Stalinism is a totalitarian political system that was localized within the historical framework of 1929-1953. It is the post-war period in the history of the USSR from 1945 to 1953. is perceived by historians as the apogee of Stalinism.

The era of Stalinism was distinguished by the predominance of command and control methods of government, the merging of the party and the state, as well as strict control over all aspects of social life. q On the one hand, the period when Stalin was in power was marked by victory in the Second World War, forced industrialization, the transformation of the USSR into a superpower and the expansion of its military potential, the strengthening of the geopolitical influence of the USSR in the world, the establishment of communist regimes in Eastern Europe. q On the other hand, such extremely negative phenomena as totalitarianism, mass repressions, forced collectivization, the destruction of churches, the creation of the GULAG camp system. The number of victims of Stalin's repressions exceeded millions of people, the nobility, officers, entrepreneurs, millions of peasants were destroyed.

Despite the fact that it was in 1945-1953. there was a tangible influence of the democratic impulse on the wave of victory in the Second World War and there were some trends towards the weakening of totalitarianism, it is this period that is usually called the apogee of Stalinism. After strengthening the positions of the USSR in the international arena and strengthening its influence in Eastern Europe, the personality cult of Stalin ("the leader of the peoples") reached its peak. Formally, some steps were taken towards democratization: the state of emergency was ended, congresses of socio-political organizations were resumed, a monetary reform was carried out and cards were abolished. But in practice there was a strengthening of the repressive apparatus, and the dominance of the ruling party only intensified.

q During this period, the main blow of repression fell on the Soviet military captured by the Germans (2 million of them ended up in camps) and on the inhabitants of the territories occupied by the Germans - the population of the North Caucasus, Crimea, the Baltic states, Western Ukraine and Belarus. Entire nations were accused of complicity with the Nazis (Crimean Tatars, Chechens, Ingush) and deported. The number of the Gulag increased markedly. q The blows of repression were also delivered against representatives of the military command (companions of Marshal G.K. Zhukov), the party-economic elite (“Leningrad case”), cultural figures (criticism of A. Akhmatova, M. Zoshchenko, D. Shostakovich, S. Prokofiev etc.), scientists (geneticists, cybernatics, etc.), the Jewish intelligentsia. The last act of repression was the "case of doctors" that arose in 1952, who were accused of deliberately improperly treating the leaders.

"Doctors' Case" The Doctors' Case is a fabricated criminal case against a group of prominent Soviet doctors accused of conspiracy and murder of a number of Soviet leaders. In January 1953, it was announced that “most of the members of the terrorist group (Vovsi M.S., Kogan B.B., Feldman A.I., Grinshtein A.M., Etinger Ya.G. and others) were associated with the international Jewish organization "Joint", created by American intelligence ostensibly to provide material assistance to Jews in other countries. Those involved in the case of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee were previously accused of having links with the same organization. The publicity of the case in places acquired an anti-Semitic character and joined a more general campaign to "fight against rootless cosmopolitanism" that took place in the USSR in 1947-1953.

Conclusion Thus, all elements of the totalitarian system - the absolute domination of a single ruling party, the cult of the leader, a single dominant ideology, a well-functioning repressive apparatus - were strengthened and strengthened in the post-war period. Nuts were screwed to the limit. Further tightening of the regime was impossible. The heirs of I. V. Stalin were clearly aware of this.

Soviet society after the war. The end of the Great Patriotic War had a significant impact on the socio-political development of society. Within three and a half years, about 8.5 million former soldiers were demobilized from the army and returned to civilian life. More than 4 million repatriates returned to their homeland - prisoners of war, inhabitants of the occupied regions driven into captivity, and part of the emigrants.

Having endured the incredible hardships of wartime, the population expected improvement in working and living conditions, positive changes in society, and a softening of the political regime. As in previous years, the majority of these hopes were associated with the name of I. V. Stalin. At the end of the war, I. V. Stalin was relieved of his duties as People's Commissar of Defense, but retained the post of chairman of the Council of People's Commissars. He continued to be a member of the Politburo and the Orgburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. The authority of I.V. Stalin, which had grown during the war years, was supported by the entire system of the administrative-bureaucratic and ideological apparatus.

In 1946-1947. on behalf of I. V. Stalin, the drafting of a new Constitution of the USSR and the Program of the CPSU (b) was carried out. The constitutional project provided for some development of democratic principles in the life of society. So, simultaneously with the recognition of the state form of ownership as the dominant one, the existence of a small peasant economy based on personal labor was allowed. In the process of discussing the draft Constitution in the republican party and economic structures, wishes were expressed for the decentralization of economic life. Proposals were made to expand the economic independence of local administrative organizations. It was proposed to supplement the Draft Program of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks with a provision on limiting the terms of elective party work, etc. However, all proposals were rejected, and after that work on draft documents ceased. The expectations of the population for changes for the better were not destined to come true. Soon after the end of the war, the country's leadership took measures to tighten its domestic policy.

