19) Stalin in Wartime and Post-War Reconstruction Flashcards
How was the Soviet economy mobilised for war?
- Evacuation committee set up 2 days after G attack to relocate machines, equipment + manpower vital to war to east.
- 8-10% USSR’s pr capacity moved.
- Manufacturing industries➡️war pr.
- GKO devoted 50% USSR’s GDP to war effort (more than any other country)🎉.
- SU outperformed B + Third Reich in organisation, coordination of govt systems + infrastructure during war🎉.
How was the Soviet economy mobilised for war?
Industry🏭
- 1st year of war: 1,500 industries + workers moved to east; 3,500 new munitions factories built; civilian industries converted.
- All men + women conscripted to serve war effort, recruited into industry.
- End of 1942 munitions 76% all industrial pr in R.
- Shortage skilled labour➡️mass pr methods➡️lack of quality dangerous but sheer quantity made of for quality.
✅1942-43 SU factories pr munition faster than G factories.
❌1941-42 whole economy devoted to munitions pr➡️collapse in living standards, malnutrition + starvation🥖🚫.
How was the Soviet economy mobilised for war?
Agriculture👨🏼🌾
- 3/4 men in agr drafted into armies or factories.
- Horses for military + tractor pr⬇️ as manufacturing bombs instead.
- 4/5 collective farmers women - often pulled heavy ploughs by hand.
❌Grain harvest ⬇️ from 100mn tonnes to 30mn by 1943.
❌Progress from 1930s collapsed - R’s best agr land occupied or destroyed by Gs.
❌Living standards ⬇️by 40%.
❌Overworked + malnutrition, not given sufficient rations🥖🚫.
❌Cattle stock halved.
✅1942 local authorities permission to halt flow of labour into industry to maintain food pr.
✅1942-43 local initiative➡️private plots expanded onto kolkhozy + city dwellers worked on private gardens to supplement small rations🪴.
How was the Soviet economy mobilised for war?
Lend-lease agreement🇺🇸
- Set up Oct 1941.
- LL provided $11.3bn worth of food🥖, trucks🚚, jeeps + communication equipment📞 pr by USA🇺🇸.
- 1943-44 LL made up 10% USSR’s GDP.
- R’s victory impossible w/o support from USA - capitalist economy!
✅Gave 🔴Army vital mobility + spam🥫to feed soldiers.
Did the Second World War change the nature of the Soviet economy?
Change✅
✅Railways built to connect new industrial bases w/ war fronts🚂.
✅US support - LL made up 10% GDP 1943-44.
✅ ⬆️local initiative permitted after 1943 - private plots.
❌By 1941 50% R’s coal, iron + steel in G hands.
❌Slowed agr pr - stripped of men, horses + machinery.
❌Mechanisation in agr abandoned + replaced by back-breaking manual labour.
❌Whole balance of economy diverted towards munitions - pr in areas unrelated to war ⬇️.
❌Scorched Earth Policy: 🔴Army destroyed farmland so useless to G.
Did the Second World War change the nature of the Soviet economy?
Continuity❌
❌Emphasis on heavy industry + armaments.
❌Harsh punishments for poor work or tardiness. 72hr work week became norm to pr enough resources for war effort. Factories under martial law for ⬆️ labour discipline + productivity.
❌Food shortages addressed by rationing + ⬆️ruthless grain procurements from kolkhozy.
Problems after the Great Patriotic War in industry❌🏭
❌30,000 factories destroyed.
❌1941 50% R’s coal, iron + steel in G hands.
❌ ⬇️pr in areas unrelated to war e.g. steel.
❌Factories under martial law to tighten labour discipline + pr: harsh punishments + 72hr work week.
Problems after the Great Patriotic War in agriculture❌👨🏼🌾
❌70,000 villages destroyed.
❌100,000 kolkhozy stopped working.
❌Much arable land hadn’t been cultivated for some time.
❌Many👨🏼🌾soldiers learnt skills➡️went into industry🏭.
