Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-17T20:07:30.511Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Divided we Stand: Cities, Social Unity and Post-War Reconstruction in Soviet Russia, 1945–1953

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2015

ROBERT DALE*
Affiliation:
School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Armstrong Building, Newcastle University, Newcastle, NE1 7RU; robert.dale@ncl.ac.uk

Abstract

This article explores the divisions created by the Great Patriotic War, its aftermath and the reconstruction of Russian cities in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It examines the conflicts created by rebuilding housing, infrastructure, restoring communities and allocating resources in cities where war's painful legacy continued to be felt. The war's impact varied enormously between cities on the frontlines and in the rear. Contrary to official propaganda rebuilding was a protracted process, which created divisions rather than unity.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 On the war's impact see: Linz, Susan J., ed., The Impact of World War II on the Soviet Union (Totawa, NJ.: Rowman & Allanheld, 1985)Google Scholar; Zubkova, Elena, Russia After the War: Hopes, Illusions and Disappointments, 1945–1957, ed. and trans by Ragsdale, Hugh (Armonk, NY.: M. E. Sharpe, 1998)Google Scholar, idem., Poslevoennoe sovetskoe obshchestvo: politika i povsednevnost’ 1945–1953 (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2000); Fürst, Juliane, ed., Late Stalinist Russia: Society Between Reconstruction and Reinvention (London: Routledge, 2006)Google Scholar; Lovell, Stephen, The Shadow of War: Russia and the USSR, 1941 to the Present (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010)Google Scholar.

2 Filtzer, Donald, Soviet Workers and Late Stalinism: Labour and the Restoration of the Stalinist System After World War II (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 92CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii (hereafter GARF) f. A-314, op.2, d.189, l.45.

4 See Bessel, Richard and Schumann, Dirk, eds., Life After Death: Approaches to a Cultural and Social History of Europe During the 1940s and 1950s (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sheila Fitzpatrick, ‘Postwar Soviet Society: The Return to Normalcy”, 1945–1953’, in Linz, ed., The Impact of World War II, 129–56.

5 Weiner, Amir, ‘The Making of a Dominant Myth: The Second World War and the Construction of Political Identities within the Soviet Polity’, Russian Review, 55, 4 (1996), 638CrossRefGoogle Scholar–60; idem., Making Sense of War: The Second World War and the Fate of the Bolshevik Revolution (Princeton, NJ.: Princeton University Press, 2001).

6 Hosking, Geoffrey, ‘The Second World War and Russian National Consciousness’, Past & Present, 175 (May 2002), 162–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 On the positive emotions awakened by war see, Seniavskaia, E. S., Frontovoe pokolenie 1941–1945: Istoriko-psikhologicheskoe issledovanie (Moscow, IRI-RAN, 1995)Google Scholar.

8 Weiner, Making Sense of War, 384.

9 Merridale, Catherine, ‘The Collective Mind: Trauma and Shell-shock in Twentieth-century Russia’, Journal of Contemporary History, 35, 1 (2000), 3955CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

10 Qualls, Karl D., From Ruins to Reconstruction: Urban Identity in Soviet Sevastopol After World War II (Ithaca, NY. and London: Cornell University Press, 2009)Google Scholar; Jones, Jeff, Everyday Life and the ‘Reconstruction’ of Soviet Russia During and After the Great Patriotic War, 1943–1948 (Bloomington, IN.: Slavica, 2008)Google Scholar.

11 Filtzer, Donald, Soviet Workers and Late Stalinism: Labour and the Restoration of the Stalinist System After World War II (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 93CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem., The Hazards of Urban Life in Late Stalinist Russia: Health, Hygiene, and Living Standards, 1943–1953 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 11–13; Smith, Mark B., Property of Communists: The Urban Housing Program from Stalin to Khrushchev (DeKalb, IL.: Northern Illinois University Press, 2010), 27Google Scholar.

12 Colton, Timothy J., Moscow: Governing the Socialist Metropolis (Cambridge, MA.; London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ruble, Blair A., Leningrad: Shaping a Soviet City (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1990Google Scholar; Cattell, David T., Leningrad: A Case Study of Soviet Urban Government (New York, Washington and London: Praeger, 1968)Google Scholar and Maddox, Steven, Saving Stalin's Imperial City: Historic Preservation in Leningrad, 1930–1953 (Bloomington, IN.: Indiana University Press, 2015)Google Scholar.

