Union SSR what. USSR - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

20.11.201927.05.2017

Russians harness for a long time, but they go fast
Winston Churchill

USSR (union of Soviet socialist republics), this form of statehood has replaced Russian Empire. The country began to be ruled by the proletariat, which achieved this right by committing October revolution, which was nothing more than an armed coup within the country, bogged down in its internal and external problems. Not the last role in this state of affairs was played by Nicholas 2, who actually drove the country into a state of collapse.

Country Education

The formation of the USSR took place on November 7, 1917 in a new style. It was on this day that the October Revolution took place, which overthrew the Provisional Government and the fruits of February Revolution, proclaiming the slogan that power should belong to the workers. This is how the USSR, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was formed. Definitely evaluate Soviet period Russian history is extremely difficult, because it was very controversial. Without a doubt, we can say that at this time there were both positive and negative moments.

Capital Cities

Initially, the capital of the USSR was Petrograd, in which the revolution actually took place, which brought the Bolsheviks to power. At first, there was no question of moving the capital, since the new government was too weak, but later this decision was made. As a result, the capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was moved to Moscow. This is quite symbolic, since the creation of the Empire was due to the transfer of the capital to Petrograd from Moscow.

The fact of the transfer of the capital to Moscow today is associated with the economy, politics, symbolism and much more. In fact, everything is much simpler. By moving the capital, the Bolsheviks saved themselves from other contenders for power in the conditions civil war.

Country leaders

The foundations of the power and prosperity of the USSR are connected with the fact that there was relative stability in the leadership in the country. There was a clear single line of the party, and leaders who had been at the head of the state for a long time. It is interesting that the closer the country came to collapse, the more often the General Secretaries changed. In the early 1980s, leapfrog began: Andropov, Ustinov, Chernenko, Gorbachev - the country did not have time to get used to one leader, when another appeared in his place.

The general list of leaders is as follows:

Lenin. Leader of the world proletariat. One of the ideological inspirers and implementers of the October Revolution. Laid the foundations of the state.
Stalin. One of the most controversial historical figures. With all the negativity that the liberal press pours on this person, the fact is that Stalin raised industry from its knees, Stalin prepared the USSR for war, Stalin began to actively develop a socialist state.
Khrushchev. Gained power after the assassination of Stalin, developed the country and managed to adequately resist the United States in the Cold War.
Brezhnev. The era of his reign is called the era of stagnation. Many mistakenly associate this with the economy, but there was no stagnation there - all indicators were growing. There was stagnation in the party, which was decaying.
Andropov, Chernenko. They didn't really do anything, they pushed the country to collapse.
Gorbachev. The first and last president of the USSR. Today they hang all the dogs on him, accusing him of the collapse of the Soviet Union, but his main fault was that he was afraid to take active steps against Yeltsin and his supporters, who actually staged a conspiracy and a coup d'état.

Another fact is also interesting - the best rulers were those who found the time of revolution and war. The same applies to party leaders. These people understood the value of the socialist state, the significance and complexity of its existence. As soon as people came to power who had not seen a war, much less a revolution, everything went to pieces.

Formation and achievements

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics began its formation with the Red Terror. This is a sad page in the history of Russia, a huge number of people were killed by the Bolsheviks, who sought to strengthen their power. The leaders of the Bolshevik Party, realizing that they could only retain power by force, killed everyone who could somehow interfere with the formation of the new regime. It is outrageous that the Bolsheviks, as the first people's commissars and the people's police, i.e. those people who were supposed to keep order were recruited by thieves, murderers, homeless people, etc. In a word, all those who were objectionable in the Russian Empire and tried in every possible way to take revenge on everyone who was somehow connected with it. The apogee of these atrocities was the murder of the royal family.

After the formation of the new system, the USSR, headed until 1924 Lenin V.I. got a new leader. They became Joseph Stalin. His control became possible after he won the power struggle with Trotsky. During the reign of Stalin, industry began to develop at a tremendous pace, Agriculture. Knowing about the growing power of Nazi Germany, Stalin pays great attention to the development of the country's defense complex. In the period from June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was involved in a bloody war with Germany, from which it emerged victorious. The Great Patriotic War cost the Soviet state millions of lives, but this was the only way to preserve the freedom and independence of the country. The post-war years were difficult for the country: hunger, poverty and rampant banditry. Stalin brought order to the country with a hard hand.

