Post-war Russia Flashcards
(40 cards)
How many people were killed between 1941-5?
1 in 8
When did Stalin promise that reconstruction to become a leading industrial power would take place by?
1960
What happened in August 1945?
Gosplan was planning a fourth 5 year plan with ambitious targets for industry and agriculture. One third of the plan’s expenditure was spent on Ukraine as the read basket of the world was devastated by war
How did industry struggle to adjust to civilian needs?
- Mining production was less than 1/2 of the 1940 level, electric lower at 52% and steel at 45%
- Transport infrastructure was disrupted
- The workforce was exhausted by sacrifices in the war which intensified by the sudden end of foreign aid through the lend-lease in August 1945
How were industrial target equalled or exceeded?
- Coal produced 261.1 tons in 1950 compared to 165.9 in 1940
- Steel at 27.3 compared with 18.3
- Electricity at 91.2 kilowatts compared to 48.3
Why was economic production successful to experience a rebound effect?
- war reparations
- central planning
- committed efforts of the people
Whilst long-term growth trends were slower than Europe, it rebuild was rapid considering long-term issues before the war
What were reparations like?
Huge amounts of equipment were transported into Russia including whole factories especially from Soviet occupied Germany
How was quality of living?
- Steady growths in quality of living
- In April 1948, cars, motorbikes, sewing machines, watches and music players were reduced in price between 10-20%
- By early 1948, soviet incomes were the same as 1938 levels
- Acute housing shortages
What happened to military expenditure?
It was still large as the size of the army rose from 2.8 million in 1948 to 4.9 million by 1953 and spending was 18% of the total expenditure in 1950 but 25% by 1952
What were the impacts of war on agriculture?
- 98,000 collective farms
- 137,000 tractors
- 49,000 combine harvesters
- 7 million houses
- 17 million cattle
- 20 million pigs
- 27 million sheep
What impact did this have on the land?
- Food production was 60% of the 1940 level
- There was less land cultivated than before the war at only 75% plus 1946 was the driest year since 1891 leading to a famine in Ukraine and central Russia exacerbated by dislocation
- Although, the scale of famine was not like in the 1930s
- Targets for agriculture were rarely met but cycles of famines stopped with non after 1947
Why did some regions did better than others?
Stalin made limited attempts to modernise the economy as outlined in economic problems of socialism in the USSR in 1952
What happened to agricultural targets?
- Grain in 1940 produced 95.6 million tons and by 1950s, 92,2
-Potatoes were 76.1 but by 1952, 69.2 - Cotton was 2.2 and now 3.8
- Cattle were 28 million in 1940 and 25 million by 1952
How was the economy built up to allow the USSR become a super power
By may 1945, there were 7 million well-equipped troops with control over the Baltic states, eastern Poland and Eastern Germany
How did America reach superpower status?
Similar to Russia, it isolated itself before the war but its sudden entry in 1941, led them to fund the European and Pacific side of the war therefore both would dominated post-war Europe
What happened in Tehran in 1943?
- The allies agreed to an unconditional surrender from Germany and no separate peace with Germany
- They were ideologically divided as Stalin was critical of the west for not opening up a second front to relieve the red army therefore weakening how far they were allies
What was the meeting between Stalin and Churchill in Moscow in 1944 about?
Disagreements over the future of Poland
What happened at the Yalta conference in February 1945?
- They agreed Germany would be placed in zones of occupation
- They were fighting over the borders as Stalin’s eastern Germany was poor and unfertile and Berlin was split between allies therefore isolating Russia
- Britain had lost its power by Yalta as it was bankrupted with a declining empire
What happened at the Potsdam conference in July/August 1945?
- They agreed upon Soviet occupation of Poland as it was previously part of the USSR
- Stalin was the senior partner of the allies as Attlee and Truman were in power as he was asserting political control over liberated countries however peace between the countries were not agreed upon especially reparations as Stalin didn’t want Germany becoming an economic powerhouse
What did America reveal in 1945?
In 1945, it was revealed they had developed an atomic bomb placing Russia at a disadvantage, so Beria was put in charge of developing one by August 1949
How did Russia’s international status improve?
They joined the UN in 1945 and becoming a permanent member of the UN security council
What territories were directly added to the USSR?
- Estonia
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Belarus
- Ukraine
What was the buffer zone/satellite states?
- Neighbouring states where Russia held military and ideological influence over them, in the hopes, they would protect the USSR from further Western invasions
- These states included east Germany, Poland Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania
How did the formation of the Soviet bloc begin during the war?
- Occupation of Eastern Poland in 1939 and the Baltic states in 1940
- In April to May 1940, 22,000 Polish army officers were shot under Beria’s order in the Katyn forest massacre to eliminate Polish nationalists. When their mass graves were discovered in 1943, it was used as a propaganda campaign against the Germans
- Political dominance was also asserted as he allowed the home army alone to defeat the Nazis for 63 days from the 1st of August 1944 to weaken Poland
