HIST 3203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Stainless Steel, Andrei Zhdanov, Berlin Blockade
Document Summary
The soviet union had won the war, but the county was in a desperate situation. Almost 50% of all living space that had been occupied had been destroyed by there germans. Many people literally lived in holes in the ground. Adding to the misery, there was also another famine from 1946 - 1947, because there was so much destruction. About 800 000 more people died from starvation. This is a paradox in itself, as there was no famine in the war. The food supply broke down after the war. Rationing lasted until 1947, and the prices of non-rationed food tripled. There was again, forced collectivization of food from the peasants. The population deficient cant be exactly calculated, but the number of people who died in the red army, as pows, and the massacres of soviet civilians, including jews. There was a large fall in the birthrate. This does not include the fall in the birth rate.
