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History of the world economy - Polyak GB

State budget during the war years

In connection with the loss of parts of the country's territories during the first period of the war, the transfer of a significant part of the economic potential to the east, the need to restructure the economy on military lines, the national income of our state in 1941 decreased by 1/3. Since 1943, the national income is gradually beginning to increase, in 1944 it grew by 30%, although its volume did not reach the pre-war level by the end of the war.

This affected the formation of the state budget. As a result of the above reasons and the decrease in the national income of the country, the revenues of the state budget decreased by 50 billion rubles in 1942. * In order to cover the increased expenditures on defense and the restoration of the national economy, additional incomes had to be raised. They were sought inside the country, because there were no external sources.

* Hereinafter, cost and financial indicators are given in the scale of prices that were in effect during that period.

Despite all the difficulties of wartime, huge destruction in the national economy, the main source of revenue of the state budget continued to be revenues from state-owned enterprises. As a result of organizational and technical activities directed at the growth of labor productivity in the sectors of the national economy, a reduction in production costs and production costs, the economic performance indicators of enterprises and organizations have significantly improved. This served as the basis for revenue growth of the state budget. From 1942 to 1945 They increased by 60 billion rubles.

However, due to the loss during the course of the war of a certain part of the economic potential, state enterprises could not fully ensure that the necessary amount of financial resources was received in the budget. In these conditions, one of the sources of additional funds was income from the population (taxes, government loans , etc.). With the introduction at the beginning of the war of some new taxes (military and others), their share in the budget increased from 5.2% in 1941 to 13.2% in 1945. In general, from 1942 to 1945, Total income from the population in the budget increased by 36 billion rubles.

During the war, the structure of state budget expenditures changed. In the most intense period of the war, when the destiny of our country was being decided, about 60% of the financial resources of the budget were directed to finance defense. In the second half of the war, with the buildup of military production and the strengthening of the strength of our army, not only the relative but also the absolute size of military expenditures began to decline. In 1944, their share fell to 52.3%, and in 1945 - to 42.9%. If in 1944, 137.8 billion rubles were allocated to military purposes, then in 1945 - 128.2 billion rubles.

As the country of industry evacuated to the East and its further development was restored, the possibilities for increasing the means for the national economy were expanded. These costs not only grew, but their share in the budget also increased. If in 1942 and 1943 years. Their share was 17.3% and 15.8% of total budget expenditures, respectively, then in 1944 and 1945, - 20.3% and 24.9%.

It should be specially noted that despite the wartime conditions, expenditures on social and cultural events did not decrease, but even grew absolutely and relatively. In 1942, their share was 16.6%, in 1943 - 17.9%, in 1944 - 19.4%, in 1945 - 21.0%.

One of the reasons for the growth in spending on the national economy and socio-cultural measures was the need to deploy rehabilitation work in areas subjected to fascist occupation. The Soviet state made every effort to find means to help these regions.

The defense of the country, the restoration of the war-ravaged economy required enormous financial resources. The main source of financing these costs was the funds received from state enterprises and organizations. Part of the funds is tax revenues from the population. Attraction of folk remedies

But there was another source of funds, based on the highest patriotism of Soviet people, on their aspiration to provide all-round assistance to the state, on their desire to do everything to bring the Victory Day closer. It is a question of voluntary contributions of the population during the Great Patriotic War to the created "Red Army Fund" and "Fund for the restoration of the economy in the regions liberated from the invaders". Deposits of cash, jewelry, bonds of state loans, agricultural products, deductions from wages, etc. All segments of the population participated in this patriotic movement: workers, collective farmers, scientists, writers, artists, pensioners, students and schoolchildren. In the course of the war, 94.5 billion rubles, 130.7 kilograms of gold, 13 kilograms of platinum, 9.5 tons of silver, a considerable quantity of precious products, bonds and foreign currency were received from voluntary contributions.

Significant financial assistance to the state was provided in the form of a subscription to government loans. During the war years, four state loans were issued. As a result of their implementation among the population, the state budget received 76 billion rubles.

Troubleshooting the Personnel

One of the most acute problems during the war was the shortage of labor. Millions of the most healthy men left the battlefields. Suffice it to say that by the end of the war the personnel of the Armed Forces of our country numbered 11.4 million. To form the ever-increasing technical units of the Soviet Army, skilled workers and rural machine operators were called upon. It should not be forgotten that 45% of the pre-war population of the country remained in the occupied territory. All this led to the fact that the number of workers and employees in the national economy fell from 31.2 million people. In 1940 to 18.4 million people. In 1942, including in industry with 11.0 million people. Up to 7.2 million people. Naturally, this aggravated the problem of working cadres. In 1942, the People's Commissariat for Heavy Machinery lacked 50,000 workers, 45,000 to the People's Commissariat of Tank Industry, 64,000 to the People's Commissariat of Armaments, -215,000 to the People's Commissariat of Aircraft, 35,000 to the People's Commissariat of Ammunition, and 9,000 to the Commissariat of Ferrous Metallurgy ., The People's Commissariat of non-ferrous metallurgy - 8 thousand people.

Production of mines at the Moscow plant

The most important defense and economic task was the involvement of additional manpower in production. Their source could only be women, pensioners and adolescents, wider involvement in industrial production of the inhabitants of the republics, having a predominantly rural population.

