After the end of the war against Nazi Germany, the Soviet people got the opportunity to start a peaceful creative work. The victory aroused in him natural pride for himself, for the state, hope for a speedy restoration of the national economy, housing, for a better future. Although not for everyone in the Union, the war ended in May 1945. The Soviet people took part in August - September in the war against Japan. In Western Ukraine, the armed struggle of the soldiers of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army against the Soviet regime will continue for many years to come, and in the Baltic states the "forest brothers" will fight against it. The restoration of the national economy took place in difficult conditions. During the war, the country lost 27 million people, 30% of the national wealth.
The transition to peaceful construction was marked by the transfer immediately after the end of the war of part of the defense enterprises to the production of goods for the population, and later by the adoption of a law on the demobilization of a significant part of the army. In March 1946, a plan was adopted for the restoration and development of the national economy for 1946-1950, which provided for the restoration of the national economy, the achievement, and then the excess of the pre-war level in industry by 48% and agriculture by 23%. And although in 1945 the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks planned to restore and build new houses, schools, hospitals, factories, power plants, mines and factories (in that order), in reality everything was the other way around. The trouble was not that the social sphere, even in post-war plans, was inferior to the first place in the production sphere, but that from the very beginning it was doomed to funding on a residual basis.
In connection with the Cold War, the militaristic moods of Stalin and his entourage, the Council of Ministers loaded the national economy with a multibillion-dollar order for the development of atomic weapons. As a result, already approved social programs had to be revised. Less and less funds were directed to the construction of housing and the production of consumer goods. At the same time, the Soviet leadership was able to concentrate huge amounts of money on the revival of railway transport, the fuel and energy complex, metallurgy and mechanical engineering. New giants of industry arose in the Urals, in Siberia, in the republics of Transcaucasia and Central Asia. It was officially reported that the work to restore the industry was basically completed in 1948, and at individual enterprises continued even in the early 50s.
Where did the Soviet government get the funds to restore industry and create a nuclear complex in the country, which resulted in the testing of atomic weapons in 1949?
Let's take the situation in agriculture. Of course, during the war, agriculture suffered great losses, especially in Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and some regions of Russia. The number of able-bodied population has decreased by a third, agriculture has lost a significant part of its equipment, and the area under crops has decreased. Added to this was a severe drought in 1946. Many peasants, especially those who had gone through the war through Europe, hoped for the dissolution of the collective farms. The peasants were especially dissatisfied with another state defense loan. If the workers' funds for the loan were automatically deducted from the paid ones, then the peasant had to sell meager supplies on the market in order to pay off the loan. Often valuable things were taken from the peasants under the loan. The peasants were no less oppressed by the exorbitant monetary tax, the surrender of agricultural products to the state, and so on.
By violent methods, which were accompanied by repressions and deportations, new collective farms were created in the western regions of Belarus and Ukraine, the Right-Bank Moldavia, and the Baltic republics.
Deportation (from Lat. HieroNash - expulsion) - forced eviction by a court or administrative procedure of a person recognized as socially dangerous from his place of permanent residence and his settlement in a new place with restriction of freedom of movement.
All production activities of collective farms and state farms were under the strict control of party and state bodies. This is not a complete list of what testified to the state of the countryside. This situation of the peasants, plus a severe drought, led to famine and significant casualties. However, it was thanks to such a system of frontal stripping of resources from agriculture, supplemented by austerity in spending on social needs, that the Soviet command and administrative system was able to concentrate significant funds on the restoration and development of industry, on defense. At the same time, restoration and development took place on the old, pre-war technical and technological basis, which programmed the USSR to continue to lag behind in mastering the results of scientific and technological progress from the United States and Western Europe, as well as Japan. Of course, this affected the efficiency of the national economy of the USSR.
It should be noted that some social measures, in particular, the abolition of the rationing system of 1947, the exchange of old money for new ones, and repeated price reductions did not significantly affect the improvement in the welfare of the population. In practice, the monetary reform led to the withdrawal of money available to citizens. The abolition of the card system was accompanied by a monetary reform, during which 10 old rubles were exchanged for 1 new one. And the new prices in the state and cooperative retail were set at a level close to previous commercial ones. All this helped to reduce the consumer pressure on the market for goods and services, and in the future - to lower prices. The first one took place in April. next year. It was possible to satisfy the demand of hungry people for food more or less in Moscow and Leningrad.
Difficulties in the economic sphere, ideologization of social and political life, increased international tension - these were the main results of the development of Soviet society in the postwar years.
The end of the war brought to the fore the task of restoring the normal functioning of the national economy. The human and material losses caused by the war were very heavy. The total losses of the dead are estimated at 27 million people, among which there were only a few more than 10 million military personnel. 32,000 buildings were destroyed. industrial enterprises, 1710 cities and towns, 70 thousand villages. The amount of direct losses caused by the war was estimated at 679 billion rubles, which was 5.5 times the national income of the USSR in 1940. In addition to the enormous destruction, the war led to a complete restructuring of the national economy on a war footing, and its end necessitated new efforts to his return to peacetime conditions.
The restoration of the economy was the main task of the Fourth Five-Year Plan. As early as August 1945, Gosplan began drawing up a plan for the restoration and development of the national economy for 1946-1950. When considering the draft plan, the country's leadership revealed different approaches to the methods and goals of restoring the country's economy: 1) a more balanced, balanced development of the national economy, some mitigation of coercive measures in economic life, 2) a return to the pre-war model economic development, based on the predominant growth of heavy industry.
The difference in points of view in the choice of ways to restore the economy was based on a different assessment of the post-war international situation. Supporters of the first option (A.A. Zhdanov - Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, First Secretary of the Leningrad Regional Party Committee, N.A. Voznesensky - Chairman of the State Planning Commission, M.I. Rodionov - Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, etc.) believed that with return to peace in the capitalist countries, an economic and political crisis should come, a conflict between the imperialist powers is possible due to the redistribution of colonial empires, in which, first of all, the USA and Great Britain will clash. As a result, in their opinion, a relatively favorable international climate is emerging for the USSR, which means that there is no urgent need to continue the policy of accelerated development of heavy industry. Supporters of a return to the pre-war model of economic development, among which the main role was played by G.M. Malenkov and L.P. Beria, as well as the leaders of heavy industry, on the contrary, viewed the international situation as very alarming. In their opinion, at this stage, capitalism was able to cope with its internal contradictions, and the nuclear monopoly gave the imperialist states a clear military superiority over the USSR. Consequently, the accelerated development of the country's military-industrial base should once again become the absolute priority of economic policy.
Approved by Stalin and adopted by the Supreme Soviet in the spring of 1946, the five-year plan meant a return to the pre-war slogan: the completion of the construction of socialism and the beginning of the transition to communism. Stalin believed that the war only interrupted this task. The process of building communism was considered by Stalin in a very simplified way, primarily as the achievement of certain quantitative indicators in several industries. For this, it is enough, allegedly, to bring the production of cast iron to 50 million tons per year within 15 years, steel to 60 million tons, oil to 60 million tons, coal to 500 million tons, i.e., to produce in 3 times more than what was achieved before the war.
Thus, Stalin decided to remain true to his pre-war industrialization scheme, based on the priority development of several basic branches of heavy industry. Later return to the development model of the 30s. was theoretically substantiated by Stalin in his work “The Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR” (1952), in which he argued that in the conditions of the growth of the aggressiveness of capitalism, the priorities of the Soviet economy should be the predominant development of heavy industry and the acceleration of the process of transforming agriculture towards greater socialization . The main direction of development in the post-war years again becomes the accelerated development of heavy industry at the expense and to the detriment of the development of the production of consumer goods and agriculture. Therefore, 88% of capital investments in industry were directed to the engineering industry and only 12% to light industry.
