USSR in the post-war period. USSR in the post-war years

Culture See also “Art and the artist”, “ Mass culture", "Politics and Culture" Culture is approximately everything that we do that monkeys do not do. Lord Raglan* Culture is what remains when everything else is forgotten. Edouard Herriot* There is culture

Medieval Arab culture refers to the culture of the tribes that inhabited the Arabian Peninsula, as well as those countries that, as a result of wars, were Arabized and adopted Islam. By the beginning of the 8th century AD. The Arabs subjugated Iran, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, part of the territory of North Africa, Transcaucasia, and Spain. However, having absorbed the culture of the Persians, Syrians, Jews, and other peoples who inhabited the conquered lands, the Arab-Muslim culture remained united. The leading link was Islam.
II. Culture of the East.

Since the main part of the Arabian Peninsula was steppes, deserts and semi-deserts, a very small part of the land was suitable for agriculture. The bulk of the population were Bedouin nomads who called themselves Arabs. The horse and camel troops of the Bedouin nomads were a formidable force with which local residents were considered. Engaging in robbery of caravans of townspeople, attacking villages, the nomads considered the looted property their legitimate prey. However, harsh natural conditions required both of them to exert maximum effort in order to survive, and the main life values ​​were activity, enterprise and the ability to deny oneself everything. Among nomadic tribes at the beginning of the 7th century AD. and Islam was born - a world religion that spread very quickly and was accepted by all the inhabitants of Arabia.

The founder of Islam is a real person - the Prophet Muhammad (Magomed, Muhammad), whose biography every Muslim knows.
Muhammad was orphaned early and was raised first by his grandfather, then by his uncle, who was a wealthy merchant. At the age of 25, Muhammad began working for a 40-year-old widow with several children. The woman was engaged in trade - she organized caravans with goods to sell them in neighboring countries. Soon they got married. It was a love match and they had four daughters.
Muhammad received his first revelations in a dream - in one night he visited Jerusalem and returned, ascended to heaven and performed many other miracles. Muhammad received from the angel Gabriel, the Messenger of Allah, the Koran along with the ability to read it. Muhammad based all his actions on revelations received from Allah in a state of ecstasy or in visions. Revelations became more and more frequent, and in 610 he preached for the first time in Mecca. The number of his like-minded people grew slowly; in 622 Muhammad left Mecca and, together with his supporters, moved to Medina, the city of the prophet. From this moment the Muslim calendar begins. The inhabitants of Medina immediately recognized Muhammad as their religious and political leader and supported him in his quest to defeat Mecca. In 630, after the complete victory of Medina, Muhammad returned to Mecca, which became the center of Islam. Having carried out many campaigns of conquest, the formed theocratic state - the Arab Caliphate - significantly expanded its territories and quickly spread Islam there. Islam becomes the state religion of the Arab East.
Every Muslim, educated and illiterate, knows the basics of religion. The briefest summary of the main dogma of Islam is contained in the 112th sura (chapter) of the Koran: “In the name of Allah, the merciful, the merciful! Say: “He is Allah alone, Allah is mighty. He did not give birth and was not begotten, and there was no one like him, ever.” According to Muslim doctrine, people who do not profess Islam are “infidels,” among them Jews and Christians are especially distinguished as ahl al-kitab, that is, “people of the Book.” According to the Koran, they supposedly believe in the same god as Muslims. This god sent his messengers to them too - Adam, Noah, Abraham, Lot, Moses (Musa), David, Solomon, Jesus (Isa), who brought the word of God to people. But people distorted and forgot what they were taught. That's why Allah sent Muhammad, his last prophet, to the people with God's word - the Koran. This was, as it were, the last attempt to guide people on the righteous path, the last warning, after which the end of the world and the Judgment should come, when all people will be rewarded for their deeds - they will end up in the gardens of paradise or in hellfire. Almost every Muslim also knows the “five pillars” of Islam, the five main duties of a believer. One of them is prayer (salat), consisting of a series of bows, accompanied by the recitation of various religious formulas. Muhammad borrowed the custom of prayer from the Jews. A Muslim is prescribed five prayers a day; You can do them at home, in the mosque, and in the field. Prayer is preceded by ritual ablution. To do this, it was enough to touch water, sand, and earth. Friday is the day of universal prayer, when all Muslims must gather for collective prayer in the main mosque of the city, village, or district.
Another ritual obligation of a Muslim is fasting (sawm) during the month of Ramadan. It consisted of abstaining from food, drink and entertainment. All the time of every Muslim should be devoted to Allah, occupied with prayers, reading the Koran and religious works, and pious reflections. It was the main and obligatory for all believers, except for the sick, traveling, etc. The end of the month of Ramadan and, accordingly, a month of fasting is celebrated with the holiday of breaking the fast, the second most important holiday in Islam.
In addition to the restrictions associated with fasting, there are a large number of prohibitions in Islam that regulate various aspects of a Muslim’s life. It is forbidden for a Muslim to drink alcoholic beverages, eat pork, or gamble. Islam prohibits usury. The duty of every Muslim (with the caveat - if he has the physical and material opportunity) is also hajj - a pilgrimage to Mecca, primarily to the Kaaba, the main shrine of Islam. The Kaaba is a small building, in the southwestern corner of which is built a “black stone” (a meteorite kept here since ancient times) - according to legend, sent by Allah from heaven to people as a sign of his power and favor.
The pilgrimage takes place in the month of Dhu-l-Hijjah, which, like Ramadan, is a month of the lunar calendar and therefore falls at different times of the year. Pilgrims, wearing special white clothes and undergoing a ritual purification ceremony, make a solemn circumambulation around the Kaaba and drink water from the nearby sacred Zamzam spring. This is followed by solemn processions and prayers in the hills and valleys around Mecca, associated with the legend of the stay of the forefather Ibrahim, the first preacher of monotheism, in those places.
This is the Holy Kaaba in Mecca and the Forbidden Mosque around it.