13 Filtzer, The Hazards of Urban Life, 11–13.

14 Diefendorf, Jeffrey M., ‘Introduction: New Perspectives on a Rebuilt Europe’, in Diefendorf, Jeffrey M., ed., Rebuilding Europe's Bombed Cities (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1990), 115CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Kotkin, Stephen, Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization (Berkeley, CA.: University of California Press, 1995), 160Google Scholar.

16 Rebecca Manley, ‘“Where should we settle the comrades next?” The adjudication of housing claims and the construction of the post-war order’, in Fürst, ed., Late Stalinist Russia, 233–46 (234).

17 Diefendorf, ‘Introduction: New Perspectives on a Rebuilt Europe’, 5.

18 Richard Bessel, Germany 1945: From War to Peace (London: Simon and Schuster, 2009), 385–401.

19 Kynaston, David, Austerity Britain 1945–51 (London: Bloomsbury, 2007) 2834Google Scholar, 159–63; David Edgerton, ‘War, Reconstruction, and the Nationalization of Britain, 1939–1952’, Past and Present, Supplement 6 (2011), 29–46.

20 Lebow, Katherine, Unfinished Utopia: Nowa Huta, Stalinism, and Polish Society, 1949–56 (Ithaca, NY. and London: Cornell University Press, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 Harrison, Mark, ‘The Soviet Union after 1945: Economic Recovery and Political Repression’, Past & Present, 210, Supplement 6 (2011), 107CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 Cooke, Catherine, ‘Beauty as a Route to “the Radiant Future”: Responses of Soviet Architecture’, Journal of Design History, 10, 2 (1997), 137–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 GARF, f.R-8131, op.37, d.2445, ll.72–3.

24 Abalikhin, B. S., ‘Vozrozhdenie’, in Volgograd: Chetyre Veka istorii (Volgograd: Nizhne-Volzhskoe knizhnoe izdatel'stvo, 1989), 267Google Scholar.

25 Abalikhin, ‘Vozrozhdenie’, 270.

26 Stalingradskai epopeia (Moscow: Zvonnitsa MG, 2000), 393–407 (404).

27 Hellbeck, Jochen, Stalingrad: The City That Defeated the Third Reich (New York: Basic Books, 2015), 92Google Scholar.

28 The journalist Alexander Werth, for example, recalled meeting a Russian soldier who described how there was nothing left of Stalingrad, and that it would ‘save a lot of trouble’ to rebuild Stalingrad elsewhere. Werth, Alexander, Russia at War, 1941–1945 (London: Pan, 1965), 554Google Scholar.

29 RGASPI, f.17, op.125. d.509, ll.133–62 (l.137).

30 Abalikhin, ‘Vozrozhdenie’, 269; GARF, f.A–315, op.6, d.131, l.37.

31 Bezdenezhnykh, P., Kak vosstanavlivaetsia khoziaistvo v raionakh, osvobozhdennykh ot nemetskoi okkupatsii (Moscow, Voennoe Izdatel'stvo Narodnogo-komissiarta oborony, 1945), 1617Google Scholar.

32 Day, Andrew, ‘The Rise and Fall of Stalinist Architecture’ in Cracraft, James and Rowland, Daniel, eds., Architecture of Russian Identity: 1500 to the Present (Ithaca, NY. and London: Cornell University Press, 2003), 172–90 (173–4)Google Scholar. On Stalingrad's general plan see also GARF, f.A-259, op.6, d.107, ll.1–3.

33 Day, ‘The Rise and Fall of Stalinist Architecture’, 176–7; GARF f.A-359, op.6, d.104, ll.1–3.

34 Day, ‘The Rise and Fall of Stalinist Architecture’, 174.

35 Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain.

36 GARF, f.A–359, op.6, d.131, l.38.

37 Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv sotsial'no-politicheskoi istorii (hereafter RGASPI) f.17, op.121, d.582, l.1.

