The Era of Rebuilding (1946-1959)

The years after the Great Patriotic War were times of great difficulty for the people of the Soviet Union. Virtually all of its great European cities were in ruins.  Shortages were everywhere.  Even the government rationing program did little to alleviate the hundreds of thousands of people who were suffering from starvation.  The Great Patriotic war had required every effort that Russia possessed, and although it was victorious, the nation was weakened and exhausted.  In fact, the starvation and crushing poverty would last well into the mid-1950's.

Despite these conditions, the organs of Stalin's government continued to function normally.  It demanded extradition of all Russians who had fought against the Soviet army during the war.  Cossacks, prisoners of war, and even former partisans were rounded up by the NKVD and deported to the Gulag in Siberia.  Many Cossacks and captured army officers were simply shot shortly after they got off the boat or train.

Under these circumstances it is not surprising that there were many within Russia who sought to take advantage of the chaotic situation and rid themselves of Soviet domination.  Rebellions in Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine lasted into the early 1950's.  Beria's NKVD was used to violently suppress the rebels.

It was during this time that the leaders of the Soviet government (Stalin and others) vowed that this would never again happen to Russia.  They decided to use the nations of Eastern Europe as a buffer zone against any further Western aggression.  To achieve this end, the Soviets sent aid to Communist movements in all of the nations it controlled at the end of the war.  The Soviets also began actively supporting the Communist Chinese in their civil war during this period.  Advisors and war material were sent in large numbers to the Communist forces of North Korea during the Korean War.

These same leaders saw Russia's vulnerability and were concerned.  Many still thought in a warlike mindset and were very afraid when they compared their nation's condition to that of England and the powerful United States.  It seemed at the time that they would be invaded again, especially when the West saw how weakened they truly were.  This forced the Soviets into making false statements of bravado (such as when Bulganin vowed to bomb Paris - at a time when no Soviet aircraft could do so without being shot down long before it reached the French border) and taking bold risks such as the Berlin Blockade.  It is interesting to note that at a time when Russia lay in ruins and its people were starving, military production increased dramatically during this period.   By the late 1940's the Soviet Union had detonated its first atomic bomb.

Still, the policies of the Stalinist era could not last forever.  With Stalin's death in 1953 many changes began.  Nikita Khrushchev began these changes with his 'secret speech' denouncing Stalin.  Other de-Stalinization actions continued throughout this era - the Kremlin was opened up, Stalin sanctioned crimes were exposed, the military build up was slowed, political prisoners were released, and censorship of the press and artists was relaxed.

Such liberalization had its problems.  In 1956, an anti-Communist movement arose in Hungary.  It led to a massive movement that overthrew the Communist government that was in place.  The Soviet Union soon moved in to restore order.  This provoked outrage in the European Western nations, but they did nothing to interfere.

Towards the end of this period, military activity moved at a rapid pace.  The Warsaw Pact was formed by the Soviet Union in 1955 to counter the NATO alliance.  The Soviets also moved to create the first nuclear missiles.  An offshoot of that program was the launching of Sputnik in the 1950's.