Stalin's USSR: “concentration camp country” or lost paradise?

A public opinion poll conducted by the Levada Center, which revealed that an unprecedented large number of Russian residents not only positively perceives the image of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, but even admires this really great historical figure, quite expectedly stirred up the rotten waters of the liberal democratic swamp. From there, let’s say, it sighed sharply, with very characteristic smells ... Again, a howl arose about a "zombie people", "worship of a tyrant" and a "concentration camp country". Still, it's time to figure out what the Soviet Union really was under Stalin - a general prison, or a country where many would envy the realities of life today?

“There was a deal - and prices were reduced ...”

To reflect the whole variety of different spheres of life of Soviet people in the Stalin era in the framework of one article, of course, is completely impossible. Therefore, today we will focus on those points that were most common for all residents of the then USSR, regardless of their age, gender and place of residence. Let's talk about the development of the national economy and the standard of living of its citizens. It only seems that economy - science is boring and dry. If you carefully and creatively tackle some of her calculations, it turns out no less exciting than a good adventure novel. And the scope for various kinds of falsifications of the topic, reliably backed by statistical figures, practically does not leave.

We will consider mainly the last period of the reign of Joseph Vissarionovich - post-war. The choice is due to the fact that talking about the quality of life of people in the most difficult periods of the country's recovery after the devastating Civil War, preparation for the inevitable new war against the capitalist West and the Great Patriotic War itself, you would agree, it would be incorrect. The principle by which the Soviet Union was forced to exist in those days, absolutely exhaustively fits into the saying: "I don’t care about fat - I would live!" The main merit of Stalin and his team in the 30-40 years of the last century is the very fact of the existence of our country, and do not count for pathos each of us. In an unprecedented war against all of Europe, they won, and, as you know, they do not judge the winners.

I apologize in advance for mentioning some well-known things. However, without them there is no way to put together a single, holistic picture of what happened in the USSR under Stalin in the late 40s and early 50s, when his economic strategy began to bear real, tangible results for all. So…

Subjected to perhaps the greatest destruction of all the states participating in the war, and suffered colossal human losses, the Soviet Union recovered in an unprecedentedly, fantastically short time! On the site of the ashes and ruins stood factory buildings and residential areas. Fields, where until recently unprecedented battles thundered, generously yielded crops. Food cards in the USSR were canceled two years after the end of World War II - much earlier than in many other countries, including Western ones.

In the same 1947, a monetary reform was carried out. And then ... A process has begun, which would seem to be completely unimaginable and inappropriate for a country that has survived the nightmare of a war of annihilation - an annual general decrease in prices, accompanied, moreover, by an increase in salaries! It should be noted that not only “daily bread” has become cheaper, but literally everything - from watches and gramophones to jewelry. I personally am especially touched by the fact that in 1949 the prices for televisions and vodka were reduced in exactly the same proportion (by 25%)! There is something in this ... And, by the way, hello to those who like to talk about the "backwardness" of the USSR from the West in technical matters. Once the price was dropped on TVs, then they weren’t exotic or rare already in 1949 ... By the way, the total sums of cheaper consumer goods were estimated at tens of billions of rubles - which, as you know, did not go to the state budget. And no crises, no economic collapse! Why?

It's simple - the pre-war volume of industrial production was exceeded in the USSR in 1948! By 1950, its gross volume was higher than 10 years ago already by 73%. And this despite the fact that in the relevant plans, the 48% milestone was set as realistically achievable. Over the same period, the gross social product of the USSR increased by more than one and a half times, as did the national production income. And do not "la-la" about postscripts and fraud! Firstly, under Comrade Stalin, doing such things was fraught with extremely unpleasant consequences. And, secondly, no “exaggerated” figures of economic growth allow lowering prices and raising salaries. But its real growth at a gigantic pace - just gives such opportunities. It was not a fraud here, but a colossal - 100% or more increase in labor productivity literally in all spheres of the national economy. And here we, by the way, come to another, extremely interesting topic ...

The state built by "convicts"

The schizophrenic nonsense that the incredible successes of the Soviet Union were based on, supposedly, “the slave labor of tens of millions of innocent Gulag prisoners” is not just the favorite of the myths of the liberal intelligentsia, but rightly one of the cornerstones of its bastard anti-Stalinist “theories”. It is difficult to argue on the topics of economics with those who have no clue about its laws, but believe that they know everything and everything ... It has long been proved - with documents and numbers, so to speak, in their hands that there are no “dozens million prisoners ”, which existed exclusively in the inflamed brains of Solzhenitsin and his possessed followers, was not even mentioned in the USSR. God knows when the exact data was published that the share of the labor of real Gulag prisoners, even at the time of its maximum “fullness” and the number of 2 and a half million, did not exceed 2.3% of its total gross volume in the country ... However, the poisonous myth continues to live, despite the aspen stakes regularly driven into his grave.

