The Great Patriotic War ended with a victory, which the Soviet people achieved for four years. Men fought on the fronts, women worked on collective farms, at military factories - in a word, they provided rear. However, the euphoria caused by the long-awaited victory was replaced by a sense of hopelessness. Continuous hard work, hunger, Stalinist repressions, renewed with renewed vigor - these phenomena overshadowed the post-war years.

In the history of the USSR, the term "cold war" is found. Used in relation to the period of military, ideological and economic confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States. It begins in 1946, that is, in the post-war years. The USSR emerged victorious from World War II, but, unlike the United States, it had a long road of recovery ahead of it.

Construction

According to the plan of the fourth five-year plan, the implementation of which began in the USSR in the post-war years, it was necessary, first of all, to restore the cities destroyed by the fascist troops. More than 1.5 thousand settlements were affected in four years. Young people quickly received various construction specialties. However, there was not enough manpower - the war claimed the lives of more than 25 million Soviet citizens.

To restore normal working hours, overtime work was canceled. Annual paid holidays were introduced. The working day now lasted eight hours. Peaceful construction in the USSR in the postwar years was headed by the Council of Ministers.

Industry

Plants and factories destroyed during the Second World War were actively restored in the post-war years. In the USSR, by the end of the forties, old enterprises began to work. New ones were also built. The post-war period in the USSR is 1945-1953, that is, it begins after the end of the Second World War. Ends with the death of Stalin.

The recovery of industry after the war proceeded rapidly, partly due to the high working capacity of the Soviet people. The citizens of the USSR were convinced that they had a great life, much better than the Americans living in the conditions of decaying capitalism. This was facilitated by the Iron Curtain, which isolated the country culturally and ideologically from the whole world for forty years.

They worked hard, but their life did not get easier. In the USSR in 1945-1953 there was a rapid development of three industries: rocket, radar, nuclear. Most of the resources were spent on the construction of enterprises that belonged to these areas.

Agriculture

The first post-war years were terrible for the inhabitants. In 1946, the country was gripped by famine caused by destruction and drought. A particularly difficult situation was observed in the Ukraine, in Moldova, in the right-bank regions of the lower Volga region and in the North Caucasus. New collective farms were created throughout the country.

In order to strengthen the spirit of Soviet citizens, directors, commissioned by officials, shot a huge number of films telling about the happy life of collective farmers. These films enjoyed wide popularity, they were watched with admiration even by those who knew what a collective farm really was.

In the villages, people worked from dawn to dawn, while living in poverty. That is why later, in the fifties, young people left the villages, went to the cities, where life was at least a little easier.

Standard of living

In the post-war years, people suffered from hunger. In 1947, but most of the goods remained in short supply. The hunger has returned. The prices of rations were raised. Nevertheless, over the course of five years, starting in 1948, products gradually became cheaper. This somewhat improved the standard of living of Soviet citizens. In 1952, the price of bread was 39% lower than in 1947, and that of milk was 70%.

The availability of basic commodities did not make life much easier for ordinary people, but, being under the Iron Curtain, most of them easily believed in the illusory idea of the best country in the world.

Until 1955, Soviet citizens were convinced that they owed Stalin their victory in the Great Patriotic War. But this situation was not observed throughout. In those regions that were annexed to the Soviet Union after the war, far fewer conscious citizens lived, for example, in the Baltic states and in Western Ukraine, where anti-Soviet organizations appeared in the 40s.

Friendly states

After the end of the war in countries such as Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, the GDR, the communists came to power. The USSR developed diplomatic relations with these states. At the same time, the conflict with the West escalated.

According to the 1945 treaty, Transcarpathia was transferred to the USSR. The Soviet-Polish border has changed. Many former citizens of other states, such as Poland, lived on the territory after the end of the war. The Soviet Union concluded an agreement on the exchange of population with this country. Poles living in the USSR now had the opportunity to return to their homeland. Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians could leave Poland. It is noteworthy that in the late forties only about 500 thousand people returned to the USSR. In Poland - twice as much.

criminal situation

In the postwar years in the USSR, law enforcement agencies launched a serious fight against banditry. 1946 saw the peak of crime. About 30,000 armed robberies were recorded this year.

To combat rampant crime, new employees, as a rule, former front-line soldiers, were accepted into the ranks of the police. It was not so easy to restore peace to Soviet citizens, especially in Ukraine and the Baltic states, where the criminal situation was the most depressing. In the Stalin years, a fierce struggle was waged not only against "enemies of the people", but also against ordinary robbers. From January 1945 to December 1946, more than three and a half thousand bandit organizations were liquidated.

Repression

Back in the early twenties, many representatives of the intelligentsia left the country. They knew about the fate of those who did not have time to escape from Soviet Russia. Nevertheless, at the end of the forties, some accepted the offer to return to their homeland. Russian nobles were returning home. But to another country. Many were sent immediately upon their return to the Stalinist camps.

In the post-war years, it reached its apogee. Wreckers, dissidents and other "enemies of the people" were placed in the camps. Sad was the fate of the soldiers and officers who found themselves surrounded during the war years. At best, they spent several years in the camps, until which they debunked the cult of Stalin. But many were shot. In addition, the conditions in the camps were such that only the young and healthy could endure them.

