To What Extent Had the Ussr Recovered from the Impact of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) by the Time of Stalin’s Death in 1953

To what extent had the USSR recoered from the impact of the Great firm struggle (1941-1945) by the clock of Stalins death in 1953? Although VE celebrations st guileed on 24th June 1945, peace was declared on the 9th May in capital of the Russian Federation. thither are differing opinions on the amount of deaths that were ca intentiond by the Great loyal War (for workout, Kenez estimates 26-27 zillion, some(prenominal) of whom were prisoners of contend, whereas Hoskings estimated 20-25 million, m some(prenominal) of whom were killed indirectly by the war, by means much(prenominal) as famines).It could be suggested that the USSR simply returned to where it had been antecedently in the 1930s subsequently the war, for illustration primary focus for industry was correct on impenetrcapable keens such as oil and coal. But to what extent did life for the Russian remedy one time the war was over? Social conditions afterwards the war were anything but favourable. 1,170 towns, 70,000 villages and 7 million homes had been destroyed leaving 25 million Russians homeless. This issue was non addressed or rectified and no lodgement schemes of building projects were started, instead the money was redirected to other areas. So Soviets were left supple as they had nowhere to go.The peasants were essentially bound to their land as they had no access to funds or passports to travel. The two types of farms faced disadvantages, for example the Kolkhozy farms (collective area farms) had to meet state obligations which were 60-70% of their out identify and only received trivial rewards in return (such as sacks of potatoes). Even though the war had caused so many deaths, the Politburo remained to see the peasants as disposable after the war. Also Stalin did not avow the peasants as he said they were too individualistic to make good socialists and in that locationfore increased the taxes on them.So this is not recovery as the lifestyle, in particular for peasants, got worse. The agricultural output in 1945 was only 60% of what it had been before the war, and as a result food shortages that had occurred previously (due to the farm workers going to the take care, and with them pickings machinery and horses) simply continued. There was a famine in 1946-47 and this caused widespread starvation, for example in Moldova alone 70,000 Russians died. ascribable to the famine, food rations were restricted and the numbers eligible for these were educed (21 million reduced to 4. 1 million). To make this as yet worse Stalin did not acknowledge the famine and banned private farming in 1946 as it was seen as anti-communist. This meant that the small amount of food the peasants may have been able to grow to feed their families was now interpreted a appearance from them. As a result of this, the USSR could not recover because they had less resources and food. Also Stalin was ignorant, and made the any chance of recovery harder because peasants were not abl e to feed themselves, so they in turn could not recover.It was not only in the rude where the great deal suffered, workers in the towns faced inflated targets and reduced wages (further than this they were expected to tolerate to state bonds which totalled several weeks wages). So the people were not able to appropriate for themselves, meaning that they could not recover, as they couldnt afford to. Consumer goods were very scarce, for example, although there were 341 million knitted garments by 1953, televisions and refrigerators were very rare even though they were now commodities in the west at this time.Although after the Second gentleman War, life was sure enough looking very bleak for the Russians some dictated prices were reduced in the towns to escort that the poorest workers could afford food such as bread (which cost half the amount in 1950 as it did in 1947). So recovery had been initiated, further, in general, living conditions did not improve. The Great Patrioti c War affected Stalin very prohibitly, despite the Russian victory. He perceive his personal position and security in a different way to the Russians and saw himself to be very vulnerable. Understandably this was partly due to the succeeder and support that Zhukov faced after the war.Although it is not clear whether or not Stalins health deterioration was a result of the war, he neer fully recovered from this experience. Due to his constant paranoia, Stalinism was re-asserted after the war. This had previously been used in the 1930s (involved the state making extensive use of propaganda to establish a personality cult around Stalin to maintain c onceal over the population and to maintain political control for the communist Party). During the breaker point of fighting, there had been relaxations in censorship and other areas such as the church service (who were allowed to openly practice religion again).This was to ensure support for the leadership of the country and unite t he Russian people against the Axis powers. However, after the war, regulations of the Church were once again tightened, to stop it becoming too powerful. The cult of personality reached its stop on Stalins 70th birthday in 1949 and this was accompanied by a new-sprung(prenominal) programme of censorship (for example newspapers were censored once before publishing and once after) and propaganda. Intellectual life in Russia similarly suffered leave off in order to eradicate