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History of the world economy - Polyak GB

Losses of the USSR

It should be noted that in 1941, 88 million people, or 40% of the total population of the USSR, and 32% of workers and employees lived in the territory under temporary occupation. Here were 33% of the fixed assets of enterprises that produced 33% of the gross output of the entire industry of the country. The invaders seized a vast territory with fertile lands, where up to 70.8 million hectares, or 47% of the country's arable land, was occupied by crops of crops and industrial crops, 38% of the grain, 53% of flax, collected 45% of the livestock Cattle, 68% of pigs, 29% of sheep and goats.

The losses of our people are especially invaluable and irreplaceable. It is 27 million Soviet people who died on the battlefields, in concentration camps, on Nazi penal servitude, shot and tortured in the temporarily occupied territories.

Needing labor resources, the German fascists began to steal large numbers of people from the countries they occupied in Germany to work in Germany. 4 million people were stolen from the Soviet Union for German hard labor. Together with prisoners of war, there were many more. This is evidenced by the following data. In 1945, more than 5 million people were repatriated from Germany, including 3.1 million men, 1.4 million women and 600,000 children. Hundreds of thousands have not returned, dying there from bullets, disease and hunger.

The destruction of millions of Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War deprived our country of millions of workers, which seriously hampered the post-war recovery of the national economy. The consequences of such a large loss of human resources were reflected in the subsequent demographic situation in the USSR, reflected in the decline in the postwar years of fertility, and then in the "re-echo of the war," when fewer children were born to people born in the war years.

Even before the outbreak of the war with the Soviet Union, during the development of the Barbarossa Plan, economic measures were planned for the planned territories of the USSR. Goering frankly declared: "I intend to rob, and it is effective" *.

* The Nuremberg trial. T. II. - P. 627.

To organize the robbery of the resources of the occupied areas, the "economic headquarters for special purposes Oldenburg" subordinate to Göring was created. The headquarters supervised the economic inspectorates in all the large occupied cities. In the submission of the inspection there were special teams directly engaged in the robbery of the occupied territories. The directive document for these units indicated the following: "According to the orders of the Führer, all measures should be taken to immediately and fully use the occupied areas in the interests of Germany. The use of areas to be occupied should be carried out primarily in the field of food and oil economy. Along with this, the German war industry must also be given other raw materials from the occupied regions "*.

* The Nuremberg trial. T.II. - P. 715-716.

In these special units to manage the "eastern territories" there were thousands of military and government officials who robbed and exported to Germany everything that could be taken away from the USSR. Together with the army and state officials, numerous representatives of German concerns poured into our country, who hastened to establish their branches in the occupied territories of the USSR. Among them were: Mannesman-Ukraine AG, Ukraine's branches Krupp, Hermann Goering Iron and Steel, and many others, whose main and sole purpose was robbery.

The plunder of others' values, elevated to the rank of state policy, was one of the tasks of the Hitler plans for war against the Soviet Union.

In the instruction issued by the German command entitled "Principles of Economic Management in the East" (annex to the special procurement order of August 22, 1941), it was stated: "The conquered eastern regions are the German economic territory. The land, all living and dead inventory ... are the property of the German state "*.

* The Nuremberg trial. TI - С.805.

The Nazis not only plundered the property of the peoples of the USSR, even more significant damage was caused by their destruction of material values ​​in the temporarily occupied territories.

In the history of all the wars that were going on before, not one army destroyed so alienly and systematically, so cruelly and coldly during the military operations, foreign territories, as did the Nazi troops in our land. Special teams of torch-bearers to set fire to buildings, fuses to destroy not only industrial facilities, but also theaters, museums, kindergartens and hospitals, was first created by the German army.

In one of Hitler's directives, his retreating troops were ordered: "All structures useful to the enemy, cantonment sites, roads, man-made structures, dams, etc., must inevitably collapse ... The enemy must receive a completely unsuitable desert land for a long time, uninhabited, Where explosions of mines will occur during the months "*.