Strengthening the administrative-command system. The solution of the tasks of the recovery period was carried out in the conditions of the command-bureaucratic system that had developed in previous years. The development of all legislative acts and resolutions, formally approved then by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, was carried out in the highest party instances. The leadership of all spheres of society's life was concentrated in the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Party. Here the plans for the activities of the Supreme Council were determined, candidates for the positions of ministers and their deputies were considered, and the highest command staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR was approved. Most of the issues of economic construction were considered at party-economic assets. The resolutions of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks obliged the primary party organizations to control the work of the administration of industrial enterprises and collective farms, to reveal "mistakes and blunders of economic leaders."

In order to ensure the production of labor force, several decrees were adopted on the responsibility of persons who evade labor activity. The "pointers" were subject to deportation, the Kemerovo and Omsk regions, the Krasnoyarsk Territory were chosen as the place for their new settlement and work. Administrative and punitive measures in relation to collective farmers who did not work out the mandatory minimum of workdays, and to urban "parasites" could not improve the state of affairs in the economy.

The policy of repression. The difficulties of post-war economic development, manifested in the difficult state of agriculture, in the everyday deprivations of the population, required the development of ways out of the situation. However, the attention of state leaders was directed not so much to the development of effective measures to boost the economy, but to the search for specific "culprits" of its unsatisfactory development. Thus, disruptions in the production of aviation equipment were explained by "wrecking" on the part of the industry leadership. In 1946, at a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the “case” of these “saboteurs” (“the Case of Shakhurin, Novikov and others”) was specially considered. At the turn of the 1940s and 1950s, the leaders of the Politburo discussed the “cases” of persons allegedly engaged in sabotage in the automotive industry in the Moscow healthcare system (“On hostile elements in the ZIS”, “On the situation in the MGB and on sabotage in medical business”).

The fabrication of the cases of "enemies of the people" continued. In 1949, the leaders of the Leningrad party organization were accused of creating an anti-party group and carrying out wrecking work (the "Leningrad case"). The defendants were party leaders, Soviet and government officials. Among them were A. A. Kuznetsov, Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, M. N. Rodionov, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, and others. He was accused of unsatisfactory leadership of the State Planning Commission, of anti-state and anti-party actions. The organizers of the non-existent anti-party group were sentenced to death, several people to long terms of imprisonment.

A legal case was initiated against a Mingrelian nationalist organization allegedly operating in Georgia, which aimed to eliminate Soviet power in the republic. On the basis of falsified materials, a number of party workers and thousands of citizens were repressed (the "Mingrelian case").

In 1952, the so-called doctors' case was fabricated. A group of prominent medical professionals who served prominent government officials were accused of being involved in a spy organization and intending to commit terrorist acts against the leaders of the country.

The difficult state of the post-war economy and the excessive centralization of economic management caused deep concern among many Soviet people. The Central Committee of the Party received thousands of letters from individual citizens with reports of abuses by local authorities, with proposals for improving things in agriculture. Attempts were made to counter the internal political course. Thus, an illegal youth organization was created in Voronezh. Its participants, concerned about the economic situation of the country, came to the conclusion that it was necessary to change the economic policy. The organization, which numbered several dozen people, was uncovered, its leaders were put on trial.

Stavropol College
Economics and Management
"Businesstrans"

abstract

By discipline: "History"

On the topic:
The USSR in the mid-40s-50s. Apogee of Stalinism.

Work completed:
2nd year student of group PSO9-101
Silence V.A.

Work checked:
Tufanov E.V.

Stavropol
2011
Abstract plan:
USSR in the mid-1940s and 1950s.

1. The apogee of Stalinism: the USSR in 1945-1953.

2. Economic recovery: the price of success

2.1. The state of the economy of the USSR after the end of the war

2.2. Economic discussions 1945 - 1946

2.3. Industry development

2.4. Agriculture

3. Strengthening totalitarianism

3.2. Changes in power structures

3.3. A new round of repression

3.4. National politics

4. Ideology and culture

4.1. Rebuilding the Iron Curtain

4.2. Literature

4.3. Theater and cinema

4.4. Music

4.5. Scientific "discussions"

5. Tightening foreign policy

5.1. At the origins of the Cold War

5.2. Export of the Stalinist model

5.3. Apogee of the Cold War

The Great Patriotic War ended victoriously. The victory created a special spiritual atmosphere in society - pride, self-respect, hope. The faith was growing stronger that all the worst was over, that a new life lay ahead, abundant, fair, kind, free from violence, fear, dictate. But the government chose a different course, returning to the path it led society and the country in the 1930s. The most complex problems that confronted the USSR after the war were solved by methods tested in the pre-war decade. In 1946-1953. the totalitarian system reached its peak.