In order to increase efficiency, an attempt was made to modernize the governing bodies. In March 1946, a law was passed on the transformation of the Council People's Commissars USSR to the Council of Ministers of the USSR. However, the number of ministers grew, the administrative apparatus increased, and wartime forms of leadership were practiced, which became familiar. In fact, the government was carried out with the help of decrees and resolutions published on behalf of the party and government, but they were developed at meetings of a very narrow circle of leaders. For 13 years the Congress of the Communist Party was not convened. Only in 1952 did the next 19th congress meet, at which the party adopted a new name - the Communist Party Soviet Union. The Central Committee of the party, as an elected body of the collective management of the multi-million ruling party, also did not work. All the main elements that made up the mechanism of the Soviet state - the party, the government, the army, the Ministry of State Security, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, diplomacy, were directly subordinated to Stalin.
Relying on the spiritual uplift of the victorious people, the USSR already in 1948 succeeded in increasing the national income by 64% and reaching the pre-war level of industrial production. In 1950, the pre-war level of gross industrial production was surpassed by 73%, with an increase in labor productivity by 45%. Agriculture also reached pre-war levels of production. Although the accuracy of these statistics is criticized, the steep positive dynamics of the process of restoration of the national economy in 1946-1950. noted by all experts.
Science and technology developed at high rates in the postwar years, and the USSR reached the most advanced frontiers in a number of areas of science and technology. Domestic rocket science, aircraft engineering, and radio engineering have achieved major achievements. Significant progress has been made in the development of mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology, and chemistry. On August 29, 1949, an atomic bomb was tested in the USSR, developed by a large group of scientists and engineers led by I.V. Kurchatov.
The solution improved much more slowly social problems. The post-war years were difficult for the vast majority of the population. However, the first successes in the restoration of the national economy made it possible already in December 1947 (earlier than in most European countries) cancel the card system. At the same time, a monetary reform was carried out, which, although at first infringed on the interests of a limited segment of the population, led to a real stabilization of the monetary system and ensured the subsequent growth in the well-being of the people as a whole. Of course, neither the monetary reform nor the periodic price cuts led to a significant increase in the purchasing power of the population, but they contributed to the growth of interest in work and created a favorable social climate. At the same time, enterprises voluntarily-compulsorily carried out annual loans, subscription to bonds in the amount of at least a monthly salary. However, the population saw positive changes around, believed that this money goes to the restoration and development of the country.
To a large extent, the high rates of recovery and development of the industry were ensured by withdrawing funds from agriculture. During these years, the countryside lived especially hard, in 1950, in every fifth collective farm, cash payments for workdays were not made at all. Egregious poverty stimulated a massive outflow of peasants to the cities: about 8 million rural residents left their villages in 1946-1953. At the end of 1949, the economic and financial situation of the collective farms deteriorated so much that the government had to adjust its agrarian policy. Responsible for agrarian policy A.A. Andreev was replaced by N.S. Khrushchev. The subsequent measures to enlarge the collective farms were carried out very quickly - the number of collective farms decreased from 252 thousand to 94 thousand by the end of 1952. The enlargement was accompanied by a new and significant reduction in the individual allotments of the peasants, a reduction in payment in kind, which constituted a significant part of the collective farm earnings and was considered a great value , because it gave the peasants the opportunity to sell surplus products in the markets at high prices for cash.
The initiator of these reforms, Khrushchev, intended to complete the work he had begun with a radical and utopian change in the entire way of peasant life. In March 1951 Pravda published his project for the creation of "agricultural cities". The agro-city was conceived by Khrushchev as a real city in which the peasants, resettled from their huts, had to lead urban life in apartment buildings far from their individual allotments.
The post-war atmosphere in society carried a potential danger for the Stalinist regime, which was due to the fact that the extreme conditions of wartime awakened in a person the ability to think relatively independently, critically assess the situation, compare and choose solutions. As in the war with Napoleon, the mass of our compatriots went abroad, saw a qualitatively different standard of living for the population of European countries and asked themselves the question: “Why do we live worse?”. At the same time, in peacetime conditions, such stereotypes of wartime behavior as the habit of command and subordination, strict discipline and unconditional execution of orders remained tenacious.
The long-awaited common victory inspired people to rally around the authorities, and an open confrontation between the people and the authorities was impossible. Firstly, the liberating, just, nature of the war assumed the unity of society in confronting a common enemy. Secondly, people, tired of destroying, strove for peace, which became for them the highest value, excluding violence in any form. Thirdly, the experience of the war and the impressions of foreign campaigns forced us to reflect on the justice of the Stalinist regime, but very few thought about how, in what way to change it. The existing regime of power was perceived as an unchangeable given. Thus, the first post-war years were characterized by a contradiction in people's minds between a sense of the injustice of what was happening in their lives and the hopelessness of attempts to change it. At the same time, complete trust in the ruling party and the leadership of the country was predominant in society. Therefore, post-war difficulties were perceived as inevitable and surmountable in the near future. In general, the people were characterized by social optimism.
However, Stalin did not really count on these sentiments and gradually revived the practice of the repressive whip against the associates and the people. From the point of view of the leadership, it was necessary to "tighten up the reins" that had been loosened somewhat in the war, and in 1949 the repressive line was noticeably toughened. Among the political processes of the post-war period, the most famous was the "Leningrad case", under which they unite a whole series of cases fabricated against a number of prominent party, Soviet and economic workers of Leningrad, accused of departing from the party line.
Odious historical fame acquired "the case of doctors." On January 13, 1953, TASS reported on the arrest of a terrorist group of doctors, which allegedly aimed to shorten the lives of leading figures of the Soviet state through sabotage treatment. Only after Stalin's death was the decision of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU on the full rehabilitation and release of doctors and members of their families adopted.
International position and foreign policy of the Soviet Union after the Great Patriotic War and World War II. Cold War, Truman Doctrine. Internal policy of the USSR. Atomic weapons, agriculture. Socio-political and cultural life.
- Introduction
- 1.2 Korean conflict
- 2. Domestic politics the USSR
- 1.2 Atomic weapons
- 1.3 Agriculture
- Conclusion
Introduction
After the end of the Great Patriotic War and World War II, the Soviet Union faced a number of major domestic and foreign policy tasks: the restoration and development of the country's economy; development of relations with leading world powers; strengthening political system THE USSR.
Of particular importance was the issue of restoring the country's economy. Initially, like other European states, the Soviet Union counted on receiving foreign economic assistance. But despite the extreme interest of the Soviet leadership in this, many of the international requirements that accompanied the provision of loans and credits looked unacceptable to the USSR. After the deterioration of relations with the United States, obtaining loans in the West was excluded.
Excellent success has been achieved in the industrial sector. According to the results of the 4th five-year plan, it was possible to increase industrial output by 73% compared with 1940.
However, agriculture could not boast of such success. Despite the plight of the countryside, the state continued to withdraw agricultural products from the collective farms at prices that amounted to 5-10% of the cost.
Also, the first post-war years were characterized by projects for the formation of a political course related to the correction of economic development priorities towards the production of consumer goods, and measures to strengthen the monetary system. However, the outbreak of the Cold War crossed out such forecasts. A return to the methods of rigidly ideological education of the population, which was used in the 1930s, began.