38 Steinbeck, John Ernst, A Russian Journal (London: William Heinemann, 1949), 118–25Google Scholar; Strohm, John L., Just Tell the Truth’. The Uncensored Story of How the Common People Live Behind the Iron Curtain (New York, London: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1948), 66–8Google Scholar.

39 Day, ‘The Rise and Fall of Stalinist Architecture’, 185.

40 Papernyi, Vladimir, Architecture in the Age of Stalin: Culture Two, trans. by John Hill and Roann Barris (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002)Google Scholar.

41 Lebow, Unfinished Utopia, 9, 40–3.

42 Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain, 107.

43 Gorlizki, Yoram and Khlevniuk, Oleg, Cold Peace: Stalin and the Soviet Ruling Circle, 1945–1953 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 69.

44 Harrison, ‘The Soviet Union after 1945’, 103–20.

45 The phrase ‘attenuated recovery’ is borrowed from Filtzer, Soviet Workers and Late Stalinism, 77–116.

46 Siegelbaum, Lewis N. and Moch, Leslie Page, Broad in My Native Land: Repertoires and Regimes of Migration in Russia's Twentieth Century (Ithaca, NY. and London: Cornell University Press, 2014)Google Scholar, 124–5.

47 Filtzer, Soviet Workers and Late Stalinism, 99.

48 Smith, Property of Communists, 36, 52.

49 Smith, Property of Communists; Filtzer, Soviet Workers and Late Stalinism, 99; Zubkova, Poslevoennoe Sovetskoe obshchestvo, 56.

50 GARF, f.A-259, op.7, d.899, l.1.

51 Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv ekonomiki (RGAE), f.1562, op.41, d.6, ll.101–3, reprinted in E. Iu. Zubkova, ed., Sovetskaia zhizn’, 1945–1953 (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2003), 162–4.

52 GARF, f.A-259, op.6. d.2837, ll.60–71; GARF, f.A-259, op.6, d.138, ll.3–3ob.

53 Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain, 162.

54 GARF, f.A-259, op.6, d.3721, ll.1–5.

55 Bezdenezhnykh, Kak vosstanavlivaetsia khoziaistvo, 39.

56 Strohm, ‘Just Tell the Truth’, 67.

57 RGASPI, f.17, op.132, d.87, ll.74–5.

58 Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain, 72–105, 198–202; Lebow, Unfinished Utopia, 44–73, DeHaan, Heather D., Stalinist City Planning: Professionals, Performance, and Power (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013), 147–62Google Scholar.

59 Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain, 105.

60 DeHaan, Stalinist City Planning, 148

61 Lebow, Unfinished Utopia, 72.

62 RGASPI, f.17, op.132, d.87, ll.76–77; Day, ‘The Rise and Fall of Stalinist Architecture’, 177–86.

63 V. N. Simbrirtseva, ‘Vtoroe rozhdenie Stalingrada’, Zhilishchno-kommunal'noe khoziaistvo, 1951, No.5, 25–30.

64 Day, ‘The Rise and Fall of Stalinist Architecture’, 186.

65 GARF, f.A-259, op.7, d.864, l.113.

66 RGASPI, f.17, op.125, d.509, l.137.

67 RGASPI, f.17, op.125, d.509, l.150; RGAE, f.1562, op.41, d.6, ll.101–3, reprinted in E. Iu. Zubkova, ed., Sovetskaia zhizn’, 1945–1953 (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2003), 163.

68 Strohm, ‘Just Tell the Truth’, 68.

69 RGASPI, f.17, op.135, d.509, l.140.

70 N. Simbrirtseva, ‘Vtoroe rozhdenie Stalingrada’, Zhilishchno-kommunal'noe khoziaistvo, 1951, No.5, 25–30.

71 GARF, f.R-8131, op.37. d.2445, ll.72–3.

72 Manley, ‘Where should we settle the comrades next?’, 233–46.

73 Manley, Rebecca, To the Tashkent Station: Evacuation and Survival in the Soviet Union at War (Ithaca, NY. and London: Cornell University Press, 2009)Google Scholar, 262–7.

74 GARF, f.A-314, op.2, d.189, ll.45–6.

75 Repinetskii, A. I., Rabotniki promyshlennosti povolzh'ia: demograficheskii sostav, obrazovatel'nyi uroven’ 1946-1965 gg. (Samara: Izdatel'stvo OOO NTTS, 1999), 1315Google Scholar.

