Correspondence of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR with the Presidents of the United States and the Prime Ministers of Great Britain during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. In 2 volumes. Moscow: Gospolitizdat, 1958
Lend-Lease numbers. The topic of Lend-Lease deliveries on the pages of "VO" seems to have received quite a worthy reflection, but no, no, yes, among the comments there are references to "payment in gold", Mongolian meat (more significant than American stew) and all sorts of other mythologized statements, indicating only one thing - lack of information. That is, people write nonsense not out of malice and not because of their intellectual impairment, but out of ignorance. Well, they used the wrong sources … But what sources are "those"?
It should be noted here that everyone wrote about Lend-Lease in the era of the USSR - from Marshal Zhukov to aircraft designer Yakovlev. Wrote about him and TSB, and the eight-volume SVE (Soviet military encyclopedia). However, if you look at which documents which of them referred to, you will not find a mention, and no one (!) Of the most, perhaps, an important source of information on this topic, namely, the message of the Soviet government "On the supply of weapons to the Soviet Union, strategic raw materials, industrial equipment and foodstuffs by the USA, Great Britain and Canada ", published by the press organ of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the Pravda newspaper on June 11, 1944. And then the question immediately arises: why did all these people not refer to this official document? Why did the same Zhukov not refer? Didn't know about him (it's funny even to think that) or was he afraid? But then what was the famous commander afraid of: the source was an official one? True, in conversations with the same writer K. M. He told Simonov something quite different. But words, even if they were recorded on tape, are words, nothing more.
It is interesting that in the book by N. A. Voznesensky "The military economy of the USSR during the Patriotic War" about the supplies to Lend-Lease from the Western allies, it was said only that they amounted to only 4% of Soviet production. But a recent ally in the anti-Hitler coalition was named like this: "The monopoly capitalism of the United States of America, fattened on the blood of the people during the Second World War," which "now stands at the head of the imperialist and anti-democratic camp and has become the instigator of imperialist expansion in all parts of the world." Voznesensky himself, however, was then shot and his book was withdrawn from the libraries, but this figure still remained in our historiography!
Well - ignorance is always treated with what? Knowledge! And since the readers of "VO", for the most part, do not have enough time to turn to the newspaper Pravda (as well as to the magazines Rodina, Voenno-istoricheskiy zhurnal, Voprosy istorii magazine, History of the Russian State and Law and the USA and Canada "), that is, it makes sense to give this information.
So, get ready: we have an interesting document in front of us!
Delivery from the USA
Let's start with the fact that in the message "On deliveries …" three countries are mentioned separately: the United States, Great Britain and Canada. It is emphasized that deliveries from the United States and Great Britain were carried out on the basis of the "Agreement on mutual supplies, credit and payment procedures" of August 16, 1941, as well as on the basis of the "Agreement on the financing of military supplies and other military assistance" of June 27, 1942, and they came from Canada on the basis of the Canadian Mutual Assistance Act of the United Nations.
The first part of the message was assigned, of course, to the United States, and it was indicated there that for the period from October 1, 1941 to April 30, 1944 in the USSR under Lend-Lease (then "Lend-Lease" was written with a capital letter) was sent 8.5 million tonsweapons, as well as strategic raw materials, foodstuffs and industrial equipment in the amount of $ 5.357 million. But it was immediately clarified that of all this amount, only 7.4 million tons actually arrived in the USSR, and the amount itself turned out to be less - 4 612 million dollars. The dynamics of deliveries was also given: 1941 - 42. - 1.2 million tons, 1943 - 4.1 million tons and for 4 months of 1944 - 2.1 million tons. It was even reported the amount of cargo shipped in transit on May 1, 1944 - “on steamboats in transit 68, 4 thousand tons ". Moreover, it must be remembered that supplies did not stop on June 11, 1945, and that they still continued on May 8, 1945 and ended only after the end of the war with Japan …