In the first post-war years, the Soviet Union acquired the status of a "superpower". This fact has led to many changes in political course. The USSR, relying on the positions won in the war, began to defend its geopolitical interests on an equal footing, considering them much broader than the former allies expected.
Soviet Union World War
1. International Position and foreign policy of the USSR
Complication of the international situation. After World War II, profound changes took place in the international arena. The influence and authority of the USSR, which made the greatest contribution to the defeat of fascism, grew significantly. If in 1941 the USSR had diplomatic relations with only 26 countries, then in 1945 with 52. The influence of the USSR extended to a number of European states (Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia) and Asia (China, North Korea, North Vietnam). These countries, together with the USSR and Mongolia, constituted the socialist camp or the world socialist system. Representatives of communist and workers' parties came to power in these countries. They carried out the nationalization of industry, agrarian reforms, and established democratic freedoms. In these countries, the regime of people's democracy was established. Treaties of friendship and mutual assistance were concluded between the USSR and these states. These countries, together with the USSR and Mongolia, constituted the socialist camp or the world socialist system.
The USSR became a world power: not a single important issue of international life was resolved without its participation. The USSR, like the United States, began to strive to expand its sphere of influence. A new geopolitical situation has developed in the world.
The growing influence of the USSR worried the leaders of the leading world powers. Their attitude towards the USSR, yesterday's ally in the anti-Hitler coalition, has changed dramatically. They decided to limit the influence of the USSR, using, among other things, the nuclear factor. (The United States became the owner of atomic weapons in 1945. The American atomic bomb was tested on the opening day of the Potsdam Conference on July 17, 1945. On July 24, 1945, US President G. Truman informed I.V. Stalin about the presence in the United States of a new super-powerful weapon).
1.1 Cold War. Truman Doctrine
In relations between the USSR and the leading Western European countries, a " cold war" - a form of existence in the post-war world, the essence of which was the ideological confrontation between the pro-Soviet and pro-American blocs.
The beginning of the "cold war" was laid on March 5, 1946 in " Fulton speeches"the former Prime Minister of Great Britain W. Churchill. Speaking at the college of the American city of Fulton in the presence of US President G. Truman, W. Churchill first admitted that the military victories had put the Soviet Union into the "leading nations of the world", then noted that the USSR seeks "the unlimited expansion of its power and its doctrines. " This situation, in his opinion, should be of concern, since it represented a danger to the great principles of freedom and human rights. "Anglo-Saxon world." From now on, the United States and Great Britain should talk with the USSR with positions of power.
A year later, in 1947, W. Churchill's ideas regarding the USSR were developed in President G. Truman's message to the US Congress (" doctrine Truman"). In them, in relation to the USSR, 2 strategic tasks were defined:
· at least - to prevent further expansion of the sphere of influence of the USSR and its communist ideology ("doctrine of containment of socialism");
· maximum - to do everything to force the USSR to retreat to its former borders ("the doctrine of the rejection of socialism").
Specific economic, military, ideological measures were also identified to achieve these goals:
· provide large-scale economic assistance to European countries, making their economy dependent on the United States ("Marshall Plan");
· create a military-political union of these countries led by the United States;
· to use their armed forces for direct interference in the internal affairs of the countries of the Soviet sphere of influence;
· Place a network of US bases near the borders of the USSR (Greece, Turkey);
· support anti-socialist forces within the countries of the Soviet bloc.
The United States immediately began to implement the Truman Doctrine. The US insisted on including West Germany in the scope of the Marshall Plan. Western countries began to seek the economic stabilization of Germany and the creation of a German state based on the three Western zones of occupation.
Already in December 1946, the American and British occupation zones in Germany were united, in 1948 the French zone joined them. On June 20, 1948, a monetary reform was carried out there: the depreciated Reichsmark was replaced by a new German mark. This gave impetus to the restoration of the economy in these territories, but this was a clear violation of the agreements between the allies and the USSR on the joint solution of German problems. The single German economic space was violated. The USSR responded by blocking the roads leading from Berlin to the west. The blockade of Berlin began - the first open confrontation between the USSR and its former allies, which lasted 324 days.
During this time, the supply of the Allied troops in Berlin and the two million population of West Berlin was taken over by the Allied aviation, which organized an air bridge. Soviet troops did not interfere with the flights of aircraft over the territory of East Germany. In May 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) was formed in the western zones of influence.
In 1949, the military-political bloc of the North Atlantic Alliance was created ( NATO), which included the United States, Canada, a number of Western European countries and Turkey. In 1951, the ANZUS military-political bloc was created, consisting of the USA, Australia and New Zealand.
The leadership of the USSR regarded the course of the United States as a call to war. This immediately affected both the domestic and foreign policy of the USSR. The measures taken by the USSR in domestic and foreign policy were adequate, although less effective. The forces were unequal, since the USSR emerged from the war economically weakened, and the United States - strengthened. A "cold war" began in the world, which lasted about half a century (1946-1991).
The USSR began to actively assist the communist parties and movements in the capitalist countries, contributed to the growth of the national liberation movement, the collapse of the colonial system.
1.2 Korean conflict
The USSR began to pursue an active policy in Asia. Thus, the USSR contributed a lot to the fact that a revolution took place in China and in 1949 the PRC was created. In the early 50s. The USSR and the USA took part in Korean conflict. At the end of World War II, Korea was divided into two states. In 1950, the leadership of North Korea attempted to unite the country by force of arms. The Korean War broke out (1950-1953).
At first, the war was successful for North Korea, but soon the United States came out on the side of South Korea with the consent of the UN. Then China took the side of North Korea. The USSR transferred several divisions of fighter aviation to China, transferred a large number military equipment, provided the Chinese army with weapons, ammunition, transport, medicines, food. Five Soviet divisions were prepared for direct dispatch to North Korea. The war threatened to escalate into a world war. The American military command intended to use atomic weapons, and only the fear that the USSR would take similar retaliatory measures kept it from doing so. In addition to the USSR, the DPRK was assisted by the PRC and other socialist countries. With the establishment of the front line on the 38th parallel, the conflict lost its former sharpness and acquired a positional character. Massive bombardments of the DPRK (including napalm bombs) launched by the USA did not bring them military success, but contributed to the growth of anti-American sentiment in Asia. In 1953 I.V. died. Stalin, the Korean War was ended. started peace talks, as a result of which, on July 27, 1953, an armistice agreement was signed. Korea remained divided into two opposing states.
Thus, international relations in the second half of the 40s - early 50s. were difficult and even critical.
2. Internal policy of the USSR
The war turned out to be huge human and material losses for the USSR. It claimed almost 26.5 million human lives. 1,710 cities and urban-type settlements were destroyed, 70,000 villages and villages were destroyed, 31,850 plants and factories, 1,135 mines, and 65,000 km of railway lines were blown up and put out of action. The sown areas decreased by 36.8 million hectares. The country has lost about one-third of its national.
Therefore, in the first post-war years, the main task was to restore the destroyed national economy. The United States, according to the Marshall Plan, provided European countries with colossal financial assistance in economic recovery: for 1948-1951. European countries received $12.4 billion from the US. The US offered financial assistance to the Soviet Union, but subject to control on their part over the spending of the funds provided. The Soviet government rejected this assistance under such conditions. The Soviet Union was rebuilding its economy with its own resources.