International Position

After the death of Stalin and until the collapse of the USSR, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics developed dynamically, overcoming a huge number of difficulties and obstacles. The USSR was involved in the US arms race, which continues to this day. It was this race that could become fatal for all mankind, since both countries were in constant confrontation as a result. This period of history is known as the Cold War. Only the prudence of the leadership of both countries managed to keep the planet from new war. And this war, taking into account the fact that both nations were already nuclear at that time, could become fatal for the whole world.

The space program of the country stands apart from the entire development of the USSR. It was the Soviet citizen who first flew into space. It was Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin. The United States responded to this manned space flight with its first manned flight to the moon. But the Soviet flight into space, unlike the American flight to the moon, does not raise so many questions, and experts have not a shadow of a doubt that this flight really took place.

Population of the country

Every decade the Soviet country showed population growth. And this despite the multimillion-dollar victims of the Second World War. The key to increasing the birth rate was the social guarantees of the state. The diagram below shows data on the population of the USSR as a whole and the RSFSR in particular.

You should also pay attention to the dynamics of urban development. The Soviet Union was becoming an industrial, industrial country, the population of which gradually moved from the countryside to the cities.

By the time the USSR was formed, there were 2 million-plus cities in Russia (Moscow and St. Petersburg). By the time the country collapsed, there were already 12 such cities: Moscow, Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Omsk, Kazan, Chelyabinsk, Rostov-on-Don, Ufa and Perm. The union republics also had cities with a million inhabitants: Kyiv, Tashkent, Baku, Kharkov, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Dnepropetrovsk, Odessa, Donetsk.

USSR map

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics collapsed in 1991, when the leaders of the Soviet republics announced their secession from the USSR in the white forest. Thus, all the Republics gained independence and self-sufficiency. The opinion of the Soviet people was not taken into account. The referendum, held just before the collapse of the USSR, showed that the vast majority of people declared that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics should be preserved. A handful of people, headed by the chairman of the Central Committee of the CPSU, MS Gorbachev, decided the fate of the country and the people. It was this decision that plunged Russia into the harsh reality of the "nineties". This is how the Russian Federation. Below is a map of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Economy

The economy of the USSR was unique. For the first time, a system was demonstrated to the world in which the focus was not on profit, but on public goods and employee incentives. In general, the economy of the Soviet Union can be divided into 3 stages:

Before Stalin. We are not talking about any economy here - the revolution has just died down in the country, there is a war going on. Nobody seriously thought about economic development The Bolsheviks held power.
Stalinist model of the economy. Stalin implemented a unique idea of the economy, which made it possible to raise the USSR to the level of the leading countries of the world. The essence of his approach is total labor and the correct “pyramid of distribution of funds”. Proper distribution of funds - when workers receive no less than managers. Moreover, the basis of the salary was bonuses for achieving results and bonuses for innovation. The essence of such bonuses is as follows - 90% was received by the employee himself, and 10% was divided between the team, shop, and bosses. But the worker himself received the main money. Therefore, there was a desire to work.
After Stalin. After Stalin's death, Khrushchev reversed the pyramid of the economy, after which a recession began and a gradual drop in growth rates. Under Khrushchev and after him, an almost capitalist model was formed, when managers received much more workers, especially in the form of bonuses. Bonuses were now divided differently: 90% for the boss and 10% for everyone else.

The Soviet economy is unique because before the war it actually managed to rise from the ashes after the civil war and revolution, and this happened in just 10-12 years. So when economists today different countries and journalists keep saying that it is impossible to change the economy in 1 election term (5 years) - they simply do not know history. Two Stalinist five-year plans turned the USSR into a modern power, which had a foundation for development. Moreover, the basis for all this was laid in 2-3 years of the first five-year plan.

I also suggest looking at the chart below, which presents data on the average annual growth of the economy as a percentage. Everything we talked about above is reflected in this diagram.

