Post-WW2 Economics
Impact of WW2
Social
40% urban housing destroyed
70,666 villages
4710 towns
25 million homeless
6 million buildings destroyed
including 40,000 hospitals
Economic
around 1/4 of their capital resources were destroyed
industrial/agricultural output in 1945 was far short of pre-war levels
98,000 collective farms destroyed
137,000 tractors
49,000 combine harvesters
7 million horses
17 million cattle
20 million pigs
27 million sheep
40% railway tracks
Situation following WW2
industrial output 1945-46
mining production less than half of 1940 levels
electric power at 52%
steel production at 45%
drought, famine, typhus epidemics and purges
people ate grass to prevent starvation
food rationing ended in 1947
agricultural production was still barely above 1940 levels by 1952
chronic labour shortages impeded immediate reconstruction
deficiency of 12.2 million men
1946 was the driest year since 1891
Post-War Reconstruction
Fourth and Fifth 5 Year Plans
1946-1950 and 1951-1955
Stalin promised in 1945 that the USSR would be the leading industrial power by 1960
focused on heavy industry and arms at the expense of consumer goods and agriculture
Comecon
Council for Mutual Economic Aid
set up in 1949 to economically link the Eastern Bloc countries
USSR refused Marshall Plan aid
received limited credit from Britain and Sweden
received reparations from Germany
Lend-Lease aid ended August 1945
USSR made Eastern European countries pay for having been liberated from the Nazis
industry survived a lot better than agriculture due to economic mobilization
Stalin never cared about agriculture as much as industry
published a book in 1952, Economic Problems of Socialism
it discouraged any tendencies towards innovation and change
Impact of Post-War Reconstruction
1/3 of the Fourth Plan's capital expenditure went to Ukraine
one of the most devastated nations by the war
it was important agriculturally and industrially
grain production
1940 = 95.6 million tonnes
1947 = 65.9 million tonnes
1950 = 81.2 million tonnes
1952 = 92.2 million tonnes
agriculture
in 1945 food production was 60% of 1940 levels
recovery was slow and uneven
there was no famine after 1947
grain production increased
cattle numbers still below 1940 levels by 1953
coal production
1940 = 165.9 million tonnes
1945 = 149.3 million tonnes
1950 = 261.1 million tonnes
many targets of the Fourth Plan equaled or exceeded
by 1948 Soviet incomes had reached 1938 levels
USSR still had housing shortages by 1953
coal, iron, steel and electricity all surpassed 1940 levels by 1950
Cold War tensions affected the economy
military spending rose to 25% in 1952
Soviet army increased from 2.8 million in 1948 to 4.9 million in 1952