The difficulties of returning to peaceful life were complicated not only by the presence of huge human and material losses that the war brought to our country, but also by the difficult tasks of restoring the economy. After all, 1,710 cities and urban-type settlements were destroyed, 7,000 villages and villages were destroyed, 31,850 plants and factories, 1,135 mines, 65,000 km were blown up and put out of action. railway tracks. The sown areas decreased by 36.8 million hectares. The country has lost about a third of its wealth.

The war claimed almost 27 million human lives, and this is its most tragic outcome. 2.6 million people became disabled. The population decreased by 34.4 million people and amounted to 162.4 million people by the end of 1945. Reduction work force, the lack of proper nutrition and housing led to a decrease in the level of labor productivity compared to the pre-war period.

The country began to restore the economy during the war years. In 1943, a special party and government resolution was adopted "On urgent measures to restore farms in areas liberated from German occupation." By the colossal efforts of the Soviet people, by the end of the war, it was possible to restore industrial production to a third of the level of 1940. However, after the end of the war, the central task of restoring the country arose.

Economic discussions began in 1945-1946.

The government instructed Gosplan to prepare a draft of the fourth five-year plan. Proposals were made for some softening of the pressure in economic management, for the reorganization of collective farms. A draft of a new Constitution was prepared. He allowed the existence of small private farms of peasants and handicraftsmen based on personal labor and excluding the exploitation of other people's labor. During the discussion of this project, ideas were voiced about the need to provide more rights to the regions and people's commissariats.

"From below" calls for the liquidation of collective farms were heard more and more often. They talked about their inefficiency, reminded that the relative weakening of state pressure on manufacturers during the war years had a positive result. They drew direct analogies with the new economic policy introduced after civil war when the revival of the economy began with the revival of the private sector, the decentralization of management and the development of light industry.

However, these discussions were won by the point of view of Stalin, who at the beginning of 1946 announced the continuation of the course taken before the war to complete the construction of socialism and build communism. It was about returning to the pre-war model of super-centralization in planning and managing the economy, and at the same time to those contradictions between sectors of the economy that had developed in the 1930s.

The struggle of the people for the revival of the economy became a heroic page in the post-war history of our country. Western experts believed that the restoration of the destroyed economic base would take at least 25 years. However, the recovery period in the industry was less than 5 years.

The revival of industry took place in very difficult conditions. For the first time post-war years the labor of the Soviet people was not much different from labor in wartime. The constant shortage of food, the most difficult working and living conditions, the high incidence of mortality, were explained to the population by the fact that the long-awaited peace had just come and life was about to get better.

Some wartime restrictions were lifted: the 8-hour working day and annual leave were reintroduced, and forced overtime was abolished. In 1947, a monetary reform was carried out and the card system was abolished, and uniform prices were established for food and industrial goods. They were higher than before the war. As before the war, from one to one and a half monthly salaries per year was spent on the purchase of obligatory loan bonds. Many working-class families still lived in dugouts and barracks, and sometimes worked in the open air or in unheated premises, on old equipment.

The restoration took place in the conditions of a sharp increase in the movement of the population caused by the demobilization of the army, the repatriation of Soviet citizens, and the return of refugees from the eastern regions. A lot of money went to support allied states.

Huge losses in the war caused a labor shortage. Staff turnover increased: people were looking for better working conditions.

As before, acute problems had to be solved by increasing the transfer of funds from the countryside to the city and by developing the labor activity of workers. One of the most famous initiatives of those years was the movement of “speed workers”, initiated by the Leningrad turner G.S. Bortkevich, who completed a 13-day production rate on a lathe in February 1948 in one shift. The movement became massive. At some enterprises, attempts were made to introduce self-financing. But no material measures were taken to consolidate these new phenomena; on the contrary, when labor productivity increased, prices went down.

There has been a trend towards a wider use of scientific and technical developments in production. However, it manifested itself mainly at the enterprises of the military-industrial complex (MIC), where the process of developing nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, missile systems, and new types of tank and aircraft equipment was going on.

In addition to the military-industrial complex, preference was also given to machine building, metallurgy, and the fuel and energy industry, the development of which accounted for 88% of all capital investments in industry. As before, the light and food industries did not satisfy the minimum needs of the population.

In total, during the years of the 4th five-year plan (1946-1950), 6,200 large enterprises were restored and rebuilt. In 1950, industrial production exceeded pre-war figures by 73% (and in the new union republics - Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Moldova - 2-3 times). True, reparations and products of joint Soviet-German enterprises were also included here.

The main creator of these successes was the people. With his incredible efforts and sacrifices, seemingly impossible economic results were achieved. At the same time, the possibilities of a super-centralized economic model, the traditional policy of redistributing funds from the light and food industries, agriculture and the social sphere in favor of heavy industry played their role. Reparations received from Germany (4.3 billion dollars) also provided significant assistance, providing up to half of the volume of industrial equipment installed in these years. The labor of almost 9 million Soviet prisoners and about 2 million German and Japanese prisoners of war also contributed to the post-war reconstruction.

Weakened out of the war, the country's agriculture, whose production in 1945 did not exceed 60% of the pre-war level.

A difficult situation developed not only in the cities, in industry, but also in the countryside, in agriculture. The collective farm village, in addition to material deprivation, experienced an acute shortage of people. A real disaster for the countryside was the drought of 1946, which engulfed most of the European territory of Russia. The surplus appraisal confiscated almost everything from the collective farmers. The villagers were doomed to starvation. In the famine-stricken regions of the RSFSR, Ukraine, and Moldavia, due to flight to other places and an increase in mortality, the population decreased by 5-6 million people. Alarming signals about hunger, dystrophy, and mortality came from the RSFSR, Ukraine, and Moldova. Collective farmers demanded to dissolve the collective farms. They motivated this question by the fact that “there is no strength to live like this anymore.” In his letter to P. M. Malenkov, for example, N. M. Menshikov, a student of the Smolensk Military-Political School, wrote: “... indeed, life on collective farms (in the Bryansk and Smolensk regions) is unbearably bad. So, almost half of the collective farmers on the Novaya Zhizn collective farm (Bryansk region) have not had bread for 2-3 months, and some do not even have potatoes. The situation is not the best in half of the other collective farms in the region ... "

The state, buying agricultural products at fixed prices, compensated the collective farms for only a fifth of the costs of milk production, a 10th for grain, and a 20th for meat. Collective farmers received practically nothing. Saved their subsidiary farm. But the state also dealt a blow to it: in favor of the collective farms in 1946-1949. cut 10.6 million hectares of land from peasant household plots, and taxes were significantly increased on income from sales in the market. Moreover, only peasants were allowed to trade on the market, whose collective farms fulfilled state deliveries. Each peasant farm is obliged to hand over to the state meat, milk, eggs, wool as a tax for a land plot. In 1948, collective farmers were “recommended” to sell small livestock to the state (which was allowed to be kept by the charter), which caused a mass slaughter of pigs, sheep, and goats throughout the country (up to 2 million heads).

The currency reform of 1947 hit hardest on the peasantry, who kept their savings at home.

The Roma of the pre-war period remained, restricting the freedom of movement of collective farmers: they were actually deprived of their passports, they were not paid for the days when they did not work due to illness, they did not pay old-age pensions.

By the end of the 4th five-year plan, the disastrous economic situation of the collective farms required their reform. However, the authorities saw its essence not in material incentives, but in another structural restructuring. It was recommended to develop a team form of work instead of a link. This caused the discontent of the peasants and the disorganization of agricultural work. The ensuing enlargement of the collective farms led to a further reduction in peasant allotments.

