Pravda
Pravda.Ru held an
interview with Director General of the Institute of Energy, famous nuclear
physicist, Doctor of Economics, Bulat Nigmatulin. We sat down for an interview
with Mr. Nigmatulin to speak about the economic constituent of the Soviet
victory in the Great Patriotic War.
"During the Soviet
times, we were taught that the Great Patriotic War confirmed the advantage of
the socialist economic system over state capitalism in Germany. Can we confirm
this judgment in the de-ideologized world?"
"Well, there
was the Soviet planned economy and their market economy. The German economy was
very monopolized. They had a four-year indicative plan. During the first year of
the war, the Soviet Union was outstripping the German economy, right
since 1941. Economically, it was not just Germany that was waging war
against the Soviet Union. In 1939, Germany included the territory of Austria and
a part of Poland and the Czech Republic. In addition to Germany, the whole
Western and Central Europe were at war with the USSR. Bulgaria, Romania,
Hungary, Greece, other occupied countries, as well as Sweden, Spain, Portugal
and Turkey - all of them were working for Germany.
"The Soviet Union
was practically all alone in 1941 and 1942. We started seeing help only in 1943
- it came from the USA, Britain and Canada - it goes about the lend-lease
program. In 1940, the potential of Germany without allies and occupied
territories and the potential of the Soviet Union were almost equal. GDP was
calculated under the guidance of Professor Harrison of Cambridge University. The
economies of major participants of the Second World War were compared, and it
turned out that USSR's GDP was eight percent stronger, but Germany took the lead
with the help of occupied territories.
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"I compared
indicators of the fuel and energy complex: coal, electric power, oil and fuel.
Then I compared the volume of rolled metal and metal-cutting machines - the
production capacity that is. Coal, rolled metal and production of electric power
was 30-40 percent lower than that in Germany. Yet, the amount of liquid fuel of
the USSR was three times as high. Rolled metals stand for all arms and
ammunition. Electricity affects the entire industrial capacity. Production of
electricity - coal or fuel oil. Motor fuel - internal combustion
engines.
"The Germans were receiving resources from their occupied territories, the
territories of the allied and neutral countries. The military machine was
moving. By the middle of the war, the USSR was taking serious advantage of
Germany. The actual implementation and
management of the economy was in the hands of Stalin, in the hands of the State
Defense Committee, which was created on the eighth day after the war began.
There were Stalin, Molotov, Malinkov, Beria, Voroshilov, Mikoyan in that
committee.
"During the war,
the committee issued 9,500 decrees - 7.5 decrees a day. Each member of the State
Committee on Defense was responsible for a certain area. During the war, a
multitude of people's commissariats was established: of the tank industry,
ammunition, aircraft industry, artillery and mortars. on the third day of the
war, the evacuation council was set up. That was a brilliant decision to make.
Many factories were evacuated from Ukraine, from the south and from the center
of the country. As many as 12 million people were evacuated in four or five
months. Afterwards, large-scale construction was launched in the Urals,
Kazakhstan, Siberia.
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"In 1942, the
Germans were not increasing defense production. They believed that they
were winning the war already in 1941. They ceased the production of
ammunition and explosives. In Russia, all men went to the front, women replaced
them. About one million of teenagers were working at factories. The number of
workers in 1940 was 12 million in the USSR and 10 million - in Germany. In 1942,
8 million in the USSR and 10 million in Germany. The Soviet Union was losing in
terms of quantity, but all people were working for victory, and the country was
producing three times as many weapons in comparison with Germany.
"The Germans were
certain of their imminent victory. They realized their mistake only in 1944, but
it was too late. The USSR was producing more weaponry than it was losing in
battles. That was how the Soviet Union outstripped Germany economically and
strategically.
"Modern wars can
not last for years. Modern defense technology stipulates for rapid global action. If, God forbid, a war sparks between two great
superpowers, it would end with a defeat for all. one should always maintain the
balance of forces of attack and defense. The cheapest way to keep this balance
is to have nuclear weapons. Some say that a nuclear bomb is a weapon of the weak
- those who do not have superiority in conventional weapons. I would say that
the nuclear bomb is the cheapest way of protection against the war."
Interviewed
by Said Gafurov
Pravda.Ru
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