Post-war Russia Flashcards
How many people were killed between 1941-5?
1 in 8
When did Stalin promise that reconstruction to become a leading industrial power would take place by?
1960
What happened in August 1945?
Gosplan was planning a fourth 5 year plan with ambitious targets for industry and agriculture. One third of the plan’s expenditure was spent on Ukraine as the read basket of the world was devastated by war
How did industry struggle to adjust to civilian needs?
- Mining production was less than 1/2 of the 1940 level, electric lower at 52% and steel at 45%
- Transport infrastructure was disrupted
- The workforce was exhausted by sacrifices in the war which intensified by the sudden end of foreign aid through the lend-lease in August 1945
How were industrial target equalled or exceeded?
- Coal produced 261.1 tons in 1950 compared to 165.9 in 1940
- Steel at 27.3 compared with 18.3
- Electricity at 91.2 kilowatts compared to 48.3
Why was economic production successful to experience a rebound effect?
- war reparations
- central planning
- committed efforts of the people
Whilst long-term growth trends were slower than Europe, it rebuild was rapid considering long-term issues before the war
What were reparations like?
Huge amounts of equipment were transported into Russia including whole factories especially from Soviet occupied Germany
How was quality of living?
- Steady growths in quality of living
- In April 1948, cars, motorbikes, sewing machines, watches and music players were reduced in price between 10-20%
- By early 1948, soviet incomes were the same as 1938 levels
- Acute housing shortages
What happened to military expenditure?
It was still large as the size of the army rose from 2.8 million in 1948 to 4.9 million by 1953 and spending was 18% of the total expenditure in 1950 but 25% by 1952
What were the impacts of war on agriculture?
- 98,000 collective farms
- 137,000 tractors
- 49,000 combine harvesters
- 7 million houses
- 17 million cattle
- 20 million pigs
- 27 million sheep
What impact did this have on the land?
- Food production was 60% of the 1940 level
- There was less land cultivated than before the war at only 75% plus 1946 was the driest year since 1891 leading to a famine in Ukraine and central Russia exacerbated by dislocation
- Although, the scale of famine was not like in the 1930s
- Targets for agriculture were rarely met but cycles of famines stopped with non after 1947
Why did some regions did better than others?
Stalin made limited attempts to modernise the economy as outlined in economic problems of socialism in the USSR in 1952
What happened to agricultural targets?
- Grain in 1940 produced 95.6 million tons and by 1950s, 92,2
-Potatoes were 76.1 but by 1952, 69.2 - Cotton was 2.2 and now 3.8
- Cattle were 28 million in 1940 and 25 million by 1952
How was the economy built up to allow the USSR become a super power
By may 1945, there were 7 million well-equipped troops with control over the Baltic states, eastern Poland and Eastern Germany
How did America reach superpower status?
Similar to Russia, it isolated itself before the war but its sudden entry in 1941, led them to fund the European and Pacific side of the war therefore both would dominated post-war Europe
What happened in Tehran in 1943?
- The allies agreed to an unconditional surrender from Germany and no separate peace with Germany
- They were ideologically divided as Stalin was critical of the west for not opening up a second front to relieve the red army therefore weakening how far they were allies
What was the meeting between Stalin and Churchill in Moscow in 1944 about?
Disagreements over the future of Poland
What happened at the Yalta conference in February 1945?
- They agreed Germany would be placed in zones of occupation
- They were fighting over the borders as Stalin’s eastern Germany was poor and unfertile and Berlin was split between allies therefore isolating Russia
- Britain had lost its power by Yalta as it was bankrupted with a declining empire
What happened at the Potsdam conference in July/August 1945?
- They agreed upon Soviet occupation of Poland as it was previously part of the USSR
- Stalin was the senior partner of the allies as Attlee and Truman were in power as he was asserting political control over liberated countries however peace between the countries were not agreed upon especially reparations as Stalin didn’t want Germany becoming an economic powerhouse
What did America reveal in 1945?
In 1945, it was revealed they had developed an atomic bomb placing Russia at a disadvantage, so Beria was put in charge of developing one by August 1949
How did Russia’s international status improve?
They joined the UN in 1945 and becoming a permanent member of the UN security council
What territories were directly added to the USSR?
- Estonia
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Belarus
- Ukraine
What was the buffer zone/satellite states?
