Is this true that the Russian economy was efficient during war II?
Upvote:15
The quote contains a lot of hyperbole, I'm going to go over them briefly and then set them aside.
- "the one that America was briefly involved in" The US entered the war in December 1941, the USSR in June 1941. One could stretch the Soviet involvement back to the Winter War or the Invasion of Poland. Either way, both fought hard for years.
- "From scratch" Hardly. The Soviet Union was a military and industrial powerhouse in the 1930s. I address this in detail below.
- "Beat the Germans, basically single-handed." This has some factual basis. The sheer scale of the Eastern Front dwarfed all others. Nine of every ten German soldiers died on the Eastern Front and by the time of D-Day Germany was already on the retreat. However, the other Allies were fighting the Germans in Africa, the Mediterranean, Scandinavia, and oceans while also fighting the Japanese and supplying the Soviets.
Yes, the wartime expansion and recovery of the USSR's production was nothing short of amazing, but so was the German and American. They did it at a great cost of human suffering.
"Efficient" is a very slippery word. We don't know what that person meant. I'm going to stick to simple material numbers. I also think the statement "from scratch" implies the person thinks the USSR was militarily and industrially backwards at the start of the war. Let's address that first.
In the 1930s the Soviets were at the forefront of tactical thinking. They recognized the importance of the tank and the aircraft in achieving surprise and mobility. They used it to rapidly penetrate the enemy lines and cause havoc in their rear faster than the enemy could react. They called it Deep Battle and it was very similar to the Blitzkrieg tactics the Germans would use so successfully.
Unfortunately, the Great Purges of the late 30s killed or sent into exile over half of their officers, especially the most imaginative commanders. They were left with the most unimaginative officers mostly concerned with politics. Deep Battle was politically discredited and the Soviet armored strength was dispersed.
The disastrous Winter War with Finland in 1939/40 exposed the woeful state of Soviet arms. A victorious but humiliated Soviet Union began to, very slowly, return some of the previous military professionalism to their army, but not fast enough.
Meanwhile, the Soviets were developing some of the most advanced arms in the world. The T-34 medium tank, KV-1 heavy tank, Yak-1 fighter, and IL-2 "flying tank" were all in production at the time of invasion. They were all equal to or superior to the equivalent German units at the time. They all stayed in production for the whole war. Trouble is, there weren't nearly enough and they were incompetently used.
No, the Soviets did not rebuild "from scratch".
The Soviets were caught by surprise and off guard by Operation Barbarossa, after all they had been cooperating with the Germans for years and had a non-aggression pact. In their rapid retreat they evacuated whole factories to safety beyond the Ural Mountains. Conditions were brutal, but they set about cranking out war materials.
Part of the efficiency of Soviet production was their focus on a relatively small number of models. For example, they had three tank hulls, the light T-60/70, the medium T-34 and the heavy KV. They used them for everything with mixed success. As tanks they were very successful with excellent armor and guns. As vehicle hulls, the shortcomings of Soviet drive train designs became more apparent.
Once a factory began production it often continued to make that model even once better ones were available; it would take time and money to retool and retrain. Is this "efficient"? It certainly produced more stuff.
Let's look at the production numbers for medium and heavy tank hulls. I've included America for comparison. I've excluded 1945 because it is a partial year and Germany was collapsing. Overconfidence caused American production to slow down in 1944. The Americans did not believe in heavy tanks.
| German | Soviets | American |
| Medium | Heavy | Medium | Heavy | Medium | Heavy |
1941 | 2700 | 0 | 2800 | 1350 | 1400 | 0 |
1942 | 4000 | 80 | 12500 | 2600 | 15500 | 0 |
1943 | 9000 | 650 | 17000 | 1450 | 28000 | 40 |
1944 | 15000 | 1050 | 16000 | 4750 | 15500 | 0 |
The Germans were outproduced, especially in heavy hulls. However, after 1941 the Soviet factories were safe beyond the Urals and could produce unimpeded. Meanwhile, Germany was under increasing Allied bombardment yet her production went up. The Americans had a production boom of their own.
Another item of note is the German population during WWII was 70 million, while the Soviets had 200 million people, with America at 130 million. This gets a little more complicated once you consider German occupied territories and allies.
This is just one data point. It ignores things like, for example, that the US was producing a two ocean navy, as well as a massive air force, and supplying material to the Soviets, all while keeping up a good lifestyle for its citizens. My conclusion, based on this and further study of WWII, is that all the major combatants performed industrial miracles during the war but the US and the UK did it without severe hardship. The Soviets and Germans under conditions of extreme hardship, but also using forced labor and brutal conditions.
References.
More post
- 📝 Why were the people from the Southeast in the US so different from the rest of the US?
- 📝 How did Ram and Krishna become the dominant Gods in Hinduism?
- 📝 What's the difference between Country Born and Mulatto people in the 18th century New England?
