atheists created special organizations to preach atheism.