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having overcome the initial shock of the surprise attack, the soviet
administrative machine was soon able to orchestrate an unprecedented
economic effort that defeated germany and its satellites in
armaments production. the achievement was especially remarkable in
view of the fact that in 1941?2 the ussr lost to the enemy over
half its industrial capacity and countless skilled workers. to
appreciate the soviet spectacular economic effort in the war, it is
important to note that the task was not simply of switching over
from civilian to military production but also of moving massive
productive resources to the safety of the country抯 eastern regions.
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the
soviet leadership had never planned for a war that would be waged in
russia抯 industrialized heartlands, with the soviet rear turned into
a battlefield. to salvage its key productive resources from the
rapidly advancing enemy in 1941, the soviet leadership organized
mass evacuation and redeployment of its industry to the urals and
the asian hinterland. it was an exceptional relocation of human and
material resources over a distance of from one thousand to two
thousand miles, involving millions of workers and over 2,500
enterprises.
as a
result, soviet armaments production boomed and had even surpassed
its prewar level by 1944. in the course of the war the soviet union
produced submachine guns 4.7 times more than the enemy, artillery
1.5 times more, tanks 2.2 times more, and military aircraft 1.1
times more. the soviet union mass-produced armaments of equal or
better quality than those of the enemy, including the famous t-34
tanks and the awesome katyusha barrage rockets.
there is still no conclusive answer to the question of the extent to
which stalin抯 brutal industrial revolution of the 1930s, with all
the enormous sacrifices it entailed, had created the foundations for
the victories of 1941?5. what is clear, however, is that in the
extreme conditions of war the overcentralized command economy
displayed formidable mobilizing capabilities, overturning the
calculations of german strategists at attaining a speedy conquest of
russia.