Nevertheless, with the help of coercive measures and at the cost of the enormous efforts of the peasantry in the early 50s. succeeded in bringing the country's agriculture to the pre-war level of production. However, the deprivation of the peasants of the still remaining incentives to work brought the country's agriculture to a crisis and forced the government to take emergency measures to supply the cities and the army with food. A course was taken to "tighten the screws" in the economy. This step was theoretically substantiated in Stalin's "Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR" (1952). In it, he defended the ideas of the predominant development of heavy industry, the acceleration of the full nationalization of property and forms of labor organization in agriculture, and opposed any attempts to revive market relations.

“It is necessary ... through gradual transitions ... to raise collective-farm property to the level of public property, and commodity production ... to be replaced by a system of product exchange so that the central government ... can cover all the products of social production in the interests of society ... It is impossible to achieve either an abundance of products that can cover all the needs of society, nor transition to the formula "to each according to his needs", leaving in force such economic factors as collective-farm group ownership, commodity circulation, etc."

It was said in Stalin's article that under socialism the growing needs of the population will always overtake the possibilities of production. This provision explained to the population the dominance of a scarce economy and justified its existence.

Outstanding achievements in industry, science and technology have become a reality thanks to the tireless work and dedication of millions of Soviet people. However, the return of the USSR to the pre-war model of economic development caused a deterioration in a number of economic indicators in the post-war period.

The war changed the socio-political atmosphere that prevailed in the USSR in the 1930s; broke through the "iron curtain" by which the country was fenced off from the rest of the "hostile" world. Participants in the European campaign of the Red Army (and there were almost 10 million of them), numerous repatriates (up to 5.5 million) saw with their own eyes the world that they knew about only from propaganda materials that exposed its vices. The differences were so great that they could not but sow many doubts about the correctness of the usual assessments. The victory in the war gave rise to hopes among the peasants for the dissolution of collective farms, among the intelligentsia - for the weakening of the policy of diktat, among the population of the Union republics (especially in the Baltic states, Western Ukraine and Belarus) - for a change in national policy. Even in the sphere of the nomenklatura, which had been renewed during the war years, an understanding of the inevitable and necessary changes was ripening.

What was our society like after the end of the war, which had to solve the very difficult tasks of restoring the national economy and completing the construction of socialism?

Post-war Soviet society was predominantly female. This created serious problems, not only demographic, but also psychological, developing into the problem of personal disorder, female loneliness. Post-war "fatherlessness" and the child homelessness and crime it generates come from the same source. And yet, despite all the losses and hardships, it was thanks to the feminine principle that the post-war society turned out to be surprisingly viable.

A society emerging from war differs from a society in a "normal" state not only in its demographic structure, but also in its social composition. Its appearance is determined not by the traditional categories of the population (urban and rural residents, factory workers and employees, youth and pensioners, etc.), but by the societies born of wartime.

The face of the post-war period was, first of all, "a man in a tunic." In total, 8.5 million people were demobilized from the army. The problem of the transition from war to peace most concerned the front-line soldiers. Demobilization, which was so dreamed of at the front, the joy of returning home, and at home they were waiting for disorder, material deprivation, additional psychological difficulties associated with switching to new tasks of a peaceful society. And although the war united all generations, it was especially difficult, first of all, for the youngest (born in 1924-1927), i.e. those who went to the front from school, not having time to get a profession, to gain a stable life status. Their only business was war, their only skill was the ability to hold weapons and fight.

Often, especially in journalism, front-line soldiers were called "neo-Decembrists", referring to the potential for freedom that the victors carried in themselves. But in the first years after the war, not all of them were able to realize themselves as an active force of social change. This largely depended on the specific conditions of the post-war years.

First, the very nature of the war of national liberation, just presupposes the unity of society and power. In solving the common national task - confronting the enemy. But in peaceful life a complex of "deluded hopes" is formed.

Secondly, it is necessary to take into account the factor of psychological overstrain of people who have spent four years in the trenches and need psychological relief. People, tired of war, naturally strove for creation, for peace.

After the war, a period of “healing of wounds” inevitably sets in - both physical and mental, a difficult, painful period of returning to civilian life, in which even ordinary everyday problems (home, family, lost during the war for many) sometimes become insoluble.

Here is how one of the front-line soldiers V. Kondratiev spoke about the painful situation: “Everyone somehow wanted to improve their lives. After all, you had to live. Someone got married. Someone joined the party. I had to adapt to this life. We didn't know any other options."

Thirdly, the perception of the surrounding order as a given, forming a generally loyal attitude towards the regime, in itself did not mean that all front-line soldiers, without exception, considered this order as ideal or, in any case, fair.

“We did not accept many things in the system, but we could not even imagine any other,” such an unexpected confession could be heard from the front-line soldiers. It reflects the characteristic contradiction of the post-war years, splitting the minds of people with a sense of the injustice of what is happening and the hopelessness of attempts to change this order.

Such sentiments were typical not only for front-line soldiers (primarily for repatriates). Aspirations to isolate the repatriated, despite the official statements of the authorities, took place.

Among the population evacuated to the eastern regions of the country, the process of re-evacuation began in wartime. With the end of the war, this desire became widespread, however, not always feasible. Violent measures to ban the exit caused discontent.

“The workers gave all their strength to defeat the enemy and wanted to return to their native lands,” one of the letters said, “and now it turned out that they deceived us, took us out of Leningrad, and want to leave us in Siberia. If that is the only way, then we, all the workers, must say that our government has betrayed us and our labor!”

So after the war, desires collided with reality.

“In the spring of forty-five, people are not without reason. – considered themselves giants,” the writer E. Kazakevich shared his impressions. With this mood, the front-line soldiers entered civilian life, leaving, as it then seemed to them, beyond the threshold of war, the most terrible and difficult. However, the reality turned out to be more complicated, not at all the same as it was seen from the trench.

“In the army, we often talked about what would happen after the war,” recalled journalist B. Galin, “how we would live the next day after the victory, and the closer the end of the war was, the more we thought about it, and a lot of it painted in rainbow colors. We did not always imagine the size of the destruction, the scale of the work that would have to be carried out in order to heal the wounds inflicted by the Germans. “Life after the war seemed like a holiday, for the beginning of which only one thing is needed - the last shot,” K. Simonov continued this thought, as it were.

"Normal life", where you can "just live" without being exposed to every minute danger, was seen in wartime as a gift of fate.

“Life is a holiday”, life is a fairy tale,” the front-line soldiers entered a peaceful life, leaving, as it seemed to them then, the most terrible and difficult beyond the threshold of war. long. didn't mean - using this image in mass consciousness a special concept of post-war life was also modeled - without contradictions, without tension. There was hope. And such a life existed, but only in movies and books.

Hope for the best and the optimism it nourished set the pace for the beginning of post-war life. They did not lose heart, the war was over. There was the joy of work, victory, the spirit of competition in striving for the best. Despite the fact that they often had to put up with difficult material and living conditions, they worked selflessly, restoring the destruction of the economy. So, after the end of the war, not only the front-line soldiers who returned home, but also the Soviet people who survived all the difficulties of the past war in the rear, lived in the hope that the socio-political atmosphere would change for the better. The special conditions of the war forced people to think creatively, to act independently, to take responsibility. But hopes for changes in the socio-political situation were very far from reality.

