The Great Patriotic War ended with a victory that the Soviet people had been seeking for four years. Men fought on the fronts, women worked on collective farms, at military factories - in a word, they provided rear. However, the euphoria caused by the long-awaited victory was replaced by a sense of hopelessness. Continuous hard work, hunger, Stalinist repressions, renewed with renewed vigor - these phenomena overshadowed the post-war years.
In the history of the USSR, the term "cold war" is found. Used in relation to the period of military, ideological and economic confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States. It begins in 1946, that is, in the post-war years. The USSR emerged victorious from World War II, but unlike the United States, it had a long road of recovery ahead of it.
Construction
According to the plan of the fourth five-year plan, the implementation of which began in the USSR in the post-war years, it was necessary first of allrestore cities destroyed by fascist troops. More than 1.5 thousand settlements were affected in four years. Young people quickly received various construction speci alties. However, there was not enough manpower - the war claimed the lives of more than 25 million Soviet citizens.
To restore the normal mode of work, overtime was canceled. Annual paid holidays were introduced. The working day now lasted eight hours. Peaceful construction in the USSR in the postwar years was headed by the Council of Ministers.
Industry
Plants, factories destroyed during the Second World War, were actively restored in the post-war years. In the USSR, by the end of the forties, old enterprises began to work. New ones were also built. The post-war period in the USSR is 1945-1953, that is, it begins after the end of the Second World War. Ends with Stalin's death.
Recovery of industry after the war took place rapidly, partly due to the high working capacity of the Soviet people. The citizens of the USSR were convinced that they had a great life, much better than the Americans living in the conditions of decaying capitalism. This was facilitated by the Iron Curtain, which isolated the country culturally and ideologically from the whole world for forty years.
Soviet people worked hard, but their life did not get easier. In the USSR in 1945-1953 there was a rapid development of three industries: rocket, radar, nuclear. Most of the resources were spent on the construction of enterprises that belonged to thesespheres.
Agriculture
The first post-war years were terrible for the inhabitants of the Soviet Union. In 1946, the country was gripped by famine caused by destruction and drought. A particularly difficult situation was observed in the Ukraine, in Moldova, in the right-bank regions of the lower Volga region and in the North Caucasus. New collective farms were created throughout the country.
In order to strengthen the spirit of Soviet citizens, directors, commissioned by officials, shot a huge number of films telling about the happy life of collective farmers. These films enjoyed wide popularity, they were watched with admiration even by those who knew what a collective farm really was.
In the villages, people worked from dawn to dawn, while living in poverty. That is why later, in the fifties, young people left the villages, went to the cities, where life was at least a little easier.
Standard of living
In the post-war years, people suffered from hunger. In 1947, the card system was abolished, but most of the goods remained in short supply. The hunger has returned. The prices of rations were raised. Nevertheless, over the course of five years, starting in 1948, products gradually became cheaper. This somewhat improved the standard of living of Soviet citizens. In 1952, the price of bread was 39% lower than in 1947, and that of milk was 70%.
The availability of essential goods did not make life much easier for ordinary people, but, being under the Iron Curtain, most of them easily believed inillusory idea of the best country in the world.
Until 1955, Soviet citizens were convinced that they owed Stalin their victory in the Great Patriotic War. But this situation was not observed throughout the USSR. In those regions that were annexed to the Soviet Union after the war, far fewer conscientious citizens lived, for example, in the B altic states and in Western Ukraine, where anti-Soviet organizations appeared in the 40s.
Friendly States
After the end of the war in countries such as Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, the GDR, the communists came to power. The USSR developed diplomatic relations with these states. At the same time, the conflict with the West escalated.
According to the treaty of 1945, the USSR was transferred to Transcarpathia. The Soviet-Polish border has changed. After the end of the war, many former citizens of other states, such as Poland, lived on the territory of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union concluded an agreement on the exchange of population with this country. Poles living in the USSR now had the opportunity to return to their homeland. Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians could leave Poland. It is noteworthy that in the late forties only about 500 thousand people returned to the USSR. To Poland - twice as much.
Criminal situation
In the post-war years in the USSR, law enforcement agencies launched a serious fight against banditry. 1946 saw the peak of crime. About 30,000 armed robberies were recorded this year.
Forto combat rampant crime, new employees, as a rule, former front-line soldiers, were accepted into the ranks of the police. It was not so easy to restore peace to Soviet citizens, especially in Ukraine and the B altic states, where the criminal situation was the most depressing. In the Stalin years, a fierce struggle was waged not only against "enemies of the people", but also against ordinary robbers. From January 1945 to December 1946, more than three and a half thousand bandit organizations were liquidated.
Repressions
Even in the early twenties, many representatives of the intelligentsia left the country. They knew about the fate of those who did not have time to escape from Soviet Russia. Nevertheless, in the late forties, some accepted the offer to return to their homeland. Russian nobles were returning home. But to another country. Many were sent immediately upon their return to the Stalinist camps.
The Gulag system in the post-war years reached its apogee. Wreckers, dissidents and other "enemies of the people" were placed in the camps. Sad was the fate of the soldiers and officers who found themselves surrounded during the war years. At best, they spent several years in the camps, until Khrushchev came to power, who debunked the cult of Stalin. But many were shot. In addition, the conditions in the camps were such that only the young and he althy could endure them.
In the post-war years, Marshal Georgy Zhukov became one of the most respected people in the country. His popularity annoyed Stalin. However, he did not dare to put the national hero behind bars. Zhukov was known not onlyin the USSR, but also outside it. The leader knew how to create uncomfortable conditions in other ways. In 1946, the "Aviator Case" was fabricated. Zhukov was removed from the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces and sent to Odessa. Several generals close to the marshal were arrested.
Culture
In 1946, the fight against Western influence began. It was expressed in the popularization of domestic culture and the ban on everything foreign. Soviet writers, artists, directors were persecuted.
In the forties, as already mentioned, a huge number of war films were shot. These films were heavily censored. The characters were created according to a template, the plot was built according to a clear scheme. The music was also under strict control. Only compositions praising Stalin and a happy Soviet life sounded. This did not have the best effect on the development of national culture.
Science
The development of genetics began in the thirties. In the postwar period, this science was in exile. Trofim Lysenko, a Soviet biologist and agronomist, became the main participant in the attack on geneticists. In August 1948, academicians who made a significant contribution to the development of domestic science lost the opportunity to engage in research activities.