Millions of Soviet women began to work in all branches of the national economy. They not only fulfilled, but also overfulfilled men's standards, mastered exclusively male professions, worked, replacing men, at metallurgical, chemical, defense plants. For example, the proportion of women in metallurgical plants in the eastern regions in 1943 was 40.9%. In general, the national economy, the number of women from 1940 to 1945. Increased by 20.6%, and their specific weight - from 39 to 56%, including in industry - 52%. Women have mastered men's specialties. They accounted for 33% of the machinists of steam engines, 33% - turners, 31% - welders, etc. Women became the main productive force of the rear. The role of women in agriculture has increased especially. Here, they almost completely replaced the husbands, brothers, fathers who left for the front. Suffice it to say that the proportion of female tractor drivers and combine operators increased in 1943 to 54%, in 1940 it was 8%.

Production growth

The material and technical support of the army, which requires the continuous expansion of military production and the renewal of military equipment, the restoration of the economy destroyed by the war were closely connected with the need for constant growth of fixed assets as a base for expanded reproduction.

The implementation of the expanded reproduction during the war years was complicated by a number of important factors: a high share in the aggregate social product of military products, a shortage of qualified workers called into the active army, the seizure of significant amounts of fixed assets as a result of occupation and destruction from the economic potential.

In these conditions, industrial centers created in the pre-war and war years in the eastern regions of the RSFSR and in the Central Asian republics were of great importance for the economy and the defense capability of our country. Their presence allowed and during the war to constantly expand the reproduction and increase the economic potential of the state. While in the capitalist states, including fascist Germany, there was a contraction in the reproduction of fixed assets (for example, in Germany capital investments in 1943 decreased compared to 1942 by 13%, and in 1944 decreased by 9%), in the USSR the volume of capital investments during the war years increased steadily: in 1943 it amounted to 25.9 billion rubles, in 1944 - 35.6 billion rubles, in 1945 - 42.9 Billion rubles.

The capital investments allocated from the state budget and due to the profits of enterprises were directed to new construction and the restoration of the fixed assets of the national economy. If the volume of fixed assets in 1942 compared with 1940 amounted to 63%, then in 1943 - 76%, in 1944 - 87%, in 1945 - 91%.

During the period 1942-1944. In the east of the country, 2,250 large industrial enterprises were built, and in the liberated regions more than 6,000 enterprises were restored. 100 thousand metal cutting machines, 24 blast furnaces and 128 open-hearth furnaces, 70 electric furnaces, 56 rolling mills, 67 coke batteries, coal mines with the production of 73 million tons of coal per year, and power stations with the capacity of 3.4 million kW were put into operation.

Expanded reproduction was carried out not only in the sphere of material production, but also in the non-productive sphere.

As a result of military actions and looting of state property, non-productive funds of the national economy (housing fund, institutions for social, cultural and communal services) suffered great damage. In 1942, their volume in comparison with the pre-war level decreased by almost 50%. The relocation to the East of a large number of enterprises, a huge mass of workers and their families demanded the expansion of non-productive funds. The allocation of capital investments for this purpose, the efforts of the working people made it possible not only to stop the decline of non-productive funds, but also to gradually increase them. Already in 1943, these funds, compared with 1942, increased by 29%, including by housing - by 32%. In 1944, the increase in non-productive funds amounted to 20%.

Naturally, most of the capital investments allocated for the expansion and restoration of non-productive funds went to the housing sector. While in no capitalist country that participated in the Second World War, almost no housing construction, in our country in 1942 was built 5.8 million square meters. M of living space, in 1943 - 10.5 million, in 1944 - 15.7 million, in 1945 - 15 million square meters. M.

At the tank plant

Only thanks to the industrialization carried out in the 1920s and 1930s, created in the pre-war years of the military industry, our country managed to survive in the battle with German fascism.

The Second World War showed even more that modern combat operations are won by a party better equipped with military equipment. That is, in the end, the army wins, the country has a powerful industrial base in the rear, capable of supplying, in a short space of time, the necessary quantity of high-quality weapons to the front.

If at the beginning of the war with the USSR the German army exceeded the Red Army by tanks by almost three times, planes by three times, artillery by 25%, then in the future, as the military plants evacuated to the East began to deploy their production capacities, this superiority Was lost. The Soviet troops began to receive more armaments every month. When, by the end of 1942, the Soviet defense industry managed to bring the release of weapons to a level that would ensure the material and technical superiority of our troops over the German, there was a turning point in the military actions in our favor on the fronts. This can be traced according to the following table:

* Tanks and aircraft of new types.

During the war years, the USSR produced an average of 27,000 combat aircraft, 24,000 tanks, 47,000 guns and mortars a year on average, Germany (together with the allies and the occupied countries) -20,000 aircraft, 13,000 tanks, 25,000 tanks, Guns.

Lend-Lease Assistance

One of the economic sources during the Great Patriotic War was assistance to our country from the states of the anti-Hitler coalition. Under the agreement between the United States, Great Britain and Canada, the Armed Forces, food and equipment worth $ 9.8 billion were supplied to the Soviet Union during the war. Although this amount is significant, all imports in the war years amounted to only about 4% of Soviet industrial production during this period. Therefore, these supplies did not play a significant role in solving the military and civilian tasks of the USSR.