Union republics

The new period of the country's development was due to the fact that several republics existed within the framework of a single state of the USSR. Thus, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had the following composition: Russian SSR, Ukrainian SSR, Belorussian SSR, Moldavian SSR, Uzbek SSR, Kazakh SSR, Georgian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Lithuanian SSR, Latvian SSR, Kirghiz SSR, Tajik SSR, Armenian SSR, Turkmen SSR, Estonian SSR.

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( Soviet Union, THE USSR)- one of the first socialist states in the history of mankind, which existed from December 30, 1922 to December 26, 1991.

The Soviet Union occupied 1/6 of the inhabited land and was the world's largest state in terms of area (22.4 million km²). After World War II, the Soviet Union had land borders with Norway, Finland, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania in the west, with Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan in the south, with, and in the southeast.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed by the decision of the First All-Union Congress of Soviets on December 30, 1922, when the fraternal Soviet republics, Transcaucasian SFSR, Byelorussian SSR and Ukrainian SSR united in single state- Union SSR.

Consisted of the Union Republics (in different years from 4 to 16), which were sovereign states according to the Constitution; each Union republic retained the right to freely secede from the Union. The Union Republic had the right to enter into relations with foreign states, conclude agreements with them and exchange diplomatic and consular representatives, participate in the activities international organizations. Each Union Republic had its own National emblem and a flag.

Geographical location and natural conditions

The geographical position of the USSR determined the extreme diversity natural conditions. Most of the European territory of the Union was occupied by the East European (Russian) Plain. The northern part of Asia in steps - the West Siberian Plain, the Central Siberian Plateau, the Verkhoyansk Range, the Chersky Range and the mountains of the Far East - rises towards the Pacific Ocean; the western part of Central Asia is occupied by the Turan plain. Large mountain systems stretched in the southwest and south of the country, the most significant of which are the Carpathians, the Caucasus, the Pamirs, the Tien Shan and the mountains. Southern Siberia. No less complex is the topography of the bottom of the oceans and seas, especially in the east, where deep-sea basins, trenches and ridges adjoined the shores of the USSR, often forming island arcs.

Common features of the climate are determined by the prevailing position of the country in the temperate zone, with climate change from cold arctic in the north to subtropical and desert in the south, and from west to east - from maritime (in the northwest) to sharply continental (Siberia) and monsoon (in Pacific coast).

The significant size of the territory, the complexity of its relief, the diversity of climate and soil and vegetation cover have found their expression in natural zonality. Most of the country was occupied by zones: forest, forest-steppe, steppe, semi-deserts and deserts; the northern regions were part of the arctic and subarctic belts (tundra and forest-tundra zones), and part of the southern regions were part of the subtropical belt.

Geological structure

The largest elements of the structure of the earth's crust on the territory of the USSR: the East European and Siberian platforms and the folded geosynclinal belts separating them - the Ural-Mongolian, separating the East European platform from the Siberian and enveloping the latter from the south; Mediterranean, bordering the East European platform from the south and southwest; Pacific, forming the outskirts of the Asian continent; part of the Arctic, located within the northern coast of the Chukotka Peninsula. Within the folded geosynclinal belts, there are: young regions that have not yet completed their geosynclinal development, which are active modern geosynclines (the peripheral part of the Pacific belt); areas that completed geosynclinal development in the Cenozoic (the south of the USSR, belonging to the Alpine geosynclinal folded area), and more ancient areas that form the foundation of young platforms. The latter, depending on the end time of the processes of geosynclinal development, folding and metamorphism of sedimentary strata, are divided into folded areas of different ages: Late Proterozoic (Baikal), Middle Paleozoic (Caledonian), Late Paleozoic (Hercynian, or Varisian) and Mesozoic (Cimmerian). The geosynclinal type of the structure of the earth's crust arises at earlier stages of development. Subsequently, geosynclinal areas turn into the foundation of platforms, which is then covered by a cover of platform sediments (platform slabs) in lowered areas. Thus, during the development of the earth's crust, the geosynclinal stage is replaced by a platform stage with a two-story structure typical of platforms. During the formation of the foundation of the platforms, the oceanic crust of the geosynclinal belts is transformed into the continental crust with a thick granite-metamorphic layer. In accordance with the age of the foundation, the age of the platforms is also determined. The foundation of the ancient (Precambrian) platforms was formed mainly by the beginning of the Riphean (Late Proterozoic). Among the young platforms, there are: epibaikalian (the upper Proterozoic is involved in the structure of the foundation, and Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic rocks are developed in the cover), epipaleozoic (the foundation was formed in the Paleozoic, and the cover was formed in the Mesozoic - Cenozoic) and epimesozoic (Mesozoic rocks participate in the structure of the foundation ).