Already at the end of May 1945, the State Defense Committee decided to transfer part of the defense enterprises to the production of consumer goods. A law was passed on the demobilization of 13 ages of army personnel. The demobilized were provided with a set of clothes and shoes, a one-time cash allowance, local authorities were supposed to employ them within a month. There have been changes in the structure of state bodies. In 1945, the State Defense Committee (GKO) was abolished. Its functions were again distributed between the Council of People's Commissars, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In accordance with the law of March 15, 1946, the Council of People's Commissars and People's Commissariats were transformed into the Council of Ministers of the USSR and ministries. Chairman of the Council of Ministers in 1946 - 1953 was still I.V. Stalin. The ministries were headed by members of the government, they carried out executive and administrative activities in the relevant sectors of the national economy and culture.
Since 1943, the management functions in the field of protecting state security and public order were carried out by the NKVD of the USSR (until 1946 - People's Commissar L.P. Beria, then - S.N. Kruglov) and the NKGB of the USSR (People's Commissar V.N. Merkulov, then - V.S. Abakumov). In 1946, the people's commissariats were renamed the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR and the Ministry of State Security of the USSR, respectively.
The normal regime of work was resumed at enterprises and institutions: the 8-hour working day was restored, annual paid holidays were restored. The state budget was revised, appropriations for the development of civilian sectors of the economy increased. The State Planning Commission prepared a 4-year plan for the restoration of the national economy for 1946-1950. Recovery and development of industry. In the field of industry, it was necessary to solve three critical tasks:
Demilitarize the economy
· to restore the destroyed enterprises;
carry out new construction.
The demilitarization of the economy was basically completed in 1946-1947. some drug commissariats were abolished military industry(tank, mortar weapons, ammunition). Instead, ministries of civilian production (agricultural, transport engineering, etc.) were created.
The construction of new industrial enterprises throughout the country has gained considerable momentum. In total, during the years of the first post-war five-year plan, 6,200 large enterprises were built and destroyed during the war were restored.
1.2 Atomic weapons
Since the Cold War began, the Soviet leadership in the post-war period Special attention devoted to the development of the defense industry, primarily the creation of atomic weapons. Work on the creation of atomic weapons began to be carried out in the USSR in 1943 under the leadership of the young physicist I.V. Kurchatov. After testing the US atomic bomb on July 16, 1945, I.V. Stalin ordered that work on the creation of atomic weapons be accelerated. On August 20, 1945, a Special Committee with emergency powers headed by L.P. Beria. On August 29, 1949, the first atomic bomb was detonated in the USSR. The United States has lost its monopoly on the possession of atomic weapons. It was an engineering and scientifically sophisticated plutonium bomb. Soviet scientists continued their developments and soon reached a higher level scientific research, significantly ahead of the Americans in creating a more advanced atomic weapon - the hydrogen bomb. One of its creators was A.D. Sakharov. The hydrogen bomb was tested in the USSR on August 12, 1953. It was 20 times more powerful than plutonium. next step Soviet scientists began to use the atom for peaceful purposes - in 1954 in the city of Obninsk near Moscow under the leadership of I.V. Kurchatov, the world's first nuclear power plant was built.
In general, industry was restored by 1947. The five-year plan for industrial output was fulfilled by a large margin: instead of the planned growth of 48%, the volume of industrial output in 1950 exceeded the 1940 level by 73%.
1.3 Agriculture
The war dealt particularly heavy damage to agriculture. Its gross output in 1945 did not exceed 60% of the pre-war level. Cultivation areas were greatly reduced, the number of large cattle was extremely low. The situation was aggravated by the drought unprecedented in the last 50 years in 1946 in Ukraine, Moldova, the Lower Volga region, and the North Caucasus. In 1946, the average yield was 4.6 centners per hectare. The famine caused a massive outflow of people to the cities.
In February 1947, the Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks considered the question "On measures to improve agriculture in the post-war period." It was decided to raise agriculture by the following measures:
Provide villages with agricultural machinery;
to improve the culture of agriculture.
To implement the planned plan, the production of agricultural machinery was increased, work was carried out on the electrification of the village.
In order to strengthen the collective farms in the early 1950s. the amalgamation of farms was carried out through the voluntary amalgamation of small collective farms into larger ones. Instead of 254,000 small collective farms, 93,000 large-scale farms were created in 1950. This contributed to the improvement of agricultural production, more efficient use of technology.
But the measures taken did not change the difficult situation in agriculture. Collective farmers were forced to live off their personal subsidiary plots. City dwellers planted orchards and orchards on collective farm lands.
And in the autumn of 1946 the state launched a broad campaign against horticulture and horticulture under the banner of squandering public lands and collective farm property. Personal subsidiary plots were cut down and heavily taxed. It got to the point of absurdity: every fruit tree was taxed. Taxes on income from sales in the market have been significantly increased. Market trade itself was allowed only to those peasants whose collective farms had fulfilled state deliveries. Each peasant farm was obliged to hand over to the state meat, milk, eggs, and wool as a tax for a land plot. In 1948, collective farmers were "recommended" to sell small livestock to the state, which caused a mass slaughter of pigs, sheep, and goats throughout the country (up to 2 million heads). In the late 40s - early 50s. dispossession of personal farms and the creation of new collective farms was carried out in the western regions of Ukraine, Belarus, in the Baltic republics, Right-Bank Moldova, annexed in 1939-1940. to the USSR. In these areas, mass collectivization was carried out.
Despite the measures taken, the situation in agriculture remained difficult. Agriculture could not meet the country's needs for food and agricultural raw materials. The socio-economic situation of the rural population also remained difficult. The payment for labor was purely symbolic, the collective farmers were not entitled to pensions, they did not have passports, they were not allowed to leave the village without the permission of the authorities. The plan of the 4th five-year plan for the development of agriculture was not fulfilled.
The development of agriculture was negatively affected by the position of a group of scientists headed by the scientist biologist and agronomist T.D. Lysenko.
In the early 30s. a conflict arose among scientists-breeders-genetics. In the southern regions of the country there was a constant threat of famine. Under these conditions, I.V. Stalin decided to entrust revolutionary tasks to agricultural science. In 1931, the Government of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution "On selection in seed production", according to which the country was to change varieties of cultivated plants from low-yielding to high-yielding ones within 2 years. Young scientist T.D. Lysenko, with a small group of his supporters at various meetings and congresses of collective farmers, promised that he would fulfill these tasks. This is how he attracted the attention of I.V. Stalin.
Any criticism of Lysenko's theory was qualified as sabotage. Similar attacks were made against other sciences: theoretical physics, cybernetics.
Monopoly T.D. Lysenko in biology led to the destruction of entire scientific schools, the death of many prominent scientists. T.D. Lysenko managed to achieve some results: to create high-yielding varieties of cereals, fruit trees, etc., but later it was proved that most of his ideas were nothing more than charlatanism based on pseudoscientific research and falsification of experimental results.
In 1950, the level of agricultural production reached the pre-war level, but fodder, grain, meat and dairy remained constant problems in agriculture. In 1947, the card system for food and industrial goods was abolished, and a monetary reform was carried out.
3. Socio-political and cultural life
In the post-war period, the restoration of the economy, the establishment of a peaceful life, required a huge spiritual tension of the whole society. Meanwhile, the creative and scientific intelligentsia, by their nature tending to expand creative contacts, hoped for the liberalization of life, the weakening of strict party-state control, and pinned their hopes on the development and strengthening of cultural contacts with the United States and Western countries. Comprehensive post-war cooperation was discussed at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences. In 1948, the UN adopted the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights", which stated that every person has the right to freedom of creativity and movement, regardless of frontiers.
But the international situation immediately after the war changed dramatically. Instead of cooperation in the relations between the former allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, confrontation began. Politicians reorganized quickly, the intelligentsia could not quickly reorganize. Some felt deceived, lost, which is reflected in their work.