The damage caused by the war was enormous. About 27 million people died, at least one third of the national wealth of the USSR was destroyed (for details, see ticket No. 17). Restoring the destroyed economy, transferring it from a war footing to a peaceful one - these are the main tasks facing the country. The first steps were the demobilization of the army, its sharp reduction (almost 4 times by 1948); redistribution of expenses in favor of peaceful branches of industry and reorientation of production to peaceful needs; the abolition of the State Defense Committee and the transfer of its functions to the Council of People's Commissars (since March 1946 - the Council of Ministers); restoration of the 8-hour working day, annual holidays, the abolition of mandatory overtime work. The Fourth Five-Year Plan (1946-1950) set the task of restoring and surpassing the pre-war level of the national economy. At the same time, the primary goal was formulated unambiguously - the restoration and development of heavy industry. The restoration of agriculture, light industry, the abolition of the rationing system, the revival of destroyed cities and villages were considered important, but subordinate to the main goal of the task. In practice, this meant that light industry was still financed according to the "leftover principle", agriculture was again given the role of the main source of savings for restoring the country's industrial base.

Heavy industry, according to official figures, reached pre-war levels in 1948; in 1950 it surpassed it by 73%. The volumes of production of oil, coal, metal, electricity have grown. New industrial enterprises were built. It was an undoubted success, achieved due to the colossal exertion of all forces, the labor heroism of the people (the movement of "high-speed workers", mass overfulfillment of norms, etc.). Reparation deliveries of industrial equipment from Germany had a certain significance. As in the 1930s, the free labor of Gulag prisoners (nearly 9 million prisoners and 2 million German and Japanese prisoners of war) was widely used.

Agriculture reached pre-war levels by the beginning of the 1950s. However, it failed to reach a level that would ensure an uninterrupted supply of food to the country. The drought of 1946 had extremely grave consequences in this sense, but the main reasons for the actual degradation of the collective-farm village were not in it. The transfer of funds from agriculture to industry has taken on a truly horrendous scale (purchase prices, in particular, compensated for no more than 5-10% of the costs of producing grain, meat, and industrial crops). Mandatory state deliveries increased, taxes grew, personal plots were reduced.

In 1947, the distribution card system was abolished and a monetary reform was carried out.

The national economy was generally restored by the beginning of the 1950s. It was an achievement of great historical importance, the result of the selflessness and labor feat of the people. But the extraordinary difficulties of the post-war years were overcome by those tested back in the 30s. means: over-centralization of the economy, strict dictatorship, transfer of funds in favor of heavy industry, preservation of the low standard of living of the population. The restoration of the national economy was thus accompanied by a tightening of the command economy, the basis of a totalitarian society.

In the post-war years, the authorities did everything possible not only to preserve, but also to strengthen the totalitarian system in the country. Holding elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, congresses of the party (the 19th congress was held in 1952, at which the CPSU (b) was renamed the CPSU), Komsomol, trade unions, people's judges, transforming people's commissariats into ministries, the country's leadership made consistent efforts to to nullify the democratic momentum of victory.

Repressions began again: first, against the Soviet military who were in German captivity (out of 5.5 million people, almost 2 million were imprisoned), and residents of the occupied regions. This was followed by new waves of deportations of the population from the Crimea, the Caucasus, the Baltic States, Western Ukraine and Belarus. The population of the Gulag grew.

The following blows were inflicted on the military (the arrest of Air Marshal A. A. Novikov, associates of Marshal G. K. Zhukov, etc.), the party elite (“the Leningrad case”, the execution of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR N. A. Voznesensky, the former head of the Leningrad Party organizations of A. A. Kuznetsov and others), artists (decree on the magazines Zvezda and Leningrad, public defamation of A. A. Akhmatova and M. M. Zashchenko, outrageous criticism of the music of D. D. Shostakovich, V. I. Muradeli, S. S. Prokofiev, zarret of the second series of S. Eisenstein's film "Ivan the Terrible", etc.), scientists (condemnation of genetics, cybernetics, discussions on problems of linguistics, philosophy, political economy, etc.), representatives of the Jewish intelligentsia ( the murder of S. Mikhoels, the campaign against the "rootless cosmopolitans"). In 1952, the “case of doctors” arose, accused of deliberately improper treatment of the leaders of the party and state. There is reason to believe that I. V. Stalin was preparing arrests in his inner circle. Whether this is so is not exactly known: on March 5, 1953, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Thus, all elements of the totalitarian system - the absolute domination of a single ruling party, the cult of the leader, a single dominant ideology, a properly functioning repressive apparatus - were strengthened and strengthened in the post-war period. Nuts were screwed to the limit. Further tightening of the regime was impossible. Stalin's heirs were clearly aware of this.

1. The apogee of Stalinism: the USSR in 1945-1953.

The victory in the bloody war opened a new page in the history of the country. It engendered among the people hopes for a better life, the weakening of the pressure of the totalitarian state on the individual, the elimination of its most odious costs. The potential for change in the political regime, economy, and culture was opened up.

The "democratic impulse" of the war, however, was opposed by the full force of the System created by Stalin. Its positions not only were not weakened during the war years, but seemed to be even stronger in the post-war period. Even the very victory in the war was identified in the mass consciousness with the victory of the totalitarian regime.

Under these conditions, the struggle between the democratic and totalitarian tendencies became the leitmotif of social development.