At the end of 1945 - beginning of 1946, a company was held for elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, which took place in February 1946. As expected, at official meetings, people mostly spoke “For” the elections, supporting the policy of the party and its leaders. On the ballots one could meet toasts in honor of Stalin and other members of the government. But along with this, there were opinions that were completely opposite.

People said: “It won’t be our way anyway, they will vote for whatever they write”; “the essence is reduced to a simple “formality - the registration of a pre-planned candidate” ... etc. It was a "stick democracy", it was impossible to evade elections. The impossibility of expressing one's point of view openly without fear of sanctions from the authorities gave rise to apathy, and at the same time subjective alienation from the authorities. People expressed doubts about the expediency and timeliness of holding elections, which cost a lot of money, while thousands of people were on the verge of starvation.

A strong catalyst for the growth of discontent was the destabilization of the general economic situation. The scale of grain speculation increased. In the lines for bread there were more frank conversations: “Now you need to steal more, otherwise you won’t live,” “Husbands and sons were killed, and instead of easing our prices they raised prices”; “Now it has become more difficult to live than during the war years.”

Attention is drawn to the modesty of the desires of people who require only the establishment of a living wage. The dreams of the war years that after the war "there will be a lot of everything", a happy life will come, began to devalue rather quickly. All the difficulties of the post-war years were explained by the consequences of the war. People were already beginning to think that the end of peaceful life had come, war was approaching again. In the minds of people, the war will be perceived for a long time as the cause of all post-war hardships. People saw the reason for the rise in prices in the autumn of 1946 as new war.

However, despite the presence of very decisive moods, they did not become predominant at that time: the craving for a peaceful life turned out to be too strong, too serious fatigue from the struggle, in any form. In addition, most people continued to trust the leadership of the country, to believe that it was acting in the name of the people's good. It can be said that the policy of the leaders of the first post-war years was built solely on the credit of trust from the people.

In 1946, the commission for the preparation of the draft of the new Constitution of the USSR completed its work. In accordance with the new Constitution, direct and secret elections of people's judges and assessors were held for the first time. But all power remained in the hands of the party leadership. In October 1952, the 19th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks took place, which decided to rename the party into the CPSU. At the same time, the political regime became tougher, and a new wave of repressions grew.

The Gulag system reached its apogee precisely in the post-war years. To the prisoners of the mid-30s. Millions of new "enemies of the people" have been added. One of the first blows fell on prisoners of war, many of whom, after being released from fascist captivity, were sent to camps. "Foreign elements" from the Baltic republics, Western Ukraine and Western Belarus were also exiled there.

In 1948, special regime camps were set up for those convicted of "anti-Soviet activities" and "counter-revolutionary acts", in which particularly sophisticated methods of influencing prisoners were used. Unwilling to put up with their situation, political prisoners in a number of camps raised uprisings; sometimes under political slogans.

The possibilities of transforming the regime in the direction of any kind of liberalization were very limited due to the extreme conservatism of ideological principles, due to the stability of which the defensive line had unconditional priority. Theoretical basis A “hard” course in the sphere of ideology can be considered the resolution of the Central Administration of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted in August 1946 “On the magazines Zvezda and Leningrad”, which, although it concerned the field of artistic creativity, was actually directed against public dissent as such. However, the matter was not limited to one "theory". In March 1947, at the suggestion of A. A. Zhdanov, a resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was adopted “On the courts of honor in the ministries of the USSR and central departments”, according to which special elected bodies were created” to combat misconduct, dropping the honor and dignity of the Soviet worker ". One of the most high-profile cases that went through the “court of honor” was the case of professors Klyucheva N. G. and Roskin G. I. (June 1947), authors of the scientific work “Ways of Cancer Biotherapy”, who were accused of anti-patriotism and cooperation with foreign firms. For such a "sin" in 1947. they still issued a public reprimand, but already in this preventive campaign the main approaches of the future struggle against cosmopolitanism were guessed.

However, all these measures at that time had not yet had time to take shape in the next campaign against the "enemies of the people." The leadership "wavered" supporters of the most extreme measures, "hawks", as a rule, did not receive support.

Since the path of progressive political change was blocked, the most constructive post-war ideas were not about politics, but about the economy.

D. Volkogonov in his work “I. V. Stalin. A political portrait writes about the last years of I. V. Stalin:

“The whole life of Stalin is shrouded in an almost impenetrable veil, similar to a shroud. He constantly watched all his associates. It was impossible to be wrong either in word or deed: “The comrades-in-arms of the “leader” were well aware of this.

Beria regularly reported on the results of observations of the environment of the dictator. Stalin, in turn, followed Beria, but this information was not complete. The content of the reports was oral, and therefore secret.

In the arsenal of Stalin and Beria, there was always a version of a possible "conspiracy", "assassination", "act of terrorism" at the ready.

The closed society begins with leadership. “Only the smallest fraction of his personal life was indulged in the light of publicity. In the country there were thousands, millions, portraits, busts of a mysterious man whom the people idolized, adored, but did not know at all. Stalin knew how to keep secret the strength of his power and his personality, betraying to the public only that which was intended for rejoicing and admiration. Everything else was covered by an invisible shroud."

Thousands of "miners" (convicts) worked at hundreds, thousands of enterprises in the country under the protection of a convoy. Stalin believed that all those unworthy of the title of "new man" had to undergo a long re-education in the camps. As is clear from the documents, it was Stalin who initiated the transformation of prisoners into a constant source of disenfranchised and cheap labor. This is confirmed by official documents.

On February 21, 1948, when “a new round of repressions” had already begun to “unwind”, the “Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR” was published, in which “orders of the authorities were sounded:

"one. To oblige the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR to all spies, saboteurs, terrorists, Trotskyists, rightists, leftists, Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, anarchists, nationalists, white émigrés and other persons serving a sentence in special camps and prisons, after the expiration of to send the terms of punishment according to the appointment of the Ministry of State Security to exile in settlements under the supervision of the bodies of the Ministry of State Security in the Kolyma regions in the Far East, in the regions of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Novosibirsk Region, located 50 kilometers north of the Trans-Siberian Railway, in the Kazakh SSR ... "

The draft Constitution, which was sustained by and large within the framework of the pre-war political doctrine, at the same time contained a number of positive provisions: there were ideas about the need to decentralize economic life, to provide greater economic rights locally and directly to people's commissariats. There were suggestions about the elimination of special wartime courts (primarily the so-called "line courts" in transport), as well as military tribunals. And although such proposals were classified by the editorial committee as inappropriate (reason: excessive detailing of the project), their nomination can be considered quite symptomatic.

Ideas similar in direction were also expressed during the discussion of the draft Party Program, work on which was completed in 1947. These ideas were concentrated in proposals for expanding intra-party democracy, freeing the party from the functions of economic management, developing principles for the rotation of personnel, etc. Since neither the draft Constitution, neither the draft program of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was published and they were discussed in a relatively narrow circle of responsible workers, the appearance in this environment of ideas that were quite liberal for that time testifies to the new moods of some of the Soviet leaders. In many ways, these were really new people who came to their posts before the war, during the war, or a year or two after the victory.

The situation was aggravated by open armed resistance to the "crackdown" of Soviet power in the Baltic republics and the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, annexed on the eve of the war. The anti-government partisan movement drew into its orbit tens of thousands of fighters, both convinced nationalists who relied on the support of Western intelligence services, and ordinary people who suffered a lot from the new regime, lost their homes, property, and relatives. The rebellion in these areas was put an end to only in the early 50s.