❌Scorched Earth Policy➡️much farmland destroyed.
❌Shortage of tractors, horses, fuel + seeds.
❌Livestock slaughtered - cattle stock halved.
❌ ⬇️agr pr + grain harvest (100mn➡️30mn tonnes by 1943).
❌Mechanisation abandoned➡️hard manual labour.
❌Private plots expanded onto kolkhozy🪴.
Post-war reconstruction
•War transformed relations between regime + people➡️widespread hopes of relaxing of labour discipline, abolishing rationing🥖+ continuing expansion of private plots🪴.
- S though relaxing pressure on citizens would endanger personal supremacy - consumer goods neglected.
- 1946 S speech (Bolshoi Theatre) announced imperialist threat to R➡️return to 5YPs.
- Aimed to convert USSR➡️superpower in decade.
- Get level of industry to✖️3 more than pre-war levels➡️ensure Sov security.
- Priority to heavy industry, defence + rebuilding infrastructure.
- Return of centrally planned economy (state determines priorities + focuses on particular aspects).
The Fourth (1940-46) and Fifth (1951-55) Five Year Plans in industry🏭
Main policies
- Rebuild heavy industry + transport to catch up w/ USA.
- Cold War + R expansion into Eastern Europe➡️focus armaments pr⚔️.
- 85% investment devoted to heavy industry.
- Malenkov put emphasis on consumer goods, housing + services🦺.
- POWs + inmates labour camps exploited as slave labour.
- Leningrad:👷🏽♀️30hrs/month on top of 8hr working day, students 10hrs.
The Fourth (1940-46) and Fifth (1951-55) Five Year Plans in industry🏭
Successes and achievements🎉
🎉Most heavy industry targets met.
🎉Huge growth in heavy industry📈.
🎉USSR stronger than pre-war levels - 2nd to USA in industrial capacity,
🎉Factories rebuilt + mines reopened rapidly⛏.
🎉Some improvement in consumer supplies.
🎉Steel + coal pr surpassed pre-war figures.
🎉R people prepared to endure privation, rationing + long hrs w/ low pay.
The Fourth (1940-46) and Fifth (1951-55) Five Year Plans in industry🏭
Failures and limitations🚫
🚫Maintenance of wartime controls on labour🦺.
🚫Half-hearted commitment to improving living conditions + output consumer goods.
🚫Shortages of raw materials.
🚫No outside investment except for G reparations + from Eastern Europe➡️resources at expense of consumer industries.
🚫5th 5YP didn’t progress far before S’ death 1953.
The Fourth (1940-46) and Fifth (1951-55) Five Year Plans in agriculture👨🏼🌾
Main policies
- Force kolkhozy to deliver agr products.
- Revive Ukraine’s wheat fields🌾.
- Revitalise barren land🌱.
- 1946 major drive to tighten discipline on kolkhozy + reverse wartime trends.
- Fierce pressure on peasantry👨🏼🌾.
- Khrushchev’s initiative: develop ‘Virgin Lands’ + build agrocities (huge farms).
The Fourth (1940-46) and Fifth (1951-55) Five Year Plans in agriculture👨🏼🌾
Successes and achievements🎉
🎉 ⬆️agr output.
The Fourth (1940-46) and Fifth (1951-55) Five Year Plans in agriculture👨🏼🌾
Failures and limitations🚫
🚫Low agr pr - few incentives, no motivation, v low pay.
🚫Industry prioritised➡️villages not provided w/ materials to rebuild houses or electricity from state power stations👷🏻♂️.
🚫High tax on private plots🪴.
🚫Farming practices held back by inaccurate scientific theories based on ideology.
🚫Agr pr in 1955 still lower than in 1940 + still behind industrial pr.
🚫Grain procurements to feed people in cities/towns = 70% reduced yield➡️👨🏼🌾 + animals left w/ barely enough to live on.
🚫1946-47 1-1.5mn☠️from starvation + disease (especially on Ukraine).