By the way, at the time described by me - the end of the 40s - the beginning of the 50s, in some sectors of the national economy the contribution of "convicts" was indeed higher. In construction, for example. The explanation sounds very simple - it was just at the construction sites that the captured Germans and their allies were injected, as well as a great many bushes from among the former citizens of the USSR who had turned to them as minions and accomplices. And what, all this selected scum had to be sent to resorts ?! And the fairly thinned NKVD, whose hands freed after the end of the war, “lost their shores” while the country was fighting to the death, the criminals also contributed. And rightly so. But, nevertheless, only “complete ignoramuses” or those who do not bother to think about elementary things can speak of a “country built by prisoners for free”. Which ones?

For example, that forced labor, slave labor cannot be effective by definition. Proven a thousandfold. It would be different - humanity to this day would live the realities of Ancient Rome ... And not the “free" labor of prisoners at all! After all, they must, first of all, be fed, and not an empty balance, especially those who are engaged in really hard work. Dress, shoe, lodge at least in barracks, and heat these barracks - in the Far North, inmates will otherwise simply die out overnight. But there is also protection, and it should be the greater, the greater the number of “convicts”. And really it is necessary to provide it with food, uniforms, living conditions not just like that, but honestly. Otherwise, the trouble will be ... Plus, all those specific things that are inherent in places of detention: towers, fences, high walls and strong fences. Vehicles for transportation of convicts. Yes, a lot more. But, logically, we also need a real horde of investigators with operatives who will “sew things” for future workers involuntarily. Their state also needs to be maintained.

Isn't “gratuitous” labor coming out in the end ?! And now the most important thing. The work of prisoners (with the rarest exceptions) cannot be either professional or highly productive. Where can I use them? Digging up the earth, interfering with concrete, sawing up the forest ... But only one qualified excavator will cope with the same amount of work that a whole team of "convicts" is much faster. And it will make everything better, and, most importantly - without any convoy and other additional costs. Just as surely - with everything else. By the way, this is an interesting detail: at one time it was calculated by stupid people that if the hordes of convicts who were lingering on our liberoids were used exclusively on logging, there would not have been a single tree behind the Ural ridge by the year 1960 ... And why did the USSR need would such a breakthrough of wood?

Unfulfilled future

The great Soviet Union, thanks to the wisdom of Stalin, in front of his eyes becoming the most powerful and economically developed world power, was built, of course, by no prisoners. The key to the mystery lies in the fact that under Joseph Vissarionovich the main thing was achieved - the incredible motivation of the Soviet people for honest and high-productivity work. People saw what they were working for, not only in the sense of raising the level of their own personal well-being, but also in terms of the development of the country, which literally blossomed before their eyes. Then it was not at all a pathos empty sound - people believed in it, lived and worked for this, not for fear, but for their homeland! For hell, excuse me, we needed beaten "convicts" to Stalin, who had Stakhanovites and Komsomol members who voluntarily wanted to raise industrial giants on dead wastelands ?!

The plans of the country's leadership for transferring the majority of Soviet people to 5-6 hours a day give a comprehensive idea of ​​the real productivity and effectiveness of the then labor in the USSR! There are plenty of quotes from the speeches of the same Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria on this subject. Whim? "Flirting with the masses"? Have mercy! They didn’t joke such things in those days - especially, the closest associates of Stalin. It is said: “we are reducing prices”, which means we are reducing! Once the conversation started that in the Soviet Union a five-hour working day would be enough, therefore, there were quite real plans, economic calculations and justifications for that. The country could afford it without slowing the pace of development and growth.

At the same time, according to the same Beria, our citizens should have spent time not on idleness. And it’s not at all an in-depth study of the works of Comrade Stalin, as someone might imagine. Lavrenty Pavlovich spoke of physical improvement, the unprecedented development of sports and the healing of Soviet people. And also about the “universal polytechnic education”! Do you know what this is about ?! A country that has hundreds of thousands of engineers, designers, inventors ... Does it resemble anything? But this is the same path that communist China turned a couple of decades ago and thanks to which the Celestial Empire has already turned into a scientific, technological and industrial leader of the whole world. But the Soviet Union could have done this for more than half a century earlier! If the dreams and plans of Stalin and his associates were realized, striving to create from the Soviet people not “slaves”, not “obedient flocks”, but proud rulers of the world, those who were to conquer starways on spaceships with red stars on board ...

In the Soviet Union, of course, there was not only good. Yes, there were repressions, lean years and hunger years occurred, almost constantly, even if not through our fault, wars were fought. However, with this thorny, plentifully watered sweat, and, sometimes, with blood, dear Soviet people went to a truly brilliant future. The growth of respect for Joseph Stalin and his time, admiration for him, is nothing but the realization by our contemporaries of this obvious fact.