On the issue of supply crisis in the USSR in 1938 - 1941: according to the documents of the Russian State archive of socio-political history

Abstract

The article focuses on the analysis of the issue of supplying population with food and basic necessities in the USSR in 1938 – 1941. The purpose of the article is to elucidate the peculiarities of the food crisis, commodity shortages during the period under analysis period and complete inefficiency of the Soviet economic model, inability of the authorities to satisfy the elementary needs of citizens. The Methodology of the Research: the article is based on the theory of totalitarianism and the principles formulated by Karl Friedrich; traditional general scientific and special historical methods have been used. The research is based on source science methods, in particular the method of internal criticism of sources, as well as on the requirements of archeography. The scientific novelty of the article consists in the inclusion of original documentary material from the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History. The Conclusion. Owing to the measures taken in the first half of 1941, it was possible to somewhat improve provision of population in some cities and districts, for example, Lviv. The Soviet authorities could never get rid of queues, shortages, low-quality products and other fundamental vices of a prescriptive, tightly centralized economy. As before, the norms for the release of goods into the same hands, determined by the Soviet People's Committee of the USSR, were in effect. During the 1930s, a tendency to reduce these norms was clearly visible, because the main attention in the economic policy of the Stalinist regime was devoted to the rise of heavy industry, each time neglecting the issues of light and food industries development. A significant disproportion in industry development of Group A (production of means of production) and Group B (production of consumer goods) became a distinctive feature of the Soviet economy, which negatively affected supply of food and industrial goods to the population, and a general standard of living of the of the USSR citizens.