2. Economic recovery: the price of success

2.1. The state of the economy of the USSR after the end of the war

The war turned out to be huge human and material losses for the USSR. It claimed almost 27 million human lives. 1,710 cities and urban-type settlements were destroyed, 70,000 villages and villages were destroyed, 31,850 plants and factories, 1,135 mines, and 65,000 km of railway lines were blown up and put out of action. The sown areas decreased by 36.8 million hectares. The country has lost about one third of its national wealth.

The country began to restore the economy in the year of the war, when in 1943. A special party and government resolution "On urgent measures to restore the economy in areas liberated from German occupation" was adopted. By the end of the war, the colossal efforts of the Soviet people in these areas managed to restore industrial production to a third of the 1940 level. The liberated areas in 1944 produced more than half of the nationwide grain procurements, a quarter of livestock and poultry, and about a third of dairy products.

However, as the central task of restoration, the country faced it only after the end of the war.

2.2. Economic discussions 1945 - 1946

In August 1945, the government instructed the State Planning Commission (N. Voznesensky) to prepare a draft of the fourth five-year plan. During its discussion, proposals were made for some softening of the voluntarist pressure in the management of the economy, the reorganization of collective farms. The "democratic alternative" also manifested itself in the course of a closed discussion of the draft of the new Constitution of the USSR prepared in 1946. In particular, along with the recognition of the authority of state property, it allowed the existence of small private farms of peasants and handicraftsmen based on personal labor and excluding the exploitation of other people's labor. During the discussion of this project by nomenklatura officials in the center and in the localities, the ideas of the need to decentralize economic life, grant greater rights to the regions and people's commissariats were voiced. "From below" there were more and more calls for the liquidation of collective farms due to their inefficiency. As a rule, two arguments were cited to justify these positions: firstly, the relative weakening of state pressure on the manufacturer during the war years, which gave a positive result; secondly, a direct analogy was drawn with the recovery period after the civil war, when the revival of the economy began with the revival of the private sector, the decentralization of governance and the priority development of light and food industries.

However, these discussions were won by the point of view of Stalin, who at the beginning of 1946 announced the continuation of the course taken before the war to complete the construction of socialism and build communism. This also meant a return to the pre-war model of super-centralization in economic planning and management, and at the same time to those contradictions and disproportions between sectors of the economy that developed in the 1930s.

2.3. Industry development

The restoration of industry took place in very difficult conditions. In the first post-war years, the work of the Soviet people was not much different from the military emergency. The constant shortage of food (the card system was canceled only in 1947), the most difficult working and living conditions, the high level of morbidity and mortality explained to the population that the long-awaited peace had just come and life was about to get better. However, this did not happen.

After the monetary reform of 1947, with an average salary of about 500 rubles a month, the cost of a kilogram of bread was 3-4 rubles, a kilogram of meat - 28-32 rubles, butter - over 60 rubles, a dozen eggs - about 11 rubles. To buy a woolen suit, one had to pay three average monthly salaries. As before the war, from one to one and a half monthly salaries per year was spent on the purchase of compulsory government bonds. Many working-class families still lived in dugouts and barracks, and sometimes worked in the open air or in unheated premises, on old or worn-out equipment.

Nevertheless, some wartime restrictions were lifted: the 8-hour working day and annual holidays were reintroduced, and forced overtime was abolished. Restoration took place in conditions of a sharp increase in migration processes. Caused by the demobilization of the army (its number decreased from 11.4 million in 1945 to 2.9 million in 1948), the repatriation of Soviet citizens from Europe, the return of refugees and evacuees from the eastern regions of the country. Another difficulty in the development of industry was its conversion, which was completed mainly by 1947. Considerable funds were also spent on supporting the allied Eastern European countries.

Huge losses in the war turned into a shortage of labor, which, in turn, led to an increase in the turnover of personnel who were looking for more favorable working conditions.

To compensate for these costs, as before, it was necessary to increase the transfer of funds from the countryside to the city and the development of the labor activity of workers. One of the most famous initiatives of those years was the movement of "speed workers", initiated by the Leningrad turner G.S. Bortkevich, who completed a 13-day production rate on a lathe in February 1948 in one shift. The movement became massive. At some enterprises, attempts were made to introduce self-financing. But to consolidate these innovations, no material incentive measures were taken; on the contrary, with an increase in labor productivity, prices went down. It was beneficial for the administrative-command system to achieve high production results without additional investments.

For the first time in many years after the war, there was a trend towards a wider use of scientific and technical developments in production, but it manifested itself mainly only at enterprises of the military-industrial complex (MIC), where, in the conditions of the beginning of the Cold War, the process of developing nuclear and thermonuclear weapons was going on. , new missile systems, new models of tank and aviation equipment.

Along with the priority development of the military-industrial complex, preference was also given to machine building, metallurgy, the fuel and energy industries, the development of which accounted for 88% of capital investments in industry. The light and food industries, as before, were financed on a residual basis (12%) and, naturally, did not satisfy even the minimum needs of the population.

