Post-war years: fighting hunger and crime, wage growth and mortgages at 1%

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The first year without a war. It was different for the Soviet people. 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.

Testing

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.

Hunger was added to the huge economic and human losses. It was facilitated by the drought of 1946, the collapse of agriculture, a 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: to cook nettle borscht or to bake cakes from linden leaves and flowers.

Dystrophy became a common diagnosis in the first post-war year. For example, by the beginning of 1947, in the Voronezh region alone, there were 250 thousand patients with such a diagnosis, in total in the RSFSR - about 600 thousand. According to the Dutch economist Michael Ellman, in total from 1 to 1.5 million people died from hunger in 1946-1947 in the USSR.

Historian Benjamin 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 the pre-war years.

To help the starving from China, the Soviet government bought about 200 thousand tons of grain and soybeans. Ukraine and Belarus, as victims of the war, received aid through UN channels.

Stalin's miracle

The war has just died out, but the next five-year plan has not been canceled. In March 1946, the fourth five-year plan for 1946-1952 was adopted. Its goals are ambitious: not only to reach the pre-war level of industrial and agricultural production, but also to surpass it.

Iron discipline reigned in Soviet enterprises, which ensured an accelerated 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 said that not a single German would leave the USSR until the city was fully restored. And, it must be said that the painstaking work of the Germans in construction and municipal services contributed to the appearance of Stalingrad, which had risen from the ruins.

In 1946, the government adopted a plan providing for lending to the regions most affected by the Nazi occupation. This made it possible to rapidly rebuild their infrastructure. The emphasis was placed on industrial development. Already in 1946 the mechanization of industry was 15% of the pre-war level, in 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 all-round support to citizens. On August 25, 1946, by a decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, as an aid in solving the housing problem, the population was given a mortgage loan at 1% per annum.

“To provide workers, engineering and technical workers and employees with the opportunity to acquire ownership of a residential building, the Central Communal Bank must be obliged 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 all sorts of economic problems, already in 1946 at enterprises and construction sites in the Urals, Siberia and the Far East, it was possible to raise workers' wages by 20%. The salaries of citizens with secondary and higher specialized education were increased by the same amount.

Individuals with various academic degrees and titles received serious increases. 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 candidate of sciences - from 1,200 to 3,200 rubles, a university rector - from 2,500 to 8,000 rubles. It is interesting that Stalin, as chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, had a salary of 10,000 rubles.

But for comparison, the prices for the basic 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, over 5 million Soviet citizens found themselves outside their country: over 3 million - in the zone of action of the allies 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 1945 Yalta Conference, the leaders of the victorious countries decided to repatriate Soviet citizens, which was to be mandatory.

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 come home as soon as possible - to the USSR. Everywhere there was a considerable interest and desire to find out what was new in life in the USSR, and rather to take part in the work to eliminate the destruction caused by the war and to strengthen the economy of the Soviet state."

Not everyone received the returnees favorably. In the decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks "On the organization of political and educational work with repatriated Soviet citizens" it was reported: "Some party and Soviet workers took the path of indiscriminate distrust of the repatriated Soviet citizens." The government recalled that "the returned Soviet citizens have regained all their rights and should be involved in active participation in labor and social and political life."

A significant part of those who returned to their homeland were thrown into areas associated with hard physical labor: in the coal industry of the eastern and western regions (116 thousand), in the ferrous metallurgy (47 thousand) and the timber industry (12 thousand). Many of the repatriates were forced to enter into permanent employment agreements.

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 fell on 1946, during which more than 36 thousand armed robberies and over 12 thousand cases of social banditry were revealed.

Post-war Soviet society was dominated by a pathological fear of rampant crime. Historian Elena Zubkova explained: "The fear of people of the criminal world was based not so much on reliable information, as stemmed from its lack and dependence on rumors."

The collapse of the social order, especially in the territories of Eastern Europe ceded 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, and the greatest concentration was noted in the territories of Western Ukraine and Lithuania.

The seriousness of the problem with post-war crime is evidenced by a report classified as "top secret" received by Lavrenty Beria at the end of November 1946. There, in particular, contained 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 strip in the streets, rip off the watch from their hands, and this happens every day. Life in the city simply stops at nightfall. Residents have learned to walk only in the middle of the street, and not on the sidewalks, and they look suspiciously at everyone who approaches them."

Nevertheless, the fight against crime has borne fruit. According to 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 were liquidated, as well as 3,861 gangs associated with them. Almost 210,000 bandits, members of anti-Soviet nationalist organizations, their henchmen and other anti-Soviet elements were killed. … Since 1947, the crime rate in the USSR has declined.