---
date: 2020-07-04
id: de009f15-07b5-4e76-8976-349c949bc148
title: Economic state of USSR 1942-1943
---

# Outline

-   Impossible to calculate as Soviet figures are unreliable at best.
    Relying on convergence of anecdotal evidence
-   Source - Economics of ww2 by Harrison
-   Cats & dogs going missing in Moscow
-   People going to the front because food is so bad at home
-   62nd/63rd/64th army running out of food
-   Roosevelt tells Molatov in 42 that he'll send less food to start the
    second front in 43 instead of 44. Molatov doesn't want this, he
    prefers food
-   Census is done in 37. Stalin didn't like the results and had the
    people who did the census shot. Next census showed the correct
    numbers
-   In controlled communist economies prices of goods are made up by
    government and are therefore meaningless
-   Soviet Union were in dire economic straits. If Stalingrad was won by
    the Germans they would probably have collapsed

# Pre war economy

## Agriculture

| Country | Working population in agriculture | Output of non agricultural worker |
|----|----|----|
| USSR | 57% | 33% |
| Germany | 26% | 50% |
| USA | 17% | 40% |
| UK | 6% | 59% |

-   Agricultural workers in USSR were female because men were drafted
    for the war or in gulags
-   Amount of rubels spent on the economy dropped from 58.3bn in 1940 to
    31.6bn in 1942
-   Inflation was also rampant which amplified the problems
-   Ukraine & caucuses were taken by Germany. the wheat basket
-   Collectivised farms were terrible for productivity
-   Soviet citizens average daily intake of calories from 1942-1943 is
    estimated to have been 2555 calories. In 1944 this was increased to
    2810 calories. 500 calories less than average german/british
    civilian. Americans ate 1000 more.
-   Dispossed/hungry licked plates of others meals
-   Communist leadership ate well
-   200-300 grams of sub standard bread
-   Soviets ate half as much food as US citizens on average
-   Zhukov boasted his men lived on 1000 calories / day during the
    battle of Stalingrad
-   between 1940-1942 real output of civilian branches feel from 1/2 to
    2/3
-   By 1942 agricultural output fell to 44% of pre war (1937) level
    according to official Soviet numbers
-   50m people in USSR employed in agriculture in 1940. By 1942 figure
    dropped to 25m according to official USSR numbers
-   Half the population were covered by official rationing system
-   80% of the rations were bread
-   After 1942 mortality rates in Siberia decreased because the weakest
    already died off

# Gulags

-   In gulags rations were decreased dramatically. from 1942-1943 people
    were starving in gulags
-   During war years 5m people were in gulag system. 1m were released to
    the front. Majority left in gulags were ill and infirm. They were
    given light work. Even before the war food wasn't provided in enough
    quantities in 1939
-   camp mortality reached it peak in 1942 when 50k prisoners died every
    month.
-   Over 2m people died in gulags and camps during war years
-   Household consumption by workers decreased by 2 fifths from
    1940-1942