In total, during the years of the 4th five-year plan (1946-1950), 6,200 large enterprises were restored and rebuilt. In 1950, according to official data, industrial production exceeded pre-war figures by 73% (and in the new union republics - Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Moldova - 2-3 times). True, reparations and products of joint Soviet-East German enterprises were also included here.

The main creator of these undoubted successes was the Soviet people. His incredible efforts and sacrifices, as well as the high mobilization capabilities of the directive model of the economy, seemed to achieve impossible economic results. At the same time, the traditional policy of redistributing funds from the light and food industries, agriculture and the social sphere in favor of heavy industry also played its role. Reparations received from Germany (4.3 billion dollars) also provided significant assistance, providing up to half of the volume of industrial equipment installed in these years. In addition, the labor of almost 9 million Soviet prisoners and about 2 million German and Japanese prisoners of war, who also contributed to the post-war reconstruction, was free, but very effective.

2.4. Agriculture

The country's agriculture came out of the war even more weakened, the gross output of which in 1945 did not exceed 60% of the pre-war level. The situation in it worsened even more in connection with the drought of 1946, which caused a severe famine.

Nevertheless, the unequal trade between town and country continued even after that. Through state purchases, collective farms compensated only a fifth of the costs of milk production, a tenth of grain, and a twentieth of meat. The peasants, working on the collective farm, received practically nothing. Saved only subsidiary farming. However, the state also dealt a significant blow to it. For the period from 1946-1949. 10.6 million hectares of land from peasant household plots were cut in favor of the collective farms. Taxes on income from sales in the market have been significantly increased. Market trade itself was allowed only to those peasants whose collective farms had fulfilled state deliveries. Each peasant farm was obliged to hand over to the state meat, milk, eggs, and wool as a tax for a land plot. In 1948, collective farmers were "recommended" to sell small livestock to the state (which was allowed to be kept by the collective farm charter), which caused a mass slaughter of pigs, sheep, and goats throughout the country (up to 2 million heads).

Pre-war norms were preserved that limited the freedom of movement of collective farmers: they were actually deprived of the opportunity to have passports, they were not covered by temporary disability pay, they were deprived of pensions. The monetary reform of 1947 also hit hardest on the peasantry, who kept their savings at home.

By the end of the 4th five-year plan, the disastrous economic situation of the collective farms required their next reform. However, the authorities saw its essence not in material incentives for the manufacturer, but in another structural restructuring. Instead of a link (a small agricultural structural unit, which, as a rule, consisted of members of the same family, and therefore more efficient), it was recommended to develop a team form of work. This caused a new wave of discontent among the peasants and the disorganization of agricultural work. In March 1951, projects for the creation of "agrocities" appeared, which in the end could lead to the destruction of the peasantry as such.

With the help of volitional measures taken and at the cost of the enormous efforts of the peasantry in the early 50s. succeeded in bringing the country's agriculture to the pre-war level of production. However, the deprivation of the peasants of the still remaining incentives to work brought the country's agriculture to an unprecedented crisis and forced the government to take emergency measures to supply the cities and the army with food.

The course towards further "tightening the screws" in the economy was theoretically substantiated in Stalin's work "Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR" published in 1952. In it, he defended the ideas of the predominant development of heavy industry, the acceleration of the full nationalization of property and forms of labor organization in agriculture, and opposed any attempts to revive market relations. It also said that under socialism the growing needs of the population will always overtake the possibilities of production. This provision "explained" to the population the dominance of a deficit economy and justified its existence.

Thus, the return of the USSR to the pre-war model of economic development caused a significant deterioration in economic indicators in the post-war period, which was a natural result of the implementation of the plan taken in the late 1920s. course.

3. Strengthening totalitarianism

3.1. "Democratic impulse" of the war

The war managed to change the socio-political atmosphere that prevailed in the USSR in the 1930s. the very extreme situation at the front and in the rear forced people to think creatively, act independently, and take responsibility at a decisive moment.

In addition, the war broke through the "iron curtain" by which the country was fenced off from the rest of the "hostile" world. Participants in the European campaign of the Red Army (and there were almost 10 million of them), numerous repatriates (up to 5.5 million) saw with their own eyes that bourgeois world, which they knew about only from propaganda materials that "exposed" its vices. The differences in attitudes towards the individual, in the standard of living in these countries and in the USSR were so great that they could not but sow doubts among the Soviet people who found themselves in Europe about the correctness of the assessments made by propagandists, about the expediency of the path that the country was following all these years.

The victory of the Soviet people in the war gave rise to hopes among the peasants for the dissolution of collective farms, among the intelligentsia - for the weakening of political dictate, among the population of the Union republics (especially in the Baltic states, Western Ukraine and Belarus) - for a change in national policy. Even among the party-state nomenklatura, which had been renewed during the war years, an understanding of the inevitability and necessity of change was ripening. In 1946-1947, during a closed discussion of the drafts of the new Constitution of the USSR, the Program and the Charter of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, very characteristic proposals were made aimed at the relative democratization of the regime: on the elimination of special wartime courts, the release of the party from the function of economic management, limiting the term of tenure in leading Soviet and party work, about alternative elections, etc. The "democratic impulse" of the war also manifested itself in the emergence of a number of anti-Stalinist youth groups in Moscow, Voronezh, Sverdlovsk, and Chelyabinsk. Dissatisfaction was also expressed by those officers and generals who, having felt relative independence in making decisions during the war years, turned out to be, after its end, the same "cogs" in the Stalinist system.

