Reconstruction: from ruins to a rebuilt economy
The war cost the USSR about 27 million lives (an estimate). Soviet sources say about 1,700 towns, 70,000 villages and 32,000 factories were damaged or destroyed. Millions of people had no home.
In 1946 the government started the Fourth Five-Year Plan (1946-1950). A five-year plan is a list of targets for the whole economy. This one put heavy industry first: coal, steel, electricity, machines and railways. Workers were helped by prisoners of war and by prisoners in the Gulag, and by goods taken from defeated Germany.
- Result: by 1948 industry was back above the 1940 level. Official figures say it was about 73% higher in 1950 (historians think a little lower).
- Farming lagged. Collective farms were short of men, machines and money. A drought and a poor harvest caused a famine in 1946-47.
- Daily life: food ration cards ended in December 1947 together with a currency reform (old money swapped for new, on bad terms for savers). From 1947 the state cut prices a little each spring.
Politics: Stalin, the Party and tighter control
After the war many people hoped for more freedom, as soldiers had seen Europe. Instead control got tighter.
- Stalin was head of government and the Party. Important decisions were taken by him and a small circle. The Party Congress met only in 1952, the first since 1939.
- Fights inside the leadership: in the Leningrad Affair (1949-50) many officials from that city were arrested and some were shot. In early 1953 the "Doctors' Plot" story stirred fear again.
- Gulag and deportations: camps held millions of people, and several small peoples had been deported during the war and stayed away.
- Campaign against "foreign" ideas (1948-49): people were told to praise only Soviet and Russian achievements.
All this is why the 3D shows one tall red pillar over the councils (the soviets): on paper they governed, in practice the Party did.
Science and culture in the late Stalin years
Culture under watch. In 1946 the Party criticised the magazines Zvezda and Leningrad and two writers, Anna Akhmatova and Mikhail Zoshchenko. The campaign is linked to the Party secretary Andrei Zhdanov. In 1948 composers such as Shostakovich and Prokofiev were criticised too. The message: art must serve the Party and be easy for ordinary people to follow.
Science for defence. The state spent huge sums on weapons research:
- The first Soviet nuclear reactor started in 1946, and the first atomic bomb was tested on 29 August 1949. Igor Kurchatov led the project. The first hydrogen-type test came in 1953.
- Sergei Korolev built the first Soviet long-range rockets in 1948-50. These rockets later carried the first satellite.
- In biology a wrong, state-backed idea led by Trofim Lysenko pushed out genetics in 1948 and hurt farm science.
The state also built big showpieces such as the tall new Moscow University building (finished 1953).
Place in the post-war world
The USSR came out as a victor and a superpower. It was a founding member of the United Nations and one of five permanent members of the Security Council, with a veto.
- Eastern bloc: between 1945 and 1948, with Soviet help, communist parties took power in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and others. In 1949 these states and the USSR formed a trade group, Comecon.
- Split with the West: the USSR refused the American Marshall Plan (1947) and set up the Cominform (1947) to link communist parties. The Berlin blockade (1948-49) was an early crisis. This is the Cold War: a struggle without direct war between the two superpowers.
- Asia: in 1949 communists won in China and a friendship treaty followed in 1950. During the Korean War (1950-53) the USSR backed North Korea.
- Not alone: India chose not to join either side, and kept friendly ties with the USSR.
Try it
Step 1: before you slide, guess in which year industry went back above the red 1940 line. Then use the year slider at step 5 and check. Step 2: look at 1946. Why did the bar fall? (Factories changed from war goods to peace goods, and the harvest failed.) Step 3: at home, ask an elder what "ration card" means and write one sentence about it.
Key formulas and definitions
- Fourth Five-Year Plan: 1946-1950, heavy industry first
- Industry index (1940 = 100): 1945 = 92, 1946 = 77, 1948 = 118, 1950 = 173 (official, rounded)
- Ration cards ended and the currency was reformed: December 1947
- First Soviet atomic bomb test: 29 August 1949 (Kurchatov)
- Comecon formed 1949; Cominform 1947; Berlin blockade 1948-49
- Zhdanov campaign in culture: 1946-48; Leningrad Affair 1949-50
- Key words: reconstruction, Five-Year Plan, famine, Cold War, bloc
Worked examples
1. Why did the Fourth Five-Year Plan put heavy industry first?
Heavy industry (coal, steel, power, machines) is needed to rebuild everything else, and also to make weapons in the Cold War. The leaders thought shoes, food and housing could wait. So the economy recovered quickly in factories, but people felt it slowly in shops.
2. Industry in 1940 was 100. In 1950 the official figure was 173. By what percent did industry grow?
Growth = 173 - 100 = 73 points, so industry grew 73% above the 1940 level (official figure; some historians think it was a little lower).
3. Explain why the years 1945-1953 were a time of hardship and of success together.
Success: heavy industry rebuilt, an atomic bomb tested in 1949, a bigger place in the world. Hardship: famine in 1946-47, poor housing and pay, the Gulag and campaigns against writers and officials. The state chose power and defence over comfort.
Common mistakes
- Thinking the war ended hardship in 1945. In 1946-47 there was a famine and rationing lasted until December 1947.
- Saying the atomic bomb was tested in 1945. The Soviet test was 29 August 1949.
- Mixing the Five-Year Plans: the Fourth Plan is 1946-50 (after the war); the Third was cut short by the war.
- Believing the Party Congress met every year. Under Stalin it met only in 1952 after a 13-year gap.