In the post-war years, Marshal Georgy Zhukov became one of the most respected people in the country. His popularity annoyed Stalin. However, he did not dare to put the national hero behind bars. Zhukov was known not only in the USSR, but also abroad. The leader knew how to create uncomfortable conditions in other ways. In 1946, the "Aviator Case" was fabricated. Zhukov was removed from the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces and sent to Odessa. Several generals close to the marshal were arrested.

culture

In 1946, the fight against Western influence began. It was expressed in the popularization of domestic culture and the ban on everything foreign. Soviet writers, artists, directors were persecuted.

In the forties, as already mentioned, a huge number of war films were shot. These films were heavily censored. The characters were created according to a template, the plot was built according to a clear scheme. The music was also under strict control. Only compositions praising Stalin and a happy Soviet life sounded. This did not have the best effect on the development of national culture.

The science

The development of genetics began in the thirties. In the postwar period, this science was in exile. Trofim Lysenko, a Soviet biologist and agronomist, became the main participant in the attack on geneticists. In August 1948, academicians who made a significant contribution to the development of domestic science lost the opportunity to engage in research activities.

The Great Victory also had a Great Price. The war claimed 27 million human lives. The economy of the country, especially in the territory that was occupied, was thoroughly undermined: 1,710 cities and towns, more than 70,000 villages and villages, about 32,000 industrial enterprises, 65,000 km of railway lines were completely or partially destroyed, 75 million people lost their homes. The concentration of efforts on military production, necessary to achieve victory, led to a significant impoverishment of the resources of the population and to a decrease in the production of consumer goods. During the war, the previously insignificant housing construction was sharply reduced, while the country's housing stock was partially destroyed. Later, unfavorable economic and social factors came into play: low wages, an acute housing crisis, the involvement of an increasing number of women in production, and so on.

After the war, the birth rate began to decline. In the 1950s it was 25 (per 1,000), and before the war it was 31. In 1971-1972, there were half as many children born per 1,000 women aged 15-49 in a year than in 1938-1939. . In the first post-war years, the working-age population of the USSR was also significantly lower than the pre-war one. There is information at the beginning of 1950 in the USSR there were 178.5 million people, that is, 15.6 million less than it was in 1930 - 194.1 million people. In the 1960s, there was an even greater decline.

The fall in the birth rate in the first post-war years was associated with the death of entire age groups of men. The death of a significant part of the country's male population during the war created a difficult, often catastrophic situation for millions of families. A large category of widow families and single mothers has emerged. The woman fell on double responsibilities: material support for the family and care for the family itself and the upbringing of children. Although the state took over, especially in large industrial centers, part of the care of children, creating a network of nurseries and kindergartens, but they were not enough. Saved to some extent by the institution of "grandmothers".

The difficulties of the first post-war years were exacerbated by the enormous damage suffered by agriculture during the war. The occupiers ruined 98,000 collective farms and 1,876 state farms, took away and slaughtered many millions of heads of livestock, and almost completely deprived the rural areas of the occupied regions of draft power. In agrarian areas, the number of able-bodied people decreased by almost one third. The depletion of human resources in the countryside was also the result of the natural process of urban growth. The village lost an average of up to 2 million people per year. The difficult living conditions in the villages forced young people to leave for the cities. Part of the demobilized soldiers settled after the war in the cities and did not want to return to agriculture.

During the war, in many regions of the country, significant areas of land belonging to collective farms were transferred to enterprises and cities, or illegally seized by them. In other areas, the land has become the subject of sale. Back in 1939, the Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party of the Central Committee (6) and the Council of People's Commissars issued a resolution on measures to combat the squandering of collective farm lands. By the beginning of 1947, more than 2,255 thousand cases of appropriation or use of land were discovered, in total 4.7 million hectares. Between 1947 and May 1949, the use of 5.9 million hectares of collective farm land was additionally discovered. The higher authorities, starting from the local and ending with the republican, brazenly robbed the collective farms, charging them, under various pretexts, in fact dues in kind.

By September 1946, the debt of various organizations to collective farms amounted to 383 million rubles.

In the Akmola region of the Kazakh SGR, the authorities in 1949 took from the collective farms 1,500 head of cattle, 3,000 centners of grain and products worth about 2 million rubles. The robbers, among whom were leading party and Soviet workers, were not held accountable.

The squandering of collective-farm lands and goods belonging to the collective farms aroused great indignation among the collective farmers. For example, at the general meetings of collective farmers in the Tyumen region (Siberia), dedicated to the decree of September 19, 1946, 90 thousand collective farmers participated, and the activity was unusual: 11 thousand collective farmers spoke. In the Kemerovo region, 367 chairmen of collective farms, 2,250 members of the board and 502 chairmen of the audit commissions of the former composition were nominated at meetings for the election of new boards. However, the new composition of the boards could not achieve any significant change: the state policy remained the same. Therefore, there was no way out of the impasse.

After the end of the war, the production of tractors, agricultural machinery and implements quickly improved. But, despite the improvement in the supply of agriculture with machines and tractors, the strengthening of the material and technical base of state farms and MTS, the situation in agriculture remained catastrophic. The state continued to invest extremely insignificant funds in agriculture - in the post-war five-year plan, only 16% of all appropriations for the national economy.