76 Repinetskii, Rabotniki promyshlennosti povolzh'ia, 23–5.

77 GARF, f.R-5446, op.48, d.3070, ll.14–14ob.

78 GARF, f.R-5446, op.47, d.3131, ll.37–36.

79 GARF, f.R-5446, op.47, d.3131, ll.35-31.

80 GARF, f.A-259, op.6, d.80, l.47.

81 GARF, f.R-5446, op.48, d.3069, ll.88–87

82 Zubkova, Poslevoennoe sovetskoe obshchestvo, 42–3; Filtzer, Soviet Workers and Late Stalinism, 93.

83 Tsentral'nyi Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Samarskoi Oblasti (hereafter TsGASO), f.R-56, op.2, d.170, l.2.

84 GARF, f.A-314, op.2, d.192, l.13; TsGASO, f.R-56, op.2, d.170, l.2.

85 TsGASO, f.R-56, op.2, d.231, l.31–2; GARF, f.A-150, op.2, d.187, l.104; Loviagin, N. V., Gorod Kuibyshev za 50 let Sovetskoi vlasti tsifry i fakty (Kuibyshev, Knizhnoe izdatel'stvo, 1967), 48Google Scholar.

86 ‘XXVIII sessiia Kuibyshevskogo gorodskogo Soveta deputatov trudiashchikhsia – Sdelaem nashi zhilishcha blagoustroennymi i krasivymi’, Volzhskaia kommuna, 19 June 1946, 3.

87 GARF, f.R-5446, op.48, d.3070, l.32–31.

88 GARF-, f.A-314, op.2, d.192, l.13-13ob; TsGASO, f.R-56, op.2, d.170, l.2.

89 GARF, f.A-150, op.2, d.139, 140, 141, 142.

90 ‘Arkhitekturnaia rekonstruktsiia gorodov Urala i Sibiri – bol'shaia istoricheskaia zadacha’, Arkhitektura i stoitel'stvo, No.10, (August 1947), 1–3; ‘Stroitel'stvo i blagostroistvo gorodov urala i Sibiri (Cheliabinskoe soveshchanie)’, Arkhitektura i stoitel'stvo, No.10, (August 1947), 7-8.

91 GARF, f.A-150, op.2, d.139, l.25.

92 Samuelson, Lennart, Tankograd. The Formation of a Soviet Company Town: Cheliabinsk, 1900s–1950s (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 217–54Google Scholar.

93 GARF, f.A-150, op.2, d.139, l.5, 10.

94 GARF, f.A-150, op.2, d.139, l.5.

95 Samulson, Tankograd, 266.

96 GARF, f.A-150, op.2, d.140, ll.5–6.

97 Samulson, Tankograd, 261.

98 GARF, f.R-5446, op.48, d.3069, ll.40–39, 46.

99 GARF, f.A–150, op.2, d.140, l.33–7.

100 Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain, 111–13, 120.

101 RGASPI, f.556, op.19, d.253, ll.29–37.

102 GARF, f.A-150, op.2, d.139, ll.21–3.

103 GARF, f.A-150, op.2, d.139, l.23.

104 Cooke, ‘Beauty as a Route to “the Radiant Future”’, 148.

105 Smith, Mark B., ‘Individual Forms of Ownership in the Urban Housing Fund of the USSR, 1944–64’, Slavonic and East European Review, 86, 2 (2008), 283305Google Scholar; idem., Property of Communists, 34–8; Filtzer, Soviet Workers and Late Stalinism, 96.

106 GARF, f.A-150, op.2, d.140, ll.22–3.

107 GARF, f.A-150, op.2, d.140, l.21.

108 GARF, f.R-5446, op.80, d.1640, ll.47–46, 49–48, 45–42.

109 For an example of a letter of complaint from a war invalid whose house, built on individual credit, was at risk of demolition see GARF, A-385, op.13, d.2475, l.121–4.

110 RGASPI, f.556, op.19, d.255, ll.44–6.

111 Smith, Property of Communists.

112 Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain, 129–41.