Social Effect of WW2

• Stalin saw the war as an opportunity to expand Soviet power and strengthen its control over national minorities.
• Due to the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939, the USSR had taken over the eastern half of Poland.

  • Following this, 1.5 million Poles were deported to villages and labour camps in Kazakhstan and Siberia.
• In April 1940, 20,000 Polish army officers and members of the Polish elite were shot and buried in the mass pits in the forests of Katyn.
• Stalin was determined that there would be no resistance to Soviet control of Poland.

  • This control was only to last for less than two years as eastern Poland was taken by the German army as they advanced into the USSR in June 1941.
• The attacks on the Poles in 1939-41 was a sign of things to come for other national minorities under Stalin's control.
• 600,000 Volga Germans were deported to eastern Siberia even though there was no reason to suspect their loyalty to the USSR and many had sons and brothers fighting in the Red Army.
• Mass arrests and executions of Ukrainians in 1943 and 1944 as the Red Army pushed west.
• Stalin was angry at reports that some Ukrainians had welcomed the German advance and occupation of 1941.

  • The scale of the reprisals however, far exceeded the actual numbers involved.
• 2 million people from the Caucasus region, including Chechens, Crimean Tatars and Kalmyks, were deported to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Siberia.

  • Stalin had never trusted the loyalty of these nationalities to the USSR.
• In 1944, when Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were re-annexed by the Red Army, thousands of members of their elites were arrested and then sent to the gulags or shot.

  • Stalin was determined that the new leaders of these Soviet Socialist Republics would be completely loyal to him.
• It has been estimated that a quarter of those deported died in transit or within the first 5 years in special settlements or labour camps.
• Around 5 million Soviet citizens were stranded in German-occupied Europe.

  • Some were prisoners of war, others had been deported by the Germans to work in slave labour camps and some were Red Army deserters who ended up fighting against the Red Army.
• Whilst Red Army deserters would be logically regarded as traitors, Stalin considered everyone who had spent time under German occupation as suspicious.
• 3 million people were sentenced to time in the labour camps, even though many of them had suffered terribly in the German slave labour camps already.

  • When they were eventually released, these people had the words "socially dangerous" put on their records and they had to live with this ongoing stigma for many more years.
• Only 20% of those returning from German-occupied Europe were allowed to return home immediately and the vast majority of these were older men, women and children.
• Women made a huge contribution to the war effort.
• 1 million women served in the armed forces.
• Notable contributions include the 1,061 female snipers who killed 12,000 German soldiers, the so-called "night witches" who flew 23,672 bombing raids in flimsy by-planes of whom 23 received the Hero of the Soviet Union reward and female radio operators and signallers who served with frontline troops and suffered heavy casualties.
• The nurses and doctors who treated the wounded.

  • 40% of doctors were women.
• The proportion of women working in industry increased from 41% in 1940 to 53% in 1942.

  • This rise was particularly significant in lighter industries where women made up nearly 90% of the workforce.
• On collective farms, the proportion of female workers increased to over 80% and shortages of machinery and animals meant much of the work was done by hand.
• The events of the 1930s meant the Soviet people were used to bravely enduring hardship and this came to be very useful in the war.

  • The people of Leningrad endured a siege which lasted for nearly 3 years and during which their daily rations were reduced to 125 grams of bread a day.
• On average, living standards fell by 40% across the USSR.
• The horrors of Nazi occupation provoked a mass determination to resist the invader at all costs among the Soviet people and in this they were willing to work with their government, no matter how harsh it had been towards them in the past.
• All undrafted men aged 16 to 55 were required to register for war work and all women aged 16 to 45.
• Even pensioners were encouraged to return to work if they were physically capable.
• Overtime, war work become compulsory.

  • Holidays were suspended and the working day was extended to 12 hours.
• The average working week became over 70 hours and many workers slept in their factories.
• The already harsh system of labour discipline was tightened even further with unauthorised absence punishable by death.
• Propaganda focused on relentless nationalistic and patriotic themes.
• The war was referred to as the Great Patriotic War and the people were called upon to sacrifice themselves for "Holy Mother Russia."
• The non-Russian nationalities were encouraged to fight with their "Russian brothers".
• There was much virulent anti-German content in propaganda too.
• A new nationalist "Song of the Motherland" was written in 1943.
• In the cultural sphere, there was greater freedom of expression as long as the content of cultural output supported the war effort and did not criticise the Soviet state.
• Writers and artists who had previously been banned were reconciled to the regime.

  • The most notable example is the famous poet Anna Akhmatova, who had not worked in the 1930s but in the war, broadcasted patriotic poetry on the radio.
  • She played an important role during the long Siege of Leningrad and kept morale high.
• During the Siege of Leningrad, the composer Shostakovich, who had fallen out of favour in the 1930s, was reprieved and composed his symphony of "Leningrad" which was performed for the first time at the height of the siege in August 1942.

  • The performance was broadcast across the city through loudspeakers.
• The persecution of organised religion had been a near constant feature of Soviet rule from 1917 onwards.
• During the war, restrictions on the Orthodox Church were eased and bishops and priests were released from the labour camps.
• Bishops and priests that were released form labour camps had to swear an oath of allegiance to the Soviet state and were expected to deliver patriotic sermons motivating people to contribute to the war effort.