The leadership of the USSR set a course for "tightening the screws" against the intelligentsia.
Since the summer of 1946, the authorities launched a broad offensive against " Western influence"on the development of national culture. In August 1946, a new magazine, Party Life, was created to take control of the development of culture, which, according to party officials, "suffered from ideological lethargy, the emergence of new ideas and foreign influences that undermined the spirit of communism" The campaign against "Westernism" was led by a member of the Politburo and Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, who was in charge of ideology, AA Zhdanov.
In March 1946, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution “On the magazines Zvezda and Leningrad.” These publications were accused of promoting ideas “alien to the spirit of the party”, providing a literary platform for “unprincipled, ideologically harmful works.” The work of the writers M. M. Zoshchenko and A. A. Akhmatova was subjected to criticism. Soviet people, which can be seen in the words put into the monkey's mouth: "It is better to live in a zoo than in the wild, and that it is easier to breathe in a cage than among Soviet people." The resolution noted that Zoshchenko preaches "rotten lack of ideas, vulgarity and apoliticality" with the aim of disorienting Soviet youth, "depicts the Soviet order and Soviet people in an ugly caricature form", and Akhmatova is a typical representative of "empty unprincipled poetry alien to our people", impregnated with " spirit of pessimism and decadence, old salon poetry". As a result, the journal "Leningrad" was closed, and the leadership in the journal "Zvezda" was replaced.A. A. Akhmatov and M.M. Zoshchenko was expelled from the Writers' Union (See additional textbook material).
Following literature, the "party leadership" of theater and cinema was "strengthened". On August 26, 1946, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution "On the repertoire of drama theaters and measures to improve it", which condemned the predominance of the classical repertoire in the country's theaters to the detriment of plays dedicated to "the pathos of the struggle for communism." And the few plays on modern themes found in the repertoires were criticized as weak and unprincipled, in which Soviet people appear "primitive and uncultured, with philistine tastes and mores."
In 1946, the authorities created a new weekly, Kultura i Zhizn, which soon launched a massive campaign against "decadent tendencies" in the theater and demanded that all plays by foreign authors be excluded from the repertoire.
The work of some composers was also criticized. The reason was the performance in 1947 of three works created for the anniversary of the October Revolution: the Sixth Symphony by S.S. Prokofiev, "Poems" by A.I. Khachaturian and the opera "The Great Friendship" by V.I. Muradeli. In February 1948, the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks "On decadent tendencies in Soviet music" was issued, where V.I. Muradeli, S.S. Prokofiev, D.D. Shostakovich, A.I. Khachaturyan, N.Ya. Myaskovsky. After the release of this resolution, a purge began in the Union of Composers. Criticized works were banned and removed from the theater repertoire.
The resolutions of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on cultural issues were, on the one hand, an example of gross administrative interference in culture, total suppression of the individual; on the other hand, it was a powerful lever for the regime's self-preservation.
In 1949, a broad campaign began in society against cosmopolitanism and "groveling before the West." "Rootless cosmopolitans" were found in many cities. At the same time, the disclosure of literary pseudonyms of Jewish writers began in order to emphasize who was hiding behind them.
Discussion on questions of linguistics. A notable phenomenon in public life country in 1950 became a "discussion on questions of linguistics."
Linguistics or linguistics was not considered one of the leading sciences in our country, but in this science, starting from the 1920s, a real struggle began, a hierarchy of power and influence was established. N.Ya. claimed the role of leader in this area. Marr.
Ideas N.Ya. Marr in the field of linguistics has always been extremely paradoxical, but this is what brought him fame. For example, N.Ya. Marr argued that the Georgian and Armenian languages are related, that languages can interbreed, giving life to new languages, and so on.
At the end of the 20s. he announced that he was starting an in-depth study of the works of K. Marx, F. Engels and V.I. Lenin. Soon he put forward a "new doctrine of language" (Japhetic theory), concerning the problems of the connection between the development of language and society. Language, according to N.Ya. Marr, should be considered from the point of view of historical materialism, as a superstructure over the basis: "There is no language that would not be class, and, consequently, there is no thinking that would not be class." "There is no national, national language, but there is a class language."
With new force discussion in linguistics flared up after the war. The defeat of opponents N.Ya. Marra continued throughout the country.
From all over the country to I.V. Stalin received thousands of complaints, memoranda and letters from scientists, but they all ended up in the secretariat. In 1950, the leadership of Georgia ensured that I.V. Stalin received a report-complaint of the leading linguist of Georgia, academician Arnold Chikobava, in which he simply and convincingly described the situation in linguistics. I.V. Stalin was surprised that major turns in science were taking place without his knowledge and decided to intervene in the discussion. He sat down to study books about language. On June 20, 1950, an article by I.V. Stalin "Regarding Marxism in Linguistics", in which the author wrote that there is no bourgeois and proletarian language, the language creates the people as a whole. Language is not a superstructure, but a means of communication for the whole people. “Do these comrades think that the English feudal lords communicated with the English people through translators, that they did not use English?” wrote I.V. Stalin. This concludes the discussion in linguistics.
In March 1952, the XIX Congress of the CPSU (b) took place, at which last time attended by I.V. Stalin. Economic issues were on the agenda of the congress: summarizing the results of the restoration of the national economy destroyed by the war and approving directives for a new five-year plan for the development of the national economy. At the congress, it was decided to rename the CPSU (b) into the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union). By this time, the number of party members had increased. If in 1939 there were about 1.6 million people in the CPSU (b), then in 1946 there were already about 6 million people in the CPSU (b), more than half of them were accepted into the party during and after the end of the Great Patriotic War. The role of the CPSU (b) in society was quite high. By this time, a branched and well-oiled mechanism had developed in the Party. organizational structure, rigid centralism was established, the party completely controlled and led all spheres of public life. There was no political opposition in the country. The "statutory norms of party life" were not in effect.
The supreme body of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (Bolsheviks) - the congress did not meet since March 1939, the Central Committee also ceased to function (from 1945 to 1952 only two plenums were held). The Politburo has lost its significance. It has turned from a permanent collegiate body into a meeting of a narrow circle of close associates of I.V. Stalin, convened at his will. No minutes of the meetings were kept. Party organs continued to permeate the entire structure of state power and administration.
In recent years, I.V. Stalin was alone: there was no one around loved one, children Vasily and Svetlana did not please. On the night of March 2, 1953, at the dacha in Kuntsevo, I.V.
Stalin suffered a cerebral hemorrhage with loss of consciousness, speech, paralysis of the right arm and leg. When, on the morning of March 2, the head of the bodyguard reported what had happened to his leadership, a call came from the Minister of the Interior, L.P. Beria did not tell anyone anything. For more than 13 hours, comrades-in-arms left I.V. Stalin without medical assistance. On March 5, 1953, at 9:50 pm, without regaining consciousness, I.V. Stalin is dead. His death was a real grief for the Soviet people. Huge masses of those wishing to say goodbye to him rushed to the Hall of Columns, where the coffin was displayed. People walked in an endless stream, several thousand Muscovites and visitors died in the stampede. Body I.V. Stalin was placed in the Mausoleum next to V.I. Lenin.
With the death of this man, the complex, ambiguous, but undoubtedly heroic history of Soviet society ended.
A few years later, recalling his front-line ally and political enemy, W. Churchill called I.V. Stalin as an eastern tyrant and a great politician who "took Russia" with a bast shoe, and left him with atomic weapons.