* Nuremberg Trial.T.1 - P.781.

The " desert zone " is the product of German fascism. This is the first precedent in the new history of mankind in the official policy of one of the belligerents in relation to the other. No country in any of the wars suffered such losses and on such a vast territory as the USSR during the Great Patriotic War. Before the scale and horrors of the destruction the fascists are destroying the most terrible pages of world history.

Even more terrible were the plans of the fascists in case of their victory. They prepared a terrible fate for Moscow, Leningrad and other major centers of our country. For Moscow, the fate was destined to be completely destroyed. After the capture of Leningrad, the Nazis had to blow it up and level it to the ground.

The directive of the German naval staff of September 22, 1941, "On the future of the city of Petersburg" stated: "The Fuhrer decided to wipe the city of Petersburg from the face of the earth. After the defeat of Soviet Russia, there is no interest in the continued existence of this large settlement. It is proposed to closely block the city and, by firing all the gauges from artillery and ceaselessly bombing from the air, level it to the ground. "*

* Nuremberg process. T.1 . - P. 783.

The looting and destruction of the cultural values ​​of the USSR was also an integral part of the state policy of the Nazis with regard to the "eastern territories". For this purpose, special plans were developed and special units were created to implement these plans. The fascists first plundered and then destroyed hundreds of cultural objects on the territory of all the Soviet republics where they visited. The list and description of these vandal acts is many volumes.

Any war is fraught with material and human losses. But especially large losses it bears to the economy and the population of the areas where military operations are taking place, and the areas of occupation. This was the main cause of the huge destruction. It should not be forgotten that the war raged twice over the same territories. As a result of fierce battles, when cities, villages, villages were several times passed from hand to hand, they were destroyed.

From the very first hours of the war, the enemy brought down the deadly cargo of thousands of German aircraft to the cities of the Soviet Union. Their main goal was industrial facilities in the interior of the country. The objects that were bombed were urgently restored to provide the front with weapons.

Even more significant amounts of construction and installation work were connected with the relocation of industrial enterprises to the eastern regions of our homeland. Already on June 27, 1941, a decision was taken to evacuate a huge number of enterprises.

Evacuation of the productive forces to the East

The evacuation of industrial enterprises to the eastern regions of the country was of great economic and defense importance. It allowed to preserve for our country a significant part of the military and economic potential of those areas that fell into the zone of occupation. Thus, the plans of the Hitlerites to deprive the Soviet Union of the industrial base, primarily the base for the production of metal and coal, were deprived of the plans of the Hitlerites, and consequently to deprive the Red Army of the potential to arm in the course of the war. The relocation of so many enterprises to the eastern regions served as a powerful impetus for their industrial development, both in the war years and in the post-war period.

Evacuated factories and factories were mainly sent to the eastern regions of the RSFSR, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan. For July-November 1941, 1523 industrial enterprises were relocated to the east of the country. By the spring of 1942, 7.4 million people arrived in the eastern regions.

Bread to the front

The newly created industrial base has become in fact the main supplier of all the most important types of products. Already in 1942 industrial enterprises of the eastern regions produced 100% of tractors, 99% of coke, 97% of iron ore, 97% of pig iron, 87% of steel, 90% of rolled products, 82% of coal, 52% of machine tools, 59% of electric power. This economic potential played a decisive role not only in providing the front with armament, but also in restoring the national economy of the regions liberated from the German occupation.

With the approach of enemy troops, not only industrial enterprises were evacuated. The property of collective and state farms was sent to the east. More than 10 million head of cattle were driven from Ukraine to the eastern regions. From Byelorussia 395 thousand head of cattle, 248 thousand sheep, 15 thousand pigs were sent.

Thanks to the efforts of the evacuated and local population in the east of the country, the vital task of providing the front with weapons and foodstuffs was solved at that time.