USSR in the post-war years: the struggle for economic independence (1945 - 1953)

Abstract

Being the basis of the "Stalinist" economic policy, both due to the peculiarities of ideology and in the perspective of solving geopolitical problems, the struggle for the country's economic independence formed the post-war trajectory of the USSR. The purpose of the paper was to identify the influence of this factor on decisions taken by the Soviet leadership, both in domestic and in foreign policy. Archival materials that have become available to researchers make it possible to clarify the "Stalinist" strategy for solving the task of restoring the national economy and keeping countries of "people's democracy" in the zone of influence in the conditions of the formation of a bipolar world with an acute shortage of resources. The authors of the paper rely on a source database stored in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI), in the funds of the Central Committee of the CPSU, in the funds of V.M. Molotov and of A.I. Mikoyan. Continued work with documents in this area promises to open the curtain on the “white spots” of late Stalinism, which remain the subject of heated discussions in historiography. Moreover, it is the post-war period that allows analyzing the "Stalinist" managerial model in its most complete form. Thus, it is also important to investigate its mechanisms from the point of view of solving the problem of the effectiveness / non-effectiveness of the Soviet system.