The life of people in the post-war years photo facts. Life in the USSR after the war. Start of the Cold War
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 Internal Affairs. 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 bandit 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.
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 due to the ill-conceived reorganizations of the last years of Khrushchev's rule. 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, which was crushed by Soviet troops, became a severe test. Almost simultaneously with the Hungarian events in 1956, arose Suez Crisis .
On August 5, 1963, an agreement between the USSR, the USA and Great Britain on the ban on nuclear tests on land, in air and water was signed in Moscow.
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 catastrophically, one of the tasks of the government was the creation of new secondary schools. 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, work in production was included in the curricula of schools.
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, the erasing of the boundaries between town and country, 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.
Reading near-historical disputes on various Internet sites, I found that people do not know the history of the USSR, even in its main features. This is especially true of the pre-war years. So I collected, it seems to me, the most common myths and stated it in the manner of "stories for dummies" ...
1. The Bolsheviks overthrew the tsar and unleashed a civil war?
The tsar was overthrown by the liberals during the February Revolution of 1917, not by the Bolsheviks. The civil war in Russia was unleashed by Western countries, led by Great Britain, by giving a direct order to the Czechoslovak corps to revolt and start hostilities. All the anti-Bolshevik forces involved in the Russian Civil War, with the possible exception of some anarchist groups, obeyed orders from Berlin and London.
2. Under Soviet rule, the population lived worse than under the autocracy?
The first years of Soviet power, after many years of the First World War and the Civil War, were indeed difficult for the population. However, already in the second half of the 1930s, the bulk of the population ate better, dressed, and had more comfortable living conditions than under capitalism. The leisure of citizens has especially improved. Public sanatoriums, rest houses, pioneer camps for children appeared ... And most importantly, citizens had time to study, relax, and play sports. The working day of the builder of communism was only 7 hours. Whereas, under the autocracy, workers worked for 9-11 hours, that is, on average, the same amount as Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War. Collective farmers in the 30s were required to work only 60-80 workdays a year. The rest of the time they disposed of at their discretion. Under the tsar, the labor of agricultural laborers was not standardized at all.
3. Under Stalin was (was not) a dictatorship?
Both answers are correct, depending on what period of time we are talking about. Until 1936, the USSR had a dictatorship of the proletariat, after - people's democracy. The cunning Ilya Ehrenburg, even before the civil war in Spain, comparing the order in this country and in the USSR, wrote that here and there is a dictatorship, but in reality what a difference!
4. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the country had been living under socialism for more than 20 years (did not live)?
In fact, before the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Union managed to live under socialism for just over four years, since the construction of socialism in the USSR was announced only in 1936.
5. Was the USSR a militarized state?
General conscription in the USSR was introduced only in 1939. Prior to this, in order to save money, the army was built mainly on a territorial basis, when young people underwent only short-term military training, appearing at collection points with their straw for mattresses. There were even "kolkhoz divisions" in the Far East. The militia-type army is conditionally suitable for defensive operations and practically unsuitable for offensive ones.
6. Was the USSR a superpower on the eve of the Great Patriotic War?
The USSR became a superpower following the results of the Great Patriotic War. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, the largest, most populous, and most militarily powerful state was not the USSR, not the USA, and, of course, not Japan and Germany, but Great Britain.
7. Was the standard of living of the population in the pre-war USSR lower than in Europe?
The standard of living of the population in the pre-war USSR was significantly higher than in most of the capitalist states of the world of that period, including European ones. This primarily concerns the states of Southern Europe: Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia. As well as Eastern Europe: Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, etc. The standard of living in the USSR was higher than in some states of Western and Northern Europe: Ireland, Finland, Spain, Portugal. Great Britain was the country with the highest standard of living in Europe. After Germany subjugated continental Europe, Great Britain moved to second place, skipping ahead of the Third Reich.
8. During the years of collectivization, individual peasants were completely destroyed?
In 1940, there were 3,600,000 individual peasant farms in the USSR. This is 16 times more than in modern capitalist Russia.
