At first the scales tipped toward North Korea, whose troops reached Pusan in the far south by mid-September. The offensive was cut short when 50,000 Americans landed in the South. Then China sent its own divisions to assist North Korea. At the end of November 1950 the South Koreans and the Americans, commanded by General Mac Arthur, carried out a successful offensive, pushing the North Korean and Chinese troops back north of the thirty-eighth parallel.
The Soviet Union, which had sanctioned the original North Korean military action and provided material assistance, found itself in a tight situation. Soviet advisers were present in Korea, and some airborne divisions had been deployed to the provinces of northeast China.40 According to an official Soviet publication, "In case of deterioration of the situation, the USSR was prepared to send five divisions into Korea to help the Democratic People's Republic push back American aggression."41 In reality, when the North Korean troops found themselves isolated in the South, Stalin issued orders for the immediate recall of Soviet advisers, fearing they might be taken prisoner and constitute proof of Soviet involvement in the war.
The situation in Korea was saved for the Communist side by the intervention of China, which Stalin approved. The joint offensive by UN and South Korean forces ran out of steam, and they withdrew to positions along the thirty-eighth parallel. On November 30 Truman threatened to use the atomic bomb.42 The danger of military confrontation between the USSR and the United States was very real; it would have led to World War III. Both sides felt they had gone too far. As a result, in mid-1951 the front was stabilized, but the fire of war was not extinguished for quite a long time.
FROM WAR TO PEACE
What was the population of the USSR at the end of World War II? Official statistics do not furnish any figures for 1945, but we do have figures for 1950: 178.5 million people, 15.6 million less than before the war.43
After the war the birth rate began to decline. During the 1950s it was no more than 25 per 1,000; the corresponding figure before the war had been 30 per 1,000. During the first years after the war, this decline stemmed from the fact that entire age groups of adult males had been decimated. But the decline continued during the 1960s, and even increased. It is necessary therefore to take into account the unfavorable economic and social factors contributing to the decrease in the birth rate, such as low salaries, the deep-rooted housing crisis, and the constant increase in employment of female labor in production.
In 1971—72, there were half as many births per 1,000 women between the ages of fifteen and forty-nine as there had been in 1938—39.44 During the first postwar years, the working-age population was also significantly smaller than before the war.
The Soviet economy, particularly in the occupied areas, had been seriously impaired by war. The concentration of effort on war production had led to a major reduction of population resources and a decrease in the production of consumer goods. During the war, construction of housing units, which were already inadequate, was sharply curtailed—at a time when housing suffered great destruction.
The transition period from war to peace was relatively short. On September 4, 1945, the State Defense Committee was dissolved and its functions transferred to the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom).45 Departments of the arms industry were reorganized. Tanks and artillery production was reconverted to the production of tractors and transportation machinery.
The regions destroyed by the war required major capital investments. According to Soviet official figures, 1,710 towns and cities had been partially or totally destroyed, as were approximately 70,000 villages, 32,000 industrial enterprises, 65,000 kilometers of railroad. In addition, some 25 million people had lost their homes.46 The Fourth Five-Year Plan allocated 40 percent of all capital investments—115 billion rubles—to parts of the economy either destroyed or damaged by the war.47
The return to normalcy took place under difficult circumstances. The population was reduced to a state of misery. A famine devastated the southern part of the country, and armed movements persisted in the regions newly annexed to the Soviet Union.
In September 1946 uniform prices replaced the system of double pricing: commercial prices, on the one hand; and those charged under the rationing system, on the other. The result was increased prices for basic foodstuffs for the bulk of the urban population. The price of a kilogram of rye bread went from 1 to 3.4 rubles, a kilogram of meat from 14 to 30 rubles, sugar from 5.5 to 15 rubles, butter from 26 to 66 rubles, milk from 2.5 to 8 rubles.
At the same time that uniform state prices were established, lower-paid workers were granted a "bread supplement" of 110 rubles per month (in old rubles), and all those paid less than 900 rubles a month received salary increases. At that point, the minimum monthly salary was 300 rubles. The average salary was 475 rubles in 1946, and 550 in 1947.
During the war and the first postwar years prices rose sharply because of the devaluation of the ruble, shortages of goods and foodstuffs, and the existence of several widely disparate price levels.
At the end of 1947 a monetary reform—the revaluation of the ruble— was introduced. The old bank notes were exchanged for new ones, at a rate of ten to one. People with deposits in savings banks were given a more favorable rate than those who had kept their savings at home. The inhabitants of rural areas suffered most from the reform, followed in part by those speculators who had enormous sums in their possession. Undoubtedly, this reform had a revitalizing effect on the Soviet economy.
The war economy had given a boost to some branches of production, such as aircraft, motor vehicles (tanks and tractors), and special steels, and new oil fields had been opened in the eastern part of the country. But on the whole, industrial production was in trouble.
At the end of the war, metal production was approximately on the level of 1933-1935,48 while that of tractors was on the 1930 level.49 With the transition to a peacetime economy, total production reached no higher than 92 percent of its prewar level.50 By as early as 1948, however, industrial production was 18 percent higher than before the war, and it continued to grow.51
At the end of World War II the Soviet Union had an enormous army of more than 11 million. After demobilization, it was reduced to less than one-third that size. In 1948 the Soviet armed forces numbered 2,483,000. Seven years later, however, that figure had doubled.
The Soviet Union hastened to develop its own atomic bomb, seeking to end the U.S. monopoly in that area. For this purpose, the best scientists were mobilized both inside the USSR and among foreign sympathizers. Soviet intelligence launched a mass recruitment drive for agents who could obtain any information concerning atomic energy. Several specialized institutes, restricted towns, and experimental sites were established. Beria, the head of state security, was personally put in charge of the project. A special Ministry of Medium Machine Building was set up; it was in reality a ministry for the development and use of atomic energy.