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Impact of WWII and post war recovery Industry and Agriculture 1941-53 June 1941: invasion • Centralisation of economy = effective in mobilising resources • Mammoth task • Defence Committees locally co-ordinate war production • Factories converted to produce war materials • Moscow – children’s bicycle factory – produced flame-throwers • Whole factories relocated east • Innitial collapse in industrial output after invasion • Thn production rose impresively, if unevenly • https://vimeo.com/128373915 Impact of invasion • Increase in Soviet production (after 1941) • Impressive (but uneven) • 1943 to 1945 • 73,000 tanks produced • 94,000 aircraft produced • Need for imports • such as Spam (tinned meat) • Under Lend-Lease Scheme – supplies provided with payment deferred • Production of consumer goods virtually non-existent Impact of invasion • Overall production reduced at end of war (Nazi occupied areas) • Steel production: 12 million tonnes in 1945. 18 million tonnes in 1940 • Oil production down two-thirds • Wool production – less than half 1940 • Desperate situation in countryside • Able-bodied men from collectives – army • Farm machinery and animals requisitioned for Red Army • Food output down: 95 million tonnes in 1940 to 30 million tonnes in 1942 • Cattle halved • Government allowed people to farm private plots – incentive for production • Homelessness and destruction of towns and villages • By end of war western USSR 25 million homeless • 1,700 towns and 70,000 villages ‘destroyed’ Fourth Five-Year Plan (1946 – 1950) • Main Aims • Economic reconversion (factories away from wartime industry) • Reconstruction • How to achieve aims • Rigid state control • Challenges to achieving aims • End of ‘Lend-Lease’ • Some machinery taken from territories left to rust – unable to reassemble • Aids to achieving aims • Could exploit control over Eastern Europe e.g. take machinery from East Germany (reparations) • Trade agreements with Soviet-dominated governments in eastern Europe - ‘economic exploitation?’ Results of Fourth Five-Year Plan (1946 – 1950) Positive • Impressive results • Focus on metal and heavy engineering (still armaments) • Overfulfilled Plan • Industrial production – quick recovery • (2 million slave labourers in gulags) • Reconstruction – organised by strong central planning • Retraining – gave basic skills Negative • Consumer industries still neglected • Returned to 1930s priorities, did not invest in new technologies (eg. Plastics and chemicals) Workers from gulag in Siberia Fifth Five-Year Plan (1951 – 1955) • Aims • Continued growth (slower growth but more realistic) • Increase in arms and military expenditure (Cold War) • Challenges • Cold War • Results: Positive Negative • • • • Soviet industry impressive 1948 onwards – better living standards • Price reductions helped • 1952 – real wages for workers same as 1928 • Slow recovery in countryside Too focused on military expenditure Resources diverted to grandiose projects (Volga-Don Canal) • Carried little traffic. Decorated with statues of Stalin • Government buildings in Moscow (should use for housing) Volga – Don Canal. Original Stalin statue (almost 15 stories tall) Volga – Don Canal. Lenin statue replacing Stalin (under Khrushchev) Agriculture from 1939 • Changes during war • Consessions to peasants to sustain food production • ‘Link’ system – small groups of peasants had responsibility for collective farm. • If they met targets, could sell remainder for profit • Changes after war • • • • • Reimpose control No ‘Link’ system Taxes raised on private plots Supervision by Party and MTS Khrushchev (Party Secretary in Moscow – 1949) • Idea to create larger collectives • By 1952, over 100,000 created - unpopular Agriculture from 1939 • Problems in the countryside • Low production after war • Labour problems • Imbalance of sexes. Men to towns. By 1950, some villages only women and children • • • • Shortage of livestock (women tilled soil with ploughs) 1946 – drought 1947 – famine in Ukraine Slow recovery grain production in 1952 – below 1940 figure • Results: • Successes: Some improvement in productivity with bigger collectives • Failures: Stalin planted desert with trees – died