Stalin's policy in the second half of the 1940s, starting from 1948, was based on the elimination of symptoms of political instability and growing social tension. The Stalinist leadership took action in two directions. One of them included measures that, to one degree or another, adequately met the expectations of the people and were aimed at activating the socio-political life in the country, developing science and culture.

In September 1945, the state of emergency was lifted and the State Defense Committee was abolished. In March 1946, the Council of Ministers. Stalin declared that victory in the war means, in essence, the completion of the transitional state, and therefore it is time to put an end to the concepts of “people's commissar” and “commissariat. At the same time, the number of ministries and departments grew, and the number of their apparatus grew. In 1946, elections were held to local councils, the Supreme Soviets of the Republics and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, as a result of which the deputies corps was renewed, which did not change during the war years. In the early 1950s, sessions of the Soviets began to be convened, and the number of standing committees increased. In accordance with the Constitution, direct and secret elections of people's judges and assessors were held for the first time. But all power remained in the hands of the party leadership. Stalin thought, as D. A. Volkogonov writes about this: “The people live in poverty. Here the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs report that in a number of areas, especially in the east, people are still starving, their clothes are bad.” But according to Stalin's deep conviction, as Volkogonov argues, “the security of people above a certain minimum only corrupts them. Yes, and there is no way to give more; it is necessary to strengthen the defense, to develop heavy industry. The country must be strong. And for this, you will have to tighten your belt in the future.”

People did not see that, in conditions of severe shortages of goods, price-cutting policies played a very limited role in increasing welfare at extremely low wages. By the beginning of the 1950s, the standard of living, real wages, barely exceeded the level of 1913.

“Long experiments, coolly “mixed up” in a terrible war, did little to give the people from the point of view of a real rise in living standards.”

But, despite the skepticism of some people, the majority continued to trust the leadership of the country. Therefore, difficulties, even the food crisis of 1946, were most often perceived as inevitable and someday surmountable. It can be definitely stated that the policy of the leaders of the first post-war years was based on the credibility of the people, which after the war was quite high. But if the use of this loan allowed the leadership to stabilize the post-war situation over time and, on the whole, to ensure the transition of the country from a state of war to a state of peace, then, on the other hand, the trust of the people in the top leadership made it possible for Stalin and his leadership to delay the decision of vital reforms, and subsequently actually block the trend of democratic renewal of society.

As you know, the beginning of the repressions fell primarily on those who were serving their sentences for the "crime" of the war and the first post-war years.

By this time the path of progressive political changes had already been blocked, having narrowed down to possible amendments to liberalization. The most constructive ideas that appeared in the first post-war years concerned the sphere of economy The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks received more than one letter with interesting, sometimes innovative thoughts on this subject. Among them there is a noteworthy document of 1946 - the manuscript "Post-war domestic economy" by S. D. Alexander (non-partisan, who worked as an accountant at one of the enterprises of the Moscow region. The essence of his proposals was reduced to the basics of a new economic model built on the principles of the market and partial denationalization of the economy The ideas of SD Alexander had to share the fate of other radical projects: they were classified as “harmful” and written off to the “archive.” The Center remained firmly committed to the previous course.

Ideas about some kind of “dark forces” that “deceive Stalin” created a special psychological background, which, having arisen from the contradictions of the Stalinist regime, in essence its denial, at the same time was used to strengthen this regime, to stabilize it. Taking Stalin out of criticism saved not only the name of the leader, but also the regime itself, animated by this name. Such was the reality: for millions of contemporaries, Stalin acted as the last hope, the most reliable support. It seemed that if there were no Stalin, life would collapse. And the more difficult the situation inside the country became, the more the special role of the Leader became stronger. It is noteworthy that among the questions asked by people at lectures during 1948-1950, in one of the first places are those related to concern for the health of “Comrade Stalin” (in 1949 he turned 70 years).

1948 put an end to the leadership's post-war hesitation about choosing a "soft" or "hard" course. The political regime became tougher. And a new round of repression began.

The Gulag system reached its apogee precisely in the post-war years. In 1948, special regime camps were set up for those convicted of "anti-Soviet activities" and "counter-revolutionary acts." Along with the political prisoners, many other people ended up in the camps after the war. Thus, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 2, 1948 No. local authorities was granted the right to evict to remote areas of persons "maliciously evading labor activity in agriculture." Fearing the increased popularity of the military during the war, Stalin authorized the arrest of A. A. Novikov, Air Marshal, Generals P. N. Ponedelin, N. K. Kirillov, a number of colleagues of Marshal G. K. Zhukov. The commander himself was charged with putting together a group of disgruntled generals and officers, ingratitude and disrespect for Stalin.

The repressions also affected some of the party functionaries, especially those who aspired to independence and greater independence from the central government. Many party and statesmen were arrested, nominated by the member of the Politburo who died in 1948 and secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks A. A. Zhdanov from among the leading workers of Leningrad. The total number of those arrested in the "Leningrad case" amounted to about 2 thousand people. After some time, 200 of them were put on trial and shot, including Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Russia M. Rodionov, member of the Politburo and Chairman of the State Planning Committee of the USSR N. A. Voznesensky, Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks A. A. Kuznetsov.

The "Leningrad case", reflecting the struggle within the top leadership, should have been a stern warning to everyone who thought at least in some way other than the "leader of the peoples."

The last of the trials being prepared was the "case of doctors" (1953), accused of improper treatment of top management, which resulted in the death of the poison of prominent figures. Total victims of repression in 1948-1953. 6.5 million people became.

So, I. V. Stalin became General Secretary under Lenin. During the period of 20-30-40s, he sought to achieve complete autocracy, and thanks to a number of circumstances within the socio-political life of the USSR, he achieved success. But the domination of Stalinism, i.e. the omnipotence of one person - Stalin I.V. was not inevitable. The deep mutual intertwining of objective and subjective factors in the activities of the CPSU led to the emergence, establishment and most harmful manifestations of the omnipotence and crimes of Stalinism. Objective reality refers to the multiformity of pre-revolutionary Russia, the enclave nature of its development, the bizarre interweaving of remnants of feudalism and capitalism, the weakness and fragility of democratic traditions, and the unbeaten paths towards socialism.

Subjective moments are connected not only with the personality of Stalin himself, but also with the factor of the social composition of the ruling party, which included in the early 1920s the so-called thin layer of the old Bolshevik guard, largely exterminated by Stalin, the remaining part of it, for the most part moved to Stalinism. Undoubtedly, Stalin's entourage, whose members became accomplices in his actions, also belongs to the subjective factor.

Russian history. XX century Bokhanov Alexander Nikolaevich

§ 4. Life after the war: expectations and reality

“In the spring of forty-five people - not without reason - considered themselves giants,” E. Kazakevich shared his feelings. With this mood, the front-line soldiers entered civilian life, leaving - as it seemed to them then - beyond the threshold of war the most terrible and difficult. However, the reality turned out to be more complicated, not at all the same as it was seen from the trench. “In the army, we often talked about what would happen after the war,” recalled journalist B. Galin, “how we would live the next day after the victory, and the closer the end of the war was, the more we thought about it, and a lot to us painted in rainbow colors. We did not always imagine the size of the destruction, the scale of the work that would have to be carried out in order to heal the wounds inflicted by the Germans. “Life after the war seemed like a holiday, for the beginning of which only one thing is needed - the last shot,” K. Simonov continued this thought, as it were. It was difficult to expect other ideas from people who had been under the psychological pressure of an emergency military situation for four years, which often consisted of non-standard situations. It is quite clear that “a normal life, where you can “just live” without being exposed to every minute danger, was seen in wartime as a gift of fate. The war in the minds of people - front-line soldiers and those who were in the rear, brought a reassessment of the pre-war period, to to some extent idealizing it. Having experienced the hardships of the war years, people - often subconsciously - also corrected the memory of the past peacetime, preserving the good and forgetting the bad. The desire to return the lost prompted the simplest answer to the question "how to live after the war?" - "as before the war."