At the time of publication of the said message in Pravda, 6,430 aircraft had been received from the United States and, in addition, 2,442 more aircraft had been received on account of Great Britain's obligations; tanks - 3,734; minesweepers - 10; large submarine hunters - 12; and cars - 206,771. Here, in the text of "Messages …", a note should be introduced as follows: "During the war years, Soviet industry gave the front 265.6 thousand cars, and about 340 thousand were assembled from Lend-Lease kits. Well, that's all Lend-Lease deliveries totaled 427.5 thousand cars. " Everything is learned by comparison, isn't it? However, other means of military mechanized transport were also supplied (in the text of "Messages …" it is not specified what it was, but on "VO" there were excellent articles about this by Roman Skomorokhov) - 5 397 units; motorcycles - 17,017; anti-aircraft guns - 3,168; Oerlikon cannons - 1,111 (and again, recall that Oerlikons went to the air defense of ships, that it became modern precisely with their supplies); shells - 22, 4 million pieces; cartridges - 991, 4 million pieces; gunpowder - 87.9 thousand pieces; toluene, trinitrotoluene and ammonite - 130 thousand tons; field telephone wire - 1229 thousand km; telephone sets - 245 thousand units; army boots - 5.5 million pairs; army cloth - 22.8 million yards; car tires - 2 073 thousand pcs. That is, we even received army cloth from the United States, and we needed it, of course. And the boots? In total, the USSR received 15,417,000 pairs of them under Lend-Lease. Think about this figure and remember the size of the Red Army … You will fight a little with bare feet …
Among the necessary strategic raw materials were supplied: high-octane aviation fuel (aviation gasoline and isooctane) - 476 thousand tons: aluminum and duralumin - 99 thousand tons: copper and its products - 184 thousand tons: zinc - 42 thousand tons.; nickel - 6.5 thousand tons; steel and steel products - 1 160 thousand tons: of which rails with fasteners - 246 thousand tons. Here, again, it should be noted that the oil industry of the USSR in 1941 worked unsatisfactorily and for the year gasoline by only 26.6%, diesel fuel - by 67.5%, aviation oils - by only 11.1%
However, almost the most important thing was the machine tools, without which we ourselves would not have been able to organize the production of perfect military equipment. The "Message …" indicates how many of them were delivered: - 20 380 pcs. metal-cutting machines; various industrial equipment - in the amount of 257.2 million dollars, including power equipment with a total capacity of 288 thousand kW, including also 263 mobile power plants with a total capacity of 39 thousand kW; equipment for 4 oil refineries and for a rolled aluminum plant; 4,138 marine engines with a total capacity of 1,768.7 thousand l / s; 2,718 presses and mechanical hammers; 524 cranes. 209 excavators and for the needs of railway transport - 241 steam locomotives, cargo platforms - 1,154, tanks for transportation of acids - 80 pcs. It should be added here that the equipment for the oil refineries of the USSR was extremely necessary, because we had oil, but the production capacity for its distillation was constantly not enough. The same was the case with aluminum. The only plant for its production, although it continuously increased its output, never once during the entire war 100% did not fulfill its production plan and aircraft plants did not have enough aluminum all the time. There was also a shortage of rolled aluminum. So the supply of equipment for the production of all of this was very important.
Food was delivered in the amount of 2,119 thousand tons. By the way, what exactly was the food profitable for? Yes, the fact that it was … the easiest way to write off! The fact is that everything that was lost during the war as a result of hostilities was not subject to payment under the contract. But … it was necessary to document how "it" was lost. And with food it was very simple - "ate" and that's it!
UK deliveries
Then came the second part, which provided details of deliveries from the UK. And it was indicated that deliveries from Great Britain to the USSR began on June 22, 1941. And from that date to April 30, 1944, Great Britain sent to the USSR 1,150 thousand tons of weapons, as well as strategic raw materials, industrial equipment and food. It is emphasized that this amount of 319 thousand tons of weapons was sold as military aid, that is, it was not subject to payment; 815 thousand tons of raw materials, industrial equipment and food for the amount of 83.7 million pounds. sg. was sent on the basis of the "Agreement between the USSR and Great Britain on mutual supplies, credit and payment procedure of August 16, 1941" (part on credit, part on cash); and a small consignment of cargo (2 thousand tons for 0.5 million pounds) was purchased in cash at the very beginning of the war. Of this total, the USSR received 1,044 thousand tons, including 158 thousand tons in 1941, 375 thousand tons in 1942, 364 thousand tons in 1943, and 4 the month of 1944 - 144 thousand tons. On May 1, 1944, 44 thousand tons of cargo were on the way to the USSR. So the people who assert that the main volume of supplies came at the end of the war, and “at the beginning, there was nothing” are wrong. It was! Although, of course, the volumes increased over time.
Specific delivery figures given in the "Communication …" are as follows: 3 384 aircraft and, in addition, another 2 442 aircraft were delivered from the United States against the obligations of Great Britain; 4,292 tanks; 12 minesweepers; 5,239 cars and armored personnel carriers; 562 anti-aircraft guns; 548 anti-tank guns; shells 17 million pieces, cartridges 290 million pieces, gunpowder 17, 3 thousand tons; 214 radio installations for artillery fire control; 116 devices for detecting submarines.