Some areas of ancient platforms and geosynclinal belts, which turned into young platforms, in the course of further evolution turned out to be covered by repeated processes of orogeny (epiplatform orogeny), which repeatedly manifested itself in Siberia (Stanovoi Range, Western Transbaikalia, Sayan Mountains, Altai, Gissar-Alai, Tien Shan and etc.).

Structural areas of land directly continue on the bottom of the shelf seas, bordering the territory of the USSR from the north, east, and partly northwest.

Mineral resources

The USSR ranked first in the world in explored reserves and extraction of iron and manganese ores, asbestos, in the extraction of oil, coal, potash salts, first in reserves and second in natural extraction; gas, leading in terms of reserves and production of a number of non-ferrous metals, phosphate fertilizers, chromite and other minerals.

landform

According to the prevailing nature of the relief, the land surface of the USSR was subdivided into a large area (66%), relatively low, open to the north area with a predominance of plains, plateaus, plateaus and a belt of mountains framing this area from the south and east. European part The USSR is occupied mainly by the East European Plain (average height 142 m). The low mountains of the Urals separate it from the generally lower one (with an average height of about 120 m) West Siberian Plain. To the south of the latter are the flat spaces of Kazakhstan and the Turan lowland with separate low mountain ranges and massifs (Kazakh uplands), plateaus and ridges. Between the Yenisei and Lena is the Central Siberian Plateau (plateau), the average height is 480 m. Along the northern outskirts of the country stretched a strip of low plains - Pechora, North Siberian, Yano-Indigirskaya, Kolyma, the direct continuation of which to the north were the underwater plains of the shelf Arctic seas. The low mountains of the Kola Peninsula, Novaya Zemlya, Severnaya Zemlya, the New Siberian Islands, the Taimyr Peninsula, and others somewhat disturbed the general flatness of the North.

Mountain framing in the south and east of the Soviet Union formed mountain systems of various heights and strikes. To the southwest and south of the East European Plain are the Ukrainian Carpathians, the Crimean Mountains, and the Caucasus Mountains. Kopetdag, Pamir, Gissar-Alay and Tien Shan stretch along the state border on the territory of Central Asia. The Dzungarian Alatau and Tarbagatai, separated by the Sasykkol-Alakol basin, as well as the Zaisan basin, separate from the mountains of Central Asia the belt of mountains of Southern Siberia - Altai, Kuznetsk Alatau, the Western and Eastern Sayans, the mountains of Tuva, the Baikal and Transbaikalia.

In the north-east of the USSR, the vast Verkhoyansk-Chukotka mountain region stood out - the Verkhoyansk ridge, the Chersky ridge, the Kolyma and Chukchi highlands, the Yukagir plateau. In the south of the Far East, the systems of the Tukuringra - Dzhagdy, Bureinsky and Sikhote-Alin ranges extend. The extreme eastern links of the mountain belt of the USSR were the mountains of the Koryak highlands, the Kamchatka peninsula, Kuril Islands and the Sakhalin Islands. In this area, the relief of the USSR was as contrasting as possible: elevation fluctuations reached almost 15 km (the depth of the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench was up to 9717 m, the height of Klyuchevskaya Sopka on the Kamchatka Peninsula was 4750 m). The height amplitudes within the ancient mountain systems of the marginal belt reached 5-7 km; in the lower, mostly flat, part of the territory of the USSR, they measured tens, less often hundreds of meters. The highest point of the Soviet Union is in the Pamirs (7495 m), the lowest is in the Karagie depression on the Mangyshlak peninsula (-132 m). The average hypsometric level of the country is 430 m; part of the territory located to the east of the Yenisei, as a whole, exceeded this level, the western part lay below it.