The authorities were concerned about such sentiments. However, the vast majority of the country's population perceived victory in the war as a victory for Stalin and the system he headed. Therefore, in an effort to suppress the emerging social tension, the regime went in two directions: on the one hand, along the path of decorative, visible democratization, and on the other, intensifying the fight against "freethinking" and strengthening the totalitarian regime.

3.2. Changes in power structures

Immediately after the end of World War II, in September 1945, the state of emergency was lifted and the State Defense Committee was abolished. In March 1946 the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was transformed into the Council of Ministers. At the same time, there was an increase in the number of ministries and departments, and the number of their apparatus grew.

At the same time, elections were held to local councils, the Supreme Soviets of the republics and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, as a result of which the deputy corps was updated, which did not change during the war years. By the beginning of the 50s. collegiality in the activities of the Soviets was strengthened as a result of more frequent convening of their sessions, an increase in the number of standing committees. In accordance with the Constitution, direct and secret elections of people's judges and assessors were held for the first time. However, all power still remained in the hands of the party leadership.

After a thirteen-year break, in October 1952, the 19th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks took place, which decided to rename the party into the CPSU. In 1949, congresses of trade unions and Komsomol were held (also not convened for 17 and 13 years). They were preceded by reporting and election party, trade union and Komsomol meetings, at which the leadership of these organizations was renewed. However, despite outwardly positive, democratic changes, in these very years the political regime was tightened in the country, a new wave of repressions was growing.

3.3. A new round of repression

The Gulag system reached its apogee precisely in the post-war years, since to those who had been sitting there since the mid-30s. "enemies of the people" added millions of new ones. One of the first blows fell on prisoners of war, most of whom (about 2 million) after being released from fascist captivity were sent to Siberian and Ukhta camps. Tula was exiled "foreign elements" from the Baltic republics, Western Ukraine and Belarus. According to various sources, during these years the "population" of the Gulag ranged from 4.5 to 12 million people.

In 1948, “special regime” camps were set up for those convicted of “anti-Soviet activities” and “counter-revolutionary acts”, in which especially sophisticated methods of influencing prisoners were used. Not wanting to put up with their situation, political prisoners in a number of camps raised uprisings, sometimes held under political slogans. The most famous of them were performances in Pechora (1948), Salekhard (1950), Kingir (1952), Ekibastuz (1952), Vorkuta (1953) and Norilsk
(1953).

Along with the political prisoners in the camps after the war, there were also quite a few workers who did not fulfill the existing production norms. Thus, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 2, 1948, local authorities were granted the right to deport to remote areas persons who maliciously evade labor activity in agriculture.

Fearing the increased popularity of the military during the war, Stalin authorized the arrest of Air Marshal A.A. Novikov, generals P.N. Ponedelina, N.K. Kirillov, a number of colleagues of Marshal G.K. Zhukov. The commander himself was charged with putting together a group of disgruntled generals and officers, ingratitude and disrespect for Stalin.

The repressions also affected some of the party functionaries, especially those who aspired to independence and greater independence from the central government. At the beginning of 1948, almost all the leaders of the Leningrad party organization were arrested. The total number of those arrested in the "Leningrad case" was about 2,000 people. After some time, 200 of them were put on trial and shot, including Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Russia M. Rodionov, member of the Politburo and Chairman of the State Planning Committee of the USSR N. Voznesensky, Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks A. Kuznetsov. The "Leningrad case" was supposed to be a stern warning to those who, at least in some way, thought differently than the "leader of the peoples."

The last of the trials being prepared was the "case of doctors" (1953), accused of improper treatment of top management, which led to the death of a number of prominent figures. Total victims of repression in 1948-1953. almost 6.5 million people became. The flywheel of repression was stopped only after the death of Stalin.

3.4. National politics

Along with other changes, the war led to an increase in ideological and political movements, including national ones, that were not controlled by the "tops". they acquired a special scope in the territories that became part of the USSR in 1939-1940, where the struggle against collectivization and sovietization continued until the early 1950s. for participation in them only in Western Ukraine by 1950, about 300 thousand people were deported, exiled or arrested. In the Baltics, 400 thousand Lithuanians, 150 thousand Latvians, 50 thousand Estonians were deported. In parallel, there was a violent process of continuous collectivization, interrupted by the war.

Following the Volga Germans, Crimean Tatars, Chechens, Ingush, Kalmyks, Karachays, Balkars resettled during the war years (their total number was about 1.5 million people), representatives of other peoples (in particular, Moldovans) were subjected to forcible deportation in the postwar years. ).