9. Soviet soldiers and officers in 1944, liberating Europe, were shocked by the high standard of living of Europeans?
This statement could be true only in relation to Germany (see paragraph 7) - the state with the highest standard of living in Europe in the period from 1939 to 1944. In the rest of the capitalist states, Soviet soldiers saw screaming poverty.
The Great Victory also had a Great Price. The war claimed 27 million human lives. The economy of the country, especially in the territory subjected to occupation, 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 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 overwhelming 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.
It appears that a documentary film "Life in the USSR after the war" was made for citizens on the Rossiya TV channel in color. And the off-screen text is read by Lev Durov. And how was life in the USSR after the war?
(From the very first frames, we are given to understand that we are talking about 1946. Which is clearly reflected on the banner "Glory to the CPSU")
After the war, life in the USSR was a nightmare ( the fact that we are talking about 1946 is also clear from the GAZ-69 car)
Stone houses were only plants, factories, government agencies and, with rare exceptions, residential buildings 
There was nothing to wear. Soviet women did not even know what tights and breeches were. And so they put on men's pantaloons under flannelette harem pants in the cold. ( Women in trousers are clearly visible in the footage) 
(I wonder why the women of the USSR needed tights if the need for them appeared (including abroad) during the fashion for miniskirts, i.e. already in the 60s.
By the way, is the actor Durov aware that tights according to GOST in the USSR were called stocking leggings?)
(And in confirmation of the fact that it is still 1946 on the screen, we are shown the GZA-651, the release of which began in 1949.)
And ordinary residents wrote letters to the government something like this: "It's impossible to live, even lie down and die" 
Going back a year, Lev Durov recalls the parade of athletes in 1945. Parade participants lived in barracks and were trained to exhaustion 
The parade was held for the leader ( Here he is, Stalin, smiling predatory)
In 1947 cards were cancelled. But there wasn't much excitement in the stores. 
Meanwhile, there were no essential goods - salt, matches, flour, eggs. They were sold through the back door of stores, behind which huge queues immediately accumulated, and in order not to miss it or so that someone else would not crawl through, they wrote numbers on their hands ( Here it is - the queue. And the man at the table in military uniform, for sure, writes numbers on the hands of citizens)
Once a year, before the May holidays, people rushed to subscribe for a government loan for a monthly salary. 
So I had to work for free for a month. Who did not have money, he signed up for half a loan 
Those who moved into new apartments had a hard time 
In the new areas there was no infrastructure - bakeries, transport, etc. 
But the Syuzpechat stalls and tobacco kiosks immediately opened 
There were practically no cars on the streets, let alone traffic jams. 
(Based on the frames, one can understand that people sometimes rested, but the actor Durov does not say anything about this.)
800 years of Moscow celebrated on a grand scale 
A good place will not be called a camp. Pioneer camp is the place where exhausted parents saved their children for the summer 
(Nothing is said about camp rations in the film.)
(But it is told about the pioneers who grew cannabis higher than human height.)
In 1954, joint education of children was introduced. It was good - isolated learning led to the fact that the children became enslaved, dumb and closed. 
In the same 1954 ( obviously, after the death of a tyrant) people first thought about themselves 
Think about your appearance 
Students thoughtfully looked ahead, dreamed of creating a bright future 
And GUM was opened for Muscovites 
There were many grocery stores 
But they were insanely expensive. For example, black caviar cost 141 rubles/kg. A teacher's salary was 150 rubles / month
(I wonder why the actor Durov does not say that in reality the teacher had such a salary already in 1932.)
Achievements of the national economy were shown at VDNKh 
The women and men in the frame are tense and their faces are stern - this is because they are not real collective farmers, but extras 
The scenes in the stores were also done by extras. Moreover, sometimes it was necessary to do several takes. 
The physical culture parade of 1954, held after the death of Stalin, showed that everything in the country remained the same 
Khrushchev, Voroshilov, Saburov, Melenkov, Ulbricht - few people now say anything about these names 
And yet, people began to appear light in their faces 
And in 1957, an unprecedented thing happened - the World Youth Festival 
This is what a worker's lunch looked like around that time 
And the thaw made it possible for the Soviet man to feel like a man 