Climate

The extreme north of the territory of the USSR and the islands of the Arctic Ocean belonged to the arctic and subarctic climatic zones, most of the country was located within the temperate zone, the southern regions of the Crimea, the Caucasus and Central Asia - in the subtropical zone. Within the belts, according to genetic characteristics (mainly according to the characteristics of atmospheric circulation), climatic regions are distinguished.

Depending on the geographic latitude, the amount of solar radiation received per year by the earth's surface on the territory of the USSR varied from 251 MJ / m², or 60 kcal / cm², in some places - less (on the islands of the Arctic Ocean), up to 670 MJ / m², or 160 kcal / cm², and more (in the south of Central Asia). In the cold season, in most of the country, diffuse radiation somewhat exceeded the direct radiation or was approximately equal to it. In the warm season, direct radiation predominated significantly. The exception was the Arctic, where scattered radiation prevailed in summer as well. The radiation balance for the year is positive throughout the USSR, varying from 210 MJ/m² or 50 kcal/cm² (more in places in the extreme south of the country) to values close to zero in the center of the Arctic. In January, the radiation balance is negative everywhere. In the European part of the USSR, due to significant cloudiness and a shorter duration of snow cover, it was greater than in Asia at the same latitudes. In temperate latitudes, radiative heat was spent mainly on the evaporation of water from earth's surface and for direct heating of the soil, and from it the air. However, the ratio of energy consumption for these processes in different regions of the country is very different. For example, in Belarus and the Baltic states, a significant part of the radiative heat was spent on evaporation from the surface, and in the deserts of Central Asia - on heating the air.

The most important circulating climate factors are the predominance of air transfer from west to east in the entire troposphere and cyclonic activity, which contributes to the meridional exchange of warm and cold air masses and precipitation precipitation. The climates of the USSR were mainly formed under the influence of the continental air of temperate latitudes, especially in the Asian part of the country. But climatic features The western regions were formed under the predominant influence of sea air masses coming from the Atlantic Ocean. In the south, intrusions of dry tropical air were of great importance, in the north - Arctic air. Cyclonic activity is most intense in the north and west of the European part of the USSR and in the north of Western Siberia, as well as in the Far East. Over most of the Asian territory of the country, areas dominated in winter high blood pressure(Asian, or Siberian, anticyclone).

The following were allocated to the territory of the Soviet Union climatic zones and areas:

Arctic and subarctic belts - in which the seas of the Arctic Ocean, the Arctic islands and the northern continental margin of the country were located.
The temperate zone - it housed most of the USSR.
Subtropical belt - it included the southwest of Central Asia, Transcaucasia, South coast Crimea.
Mountain regions of the South of the USSR.

Inland waters

The distribution of water in rivers, lakes, swamps, reservoirs, glaciers, as well as groundwater by territory and the features of their regime are determined primarily climatic factors, balance of heat and moisture. On the territory of the USSR, an average of 530 mm of precipitation fell per year, which amounted to 11,690 km³ of water (63% was spent on evaporation and was spent on transpiration, 37% formed river runoff).

More than 80% of the river flow was formed in the northern and eastern parts Soviet Union, in the basins of the Arctic and Pacific Oceans. 7.5% of the runoff was discharged in the west and southwest - into the Atlantic Ocean basin (Baltic, Black and Sea of Azov). 9% of the runoff did not reach the oceans. Getting into internal drainless water bodies - the Caspian and Aral Seas, lakes Balkhash, Issyk-Kul, Tengiz, etc., this part of the runoff was spent on evaporation.

plant resources

The flora of the USSR was very diverse and rich in plant species, especially in its southern mountainous parts. The entire territory of the USSR belonged to the Holarctic floristic region (kingdom), which occupies the northernmost position among other floristic regions of the Earth. The main patterns of vegetation cover distribution were associated with many factors, but mainly with the distribution of heat and moisture. In accordance with this, botanical-geographical regions (or zones in the broad sense of the word) have developed.