Conclusion
So we can draw the following conclusions:
after the Second World War, the status and influence of the USSR grew to such an extent that international community could not ignore him. The possession of a nuclear bomb made the position of the Soviet Union even more secure;
USSR in the territories it occupied of Eastern Europe imposed on these countries his model of the socialist orientation of the development of the state of the communist-Stalinist type;
the confrontation of the USSR with the USA, Britain and France led to the division of Germany and the formation of political and military-political blocs - NATO, ANZUS, Cominformburo, the organization of the Warsaw Pact countries;
the confrontation between two opposing socio-economic systems developed into an armed confrontation and became the reason for the start of the "cold war";
the demographic losses of the USSR in the war were monstrous; they made up one sixth of the active population;
the standard of living of the population was lower than in prewar years due to a significant increase in prices for food and household industrial goods, and the level of wages was raised slightly; there was a catastrophic lack of housing; most of the state's investments were in heavy industry, defense, and international aid;
the scale of losses in industry and agriculture was monstrous; practically on the entire territory that was under occupation, the entire industrial base was destroyed and collective farms and state farms were devastated; however, the country's leadership set a course for the accelerated development of the country's military-industrial base, and this led to a very slow pace of recovery in the post-war period;
forced collectivization, restrictions on trade in their products and a decrease in the rights and freedoms of the rural population led to the outflow of peasants from the countryside to the cities;
the influx of unskilled labor from rural areas to enterprises led to a crisis, which resulted in very limited growth in labor productivity, problems of industrial discipline, marriage in work, high staff turnover;
the forced return of the territories of the Baltic countries and Western Ukraine to the USSR, the policy pursued there forever ruined relations; the hatred and dissatisfaction towards Russia that arose in those days have remained to this day, and at the present time there are great difficulties in relations with these countries;
deportation and repressions against many small peoples living in the USSR led to an aggravation of interethnic relations, to a problem that our country is still solving;
the concentration camp system reached its apogee; thanks to the unlimited human resources of the GULAG, new hard-to-reach areas were developed, which are still being exploited;
tightening control over art, science, and literature led to the fact that many creative figures ceased their activities; the ban in science on the development of new promising areas of knowledge has led to complete stagnation; foreign science overtook Russia for many decades in the study and application of scientific achievements;
in the conditions of the administrative-command system, Stalin's personality cult, a deep contradiction arose between the need for changes in the socio-political and economic spheres and the inability of the country's leadership to recognize and implement these changes.
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LESSON PLAN 1. General patterns of political and economic development of the USSR after the Second World War. 2. USSR in the last years of Stalin's life (1945 - 1953). 3. USSR during Khrushchev's "thaw" (1953 - 1964). 4. The era of "stagnation" in the USSR (1964 - 1985). 5. Perestroika and the collapse of the USSR (1985 - 1991).
USSR - A TOTALITAR STATE, the state exercised total control over all spheres of society. In the USSR, the state exercised total control over all spheres of society (the leadership of organizations allowed in the country consisted either of communists or of people who enjoyed full confidence from the CPSU).
USSR - A TOTALITAR STATE no free democratic elections were held The USSR did not hold free democratic elections (one candidate from the CPSU was nominated for the elections, and the results of the elections, as a rule, were falsified). Election propaganda poster. Election ballot of 1939.
USSR - A TOTALITAR STATE was deprived of its role supreme body Legislative power The Soviet Parliament (Supreme Soviet of the USSR) was deprived of its role as the supreme body of legislative power. The deputies only approved those legislative acts that were offered to them by the executive branch of power. The Parliament was practically not involved in lawmaking. The meeting of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in the 1970s.
USSR - A TOTALITAR STATE repressive organs In the life of the Soviet state, repressive organs played an important role. “If you did not sit in this country, then this is not your merit, but our shortcoming” (Felix Dzerzhinsky). Headquarters of the NKVD-KGB on Lubyanka and the founder of this organization, Felix Dzerzhinsky.
USSR - A TOTALITAR STATE, all those who disagreed with the regime were persecuted. In the USSR, all those who disagreed with the regime were persecuted. Peak political repression fell on 1937 - 1940 and the first post-war years. The labor of prisoners was widely used in the Gulag camps. Map of the Gulag. "Inhabitants" of the Gulag.
USSR - A TOTALITAR STATE censorship There was censorship in the country. Many literary works, theatrical performances and feature films were declared prohibited. The media provided information beneficial to the ruling regime. Soviet newspapers. Caricature of censorship.
USSR - A TOTALITAR STATE human rights violations Human rights violations took place in the USSR. They were massive and ubiquitous, despite the fact that the Constitution declared almost all the democratic rights and freedoms of citizens. "Freedom of speech." "The right to work."
USSR IS A TOTALITAR STATE control over prices, wages and investments The Soviet government imposed controls on prices, wages and investments. Name of product Price Rye bread 0.16 Boiled sausage 2.10 Matches 0.01 Wheat vodka 5.00 Cosmos cigarettes 0.70 Smena camera 16.00 Radio receiver 90.00 Zhiguli VAZ, 00 AI gasoline -760.20 Specialty Salary Student 40.00 Ml. researcher 80.00 Doctor 90.00 Ordinary engineer 110.00 Head of department 130.00 PhD 150.00 Professor 220.00 Academician 500.00 National artist USSR800.00 Wholesaler-farmer 1200.00 Dynamo Kyiv football player 3000.00 Price and wage level in the USSR in 1980.
USSR - A TOTALITAR STATE The state actively intervened in the economy The state actively intervened in the economy. Special state bodies were engaged in planning the entire production cycle. There was no competition. The building of the State Planning Committee and the propaganda poster of the sixth five-year plan.
The USSR - A TOTALITAR STATE could not successfully compete on world markets Soviet goods could not successfully compete on world markets with goods produced in the West (with the exception of aerospace products and weapons). "Zaporozhets" and the first Soviet computer of the AT series.
USSR In 1945-1953, World War II inflicted enormous damage on the USSR. The death toll amounted to a person, about a person lost their homes. Cities and towns, villages and villages were destroyed, industrial enterprises, near collective farms and state farms were destroyed. Dead Soviet soldiers. Destroyed Soviet cities.
USSR IN 1945-1953 Stalin's personality cult After the end of World War II, Stalin's personality cult finally took shape. All decisions took effect only after their approval by the leader. Meetings of the highest leading bodies of the party and the state were held irregularly. Leaders are no longer accountable to the people. Stalin and his inner circle.
USSR In 1945-1953, the “Leningrad case” was “the case of doctors” At the turn of the 1940s and 1950s, repressions began again. Many of the former prisoners of war were sent to Stalin's camps. According to the so-called "Leningrad case" arrested about a man, most of whom were destroyed. The so-called. "doctors' business". Soviet soldiers in German captivity. Kremlin doctors.
KHRUSHCHEV'S "THAW" IN THE USSR (1953 - 1964) March 5, 1953 Joseph Stalin died on March 5, 1953 as a result of a cerebral hemorrhage. The funeral procession with the coffin of I.V. Stalin is sent from the House of the Unions to Red Square. Leaders of the party and state with the coffin of I.V. Stalin on Red Square (in the foreground, from left to right: L.P. Beria, K.E. Voroshilov, N.S. Khrushchev).
Khrushchev's "thaw" in the USSR (1953 - 1964) Lavrenty Beria Lavrenty Beria took over as Minister of the Interior and oversaw the state security agencies. In his hands was the entire repressive and punitive apparatus created under Stalin. In 1953 he was shot as an "enemy of the people". Lavrenty Beria.