In 1946, only 76% of the sown area was sown compared to 1940. Due to drought and other turmoil, the 1946 harvest was lower even compared to the paramilitary 1945. “In fact, in terms of grain production, the country for a long period was at the level that pre-revolutionary Russia had,” admitted N. S. Khrushchev. In 1910-1914, the gross grain harvest was 4,380 million poods, in 1949-1953, 4,942 million poods. Grain yields were lower than in 1913, despite mechanization, fertilizers, and so on.

Grain yield

1913 -- 8.2 centners per hectare

1925-1926 -- 8.5 centners per hectare

1926-1932 -- 7.5 centners per hectare

1933-1937 -- 7.1 centners per hectare

1949-1953 -- 7.7 centners per hectare

Accordingly, there were fewer agricultural products per capita. Taking the pre-collectivization period of 1928-1929 as 100, production in 1913 was 90.3, in 1930-1932 - 86.8, in 1938-1940 - 90.0, in 1950-1953 - 94.0. As can be seen from the table, the grain problem worsened, despite the decline in grain exports (from 1913 to 1938 by 4.5 times), the reduction in the number of livestock and, consequently, the consumption of grain. The number of horses decreased from 1928 to 1935 by 25 million heads, which saved more than 10 million tons of grain, 10-15% of the gross grain harvest of that time.

In 1916, there were 58.38 million cattle on the territory of Russia, on January 1, 1941, its number decreased to 54.51 million, and in 1951 there were 57.09 million heads, that is, it was still below the level 1916. The number of cows exceeded the level of 1916 only in 1955. In general, according to official data, from 1940 to 1952 the gross agricultural output increased (in comparable prices) by only 10%!

The Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in February 1947 demanded even greater centralization of agricultural production, effectively depriving the collective farms of the right to decide not only how much, but what to sow. Political departments were restored in the machine and tractor stations - propaganda was supposed to replace food for the completely starving and impoverished collective farmers. Collective farms were obliged, in addition to fulfilling state deliveries, to fill up seed funds, set aside part of the crop in an indivisible fund, and only after that give money to collective farmers for workdays. State deliveries were still planned from the center, harvest prospects were determined by eye, and the actual harvest was often much lower than planned. The first commandment of the collective farmers "first give to the state" had to be fulfilled in any way. Local party and Soviet organizations often forced more successful collective farms to pay with grain and other products for their impoverished neighbors, which ultimately led to the impoverishment of both. Collective farmers lived mainly on the products grown on their dwarf household plots. But in order to take their products to the market, they needed a special certificate certifying that they had paid off the obligatory state deliveries. Otherwise, they were considered deserters and speculators, subjected to fines and even imprisonment. Increased taxes on personal household plots of collective farmers. Collective farmers were required in the form of natural deliveries of products that they often did not produce. Therefore, they were forced to purchase these products at the market price and hand them over to the state free of charge. The Russian village did not know such a terrible state even during the time of the Tatar yoke.

In 1947, a significant part of the European territory of the country suffered a famine. It arose after a severe drought that engulfed the main agricultural granaries of the European part of the USSR: a significant part of Ukraine, Moldova, the Lower Volga region, the central regions of Russia, and the Crimea. In previous years, the state took the harvest cleanly at the expense of state deliveries, sometimes not even leaving the seed fund. A crop failure occurred in a number of areas that were subjected to German occupation, that is, many times robbed by both strangers and their own. As a result, there were no food supplies to get through the hard times. The Soviet state, on the other hand, demanded more and more millions of poods of grain from the completely robbed peasants. For example, in 1946, a year of severe drought, Ukrainian collective farmers owed the state 400 million poods (7.2 million tons) of grain. This figure, and most of the other planned tasks, was arbitrarily set and did not correlate with the actual possibilities of Ukrainian agriculture.

Desperate peasants sent letters to the Ukrainian government in Kyiv and to the allied government in Moscow, begging them to come to their aid and save them from starvation. Khrushchev, who at that time was the first secretary of the Central Committee of the CP (b) U, after long and painful hesitation (he was afraid of being accused of sabotage and losing his place), nevertheless sent a letter to Stalin, in which he asked for permission to temporarily introduce a rationing system and save food for supply for the agricultural population. Stalin, in a reply telegram, rudely rejected the request of the Ukrainian government. Now the Ukrainian peasants faced starvation and death. People began to die by the thousands. There were cases of cannibalism. Khrushchev cites in his memoirs a letter to him from the secretary of the Odessa Regional Party Committee A.I. Kirichenko, who visited one of the collective farms in the winter of 1946-1947. Here is what he reported: "I saw a terrible scene. A woman put the corpse of her own child on the table and cut it into pieces. She spoke insanely when she did this:" We have already eaten Manechka. Now we will pickle Vanichka. This will support us for a while ". Can you imagine it? A woman went mad because of hunger and cut her own children to pieces! Famine raged in Ukraine.

However, Stalin and his closest aides did not want to reckon with the facts. The merciless Kaganovich was sent to Ukraine as the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Ukraine, and Khrushchev temporarily fell out of favor, was moved to the post of Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of Ukraine. But no movement could save the situation: the famine continued, and it claimed about a million human lives.

In 1952, state prices for supplies of grain, meat and pork were lower than in 1940. The prices paid for potatoes were lower than the cost of transportation. Collective farms were paid an average of 8 rubles 63 kopecks per centner of grain. State farms received 29 rubles 70 kopecks for a centner.