- Neighbouring states where Russia held military and ideological influence over them, in the hopes, they would protect the USSR from further Western invasions
- These states included east Germany, Poland Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania
How did the formation of the Soviet bloc begin during the war?
- Occupation of Eastern Poland in 1939 and the Baltic states in 1940
- In April to May 1940, 22,000 Polish army officers were shot under Beria’s order in the Katyn forest massacre to eliminate Polish nationalists. When their mass graves were discovered in 1943, it was used as a propaganda campaign against the Germans
- Political dominance was also asserted as he allowed the home army alone to defeat the Nazis for 63 days from the 1st of August 1944 to weaken Poland
What happened from 1930?
Exiled communist groups from European countries were trained in Moscow to liberate post-war governments especially in France, Switzerland, Italy Greece and Turkey. However, in these countries extension of the Soviet bloc was harder, communists had to join with socialists and bourgeoise liberals
What happened in Poland?
A provisional government was set up when the red army entered Poland in Lublin and was dominated by pro-Moscow communists
What happened in Yugoslavia?
Communist particians led by Josip Tito took control and were expected to be an important part of the Soviet bloc but they broke away from Stalin in 1948
Where did communist regimes also control?
Bulgaria and Romania
What happened in Soviet Germany?
A group of Moscow trained communists gained political control by 1946
What are salami tactics?
Communist infiltration to gain political dominance enabled pro-soviet government to gain power in Hungary in 1947 and Czechoslovakia in 1948 where communists were suggested of murdering Western minister Jan Masaryk. This led to increasing tensions with the west through the spreading of communist ideology
What was the long telegram?
In February 1946, American diplomat George Kennan sent a report to Washington from Moscow urging the US to take action to contain the spread of communism in Europe
What did Churchill do?
In March 1946, he gave a speech at Fulton in Missouri to claim an iron curtain had descended Europe and spoke of communist fifth columns and advised strength in dealing with it isolating Russia
What was happening by early 1947?
- Western Europe was fearful of economic collapse and political instability as communism was growing across Western Europe
- By March, the Truman doctrine was announced to contain the spread of communism which was reflected in Jun 1947 through the Marshall plan that spread dollar diplomacy as they gave aid to re-build Europe with Added American political influence as 21 billion was provided for re-armament
- Stalin was convinced the plan was hostile to Soviet interests by supporting Germany’s economic growth
- Soviet bloc countries were pressured to reject the aid
What happened in February 1948?
- Kliment Gottwald took control of Czechoslovakia which the west regarded as an anti-communist coup as for Stain, it revealed the legitimate success of anti-communist policies
What was the Berlin blockade?
- The communist control of Czechoslovakia made the divide over Germany clear as it was an island in the Soviet zone therefore Stalin believed in the dominance of Soviet interests in the city
- In June 1948, the west introduced a new currency that split Berlin further
- This led to Stalin causing a blockade of road and rail links between Berlin and the west which Stalin believed was a calculated move to prevent war
How did the west respond to the blockade?
- It was defeated by the Berlin airlift coordinated by General Clay which flew supplies throughout the winter of 1948-9, Clay calculated that Stalin wouldn’t shoot the planes to prevent war
- The population of Western Berlin resisted pressures so the blockade was called off in May 1949
How did relationships decrease?
- NATO was created in 1949 and was seen in the USSR as hostile
- Anti-communist attitudes deepened as Stalin met with Chinese communist leader, Mao Zedong to form an alliance
What was Stalin like on his deathbed?
- By early 1953, Stalin was a ailing despot (Service) as he was unpredictable and paranoid leading to increased terror
- At the 1952 party congress, the old guard members of Molotov, Mikoyan and Beria were vulnerable providing the context for his death on the 5th of March 1953 after a stroke
- This led to theories that Beria had poisoned him but it was clearly natural causes after he had his first stoke in 1946
What was Stalin’s death like?
- His funeral was a manifestation of the Stalin cult as he was embalmed in an open coffin leading to a wave of national grief even from the ruling elite
- Like Lenin, he didn’t name a successor leading to an intense power struggle which Khrushchev emerged from
What was Stalin’s legacy?
- It was problematic due to underfunded agriculture and consumer goods and the establishment of the cold war led to violence in Russia
- During the power struggle, this encouraged Khrushchev’s secret speech to de-Stalinise his cult in order to promote reform in communism. This spread to East Germany, Poland and Hungary where Stalin statues were symbolically destroyed