A revision of the history of national relations in Russia and the USSR began, during which any national movements were viewed as reactionary and harmful. The pressure on the national detachments of the intelligentsia, the traditions and culture of the "small peoples" also intensified. Thus, since 1951, criticism of the national epos of the Muslim peoples began as "clerical and anti-people."
etc.................

During the Great Patriotic War there was a definite turning point in the minds of the Soviet people. In the face of death, the fear of the punitive organs of the state receded. The military brotherhood made the relationship more trusting. Such qualities as personal courage, honesty, initiative, and the ability to defend one's own point of view again acquired their former importance. Victory in the war, achieved at the cost of incredible losses, aroused hope in people for some softening of the totalitarian regime, rumors spread in the village that the abolition of collective farms would be a reward for the suffering suffered during the war years. All this required the Soviet leadership to immediately tighten the regime. Paradoxically, but at the same time as timid hopes for liberalization, the victory also caused the strengthening of the personality cult of I.V. Stalin. According to the established tradition, it was the “great generalissimo” who was credited with the honor of the victory of the USSR over Germany. Of course, I.V. Stalin did not fail to take advantage of this. The last years of his life were the heyday of the totalitarian system, the apogee of the cult of personality.

One of the main consequences of this was the increase in the population of the Gulag. In 1945, it was 1.5 million people, and by 1950 - 2.5 million. During the war, former Soviet prisoners of war, liberated by the Red Army from fascist concentration camps, began to get there, many of those who were under occupation . Beginning in 1945, Soviet camps began to be replenished with repatriated citizens from among those who had once been forcibly taken to Germany. According to severe repressive decrees of 1947-1948. collective farmers went to the camps. Since 1948, the number of prisoners has increased due to the so-called. "Repeaters" - those who in the late 1930s. “earned” 10 years in the camps (maximum punishment), and now received a new term by administrative decision (children of “enemies of the people”). The number of prisoners increased and, as a result of the intensified from the mid-1940s. culture persecution.

The most important manifestations of the toughening of the Stalinist regime during the war years and after the war include cruel repressions against entire peoples. Volga Germans and Finns were subjected to deportation (exile from their homeland) on charges of treason in 1941, Karachays and Kalmyks in 1943, and in 1944 Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Caucasian Greeks, Crimean Tatars, a significant part of the population Western Ukraine, Western Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. The deported peoples amounted to almost 3 million "special settlers" in the Siberian taiga and the Kazakh steppe. They died on the way, because they could not take anything with them except for wearable things, tens of thousands died in the villages in their new place of residence, since no one helped them. The rehabilitation of the repressed peoples was completed only by the 1970s.

Another component of the strengthening of totalitarianism was the increased ideological pressure on culture. Throughout the 1930s. repressions were carried out in relation to figures of science and art. In the case of the Labor Peasant Party, the flower of Russian economic science was destroyed; in 1943, one of the founders of Soviet genetics, N.I. Vavilov, many engineers, designers, physicists were repressed. V.E. died in prisons and camps. Meyerhold, O.E. Mandelstam, D.I. Kharms and hundreds of other prominent creative figures. They were not published, they wrote "on the table" A.A. Akhmatova, M.A. Bulgakov, A.P. Platonov and other writers and poets who did not fit into the narrow framework of "socialist realism". But during the war, as in other areas of life, a certain weakening of state control dawned on culture. All the more reason for the authorities to strengthen this control. Since the mid 1940s. gross ideological interference in science and art resumes. The "class approach" becomes the main criterion for determining scientific and aesthetic value. Cybernetics was proclaimed "corrupt girl of the bourgeoisie", "occult science" and "servant of imperialism", and research in this area was stopped. From communist positions, A. Einstein's theory of relativity and quantum mechanics were condemned. In August 1948, the "People's Academician" T.D. Lysenko considered biology from the class point of view. Classical genetics was declared "bourgeois reactionary pseudoscience", which led to the destruction of dozens of scientific laboratories, the dismissal of scientists, and the cessation of selection work. Even fiercer battles took place in the humanities and social sciences, which are more closely associated with the field of ideology. One of the main tasks of the authorities during this period was the suppression of contacts between Soviet scientists and the world scientific community. Those who dared to follow the mainstream of world culture were accused of "servile worship of the West." The main ideologist of the party, secretary of the Central Committee A.A. Zhdanov initiated the adoption in 1946 - 1948. resolutions that crushed post-war art. The decree “On the magazines Zvezda and Leningrad” accused A.A. Akhmatov and M.M. Zoshchenko. In the resolutions “On the repertoire of drama theaters”, “On the opera “Great Friendship”, “On the film “Big Life” and many others, composers V.I. Muradeli, S.S. Prokofiev, D.D. Shostakovich. "Distortion of Soviet reality" and "lack of patriotism" were blamed on directors L. D. Lukov, S.M. Eisenstein, A.P. Dovzhenko, S.A. Gerasimov and others.