In order to buy a kilogram of butter, the collective farmer had to work ... 60 workdays, and in order to purchase a very modest suit, an annual salary was needed.

Most of the country's collective and state farms in the early 1950s had extremely low yields. Even in such fertile regions of Russia as the Central Black Earth region, the Volga region and Kazakhstan, the harvests remained extremely low, because the center endlessly ordered them what to sow and how to sow. The point, however, was not only stupid orders from above and insufficient material and technical base. For many years, the love for their work, for the land, was beaten out of the peasants. Once upon a time, the land rewarded for the labor expended, for their devotion to their peasant cause, sometimes generously, sometimes poorly. Now this incentive, which has received the official name "incentive of material interest" has disappeared. Work on the land turned into free or low-income forced labor.

Many collective farmers were starving, others were systematically malnourished. Saved homesteads. The situation was especially difficult in the European part of the USSR. The situation was much better in Central Asia, where there were high procurement prices for cotton - the main agricultural crop, and in the south, which specialized in vegetable growing, fruit production and winemaking.

In 1950, the consolidation of collective farms began. Their number decreased from 237 thousand to 93 thousand in 1953. Consolidation of collective farms could contribute to their economic strengthening. However, insufficient capital investment, mandatory supplies and low procurement prices, the lack of a sufficient number of trained specialists and machine operators, and, finally, the restrictions imposed by the state on the personal household plots of collective farmers deprived them of an incentive to work, destroyed their hopes of breaking out of the clutches of need. The 33 million collective farmers who fed the 200 million population of the country with their hard work remained, after the convicts, the poorest, most offended stratum of Soviet society.

Let us now see what was the position of the working class and other urban strata of the population at that time.

As you know, one of the first acts of the Provisional Government after the February Revolution was the introduction of an 8-hour working day. Prior to this, the workers of Russia worked 10 and sometimes 12 hours a day. As for the collective farmers, their working day, as in the pre-revolutionary years, remained irregular. In 1940 they returned to the 8 o'clock.

According to official Soviet statistics, the average wage of a Soviet worker increased more than 11 times between the start of industrialization (1928) and the end of the Stalin era (1954). But this does not give an idea of real wages. Soviet sources give fantastic calculations that have nothing to do with reality. Western researchers have calculated that during this period the cost of living, according to the most conservative estimates, increased in the period 1928-1954 by 9-10 times. However, the worker in the Soviet Union has, in addition to the official wages received in his hands, additional, in the form of social services rendered to him by the state. It returns to workers in the form of free medical care, education and other things part of the earnings alienated by the state.

According to the calculations of the largest American specialist in the Soviet economy, Janet Chapman, additional increases in the wages of workers and employees, taking into account the changes in prices that have occurred, after 1927 amounted to: in 1928 - 15% in 1937 - 22.1%; in 194O - 20.7%; in 1948 - 29.6%; in 1952 - 22.2%; 1954 - 21.5%. The cost of living in the same years grew as follows, taking 1928 as 100:

This table shows that the growth in the wages of Soviet workers and employees was lower than the growth in the cost of living. For example, by 1948 wages in monetary terms had doubled compared to 1937, but the cost of living had more than tripled. The fall in real wages was also associated with an increase in loan subscriptions and taxation. The significant increase in real wages by 1952 was still below the level of 1928, although it exceeded the level of real wages of the pre-war 1937 and 1940s.

In order to form a correct idea of the position of the Soviet worker in comparison with his counterparts abroad, let us compare how many products could be bought for 1 hour of work expended. Taking the initial data of the hourly wage of a Soviet worker as 100, we get the following comparative table:

The picture is striking: in the same amount of time spent, an English worker could purchase in 1952 more than 3.5 times more food, and an American worker 5.6 times more food than a Soviet worker.

The Soviet people, especially the older generations, have an ingrained opinion that, they say, under Stalin, prices were reduced every year, and under Khrushchev and after him, prices were constantly growing. Hence, there is even some nostalgia for Stalin's times.

The secret to lowering prices is extremely simple - it is based, firstly, on a huge rise in prices after the start of collectivization. Indeed, if we take the prices of 1937 as 100, it turns out that the yen for baked rye bread increased 10.5 times from 1928 to 1937, and by 1952 almost 19 times. Prices for beef of the 1st grade increased from 1928 to 1937 by 15.7 times, and by 1952 by 17 times: for pork, respectively, by 10.5 and 20.5 times. The price of herring increased by 1952 almost 15 times. The cost of sugar rose by 1937 by 6 times, and by 1952 by 15 times. The price of sunflower oil rose from 1928 to 1937 by a factor of 28, and from 1928 to 1952 by a factor of 34. Egg prices increased from 1928 to 1937 by 11.3 times, and by 1952 by 19.3 times. And finally, the price of potatoes rose from 1928 to 1937 by 5 times, and in 1952 they were 11 times higher than the 1928 price level.

All these data are taken from Soviet price tags for different years.

Having once raised prices by 1500-2500 percent, then it was already quite easy to pull off the trick of lowering prices every year. Secondly, the price reduction was due to the robbery of collective farmers, that is, extremely low state delivery and purchase prices. Back in 1953, procurement prices for potatoes in the Moscow and Leningrad regions were ... 2.5 - 3 kopecks per kilogram. Finally, the majority of the population did not feel the difference in prices at all, since the state supply was very poor, in many areas meat, fats and other products were not brought to stores for years.