“Life is a holiday”, “life is a fairy tale” - with the help of this image, a special concept of post-war life was also modeled in the mass consciousness - without contradictions, without tension, the development of which was actually only one factor - hope. And such a life existed, but only in movies and books. Interesting fact: during the war and in the first post-war years, there was an increase in demand for literature of the adventure genre and even fairy tales in libraries. On the one hand, this interest is explained by the change in the age composition of those working and using libraries; during the war, teenagers came to production (at individual enterprises they accounted for 50 to 70% of employees). After the war, the readership of the library of adventures was replenished by young front-line soldiers, whose intellectual growth was interrupted by the war and, because of this, after the front, returned to the youthful circle of reading. But there is another side to this issue: the growth of interest in this kind of literature and cinema was a kind of reaction to the rejection of the cruel reality that the war brought with it. We needed compensation for psychological overload. Therefore, even in the war one could observe, for example, veteran M. Abdulin testifies, “a terrible thirst for everything that is not connected with the war. I liked the simple film with dancing and fun, the arrival of artists at the front, humor. The thirst for peace, reinforced by the belief that life after the war would quickly change for the better, persisted for three to five post-victory years.

The film was a huge hit with audiences. Kuban Cossacks"- the most popular of all post-war films. Now he is being sharply and in many respects justly criticized for inconsistency with reality. But criticism sometimes forgets that the film "Kuban Cossacks" has its own truth, that this fairy tale film carries very serious mental information that conveys the spirit of that time. Journalist T. Arkhangelskaya recalls an interview with one of the participants in the filming of the film; she told how hungry these well-dressed guys and girls were, who cheerfully looked at models of fruits on the screen, an abundance of papier-mâché, and then added: “We believed that it would be so and that there would be a lot of everything - both bicycles, and what you want. And we really needed everything to be smart and to sing songs.

Hope for the best and the optimism that it nourished set the rhythm of the beginning of post-war life, creating a special - post-victory - social atmosphere. “My entire generation, with the exception of perhaps some, experienced ... difficulties,” the famous builder V.P. recalled at that time. Serikov. - But they didn't lose heart. The main thing is that the war was over ... There was the joy of work, victory, the spirit of competition. The emotional upsurge of the people, the desire to bring a truly peaceful life closer with their work made it possible to quickly solve the main tasks of restoration. However, this attitude, despite its enormous creative power, also carried a different kind of tendency: a psychological attitude towards a relatively painless transition to peace (“The hardest is behind!”), The perception of this process as generally consistent, the further, the more came into conflict with reality, which was in no hurry to turn into a "life-tale".

Conducted in 1945-1946. inspection trips of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks recorded a number of "abnormalities" in the material and living conditions of people's lives, primarily residents of industrial cities and workers' settlements. In December 1945, a group of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks conducted such an inspection of enterprises coal industry Shchekinsky district of the Tula region. The survey results were very disappointing. The living conditions of the workers were deemed "very difficult", with repatriated and mobilized workers living particularly poorly. Many of them did not have underwear, and if they did, they were old and dirty. The workers did not receive soap for months, the dormitories were very crowded and overcrowded, the workers slept on wooden trestle beds or two-tiered bunks (for these trestle beds the administration deducted 48 rubles from the workers' monthly earnings, which was a tenth of it). The workers received 1200 g of bread per day, but despite the sufficiency of the norm, the bread was of poor quality: there was not enough butter and therefore bread forms were smeared with oil products.

Numerous signals from the field testified that the facts of this kind are not isolated. Groups of workers from Penza and Kuznetsk addressed letters to V.M. Molotov, M.I. Kalinin, A.I. Mikoyan, which contained complaints about the difficult material and living conditions, the lack of most of the necessary products and goods. According to these letters, a brigade of the People's Commissariat left Moscow, which, based on the results of the check, recognized the complaints of the workers as justified. In Nizhny Lomov, Penza Oblast, workers at Plant No. 255 opposed the delay in bread cards, while workers at the plywood factory and the match factory complained about long delays in wages. Difficult working conditions after the end of the war remained at the reconstructed enterprises: they had to work in the open air, and, if it was winter, knee-deep in snow. The premises were often not lit or heated. In winter, the situation was aggravated by the fact that people often had nothing to wear. For this reason, for example, the secretaries of a number of regional committees of Siberia turned to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks with an unprecedented request: to allow them not to hold a demonstration of workers on November 7, 1946, motivating their request by the fact that "the population is not adequately provided with clothing."

A difficult situation developed after the war in the countryside as well. If the city did not suffer so much from a lack of workers (there the main problem was to organize the work and life of existing workers), then the collective farm village, in addition to material deprivation, experienced an acute shortage of people. By the end of 1945, the total population of collective farms (including those who returned after demobilization) decreased by 15% compared with 1940, and the number of able-bodied people - by 32.5%. The number of able-bodied men decreased especially noticeably (out of 16.9 million in 1940, by the beginning of 1946, 6.5 million remained). Compared with the pre-war period, the level of material security of collective farmers also decreased: if in 1940, on average, about 20% of grain and more than 40% of the cash income of collective farms were allocated for distribution according to workdays, then in 1945 these indicators decreased, respectively, to 14 and 29%. Payment in a number of farms looked purely symbolic, which means that collective farmers, as before the war, often worked "for sticks." A real disaster for the countryside was the drought of 1946, which engulfed most of the European territory of Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova. The government used the drought to apply harsh measures of surplus appropriation, forcing collective farms and state farms to hand over 52% of their crops to the state, that is, more than during the war years. Seed and food grains were confiscated, including those intended for distribution on workdays. The grain collected in this way was sent to the cities, the villagers in the areas affected by crop failure were doomed to mass starvation. Accurate data on the number of victims of the famine of 1946-1947. no, since medical statistics carefully concealed the true cause of the increased mortality during this time (for example, other diagnoses were made instead of dystrophy). Infant mortality was especially high. In the famine-stricken regions of the RSFSR, Ukraine, and Moldavia, whose population numbered approximately 20 million people, in 1947, compared with 1946, due to flight to other places and an increase in mortality, there was a decrease in 5-6 million people, from According to some estimates, the victims of famine and related epidemics amounted to about 1 million people, mostly the rural population. The consequences were not slow to affect the mood of the collective farmers.

“Throughout 1945-1946. I came across very closely, studied the life of a number of collective farmers in the Bryansk and Smolensk regions. What I saw made me turn to you, as to the secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, - this is how I began my letter addressed to G.M. Malenkov, a student of the Smolensk Military-Political School N.M. Menshikov. - As a communist, it pains me to listen to such a question from collective farmers: “Do you know if the collective farms will soon be dissolved?” As a rule, they motivate their question by the fact that “there is no strength to live like this anymore.” Indeed, life on some collective farms is unbearably bad. Thus, on the Novaya Zhizn collective farm (Bryansk, oblast), almost half of the collective farmers have not had bread for 2–3 months, and some do not even have potatoes. The situation is no better in half of the other collective farms in the region. This is not unique to this area."