- 📝 In what year did Charles Proteus Steinmetz fix Ford's Generator for the famed $10,000 invoice?
- 📝 What are some well-researched books about ships during the Age of Sail?
- 📝 How did Diego Gutiérrez know the boundaries (shape of the Americas) when he drew the 1562 Map of America
- 📝 Why was Stalin so opposed to genetics?
- 📝 Were there high-ranking Japanese POW as witness at the Trinity Atomic Bomb Test?
- 📝 The first head/chief/leader/etc of the Federal Housing Administration?
- 📝 Was jealousy the cause of Ernst Winter's death?
- 📝 "America is the richest country in the history of the world" -- Would a historian consider this true?
- 📝 Has any country ever annexed territory of another country without physically controlling it?
- 📝 What major historical event opened the door to the passage of a homesteading bill?
- 📝 Inquiry into the nature and roots of the temporal power of the Roman Catholic Pope:
- 📝 What is this "d-mac" device?
- 📝 How did Spain justify building a major port at San Blas, Nayarit?
- 📝 Historical tax revenue as a proportion of GDP
- 📝 Where in the sources does it say that Syagrius claimed to be "merely governing a Roman province"?
- 📝 When was the first confirmed circumnavigation of Africa?
- 📝 What engineers chose the locations and oversaw runway construction for the airfields that the Flying Tigers used?
- 📝 Were bicycles widespread in the Soviet Union?
- 📝 What are the historical inaccuracies in Repin's "Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks"?
- 📝 When was Jerusalem destroyed by the Babylonians?
- 📝 When did the Romans finally acknowledge that they were living in an empire?
- 📝 Are empires inherently stable over time?
- 📝 Why did the Arabs start the 1973 War during Ramadan, and did it affect their performance?
- 📝 Were Great Britain and France better prepared for war in 1939 than in 1938?
- 📝 What would have been the price of a loaf of bread in 1645 Amsterdam?
- 📝 What is the significance of "Flappers" in American history?
- 📝 Did they really use these for street lights and warmth in the Victorian London?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Is this true that the Russian economy was efficient during war II?
- 📝 Is this true that the requirement to sacrifice to the Roman gods was put in by the Caesar only after Christianity emerged?
- 📝 During World War II, were there any parts of the Japanese overseas empire that was capable of local re-supply?
- 📝 Is it true that slavery was endemic in Sub-Saharan Africa previous to the establishment of the trans-Atlantic slave trade?
- 📝 How did the American Civil War help the U.S economy recover from the Panic of 1857 given that civil wars are extremely destructive?
- 📝 What was the liquor that was based on petrol which was produced in the USSR during the Second World War?
- 📝 How was beer production affected by the war during WW2?
- 📝 Was Russia the only country in WWII that succeeded in expansionist war aims?
- 📝 During World War I, why were church bells stopped until the war was over?
- 📝 Is it true that slavery was banned from discussion on the Senate and/or House floor before the American Civil War?
- 📝 In World War II, why was the ratio of killed to wounded of the Royal Navy twice that of the US Navy?
- 📝 Communication lag during the Age of Sail: what if enemy claimed that peace agreement was signed?
- 📝 Was payment on Louisiana Bonds suspended during the War of 1812?
- 📝 Could you help me identify this photograph that was taken shortly after World War 2?
- 📝 What was the nominal strength of a company in a British Regiment during the American war of Independence?
- 📝 During the Second World War, did the Germans expect that Japan would declare war on Russia?
- 📝 What were factors that led to a decline in bond yields during World War II given that the opposite should have happened?
- 📝 Is it true that there was no such thing as a Hispanic-owned bank in the continental USA until 1969?
- 📝 What was the English Civil War called during the Protectorate?
- 📝 What was the estimated malaria death toll for US Forces during World War II?
- 📝 Was Frederick Douglass right that in his day 'religious slaveholders are the worst'? If so why would this be?
- 📝 Is this true that the Soviet Army soldiers had no helmets in the beginning of WW2?
- 📝 Is it true that Serbia was offered "Great Serbia" instead of Yugoslavia at the end of the WWI by Allies?
- 📝 How was Russian AFV production affected by the relocation of factories during WWII, after the German invasion of 1941?
- 📝 What Was the Political Condition of the Region that Encompasses the Modern Russian State in the time of the Roman empire?
- 📝 Was the factional civil war that broke out in Angola after its independence in 1975 based on tribal rivalry?
- 📝 Was the Russian Black Sea fleet strong enough to help with land operations on the southern shore in World War I?
- 📝 Fanons 'Concerning Violence' makes the point that Nazism was the culminating point of the project of European Colonialism, how true is that?
- 📝 Why was there calm in Indian-held Kashmir until 1989? What happened in 1989 that triggered the public unrest that still continues to this day?
- 📝 Where was the Ixcanha Maya community located during the Caste War of the Yucatán?