This is the "secret" of the annual decline in prices in Stalin's time.

A worker in the USSR, 25 years after the revolution, continued to eat worse than a Western worker.

The housing crisis worsened. Compared to pre-revolutionary times, when the problem of housing in densely populated cities was not easy (1913 - 7 square meters per 1 person), in the post-revolutionary years, especially during the period of collectivization, the housing problem became unusually aggravated. Masses of rural residents poured into the cities, seeking salvation from hunger or in search of work. Civil housing construction in Stalin's time was unusually limited. Apartments in the cities were received by senior officials of the party and state apparatus. In Moscow, for example, in the early 1930s, a huge residential complex was built on Bersenevskaya Embankment - Government House with large comfortable apartments. A few hundred meters from the Government House there is another residential complex - a former almshouse, converted into communal apartments, where for 20-30 people there was one kitchen and I-2 toilets.

Before the revolution, most of the workers lived near factories in the barracks, after the revolution the barracks were called hostels. Large enterprises built new dormitories for their workers, apartments for the engineering, technical and administrative apparatus, but it was still impossible to solve the housing problem, since the lion's share of appropriations was spent on the development of industry, the military industry, and the energy system.

Housing conditions for the vast majority of the urban population worsened every year during the years of Stalin's rule: the population growth rate significantly exceeded the rate of civil housing construction.

In 1928, the living area per 1 city dweller was 5.8 sq. meters, in 1932 4.9 sq. meters, in 1937 - 4.6 square meters. meters.

The plan of the 1st five-year plan provided for the construction of new 62.5 million square meters. meters of living space, but only 23.5 million square meters were built. meters. According to the 2nd five-year plan, it was planned to build 72.5 million square meters. meters, was built 2.8 times less than 26.8 million square meters. meters.

In 1940, the living area per city dweller was 4.5 sq. meters.

Two years after Stalin's death, when mass housing construction began, there were 5.1 sq. meters. In order to realize how crowded people lived, it should be mentioned that even the official Soviet housing standard is 9 square meters. meters per person (in Czechoslovakia - 17 sq. meters). Many families huddled in an area of 6 square meters. meters. They lived not in families, but in clans - two or three generations in one room.

The family of a cleaner of a large Moscow enterprise in the 13th century A-voi lived in a hostel in a room of 20 square meters. meters. The cleaner herself was the widow of the commandant of the border outpost who died at the beginning of the German-Soviet war. There were only seven fixed beds in the room. The remaining six people - adults and children were laid out on the floor for the night. Sexual relations took place almost in plain sight, they got used to it and did not pay attention. For 15 years, the three families who lived in the room unsuccessfully sought resettlement. Only in the early 60s they were resettled.

Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of inhabitants of the Soviet Union lived in such conditions in the post-war period. Such was the legacy of the Stalin era.

First year without war. For the Soviet people, it was different. This is a time of struggle against devastation, hunger and crime, but it is also a period of labor achievements, economic victories and new hopes.

Tests

In September 1945, the long-awaited peace came to Soviet soil. But he got it at a high price. More than 27 million became victims of the war. people, 1710 cities and 70 thousand villages and villages were wiped off the face of the earth, 32 thousand enterprises, 65 thousand kilometers of railways, 98 thousand collective farms and 2890 machine and tractor stations were destroyed. The direct damage to the Soviet economy amounted to 679 billion rubles. The national economy and heavy industry were thrown back at least ten years ago.

Famine was added to the huge economic and human losses. It was facilitated by the drought of 1946, the collapse of agriculture, the lack of labor and equipment, which led to a significant loss of crops, as well as a decrease in livestock numbers by 40%. The population had to survive: cook nettle borscht or bake cakes from linden leaves and flowers.

A common diagnosis of the first post-war year was dystrophy. For example, by the beginning of 1947, in the Voronezh region alone, there were 250,000 patients with a similar diagnosis, a total of about 600,000 in the RSFSR. According to the Dutch economist Michael Ellman, from 1 to 1.5 million people died from the famine in the USSR in 1946-1947.

Historian Veniamin Zima believes that the state had sufficient grain reserves to prevent famine. Thus, the volume of exported grain in 1946-48 was 5.7 million tons, which is 2.1 million tons more than the export of pre-war years.

To help the starving from China, the Soviet government bought about 200,000 tons of grain and soybeans. Ukraine and Belarus, as victims of the war, received assistance through the UN channels.

Stalin's miracle

The war has just died down, but no one has canceled the next five-year plan. In March 1946, the fourth five-year plan for 1946-1952 was adopted. His goals are ambitious: not only to reach the pre-war level of industrial and agricultural production, but also to surpass it.

Iron discipline reigned at Soviet enterprises, which ensured the shock pace of production. Paramilitary methods were necessary to organize the work of various groups of workers: 2.5 million prisoners, 2 million prisoners of war and about 10 million demobilized.

Particular attention was paid to the restoration of Stalingrad destroyed by the war. Molotov then declared that not a single German would leave the USSR until the city was completely restored. And, it must be said that the painstaking work of the Germans in construction and public utilities contributed to the appearance of Stalingrad that had risen from the ruins.