“A study of the state of affairs on the ground shows,” a similar signal was sent from Moldova, “that famine covers an increasing number of the rural population ... An unusually high increase in mortality, even compared with 1945, when there was a typhus epidemic. The main cause of high mortality is dystrophy. The peasants of most regions of Moldova eat various poor-quality surrogates, as well as the corpses of dead animals. Lately, there have been cases of cannibalism… Emigrant moods are spreading among the population.”

In 1946, several notable events took place that in one way or another disturbed the public atmosphere. Contrary to the fairly common belief that at that time public opinion was exceptionally silent, the actual evidence suggests that this assertion is not entirely true. At the end of 1945 - beginning of 1946 there was a campaign for elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, which took place in February 1946. As expected, at official meetings, people mostly spoke "for" the elections, unconditionally supporting the policy of the party and its leaders . As before, on the ballots on election day one could find toasts in honor of Stalin and other members of the government. But along with this there were judgments of a completely opposite kind.

Contrary to official propaganda emphasizing the democratic nature of the elections, people said something else: “The state is wasting money on elections, it will no matter who it wants”; “All the same, it won’t be our way, they will vote for whatever they write”; “We have too much money and energy spent on preparing for the elections to the Supreme Council, and the essence is reduced to a simple formality - the registration of a pre-selected candidate”; “The upcoming elections will not give us anything, but if they were held, as in other countries, then it would be a different matter”; “Only one candidate is included on the ballot, this is a violation of democracy, since if you want to vote for another, the one indicated on the ballot will still be elected.”

Rumors spread among the people about the elections, and very different ones. For example, in Voronezh there was talk: voter lists are being checked in order to identify those who are not working to be sent to collective farms. People closed their apartments and left their homes in order not to be included in these lists. At the same time, there were special sanctions for election evasion; in the statements of some people one can read a direct condemnation of this kind of “stick democracy”: “Elections are conducted incorrectly, one candidate is given per electoral district, and the ballot is controlled in some special way. In case of unwillingness to vote for a certain candidate, it is impossible to cross it out, this will be known to the NKVD and sent where it should be ”; “There is no freedom of speech in our country, if I say anything today about the shortcomings in the work of Soviet organs, then tomorrow they will put me in jail.”

The inability to express one's point of view openly without fear of sanctions from the authorities gave rise to apathy, and with it subjective alienation from the authorities: “Whoever needs it, let him choose and study these laws (meaning the laws on elections. - E. Z.), but we are already tired of all this, they will choose without us”; “I am not going to choose and I will not. I did not see anything good from this government. The Communists appointed themselves, let them choose."

During the discussion and conversations, people expressed doubts about the expediency and timeliness of holding elections, which spent a lot of money, while thousands of people were on the verge of hunger: . No one benefits from it”; “What to do with idleness, they would better feed the people, but you can’t feed them with elections”; “They choose well, but they don’t give bread on the collective farms.”

A strong catalyst for the growth of discontent was the destabilization of the general economic situation, primarily the situation in the consumer market, which has been going on since the war, but at the same time has post-war causes. The consequences of the drought in 1946 limited the volume of the marketable mass of grain. However, the already difficult situation with food was exacerbated by the increase in ration prices carried out in September 1946, that is, the prices of goods distributed by cards. At the same time, the contingent of the population covered by the rationing system was declining: the number of supplied population living in rural areas was reduced from 27 million to 4 million, in cities and workers' settlements 3.5 million non-working adult dependents were removed from bread rations and 500 thousand cards were destroyed by streamlining the card system and eliminating abuses. The total consumption of bread for rations was reduced by 30%.

As a result of such measures, not only the possibility of guaranteed supply of basic food products (primarily bread) was reduced, but also the possibility of acquiring food products on the market, where prices quickly went up (especially for bread, potatoes, vegetables). The scale of grain speculation increased. In a number of places it came to an open expression of protest. The most painful news of the increase in ration prices was met by low-paid workers and large families, women who lost their husbands at the front: “Food is expensive, and a family of five. The family does not have enough money. They waited, it would be better, and now there are difficulties again, but when will we survive them? “How to survive difficulties when there is not enough money to buy bread?”; “The products will either have to be abandoned, or redeemed for some other means, there is nothing to think about buying clothes”; “Before, it was hard for me, but I had hope for food cards with low prices, now the last hope is gone and I will have to starve.”

Even more frank were the conversations in the lines for bread: “Now you need to steal more, otherwise you won’t live”; “A new comedy - the salary was increased by 100 rubles, and food prices were increased three times. They did it in such a way that it was beneficial not for the workers, but for the government”; “Husbands and sons were killed, and instead of relief, prices were raised for us”; “With the end of the war, they expected an improvement in the situation and waited for improvement; now it has become more difficult to live than during the war years.”

Attention is drawn to the unpretentiousness of the desires of people who require only the establishment of a living wage and nothing more. The dreams of the war years that after the war “there will be a lot of everything”, a happy life will come, began to land rather quickly, devalue, and the set of benefits included in the “limit of dreams” became so scarce that a salary that makes it possible to feed a family and a room in a communal apartment were already considered a gift of fate. But the myth of "life-tale", living in everyday consciousness and, by the way, supported by the major tone of all official propaganda, presenting any difficulties as "temporary", often interfered with an adequate understanding of the cause-and-effect relationships in the chain exciting people events. Therefore, finding no visible reasons to explain "temporary" difficulties that would fall under the category of objective ones, people looked for them in the usual emergency circumstances. The choice here was not too wide, all the difficulties of the post-war period were explained by the consequences of the war. It is not surprising that the complication of the situation inside the country was also associated in the mass consciousness with the war factor - now the future one. Questions were often raised at the meetings: “Will there be a war?”, “Is the price increase caused by the difficult international situation?”. Some spoke more categorically: “The end of peaceful life has come, a war is approaching, and prices have increased. They hide it from us, but we figure it out. Before a war, prices always go up.” As for the rumors, here the popular fantasy knew no bounds at all: “America broke the peace treaty with Russia, there will soon be a war. They say that trains with the wounded have already been delivered to the city of Simferopol”; “I heard that the war is already going on in China and Greece, where America and England have intervened. If not today or tomorrow, the Soviet Union will also be attacked.”

The war in the minds of the people will be perceived for a long time as the main measure of the difficulties of life, and the sentence “if only there was no war” will serve as a reliable justification for all the hardships of the post-war period, for which, apart from it, there were no longer any reasonable explanations. After the world has crossed the line cold war”, these sentiments only intensified; they could keep under wraps, but at the slightest danger or a hint of danger they immediately made themselves known. For example, already in 1950, during the war in Korea, panic among the inhabitants of Primorsky Krai intensified, who considered that since there was a war nearby, it means that it would not pass the borders of the USSR. As a result, essential goods (matches, salt, soap, kerosene, etc.) began to disappear from stores: the population created long-term "military" reserves.