Khrushchev's "thaw" in the USSR (1953 - 1964) XX Congress of the CPSU (1956) "On the cult of personality and its consequences" At the XX Congress of the CPSU (1956) Khrushchev made a report "On the cult of personality and its consequences", in which he presented numerous the facts of Stalin's crimes. Cases of arbitrariness against honest people became public. After the 20th Congress, mass rehabilitation of the illegally repressed began in the USSR. Report of Nikita Khrushchev at the 20th Congress of the CPSU (February 1956).
KHRUSHCHEV'S "THAW" IN THE USSR (1953 - 1964) The condemnation of Stalin and his policies provoked resistance from the "old guard". In June 1957, her behavior was condemned, and members of the "anti-party group" were removed from the leading bodies of the party and the state (but not shot!). Vyacheslav Molotov. Lazar Kaganovich. Georgy Malenkov.
Khrushchev's "thaw" in the USSR (1953-1964) Khrushchev's reign was marked by a number of major campaigns and reorganizations, especially in the field of agriculture. development of virgin lands The development of virgin lands caused great harm to the agriculture of the USSR. Young people go to develop virgin lands. Medal "For the development of virgin lands".
Khrushchev's "thaw" in the USSR (1953-1964) growing corn Another scam of Khrushchev was the cultivation of corn in places where it did not give good harvests. Corn was grown at the expense of other crops. "Corn is the queen of the fields."
Khrushchev's "Thaw" in the USSR (1953-1964) October 14, 1964 Khrushchev's extremely inconsistent policy led to his resignation on October 14, 1964. The press reported that Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev retired for health reasons. The resignation of Nikita Khrushchev. Nikita Khrushchev retired.
THE ERA OF "STAGGING" IN THE USSR (1964 - 1985) Alexei Kosygin Alexei Kosygin became the head of the government under Brezhnev. He proposed a large-scale economic reform, which could give a powerful impetus to the development of the Soviet economy. However, the narrow focus of the reform and the growth of Kosygin's authority led to its collapse. Alexei Kosygin.With US President Lyndon Johnson.
THE ERA OF STAGGER In the USSR (1964-1985) dissidence Andrey Sakharov Alexander Solzhenitsyn Attempts to rehabilitate Stalin, the tightening of the regime and stagnation in the economy gave rise to dissidence led by Andrei Sakharov and Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The dissidents published amateur publications, published their works in the West, reported to the world the facts of human rights violations in the USSR. Andrei Sakharov (left) and Alexander Solzhenitsyn (right).
PERESTROIKA AND DISINTEGRATION OF THE USSR (1985 - 1991) Mikhail Gorbachev In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected to the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. He immediately announced the priorities of his policy: perestroika perestroika (reforming the regime within the framework of the socialist system); acceleration-acceleration (reforming the economy and accelerating the pace of its development); glasnost - glasnost (giving the people the right to freely receive information). Mikhail Gorbachev.
PERESTROIKA AND THE COLLAPSE OF THE USSR (1985 - 1991) Gorbachev and his entourage were not sure of the correctness of the chosen path. Economic and political reforms did not give the desired result. Dissatisfaction with the policy of the new leader began to grow in the country. The results of perestroika. "The process has begun!"
PERESTROIKA AND DISINTEGRATION OF THE USSR (1985 - 1991) the foreign policy of the USSR Gorbachev radically changed the foreign policy of the USSR. He began to meet with Western leaders, abandoned the "Brezhnev Doctrine", withdrew troops from Afghanistan and signed a number of treaties to limit and eliminate certain types of nuclear missiles. Gorbachev agreed to the unification of Germany in 1990. Reagan and Gorbachev. Withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.
Perestroika and collapse of the USSR (1985 - 1991) By the beginning of 1991, the situation inside the country had become seriously aggravated. The USSR was on the verge of collapse. On August 19, 1991, the GKChP was created On August 19, 1991, the GKChP (State Committee for the State of Emergency) was created, which tried to remove Gorbachev and seize power. The democratic forces led by Boris Yeltsin succeeded in suppressing the August coup. GKChP. Defenders of the White House.
Perestroika and collapse of the USSR (1985 - 1991) December 8, 1991 in Belovezhskaya Pushcha (Boris Yeltsin) (Leonid Kravchuk) (Stanislav Shushkevich) announced the termination of the existence of the USSR December 8, 1991 in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, the leaders of Russia (Boris Yeltsin), Ukraine (Leonid Kravchuk), and Belarus (Stanislav Shushkevich) announced the demise of the USSR. Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Two weeks later, a decision was made to form the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Kravchuk (left), Shushkevich (center) and Yeltsin (right) after the signing of the Belovezhskaya Accords.
PERESTROIKA AND DISINTEGRATION OF THE USSR (1985 - 1991) On December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as President of the USSR On December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as President of the USSR. The legal successor of the Soviet Union in the international arena was the Russian Federation. Mikhail Gorbachev's televised address to the peoples of the Soviet Union (December 25, 1991): "Due to the current situation ... I stop my activities as President of the USSR."
Lecture plan:
Foreign policy of the USSR in the postwar years. "Cold War" as a form of interstate confrontation.
Restoration of the national economy after the Great Patriotic War.
Socio-political life in the country during the period of late Stalinism.
1. The Second World War dramatically changed the balance of power on the world stage. On the one hand, during the years of the war, the United States, which concentrated the vast majority of world industrial production and gold and foreign exchange reserves, became the leader of the Western world. On the other hand, the military and political influence of the USSR increased significantly, which not only emerged from international isolation, but became a recognized great power. He was recognized the right to part of East Prussia, South Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands. The Yalta and Potsdam agreements recognized the interests of the USSR in Eastern Europe.
After the defeat of the common enemy - fascism - the world again split into hostile blocs, the world war was replaced by the "cold war", which was characterized by the division of the world into two opposite, opposing socio-economic and military systems of states that had developed around two nuclear superpowers, accompanied by confrontation in the socio-economic, political, ideological and military fields.
The question of who is to blame for starting the Cold War has no clear answer, with both sides blaming each other. It would be more correct to say that both the USA and the USSR are to blame.
The West was frightened by the growing influence of the USSR in the countries of Eastern Europe, the growing popularity of communist parties in a number of Western countries (France, Italy, etc.). In a speech by W. Churchill in Fulton (USA) in March 1946, in a message to Congress by US President G. Truman (February 1947), two goals were defined in relation to the USSR. First: to prevent further expansion of the sphere of influence of the USSR (the doctrine of "containment of communism"). The second is to push the socialist system back to the pre-war borders, and then liquidate it in Russia itself (the doctrine of "rejecting communism").
In turn, the USSR sought to strengthen its influence in the countries that embarked on the path of socialism, in new regions of the world. The Soviet leadership refused to participate in the "Marshall Plan" and insisted on the adoption of similar decisions by the governments of countries within its sphere of influence.
The stumbling block in relations between the USSR and the countries of the West was the German question. Instead of creating a single all-German state, the governments of the USA, Britain and France in their zones of occupation on May 23, 1949 created the FRG. In response to this, the GDR was created in the Soviet zone. Thus, the German people was split for several decades.
Another manifestation of the "cold war" was the creation of military-political blocs, and again the palm belongs to the United States. In 1949, the North Atlantic bloc (NATO) was created from the USA, Canada and 10 European countries, in 1954 - the organization of Southeast Asia (SEATO). As a response, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) was created, and in 1955, the Warsaw Military-Political Treaty (OVD).
Thus, the results of the foreign policy activities of the USSR were contradictory. On the one hand, its positions in the international arena were strengthened, and, on the other hand, the policy of confrontation between East and West contributed to the growth of tension in the world.