In 1946, the government adopted a plan providing for lending to the regions most affected by the fascist occupation. This made it possible to restore their infrastructure at a rapid pace. Emphasis was placed on industrial development. Already in 1946, the mechanization of industry was 15% of the pre-war level, a couple of years and the pre-war level will be doubled.

Everything for people

The post-war devastation did not prevent the government from providing comprehensive support to citizens. On August 25, 1946, by a decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, a mortgage loan at 1% per annum was issued to the population as assistance in solving the housing problem.

“In order to provide workers, engineering and technical workers and employees with the opportunity to acquire ownership of a residential building, oblige the Central Communal Bank to issue a loan in the amount of 8-10 thousand rubles. buying a two-room residential building with a maturity of 10 years and 10-12 thousand rubles. buying a three-room residential building with a maturity of 12 years,” the resolution said.

Doctor of Technical Sciences Anatoly Torgashev witnessed those difficult post-war years. He notes that, despite various kinds of economic problems, already in 1946 at enterprises and construction sites in the Urals, Siberia and the Far East, they managed to raise the wages of workers by 20%. The salaries of citizens with secondary and higher specialized education were increased by the same amount.

Serious increases were received by persons who had various academic degrees and titles. For example, the salaries of a professor and a doctor of sciences have increased from 1,600 to 5,000 rubles, an associate professor and a candidate of sciences - from 1,200 to 3,200 rubles, and a university rector - from 2,500 to 8,000 rubles. Interestingly, Stalin, as chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, had a salary of 10,000 rubles.

But for comparison, the prices for the main goods of the food basket for 1947. Black bread (loaf) - 3 rubles, milk (1 l) - 3 rubles, eggs (ten) - 12 rubles, vegetable oil (1 l) - 30 rubles. A pair of shoes could be bought for an average of 260 rubles.

Repatriates

After the end of the war, more than 5 million Soviet citizens found themselves outside their country: more than 3 million - in the allied zone of action and less than 2 million - in the zone of influence of the USSR. Most of them were Ostarbeiters, the rest (about 1.7 million) were prisoners of war, collaborators and refugees. At the Yalta Conference in 1945, the leaders of the victorious countries decided on the repatriation of Soviet citizens, which was supposed to be mandatory.

Already by August 1, 1946, 3,322,053 repatriates were sent to their place of residence. The report of the command of the NKVD troops noted: “The political mood of the repatriated Soviet citizens is overwhelmingly healthy, characterized by a great desire to return home to the USSR as soon as possible. Significant interest and desire was shown everywhere to find out what was new in life in the USSR, to quickly take part in the work to eliminate the destruction caused by the war and strengthen the economy of the Soviet state.

Not everyone received the returnees favorably. The resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “On the organization of political and educational work with repatriated Soviet citizens” reported: “Individual party and Soviet workers have taken the path of indiscriminate distrust of repatriated Soviet citizens.” The government reminded that "returned Soviet citizens regained all rights and should be drawn to active participation in labor and socio-political life."

A significant part of those who returned to their homeland was thrown into areas associated with heavy physical labor: in the coal industry of the eastern and western regions (116 thousand), in ferrous metallurgy (47 thousand) and the forest industry (12 thousand). Many of the repatriates were forced to enter into labor agreements for permanent work.

Banditry

One of the most painful problems of the first post-war years for the Soviet state was the high level of crime. The fight against robbery and banditry became a headache for Sergei Kruglov, the Minister of the Interior. The peak of crimes occurred in 1946, during which more than 36,000 armed robberies and over 12,000 cases of social banditry were revealed.

Post-war Soviet society was dominated by a pathological fear of rampant crime. Historian Elena Zubkova explained: "People's fear of the criminal world was based not so much on reliable information as it came from its lack and dependence on rumors."

The collapse of the social order, especially in the territories of Eastern Europe that had gone to the USSR, was one of the main factors provoking a surge in crime. About 60% of all crimes in the country were committed in Ukraine and the Baltic states, with the highest concentration of them in the territories of Western Ukraine and Lithuania.

The seriousness of the problem with post-war crime is evidenced by a report labeled "top secret" received by Lavrenty Beria at the end of November 1946. There, in particular, there were 1232 references to criminal banditry, taken from the private correspondence of citizens in the period from October 16 to November 15, 1946.

Here is an excerpt from a letter from a Saratov worker: “Since the beginning of autumn, Saratov has been literally terrorized by thieves and murderers. They undress in the streets, they tear the watch off their hands, and this happens every day. Life in the city just stops at nightfall. Residents have learned to walk only in the middle of the street, not on the sidewalks, and they look suspiciously at anyone who approaches them.”

Nevertheless, the fight against crime has borne fruit. According to the reports of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, for the period from January 1, 1945 to December 1, 1946, 3,757 anti-Soviet formations and organized gang groups, as well as 3,861 gangs associated with them, were liquidated. Almost 210 thousand bandits, members of anti-Soviet nationalist organizations, their henchmen and other anti-Soviet elements were destroyed. . Since 1947, the crime rate in the USSR has declined.

The Great Patriotic War, which became a severe trial and shock for the Soviet people, turned the whole way of life and the course of life of the majority of the country's population for a long time. Huge difficulties and material deprivations were perceived as temporarily inevitable problems, as a consequence of the war.