Continental (integumentary) and extensive mountain glaciations, which repeated several times during the Anthropogene, played a huge role in the formation of the vegetation cover of the USSR. At the same time, the complete destruction of vegetation under the cover of ice occurred, and vast territories with permafrost formed in the periglacial zone, where tundra developed, peculiar cryoxerophyte periglacial steppes, and in some places light forests with the participation of birch, larch, and pine. More ancient vegetation of various types, including forests, could have been preserved during glaciations mainly in the south of the USSR; the most thermophilic - under the protection of the mountains in Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Plant resources were an important part natural resources THE USSR. This is flora and diverse plain and mountain (zonal and intrazonal) vegetation. The role of food and fodder plants was great; they serve as raw materials for industry and medicines. In the USSR, 20 thousand species of higher plants grew - flowering, horsetail, club mosses, ferns, and, in addition, 15-20 thousand species of mosses, widely distributed throughout the territory (in forests, swamps and tundra). The richest plant species were middle Asia(7 thousand), Caucasus (6 thousand), Crimea (2 thousand) and Far East(1.9-2 thousand). The poorest of all is the flora of the Arctic islands of Siberia (no more than 100-150 species). On the territory of the USSR there were at least 50 thousand species of lower plants - 10 thousand algae, 5 thousand lichens and about 35 thousand fungi. Thus, the total potential of the flora of the USSR was 90-100 thousand plant species (excluding bacteria and actinomycetes).

Animal world

Territorial division of the USSR

Initially, according to the Treaty on the Formation of the USSR, the Union State consisted of four republics:

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

Soon the number of union republics grew to 15. By the end of its existence, the USSR consisted of the following union republics:

Political structure

According to the Constitution of the USSR (Article 3), "All power in the USSR belongs to the working people of town and countryside represented by the Soviets of Working People's Deputies." Soviets in the USSR were elected representative bodies of state power.

The system of Soviets was first enshrined in the Constitution of the RSFSR of 1918, adopted by the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets. This system included the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, regional, provincial, district and volost congresses of Soviets and the Soviets of cities, towns, villages, villages, and in the period between congresses - the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR - the executive committees of the Soviets. The right to elect and be elected was enjoyed by all citizens of the RSFSR who had reached the age of 18 and were engaged in socially useful work, soldiers, sailors, regardless of religion, nationality, settlement. The deprivation of voting rights was caused by the stubborn struggle of the enemies of Soviet power. Those who used hired labor to make a profit, who lived on unearned income, private merchants, monks, clergymen, employees and agents of the former police, gendarmerie and security departments, members of the reigning house in Russia, as well as insane, mentally ill people who were under guardianship, and convicted of mercenary and other discrediting crimes.

After the formation of the USSR, changes took place in the system of Soviets that reflected the structure of a multinational union state and were enshrined in the Constitution of the USSR of 1924 and the constitutions of the union republics. The All-Union Congress of Soviets became the supreme body of state power, in the period between congresses supreme body power was the Central Executive Committee of the USSR. The supreme authorities in the union and autonomous republics were the congresses of Soviets (in the period between congresses - the Central Executive Committee elected by them), local authorities authorities - regional, regional, provincial, district, district, district and volost congresses of Soviets (in the period between them - their executive committees). The peoples of the USSR (the majority - for the first time in history) created their national statehood on the basis of the Soviets. In connection with the change in the administrative-territorial division, the restructuring of Soviet bodies was carried out.

Economy of the USSR

One of the greatest achievements of the Soviet Union is the demonstration to the whole world of the power and effectiveness of a planned economy in comparison with a market economy. In the Soviet Union, as in a socialist state, private property was abolished for the first time, as was the exploitation of man by man. All property in the USSR was popular and controlled by the entire society. Thus, in the USSR, the contradiction between the social character of production and the private character of consumption, known to the capitalist countries, was eliminated.

Thanks to powerful accelerated development in the form of industrialization and collectivization, the Soviet Union built socialism by 1939, which was noted at the Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).

Thanks to efficient system state planning and economic construction in general, especially after the Great Patriotic War the standard of living in the USSR was steadily rising, and there was an annual decline in prices for consumer products. It was impossible not to notice a serious increase in industrial production. By the middle of the 20th century, the advantage of the socialist system over the capitalist, the planned economy over the market one, had already become obvious to everyone.