Monday, January 30, 2017

Soviet Union after WW2.

The Soviet Union came out of the war victorious by defeating Nazi Germany along with the allies, but back home in the country itself, it was in ruins. The Soviet Union lost nearly 40 million people in population, 8.7 of those were combat deaths. The country would not recover to it's pre-war numbers until 30 years later. The Soviet Union (sort of) annexed multiple countries that they had control over during the wartime period, like Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Romania, Albania, and East Germany.
Image result for soviet union post world war 2 celebrations
The economy of the soviet union was devastated, a quarter of the country's resources were destroyed, and agricultural/industrial production plummeted after the war. The government did not allow much aid into their country, only small credits from Britain and Sweden. The US offered to help the Soviets economically after the war, but the offer was refused. The people of Russia were not very willing to do reconstructions because it involved rebuilding of infrastructure rather than agriculture and consumer goods, which is what the people wanted.
Image result for soviet union post world war 2
Stalin tightened domestic controls in the postwar period so that production could be at his preferred levels, he motivated his people by spreading propaganda of threats from the Western Europe. The limited rights during wartime were revoked and domestic soldiers were brought back into the. Many opposers to Stalin's party were purged. A socialistic campaign was started by a close associate of Stalin, it put forces against writers and others spreading western ideas to the Soviet Union.

Sources:
https://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/Soviet2.html
https://academic.oup.com/past/article-abstract/210/suppl_6/103/1425685/The-Soviet-Union-after-1945-Economic-Recovery-and
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 4, 2017 at 10:23 PM

    Interesting post on the aftermath of World War II in the Soviet Union. I appreciate how you went more in depth into a topic we mentioned but did not go over much in class. What would be interesting to see is a comparison of the United States and the Soviet Union after the war. What was the state of each country after the war economically? How did life go back to normal after the war? For more information, go to: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/postwar/

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