The post-war years began with the pathos of restoration, hopes for change. The main thing is that the war was over, people were glad that they were alive, everything else, including living conditions, was not so important.

All the difficulties of everyday life mainly fell on the shoulders of women. Among the ruins of the destroyed cities, they planted vegetable gardens, removed rubble and cleared places for new construction, while raising children and providing for their families. People lived in the hope that a new, freer and more prosperous life would come very soon, which is why the Soviet society of those years is called the “society of hopes”.

"Second Bread"

The main reality of everyday life of that time, trailing from the military era, was a constant lack of food, a half-starved existence. The most important thing was missing - bread. The "second bread" was the potato, its consumption doubled, it saved, first of all, the villagers from starvation.

Cakes were baked from grated raw potatoes, rolled in flour or breadcrumbs. They even used frozen potatoes that remained in the field for the winter. It was taken out of the ground, the peel was removed, and a little flour, herbs, salt (if any) were added to this starchy mass, and cakes were fried. Here is what the collective farmer Nikiforova from the village of Chernushki wrote in December 1948:

“The food is potato, sometimes with milk. In the village of Kopytova bread is baked like this: they will wipe off a bucket of potatoes, put a handful of flour for gluing. This bread is almost without the protein necessary for the body. It is absolutely necessary to establish a minimum amount of bread that must be left untouched, at least 300 grams of flour per person per day. Potatoes are a deceptive food, more flavorful than satiating.”

People of the post-war generation still remember how they waited for spring, when the first grass appeared: you can cook empty cabbage soup from sorrel and nettle. They also ate "pimples" - shoots of a young field horsetail, "columns" - sorrel flower stalks. Even vegetable peelings were crushed in a mortar, and then boiled and used as food.

Here is a fragment from an anonymous letter to I.V. Stalin dated February 24, 1947: “The collective farmers mainly eat potatoes, and many do not even have potatoes, they eat food waste and hope for spring, when green grass grows, then they will eat grass. But there are still some left with dried potato peels and pumpkin peels, which will grind and make cakes that in a good household would not be eaten by pigs. Preschool children do not know the color and taste of sugar, sweets, cookies and other confectionery products, but eat potatoes and grass on a par with adults.

A real boon for the villagers was the ripening of berries and mushrooms in the summer, which were collected mainly by teenagers for their families.

One workday (a unit of labor accounting on a collective farm), earned by a collective farmer, brought him less food than the average city dweller received on a food card. The collective farmer had to work and save all the money for a whole year so that he could buy the cheapest suit.

Empty cabbage soup and porridge

Things were no better in the cities. The country lived in conditions of acute shortage, and in 1946-1947. The country was in the grip of a real food crisis. In ordinary stores, food was often missing, they looked wretched, often cardboard models of products were displayed in the windows.

Prices in the collective farm markets were high: for example, 1 kg of bread cost 150 rubles, which was more than a week's salary. They stood in queues for flour for several days, the queue number was written on the hand with an indelible pencil, in the morning and in the evening they held a roll call.

At the same time, commercial stores began to open, where even delicacies and sweets were sold, but they were “not affordable” for ordinary workers. Here is how the American J. Steinbeck, who visited Moscow in 1947, described such a commercial store: , also run by the state, where you can buy almost simple food, but at very high prices. Canned goods are stacked in mountains, champagne and Georgian wines are pyramids. We have seen products that could be American. There were jars of crabs with Japanese trademarks on them. There were German products. And here were the luxurious products of the Soviet Union: large jars of caviar, mountains of sausages from Ukraine, cheeses, fish and even game. And various smoked meats. But they were all delicacies. For a simple Russian, the main thing was how much bread costs and how much they give, as well as the prices for cabbage and potatoes.

The rationed supply and services of commercial trade could not save people from food difficulties. Most of the townspeople lived from hand to mouth.

The cards gave bread and once a month two bottles (0.5 liters each) of vodka. Her people were taken to suburban villages and exchanged for potatoes. The dream of a person of that time was sauerkraut with potatoes and bread and porridge (mainly barley, millet and oats). Soviet people at that time practically did not see sugar and real tea, not to mention confectionery. Instead of sugar, slices of boiled beets were used, which were dried in an oven. They also drank carrot tea (from dried carrots).

The letters of the post-war workers testify to the same thing: the inhabitants of the cities were content with empty cabbage soup and porridge in the face of an acute shortage of bread. Here is what they wrote in 1945-1946: “If it were not for bread, it would have ended its existence. I live on the same water. In the canteen, except for rotten cabbage and the same fish, you don’t see anything, portions are given such that you eat and you don’t notice whether you dined or not ”(worker of the metallurgical plant I.G. Savenkov);

“Feding has become worse than in the war - a bowl of gruel and two tablespoons of oatmeal, and this is a day for an adult” (worker of the automobile plant M. Pugin).

Monetary reform and the abolition of cards

The post-war period was marked by two major events in the country that could not but affect the daily life of people: the monetary reform and the abolition of cards in 1947.

There were two points of view on the abolition of cards. Some believed that this would lead to the flourishing of speculative trade and the aggravation of the food crisis. Others believed that the abolition of ration cards and the allowing of the commercial trade in bread and cereals would stabilize the food problem.