Some saw the reason for the increase in ration prices in the fall of 1946 as the approach of a new war, others considered such a decision unfair in relation to the results of the past war, in relation to front-line soldiers and their families who had gone through a difficult time and had right to something more than a half-starved existence. In many statements on this subject, it is easy to notice both the feeling of offended dignity of the winners and the bitter irony of deceived hopes: “Life is becoming more beautiful, more fun. The salary was increased by one hundred rubles, and 600 were taken away. We fought, the winners! ”; “Well, here we are. This is called taking care of the material needs of the working people in the Fourth Stalinist Five-Year Plan. Now we understand why meetings are not held on this issue. There will be riots, uprisings, and the workers will say: “What did you fight for?”.

However, despite the presence of very decisive moods, at that time they did not become predominant: the craving for peaceful life turned out to be too strong, the fatigue from the struggle, in any form, was too serious, the desire to get rid of extremeness and associated with her harsh actions. In addition, despite the skepticism of some people, the majority continued to trust the leadership of the country, to believe that it was acting in the name of the people's good. Therefore, the difficulties, including those brought with it by the food crisis of 1946, were most often, judging by the reviews, perceived by contemporaries as inevitable and someday surmountable. Quite typical were statements like the following: "Although it will be difficult to live as a low-paid worker, our government and the party have never done anything bad for the working class"; “We emerged victorious from a war that ended a year ago. The war brought great destruction and life cannot immediately enter into a normal framework. Our task is to understand the ongoing activities of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and support it”; “We believe that the party and the government have well thought out this event in order to quickly eliminate temporary difficulties. We believed the party when we fought for Soviet power under its leadership, and we still believe that the ongoing event is temporary ... "

Attention is drawn to the motivation of negative and "approving" sentiments: the former are based on the real state of affairs, while the latter come solely from faith in the justice of the leadership, which "never did anything bad for the working class." It can be definitely asserted that the policy of the leaders of the first post-war years was built solely on the credibility of the people, which after the war was quite high. On the one hand, the use of this loan allowed the leadership to stabilize the post-war situation over time and, on the whole, ensure the transition of the country from a state of war to a state of peace. But on the other hand, the trust of the people in the top leadership made it possible for the latter to delay the decision of vital reforms, and subsequently actually block the trend of democratic renewal of society.

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If post-war Europe experienced both an upsurge and a great depression (after World War I, 1929-1939), then how people lived 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 ", World War II.

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:

Satisfied the most basic needs: food, clothing, shelter;
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.

(1 rated, rating: 5,00 out of 5)

The end of the Great Patriotic War was a huge relief for the inhabitants of the USSR, but at the same time it set a number of urgent tasks for the government of the country. Issues that had been delayed for the duration of the war now needed to be resolved urgently. In addition, the authorities needed to equip the demobilized Red Army soldiers, provide social protection for war victims and restore destroyed economic facilities in the west of the USSR.

In the first post-war five-year plan (1946-1950), the goal was to restore the pre-war level of agricultural and industrial production. A distinctive feature of the restoration of industry was that not all evacuated enterprises returned to the west of the USSR, a significant part of them were rebuilt from scratch. This made it possible to strengthen industry in those regions that did not have a powerful industrial base before the war. At the same time, measures were taken to return industrial enterprises to civilian life schedules: the length of the working day was reduced, and the number of days off increased. By the end of the Fourth Five-Year Plan, the pre-war level of production had been reached in all the most important branches of industry.

Demobilization

Though not most of soldiers of the Red Army returned to their homeland in the summer of 1945, the main wave of demobilization began in February 1946, and the final completion of demobilization took place in March 1948. It was envisaged that the demobilized soldiers would be provided with work within a month. The families of the dead and disabled of the war received special support from the state: their homes were primarily supplied with fuel. However, in general, the demobilized fighters did not have any benefits in comparison with citizens who were in the rear during the war years.

Strengthening the repressive apparatus

The apparatus of repression, which flourished in the pre-war years, changed during the war. Intelligence and SMERSH (counterintelligence) played a key role in it. After the war, these structures filtered prisoners of war, Ostarbeiters and collaborators returning to the Soviet Union. The organs of the NKVD on the territory of the USSR fought organized crime, the level of which increased sharply immediately after the war. However, already in 1947, the power structures of the USSR returned to the repression of the civilian population, and at the end of the 50s the country was shocked by high-profile lawsuits (the case of doctors, the Leningrad case, the Mingrelian case). In the late 1940s and early 1950s, “anti-Soviet elements” were deported from the newly annexed territories of Western Ukraine, Western Belarus, Moldova and the Baltic states: intelligentsia, large property owners, supporters of the UPA and “forest brothers”, representatives of religious minorities.

Foreign policy guidelines

Even during the war years, the future victorious powers laid the foundations of an international structure that would regulate the post-war world order. In 1946, the United Nations began its work, in which the five most influential states in the world had a blocking vote. Entry Soviet Union to the UN Security Council strengthened its geopolitical position.

Late 40s foreign policy The USSR was aimed at creating, strengthening and expanding the bloc of socialist states, which later became known as the socialist camp. The coalition governments of Poland and Czechoslovakia that appeared immediately after the war were replaced by one-party ones, monarchical institutions were liquidated in Bulgaria and Romania, and pro-Soviet governments proclaimed their republics in East Germany and North Korea. Shortly before this, the Communists had taken control of most of China. Attempts by the USSR to create Soviet republics in Greece and Iran were unsuccessful.

Intra-party struggle

It is believed that in the early 50s, Stalin planned another purge of the top party apparatus. Shortly before his death, he also carried out a reorganization of the party's management system. In 1952, the VKP(b) became known as the CPSU, and the Politburo was replaced by the Presidium of the Central Committee, which did not have the post of General Secretary. Even during Stalin's lifetime, there was a confrontation between Beria and Malenkov on the one hand and Voroshilov, Khrushchev and Molotov on the other. Among historians, the following opinion is widespread: members of both groups realized that the new series of trials was directed primarily against them, and therefore, having learned about Stalin's illness, they made sure that he was not provided with the necessary medical care.

The results of the post-war years

In the post-war years, which coincided with the last seven years of Stalin's life, the Soviet Union turned from a victorious power into a world power. The government of the USSR managed to relatively quickly rebuild the national economy, restore state institutions and create around itself a bloc of allied states. At the same time, the repressive apparatus was strengthened, aimed at eradicating dissent and at "cleansing" party structures. With the death of Stalin, the process of development of the state has undergone drastic changes. The USSR entered a new era.

Despite the fact that the USSR suffered very heavy losses during the war years, it entered the international arena not only not weakened, but became even stronger than before. In 1946-1948. in the states of Eastern Europe and Asia, communist governments came to power, heading for the construction of socialism on the Soviet model.

However, the leading Western powers pursued a power policy towards the USSR and the socialist states. One of the main deterrents was atomic weapon, 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 headed by the physicist I. V. Kurchatov. The Institute of Atomic Energy and the Institute of Nuclear Problems of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR 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. In the work on it, the USSR was secretly assisted by individual Western scientists. Thus, a second nuclear power appeared in the world, the US monopoly on nuclear weapons ended. Since that time, the confrontation between the US and the USSR has largely determined the international situation.

Economic recovery.

Material losses in the war were very high. 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 supply was 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, to strengthen the country's defense power. Postwar five-year plan marked by large construction projects (hydroelectric power station, state district power station) and the development of road transport construction. The technical re-equipment of the industry of the Soviet Union was facilitated by the export of equipment from German and Japanese enterprises. The highest rates of development were achieved in such sectors as ferrous metallurgy, oil and coal mining, construction of machines and machine tools.