The accusation of "crooking before the West" was synonymous with the conviction of a lack of patriotism. After the war, the features of chauvinism became more and more pronounced in Stalin's ideology. It can be said that since 1948 the “struggle against servility” has been transformed into a campaign against “cosmopolitanism”. "Rootless cosmopolitans" were predominantly called Jews, thus, anti-Semitism became state policy. At the beginning of 1948, by order of I.V. Stalin, the state security organs organized the murder of the chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC), actor and director S.M. Mikhoels, repressions affected the leadership of the Jewish Autonomous Region, Jewish theaters and magazines were closed. From the spring of 1948, the search for "cosmopolitans" swept over the entire society, Jews were expelled from the party, expelled from work, deprived of the opportunity to receive a higher education. At the end of 1948 members of the JAC were arrested. Their trial lasted until 1952, when those arrested on charges of "anti-Soviet activities and espionage" were sentenced to death or long-term imprisonment.

Together with the “EAK case”, the last round of Stalinist repressions were:

- "the case of aviators", according to which in the spring - summer of 1946 the Soviet Air Force was beheaded, arresting the commander-in-chief of the Air Force, Marshal A.A. Novikov, People's Commissar of Aviation Industry A.I. Shakhurin, chief engineer of the Air Force A.K. Repin and many others;

- "Leningrad case", fabricated by G.M. Malenkov and L.P. Beria against the "factionalists" N.A. Voznesensky, M.I. Rodionova, A.A. Kuznetsova, P.S. Popkova, Ya.F. Kapustina, P.G. Lazutina. Accused of trying to turn the Leningrad Regional Party Committee into a center of struggle against the Central Committee, they were executed in 1950, and many other party and economic leaders were exiled to camps;

- "the case of killer doctors", which continued during 1952 - 1953. On charges of "murder" A.A. Zhdanova, A.S. Shcherbakov and an attempt on the life of other prominent statesmen, Academician Professor V.N. Vinogradov, Academicians Vasilenko and Rappoport and others. The death of I.V. Stalin March 5, 1953

Within the framework of this historical period, a number of key issues should be considered: The formation of a bipolar world, the formation of the USSR as a superpower, and the emergence of the Cold War.

In 1946, in the American city of Fulton, the already former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made his famous speech in which he approved the phenomenon of the "Iron Curtain", trying to expose the USSR for subordinating the states of Central and Eastern Europe to the communist bloc. In response to this, Joseph Stalin called this speech, in fact, an act of manifestation of Anglo-Saxon nationalism and even indirectly compared Churchill with Hitler. Hence, in historical science it is customary to designate the beginning of the Cold War.

This term includes a large-scale confrontation between the capitalist Western democracies on the one hand and the communist bloc on the other, expressed in an intense arms race and a number of local conflicts in which each side defended its interests.

One such conflict was the Korean War of 1950-1953. Korea was divided into two parts - North, socialist and South, capitalist. Both the USSR and the USA sent assistance to the respective states in the form of consultants, officers and even the air force, which aggravated relations between the Union and the States. The parties prepared a number of military plans against each other, for example, the British "Operation Unthinkable" or the American "Operation Dropshot".

The situation in Europe also escalated.

By the end of the war, the Soviet Union had a truly invincible army - hardened in battles with Nazi Germany and its satellites, personnel, hundreds of thousands of first-class equipment and control of vast territories in Europe and Asia - all this turned the USSR into the category of superpowers. This status was assigned to the Soviet Union after the development of the first Soviet atomic bomb in 1949. Such a force could not fail to attract the attention of Western countries, primarily the United States. President Harry Truman announced that US policy would be aimed at suppressing communist infiltration in Europe. This policy has gone down in history as the Truman Doctrine. Another measure to counter the spread of the "red plague" was the "Marshall Plan" - large-scale economic support from the United States to war-torn European countries in order to restore the living standards of the population, because, as you know, hunger is the best ally of the communists.

All these measures led to a decrease in communist influence in Europe - the socialists lost their seats in the governments of France and Italy, and the "red" guerrilla war in Greece ended in their suppression.

Among other things, it is worth paying attention to domestic politics in the USSR, especially to the post-war economy. The new status of a superpower forced the Soviet government to adhere to conservative methods of management: growth was carried out mainly in an extensive way and was directed, as before, to the development of heavy industries and servicing the monstrous military-industrial complex, which led to economic disproportion and a shortage of consumer goods.

The assessment of this period seems to be ambiguous. The victory in the war caused a patriotic upsurge of the population of the USSR, transferred the country to a completely new level. The Soviet Union got the opportunity to influence the entire world politics, its power became truly enormous. At the same time, this strengthening naturally caused a reaction from the political opponents of the Union, primarily the United States. The creation of the Cominform, CMEA and NATO, the establishment of the "Iron Curtain" - all this meant the transition to the "Cold War", which in the future will cause a number of local military conflicts around the globe, some of which will put the world on the brink of a nuclear catastrophe. It was during this period that the scale of the global confrontation between the USSR and the USA took shape, which would last until the collapse of the first in 1991.