The card system was abolished. Queues in stores continued to stand, despite a significant increase in prices. The price for 1 kg of black bread has increased from 1 rub. up to 3 rubles 40 kopecks, 1 kg of sugar - from 5 rubles. up to 15 rubles 50 kop. In order to survive in these conditions, people began to sell things acquired before the war.

The markets were in the hands of speculators who sold essential commodities such as bread, sugar, butter, matches, and soap. They were supplied by "dishonest" employees of warehouses, bases, shops, canteens, who were in charge of food and supplies. In order to stop speculation, the Council of Ministers of the USSR in December 1947 issued a resolution "On the norms for the sale of industrial and food products in one hand."

In one hand they released: bread - 2 kg, cereals and pasta - 1 kg, meat and meat products - 1 kg, sausages and smoked meats - 0.5 kg, sour cream - 0.5 kg, milk - 1 l, sugar - 0.5 kg, cotton fabrics - 6 m, thread on spools - 1 pc., stockings or socks - 2 pairs, leather, textile or rubber shoes - 1 pair, laundry soap - 1 piece, matches - 2 boxes, kerosene - 2 liters.

The meaning of the monetary reform was explained in his memoirs by the then Minister of Finance A.G. Zverev: “From December 16, 1947, new money was put into circulation and began to exchange cash for them, with the exception of small change, within a week (in remote areas - within two weeks) at a ratio of 1 to 10. Deposits and current accounts in savings banks were revalued according to the ratio 1 for 1 to 3 thousand rubles, 2 for 3 from 3 thousand to 10 thousand rubles, 1 for 2 over 10 thousand rubles, 4 for 5 for cooperatives and collective farms. All ordinary old bonds, except for the 1947 loans, were exchanged for new loan bonds at 1 for 3 old ones, and 3 percent winning bonds - at the rate of 1 for 5.

Monetary reform was carried out at the expense of the people. Money "in a jug" suddenly depreciated, the population's tiny savings were withdrawn. If we take into account that 15% of savings were kept in savings banks, and 85% - on hand, then it is clear who suffered from the reform. In addition, the reform did not affect the wages of workers and employees, which remained the same.

If post-war Europe experienced both an upsurge and a great depression (after the 1st World War, 1929-1939), then how did people live after the Great Patriotic War?

How did people live after the Great Patriotic War?

A breath of freedom and tranquility between the two Great Wars that struck a man. The stronghold of humanity was broken, the world was changed forever. After the First World War (1914-1918) endured not only a terrible experience, but also innovations: it is believed that it was during this period that the first wristwatch appeared and the expression “let’s check the time” acquires its newest meaning. A number of social and intellectual revolutions, ideas of pacifism and philanthropy, a technological boom, a cultural revolution and the emergence of existential philosophy, the desire to live and enjoy a luxurious moment (the era of prosperity, the United States of the Great Gatsby period) did not stop the bloodshed - the world was in painful expectation of the "second coming ", Second World War.

After the end of World War II (1939-1945) or Great Patriotic War for the CIS countries (1941-1945) participants and affected countries gradually moved away from horror, counted losses and losses. The war changed everyone's life: there was a shortage of housing, food, electricity and fuel. Bread was given out on cards, the work of urban transport was completely collapsed. Post-war stress worsened the outlook of people after the Great Patriotic War. It was necessary to occupy the hands and head - the production load on ordinary hard workers increased, while the hours of rest were minimized. It is difficult to judge whether this policy was correct or whether false practices were allowed, since it was necessary to do, rebuild, and not think. At the same time, measures of control and punishment for violations of discipline are being tightened.

How did people live after the Great Patriotic War:

The most basic needs were met: food, clothing, housing;
Eliminate juvenile delinquency;
Elimination of the consequences of the war: medical and psychotherapeutic assistance, the fight against dystrophy, scurvy, tuberculosis;

While countries shared money and territories, settled comfortably on international negotiating chairs, ordinary people needed to get used to a world without war again, fight fear and hatred, and learn to fall asleep at night. It is completely unrealistic for the current inhabitants of peaceful countries to imagine, and even worse, to experience what people experienced after the Great Patriotic War. Martial law changes a lot in my head, not to mention the fact that the panic fear of new bloodshed has forever sat down between gray temples. On November 8, 1945, US military intelligence concluded that the USSR was not preparing a stockpile of nuclear bombs. Governments continue to look askance at each other. The judgment that the USSR can launch a retaliatory nuclear strike on the United States only by 1966 says a lot - do the heads of state continue to think about war?

Agriculture began to develop in the early 1950s. After a couple of years, people acquired cattle. In the 60s, they managed to get equipment from the collective farm. Gradual development continued, although it was difficult with food. From the diary of a simple peasant woman Anna Pochekutova : “In winter, they ate potatoes with wild garlic, baked potato pancakes. Closer to spring, they starved when the potatoes ran out. Rye flour was brewed with boiling water, water and milk were added, if there was nothing else to eat, and a mash was obtained. In the spring they collected nettles, sorrel, parsley. In summer - mushrooms, berries, nuts. Grain from the fields was mainly given to the collective farm, and not to hands, so years could be given for withholding. Stalin came to the conclusion that the size of the rations for the peasants are large, and local holidays tear them away from work. But in the Khrushchev period, life began to get better. At least a cow could be kept (Khrushchev's thaw).

Memoirs: Pochekutova M., Pochekutova A., Mizonova E.

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