In the last twenty - twenty-five years, the myths that the national economy of the Stalinist USSR was ineffective and did not withstand the test of the Great Patriotic War, that the Soviet Union was saved by the help of Western allies, have become very popular. Thus, the memory of our fathers and grandfathers, mothers and grandmothers, thanks to whose work the USSR became a superpower and won the worst war in the history of mankind, was insolently insulted.
When studying the history of the development of industrialization in the Soviet Union, the fact is immediately striking that the Soviet leadership began in advance the placement of productive capacities, especially those directly related to the military-industrial complex, in the regions of the USSR inaccessible to the air forces of a potential enemy. First of all, such enterprises were built in the Urals and Siberia. In addition, the Soviet government tried to duplicate the construction of the most important factories, key for the national economy: if one enterprise existed in the West of the country, another was built in the East. National security issues were in the first place for the Soviet government. In the East of the USSR, in the pre-war years, a duplicate industry was actually created.
However, despite the titanic work that the Soviet people did in just a few years, due to the imbalance in the development of the country's economy that arose during the Russian Empire, by the time Nazi Germany attacked the USSR, more than two-thirds of the Union's defense complex was located in the European part. Naturally, that negatively affected the supply of the armed forces with weapons, ammunition, various equipment and ammunition in the initial period of the Great Patriotic War. Therefore, the Soviet leadership, in critical conditions of defeat in border battles, the breakthrough of German troops into the interior of the country, under the constant blows of the German Air Force, had to organize a large-scale operation to transfer industrial enterprises to the East of the country. This operation has no analogues either in scale or in the level of organization and execution. 2,593 industrial enterprises were transferred to the East of the Soviet Union, along with all the equipment (of which 1,360 were large). 12 million people were also evacuated to the East, including 10 million by rail, 2.5 million head of cattle. Another feat was accomplished after the transfer of enterprises and equipment, they almost immediately began to produce products. In fact, this is one of the most amazing sagas in the history of mankind, where the workers of that heroic era and the leadership of the USSR, including Joseph Stalin, equally deserve eternal memory.
During the years of the most difficult possible test - World War II, the national economy of the USSR was more efficient than the economy of the Third Reich. Hitlerite Germany, having at its disposal almost all the economic power of Western and Central Europe, produced 2, 1 times more electricity, 3, 7 times more iron and steel, 4, 3 times more coal than the USSR. The Third Reich annually produced on average: 21, 6 thousand aircraft, 11, 7 thousand tanks, self-propelled guns and assault guns, 87, 4 thousand guns, 21, 9 thousand mortars, 2, 2 million carbines and rifles, 296, 4 thousand machine guns. The Soviet Union was inferior to Germany, which gained access to almost all the resources of Europe and its industry, in the production of the most important types of basic industrial products. However, the Soviet industry produced on average annually during the war: 28, 2 thousand combat aircraft, 25, 8 thousand tanks and self-propelled guns, 126, 6 thousand guns, 102, 1 thousand mortars, 3, 3 million rifles and carbines, 417, 9 thousand machine guns. As a result, per 1 ton of melted steel, the enterprises of the Military-Industrial Complex of the Soviet Union produced 5 times more tanks and guns, and for 1,000 metal-cutting machines - 8 times more combat aircraft than in the industry of the German Empire. The USSR used every ton of metal and fuel, every piece of industrial equipment much more efficiently than the Third Reich.
This fact is partly due to the fact that the German leadership for a fairly considerable period of time was confident in the plan of "lightning war" and did not immediately carry out a full mobilization in the country's economy.
Therefore, there is no reason to say that the Soviet economy during the years of Stalin's rule was ineffective and did not stand the test of the war. Otherwise, the Wehrmacht would have marched victoriously across Red Square and the history of mankind would have changed a lot. The Red Army was able to win a convincing victory against Hitlerite Germany and its allies (explicit and hidden) precisely because the victory was already won by the Soviet leadership and the people in the 1930s, when a powerful economy was created, and above all the military-industrial complex.
A favorite argument that advocates of the ineffectiveness of the USSR economy during the Great Patriotic War make is lend-lease assistance. During the Second World War, the United States implemented a state program, according to which the allies transferred equipment, ammunition, food and strategic raw materials, including oil products. Some authors agreed to the point that the victory of the USSR over Germany directly depends on military-economic supplies under Lend-Lease. However, the numbers contradict this opinion. In particular, compared with the volume of Soviet production during the war years, supplies under Lend-Lease amounted to: 9.8% for aircraft, 6.2% for tanks and self-propelled guns, 1.4% for guns, for submachine guns - 1, 7%, for pistols - 0.8%, for shells - 0.6%, for mines - 0.1%. In the total cost of Lend-Lease of $ 46-47 billion, the USSR accounted for $ 10.8 billion (according to other sources - $ 11, 3). England, which did not fight such heavy battles as the Soviet Union, received products worth 31.4 billion dollars. Of great importance is the fact that most of the production came already when it became obvious that the blitzkrieg had failed and the war would be protracted. Until the end of 1941, during the most difficult period of the Great Patriotic War, the USSR received only 0.1% of all US aid, which was recorded in the signed documents. The Red Army dispelled the myth about the invincibility of German divisions and the possibility of a "lightning war" against the USSR only at the expense of the resources of the Soviet economy.
The chairman of the USSR State Planning Committee Nikolai Voznesensky in his book "The Military Economy of the USSR during the Patriotic War", published in 1948, estimated the size of the supply of industrial goods by the Allies to the Union at about 4% of domestic production during the period of the war economy. All this convincingly proves that the USSR was provided with everything necessary for waging the most difficult and prolonged war thanks to the heroic work of the home front workers and the amazing efficiency of the Soviet national economy.
At the same time, one cannot deny the fact of this assistance. In some areas, American assistance has been very noticeable. In particular, the allies supplied a significant number of vehicles (for example, Lend-Lease Studebakers became the main chassis for the Katyusha rocket systems), as well as provisions - the famous American stew, egg powder, flour, mixed feed, and a number of other products that played a prominent role in supporting the armed forces and rear. Obviously, these supplies played a positive role. But to say that US assistance played a decisive role and there is nothing to say. Victory in the Great Patriotic War was achieved thanks to the unprecedented courage and perseverance of soldiers and officers, the labor of home front workers.