After the war, the countryside found itself in a more difficult position than the city. In the collective farms, tough measures were taken to procure bread. If earlier the collective farmers gave only part of the grain "to the common barn", now they were often forced to give all the grain. The discontent in the village grew. The sown area has been greatly reduced. Due to the depreciation of equipment and the lack of labor, field work was carried out late, which negatively affected the harvest.

The 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 lacked workers. We had to recruit workers in the countryside, among the students of vocational schools.

Even before the war, decrees were adopted, and after it continued to operate, according to which workers were forbidden, under pain of criminal punishment, to leave enterprises without permission.

To stabilize the financial system in 1947, the Soviet government carried out a monetary reform. Old money was exchanged for new money at a ratio of 10:1. After the exchange, the amount of money the population had sharply decreased. At the same time, the government has reduced the prices of 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 rations, but significantly lower than commercial ones. The abolition of cards has 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 took place in the government. In September 1945, the GKO was abolished. On March 15, 1946, the Council of People's Commissars and People's Commissariats were renamed into 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 instructed to supervise the work of the internal affairs and state security agencies. Pretty strong positions in the leadership held A.A. Zhdanov, who combined the duties of a member of the Politburo, Orgburo and party secretary, but in 1948 he died. At the same time, the positions G.M. Malenkova, who had previously held 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 na-sha and ne - instead of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), they began to call it Communist Party Council and Union (CPSU).

USSR in the 50s - early 60s. 20th century

Changes after the death of Stalin and the XX Congress of the CPSU.

Stalin died on March 5, 1953. The closest associates of the leader proclaimed a course towards the establishment of collective leadership, but in reality a struggle for leadership developed between them. Minister of the Interior Marshal L.P. Beria initiated an amnesty for prisoners whose term was no more than five years. He put his supporters at the head of several republics. Beria also proposed to soften the policy towards collective farms and advocated detente of international tension, improvement of 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, 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 state posts.

In February 1956, the XX Congress of the CPSU was held, on the agenda of which were an analysis of the international and domestic situation, summing up the results of the fifth five-year plan. At the congress, the question 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 talked about Stalin's numerous violations of Lenin's policy, 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 date of the start of the Great Patriotic War). Khrushchev's report after the congress was read throughout 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. At Khrushchev's initiative, cultural figures were given the opportunity to create their own works without total control of censorship and strict party dictates. 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 took place in culture. Works of literature and art have become more profound and sincere.

Reforms in the field of economy. The development of the national economy.

Reforms carried out in the 50s - early 60s. 20th century were controversial. At one time, Stalin outlined the economic frontiers that the country was 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 raw sector. It was decided to set acceptable prices for agricultural products, to change the tax policy so that the collective farmers were materially interested in selling their products. In the future, it was planned to increase the cash income of collective farms, pensions, and soften the passport regime.

In 1954, at the initiative of Khrushchev, development of virgin lands. Later, they began to reorganize the economic structure of the collective farmers. Khrushchev suggested building urban-type buildings for rural residents and taking other measures to improve their life. Relaxation in the passport regime opened the floodgates for the migration of the rural population to the city. Various programs were adopted to improve 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, but among the people Khrushchev received the nickname "maize".

50s 20th century characterized by great success in the industry. The production of heavy industry has grown especially. Much attention was paid to those industries that ensured the development of technology. Of paramount importance was the program of continuous electrification of the country. New hydroelectric power plants and state district power plants were put into operation.

The impressive success of the economy aroused the confidence of the leadership headed by Khrushchev in the possibility of even greater acceleration of the pace of the country's development. The thesis was put forward about the complete and final construction of socialism in the USSR, and in the early 60s. 20th century headed for construction communism , that is, a society where every person can satisfy all his 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, the 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 associated with ill-conceived reorganizations recent years the reign of Khrushchev. Thus, most of the central industrial ministries were liquidated, and the leadership of the economy passed into the hands of economic councils, created in certain regions of the country. This innovation led to a rupture of ties between regions, which hindered the introduction of new technologies.

Social sphere.

The government has taken a number of measures to improve the welfare of the people. A law on state pensions was introduced. In secondary and higher educational institutions, tuition fees have been abolished. Heavy industry workers were transferred to a reduced working day without reducing wages. The population received various financial benefits. The material incomes of the working people have grown. Simultaneously with the increase in wages, prices were reduced for consumer goods: certain types of fabrics, clothes, goods for children, watches, medicines, etc.

Many public funds were also created, which paid various preferential benefits. Due to these funds, many were able to study at school or university. The working day was reduced to 6-7 hours, and on pre-holiday and public holidays the working day lasted even less. The working week has become shorter by 2 hours. On October 1, 1962, all taxes on the wages of workers and employees were abolished. From the end of the 50s. 20th century began selling durable goods on credit.

Undoubted successes in the social sphere in the early 60s. 20th century were accompanied by negative phenomena, especially painful for the population: essential products, including bread, disappeared from store shelves. There were several demonstrations of workers, the most famous of which was a demonstration in Novocherkassk, during the suppression of which the troops used 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, at the initiative of the USSR, the State Treaty with Austria was signed in Vienna. Diplomatic relations were also established with Germany and Japan.

Soviet diplomacy actively sought to establish the most diverse ties with all states. The Hungarian uprising of 1956 was a severe test, which was suppressed 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 on the prohibition nuclear testing on land, in air and water.

Relations with most of the socialist countries had long been streamlined - they clearly obeyed the instructions of Moscow. In May 1953, the USSR restored relations with Yugoslavia. A Soviet-Yugoslav declaration was signed, which proclaimed the principle of the indivisibility of the world, non-interference in internal affairs, and so on.

The main foreign policy theses of the CPSU were criticized by the Chinese Communists. They also challenged the political assessment of Stalin's activities. In 1963-1965. The PRC laid claim 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, which 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 of Asia and Africa.

USSR in the second half of the 60s - early 80s. 20th 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 scientists increased in the USSR. Each union republic had its own Academy of Sciences, which was subordinate to 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 flight into space took place. The first ascent of the space CSM became Yu.L. Gagarin.

New and more powerful power plants were built. Aircraft construction, nuclear physics, astrophysics and other sciences were successfully developed. Scientific centers were created in many cities. For example, in 1957 Akademgorodok was built near Novosibirsk.

After the war, the number of schools dropped dramatically, one of the tasks of the government was to create new secondary schools. educational institutions. The increase in the number of high school graduates has led to an increase in the number of university students.

In 1954, co-education of boys and girls was restored in schools. The tuition fees for high school students and students were also abolished. Students began to pay scholarships. In 1958, compulsory eight-year education was introduced, and the ten-year school was transferred to 11-year education. Soon in educational plans schools included labor in production.

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 drawing closer together, a single community had formed - the Soviet people. They talked about the rapid development of the country's productive forces, about blurring the lines between town and countryside, about the distribution of wealth on the principles of "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 nationwide state of workers, peasants and the people's intelligentsia was proclaimed, between which the lines are also continuously blurred.

In the 60-70s. 20th 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 tendencies in culture were still very strong. Militant atheism played a negative role. The persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church intensified. Temples were closed in the country, priests were deposed and defrocked. Militant atheists created special organizations for preaching atheism.

Post-war life in the USSR. Post-war life in the USSR. How did people live after the Great Patriotic War

How did people live after the Great Patriotic War?

Demobilization

Strengthening the repressive apparatus

Foreign policy guidelines

Intra-party struggle