Strategic raw materials were supplied in the following volume: rubber - 103.5 thousand tons, aluminum - 35.4 thousand tons, copper - 33.4 thousand tons, tin - 29.4 thousand tons, lead - 47, 7 thousand tons, zinc - 7, 4 thousand tons, nickel - 2, 7 thousand tons, cobalt - 245 tons; jute, sisal and products made from them - 93 thousand tons tons - this is a huge figure, however, what is behind it?)
For the Soviet industry from England was delivered: metal-cutting machines - 6491, various industrial equipment in the amount of 14, 4 million pounds. pp., including: power equipment with a total capacity of 374 thousand kW., 15 084 electric motors, 104 presses and hammers, 24 portal cranes, industrial diamonds for 1 206 thousand pounds. Food was delivered in the amount of 138, 2 thousand tons. It should be emphasized that the USSR did not produce industrial diamonds at that time at all and did not have its own deposits either, they had not yet been discovered!
Deliveries from Canada
The third section "Messages …" Deliveries to the USSR from Canada. It was reported that from the beginning of the war until July 1, 1943, Soviet deliveries from Canada were made against the obligations of Great Britain and under the agreement on a loan between the USSR and Canada on September 8, 1942. On July 1, 1943, Canada began to carry out supplies to the USSR on its own, in accordance with the Canadian Mutual Assistance Law of the United Nations.
From the beginning of deliveries until April 30, 1944, Canada sent 450 thousand tons to the Soviet Union, including weapons, strategic materials and food (wheat and flour) in the amount of 187.6 million Canadian dollars. On account of the British obligations (before July 1, 1943), 93 thousand tons of cargo was sent to the amount of 116.6 million Canadian dollars; under the Credit Agreement between the USSR and Canada - 182 thousand tons of wheat and flour in the amount of 10 million Canadian dollars and in accordance with the United Nations Mutual Assistance Act - during the period from July 1, 1943 to April 30, 1944 - 175 thousand tons of cargo for the amount of 61 million Canadian dollars. From the goods shipped by Canada arrived in the USSR: 355 thousand tons. In 1942 - 125 thousand tons, in 1943 - 124 thousand tons, for 4 months of 1944 - 106 thousand tons.
Delivered in total: 1,188 tanks; 842 armored personnel carriers; 2,568 trucks; 827 thousand shells; 34.8 million rounds; 5 thousand tons of gunpowder; 36.3 thousand aluminum; 9, 1 thousand tons of lead; 23.5 thousand tons of copper; 6, 7 thousand tons of zinc; 1,324 tons of nickel; 13, 3 thousand tons of rails, 208, 6 thousand tons of wheat and flour. As of May 1, 1944, another 60 thousand tons of cargo is on the way from Canada to the Soviet Union.
Source - the organ of the Communist Party of the USSR
Now let's think a little: today there are other numbers on the Internet and in print that give an idea of the volume of supplies in general, and not just for May 1944. But … in the USSR, this information was classified. But then nobody canceled the newspaper "Pravda". It was the official organ of the press of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), and then the Central Committee of the CPSU. Let's say that until 1953, that is, before Stalin's death, historians did not use this source for reasons of personal safety. But then the "thaw" came, "One Day of Ivan Denisovich" was published … But for some reason even then there were no references to this source, neither in the same Zhukov, nor in other memoirs. And historians also wrote about 4%, but for some reason they did not look at Pravda, which was freely available. Or they were advised not to look into it. And if this is so, then this means only one thing, that there was a deliberate deception of the population of the country, who were simply lied to about important moments in its history. It is understandable if this information were kept in the secret departments of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense. Then, as they say, there is no trial. Everything is secret. But in this case, everything was in plain sight, but … it was impossible to use it. That is, the truth about the war in the USSR fell victim to the political ambitions of its leadership, which ultimately undermined the people's confidence in the existing system in the country and in this leadership itself, which led to the events of 1991. People do not like when their superiors deceive them, and they have never loved …
And Belarus and Ukraine were helped for free …
By the way, one more interesting addition is worth making here. The fact is that back in August 1945, the UN adopted a program of assistance to such Soviet republics as Ukraine and Belarus. The amount of aid in monetary terms amounted to $ 250 million. Provided for the supply of food, clothing, shoes, medicines, seeds, industrial and agricultural equipment. First supplies had to be paid, that is, it was, in fact, a loan. However, after the representatives of the BSSR declared that, in accordance with the Constitution of the USSR, the republic had no foreign currency and that all the currency in the country was controlled exclusively by the government of the USSR, all payments under this program for these two republics were canceled, and all deliveries that ended by May 1947 years, carried out completely free of charge.
Interesting, isn't it? I’ll have to go and see Pravda again during this time: what else did she write about this foreign aid? And did you write at all?