As noted above, the USSR emerged from the war with huge losses and destruction. In the field of economics, three interrelated tasks were solved: the restructuring of industry in a peaceful way, the restoration of what was destroyed during the war years, and new construction. In March 1946, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR approved the plan assignments for the fourth five-year plan (1946-1950), which went down in history as the restoration five-year plan. There was a return to the pre-war model of economic development. As before, the main emphasis was placed on the development of heavy industry to the detriment of light industry and agriculture. The plan provided for an increase in industrial output by 48% compared with the pre-war level, and agricultural output by 23%.
The demilitarization of the economy was completed by 1947, although it was of a partial nature, since in the conditions of the Cold War huge funds were invested in the modernization of the military-industrial complex and in the development of new types of weapons. In 1949, the USSR successfully tested an atomic bomb, and in 1953, for the first time in the world, a hydrogen bomb. Direct military spending then absorbed about 25% of the annual budget - only two times less than in 1944.
Heavy industry was another area of preferential investment of capital. In a short time, the Dneproges, the mines of Donbass, the metallurgical and machine-building plants of Ukraine and Russia were restored. The territories annexed before the war - the Baltic republics, Moldova, the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus - turned from agrarian into industrial ones. Positive shifts also took place in the light industry: for the first time, mass production of complex consumer goods was launched - Pobeda and Moskvich cars, motorcycles, radios, televisions, etc. Holidays and the 8-hour working day were restored.
In general, during the years of the fourth five-year plan, 6,200 large enterprises were restored and rebuilt. Industrial production exceeded pre-war figures by 73%. Here are the reasons for this growth:
high mobilization opportunities of the directive economy;
the labor enthusiasm of the Soviet people, the development of socialist competition;
reparations from Germany (worth 4.3 billion dollars), which provided up to half of the volume of equipment installed in industry;
free labor of Gulag prisoners and prisoners of war (1.5 million Germans and 0.5 million Japanese);
redistribution of funds from light industry and the social sphere in favor of heavy industry;
the confiscatory monetary reform of 1947 (10 old rubles were exchanged for 1 new one) and forced state loans, the purchase of bonds of which took an average of 1-1.5 monthly salaries of workers and employees annually (in total, 11 loans were placed in 1946-1956 );
traditional transfer of funds from agriculture to industry.
A few words about agriculture, which came out of the war extremely weakened. In 1945, its gross output was 60% of the pre-war level. There was a lack of equipment - in many villages, peasants plowed on cows or even harnessed themselves to plows. The severe drought of 1946 led to the fact that about 1 million people died of starvation and disease, although the famine was not officially recognized.
The authorities continued to consider the countryside, first of all, as a source of savings for the restoration of industry. The expenses of collective farms for the production of milk were reimbursed through state purchases only by 20%, grain - by 10%, meat - by 5%. There was also an attack on the subsidiary farm, due to which the collective farmers survived - in 1947 they were “strongly recommended” to sell small livestock to the state. As a result, about 2 million heads of cattle were secretly slaughtered. Taxes were raised on income from sales in the markets. In addition, it was possible to trade on the market only if there was a certificate stating that the collective farm had fully fulfilled its obligations to the state.
Such an agrarian policy made it difficult to supply the population with food, and light industry with raw materials. The anti-peasant policy of the government, which suppressed any initiative from below, doomed the countryside to chronic unprofitability. The peasants tried with all their might to move to the city (in 1946-1953, up to 8 million villagers moved to the cities).
The situation of the people was quite difficult, in the cities the standard of living of 1928 was achieved only by 1954. Nevertheless, compulsory primary education was restored and a course was taken for universal compulsory incomplete secondary. The number of universities increased by 112 units. In 1946 - 1953 was restored and built up to 103 million square meters. m of housing.
The return to the economic model of the 1930s caused serious tension in society, to which was added the tightening of political and ideological measures. After the end of the Great Patriotic War, the restructuring of the country's administration began, the return from military methods to peaceful ones. But the forms of leadership that took root during the war years and became habitual continued to be practiced. If during the war years control in the ideological and political sphere was somewhat weakened, now the authorities have again tried to restore control over the minds.
In the second half of the 1940s, mass repressions began. They affected former prisoners of war, many of whom were sent to concentration camps or sentenced to exile. Citizens who somehow collaborated with the occupiers were punished. The most serious was the "Leningrad case" of 1948, when they were accused of creating an anti-party group and carrying out wrecking work, the chairman of the State Planning Commission N. Voznesensky, the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU A. Kuznetsov, the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR M. Rodionov, the head of the Leningrad party organization Popkov and others In total, about 200 people were brought to justice. A number of them were shot.
From the end of 1948, a campaign began against cosmopolitanism, against "admiration for foreignness." Ideological control was extended to all spheres of spiritual life, the party acted as a legislator in linguistics, biology, mathematics, condemning some sciences as bourgeois. Such a fate befell wave mechanics, cybernetics, psychoanalysis, and genetics, causing Soviet science to lag behind in many fields of knowledge. Prominent philosophers, economists, historians were sharply criticized, who, in particular, were ordered to consider the oprichnina terror of Ivan the Terrible, as well as the terror of the Jacobins during the Great French Revolution, as exceptionally progressive and justified.
A number of “ideological resolutions” of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks were adopted “On the magazines Zvezda and Leningrad”, “On the repertoire of drama theaters and measures to improve it”, “On the film “Big Life”, “On Muradeli’s opera “Great Friendship "and others. They gave a signal for public persecution of such cultural figures as A. Akhmatova, M. Zoshchenko, E. Kazakevich, S. Prokofiev, D. Shostakovich, G. Kozintsev, V. Pudovkin and others. The campaign was aimed at limiting creativity the framework of "party spirit" and "socialist realism".
On October 5, 1952, the 19th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks opened, at which changes took place in the highest party structures. The Politburo was replaced by a more cumbersome Presidium of 36 members. The staff of the secretariat was increased to 10 people, and the composition of the Central Committee reached 232 people. In addition, a narrower body was created - the Bureau of the Presidium, nine members of which Stalin appointed personally. But in fact, all issues were resolved in a close circle, consisting of Stalin, Malenkov, Khrushchev, Beria and Bulganin.
Difficulties in the economic sphere, ideologization of social and political life, increased international tension - these were the results of the development of society in the first post-war years. During this period, the regime of personal power of I.V. Stalin became even stronger, the command-administrative system became tougher. During these years, the idea of the need for changes in society was more and more clearly formed in the public consciousness. Stalin's death (March 1953) facilitated the search for a way out of the contradictions that entangled all spheres of public life.
Logic exercises
What were the differences between the main socio-political processes that took place after the war in the West and in the USSR? Were there similarities between them?
What were the main goals of the foreign policy of the USSR and the stages of its development after the war?
Why did the hopes for the normalization of relations with Western countries in the post-war period not come true? Who is to blame for unleashing the Cold War? What impact did the aggravation of the international situation have on the domestic political processes in the country?
What were the objectives of economic policy after the war? Due to what success was achieved in the development of industry?
What are the reasons for the deployment of a new round of repression in the post-war period?
Bibliography
Vert N. History of the Soviet state. 1900-1991. - M., 1992.
Story Russia. XX century. / A.N. Bokhanov, M.M. Gorinov, V.P. Dmitrenko and others - M., 1996.
Zubkova E.Yu. Society and reforms. 1945 - 1964. - M., 1993.
Medvedev R.A. They surrounded Stalin. - M., 1990.
Chuev F. One hundred and forty conversations with Molotov. - M., 1991.