opposition, for example archives were shut in the 1930s and original research was discounted.All areas were affected, including literature where writers who were seen to be non- ideologic were purged (by expelling them from the Union of soviet writers). Whether or not this is a signaling of recovery after the war depends on whose perspective taken for the Russian people it was a tightening in society that had a negative effect whereas members of the communist party or Stalins supporters would see this as reco very from the loosening in control and a sign that Stalins power was being re-asserted.The results of Stalins paranoia had a negative effect for the Russians, even if they had not been directly aware of it at the time. Due to Stalins over cautious approach he refused to research new technologies and act uponed new industries and trade with the west. If he had done this Russias economy would have spread out and the economic problems the country faced may well have been solved, or at least improved. Science in the Soviet Union was withal under strict ideological control by Stalin and his government, along with art and literature.There was significant progress in ideologically safe domains, owing to the exempt Soviet education system and state-financed research. However, the most notable legacy during Stalins time was his public endorsement of the agronomist Trofim Lysenko, who rejected Mendelian genetics as capitalistic pseudoscience and instead supported hybridization theories t hat caused widespread agricultural destruction and major(ip) set up patronizes in Soviet knowledge in biology. Although many scientists opposed his take hold ofs, those who in public came out were imprisoned and denounced.This also made the prospects of recovery for the USSR very low. The 4th Five Year Plan was launched in 1946 (until 1950) by Voznesensky which aimed to restore proceeds to pre-war levels. During the Great Patriotic War the Russians had effectively produced arms to keep their front well supplied. This explicitly involved a shift in take focus and this now needed to be switched back to previous production. spic-and-span factories were built where they had been located previous to the war but the relocated factories remained in use in the Urals.This meant that production capacity increased and Soviet rank national product (GNP) grew annually by 8. 9% between 1946 -1950 which shows obvious signs of recovery and is very significant (as in 1939 it was 8. 5%). How ever, rather than fracture the focus to consumer goods as one might expect, the focus remained on heartbreaking industry. This means that the standard of living did not improve for the Russian people. barely than this, Stalin also failed to solve the agricultural production problems caused by the war (for example the grain harvest in 1952 was less than that of 1940).The Russians were therefore unable to improve the way they lived, and to add insult to injury many Russians savings were wiped out when the country underwent a currency reform in December 1947. Hoskings says that the shape of the recovery thus froze the soviet economy back into the shape it had assumed in the thirties which is due to the USSR failing to exploit any new techniques, even though it had UN economic advisors available to it. Due to a lack of interest, no new innovations (such as chemicals and plastics) were investigated.Instead the money was put to use funding causes such as Stalins grand projects of fabi anism which built striking new buildings such as the Metro and Moscow University. This was obviously a showcase of communism but did not loan to the recovery from the Great Patriotic War. During the war the Communist Party had taken a backseat and the focus had been primarily on nationalism rather than communism in order to ensure that patriotism and the general war move were kept active.However, after the war, Stalin wanted to re-assert himself as the undisputed leader of the USSR (this was partly due to his paranoia and illness). Instead of re-asserting the Communist party itself, Stalin ruled done a small group of influential magnates (such as Beria and Molotov). From the wider communist parties point of view Russia may not have recovered well ideologically after the war, whereas Stalin would have felt that this was an improvement from the leadership previous to the war (and certainly during the war when he was forced to accept suggestions from more experienced armed forces men such as General Zhukov).Stalin did ensure however, that the soldiers that joined the Communist party during the war were educated in Communist values through the new Central Committee Higher Party School that was set up. Stalin also delegated some areas of control to other groups due to the huge work load he faced, for example the economy was given to the USSR Council of Ministers. However, he also put a strict hierarchy of decision making into practice to ensure that he still essentially made all the decisions.It still appears however that the improvements made after the war fail to outweigh the negatives both in number and significance. The Great Patriotic War had left Russia severely slashed and the Russia nation crushed. Although the economy did appear to improve slightly after the war (increase of 8. 9% in the GNP) and Stalin re-asserted his control, Russia remained how it had been run in the 1930s previous to the war (no improvements or innovations within industrial prod uction and living conditions remained poor) and therefore Soviet Union had not recovered well by 1953.