Hajj ends with the holiday of Eid al-Adha, during which sacrificial animals are slaughtered in memory of the sacrifice made by Ibrahim to Allah. The end of the Hajj is the main Muslim holiday, which is celebrated with prayers and sacrifices throughout the Muslim world. People who have performed Hajj bear the honorific nickname Hajj or Hajji and are respected by their relatives in their native places.
The Koran, filled with a mass of truly wonderful moral teachings and everyday rules suitable for every occasion, involuntarily attracted the hearts of people. On its basis and taking into account pre-Islamic traditions, the law of inheritance, guardianship, as well as the rule of marriage and divorce were developed.
For the middle class, monogamy was the norm. Noble and rich people had many slave-concubines, which was not considered shameful. All caliphs of the 4th (10th) century. mothers were slaves. No one forbade widows from remarrying, but public opinion looked at this extremely disapprovingly. According to old Arab customs, girls were not counted when indicating the number of children in a family, but it became customary to wish happiness at the birth of a daughter. The poet Bashar mourned the death of his daughter in touching verses:

O daughter of the one who did not want to have a daughter!
You were only five or six when you rested
from breathing. And my heart burst with anguish.
You would be better than the boy who
He drinks in the morning and debauchery at night.

The man was considered the absolute leader. God's blessing lay on sons, so only after the birth of a son was a person considered complete. The man had to take care of the elders and the younger ones; he had to be persistent, purposeful, generous, be ready for any adversity and trials, be able to love and have fun.
It can be reliably said that the costume of a Bedouin Arab is still the same as it was in ancient times: rough sandals, a sling, a bow and a spear constitute the main parts of his necessary accessories. However, in the cities things were different. The general desire of Asians for luxury influenced the Arabs at that time. Having won, they began to use the crafts of the vanquished. Having established new trade relations, the Arabs received rare materials and fabrics from China and India, furs from Russia, skins, peacock feathers, ivory from Africa, and gold and precious stones from Spain. Local manufacturing of silk, linen, paper yarns and fabrics performed wonders. The Arabs were the first to introduce neatness in clothing, using underwear, washable linen. Representatives of the authorities wore several clothes, which distinguished them from representatives of the lower classes. On their heads they wore a turban, which was very skillfully wrapped around the head, and the ends sometimes flowed over the shoulders. The panache was limited by the high cost of the fabric, and not by the style of the dress. And the main chic was the frequent changes of clothes during celebrations. Clothes were sometimes changed up to seven times during the celebration. The man cared primarily about his hair and weapons; the only jewelry he wore was a ring. The respect that the peoples of the East have for a man’s beard is the merit of Mohammed. Any desecration of her was considered the most terrible insult. But the Arabs began to shave their heads, leaving only a tuft of hair on the top of the head.

Despite the prohibition of the Koran, dice were played everywhere. At that time, theologians had already come to terms with chess, but cursed backgammon because of its gambling nature. The Prophet’s saying was often quoted: and “Three amusements are accompanied by angels: the intercourse of a man and a woman, horse racing and shooting competitions.” Theologians recognized horse racing - but only without betting! And the most noble sport was considered, as in our time, polo - a game of ball on horseback, allowing one to demonstrate masterly skill in controlling a horse. The passion for hunting never waned: noble people hunted lions, of which there were plenty in Iraq and Egypt.
Also, despite the prohibitions of Islam, wine was always drunk in all regions. It is mentioned in passing about Caliph al-Wasiq that when his beloved slave died, he grieved for her so much that he did not even drink wine. But even the most immoral people could not admit that wine could be drunk during dinner: drinking wine was not considered part of the meal. The places where alcoholic drinks were sold (the so-called “zucchini”) were kept mainly by Christians. They drank even in the highest religious circles. From time to time, a wave of piety swept over the entire Islamic world: the caliphs suddenly forbade the sale of wine, and the Hanbalites walked around the city and destroyed the taverns and houses of those people who had alcoholic drinks. But such a faithful reaction was short-lived.
The feast usually opened with snacks - olives and pistachios, sugar cane soaked in rose water, and apples were served. The art of cooking was a huge success. Already at that time, the first books on cooking and diet were written, which were widely distributed. The basis of the diet was wheat bread, milk and meat - lamb. The most common fish were sturgeon and tuna, fruits included grapes, apples, pomegranates, but lemons and oranges were very rare. Dates were also grown, which were consumed and exported in huge quantities.
Syria and North Africa supplied the entire Muslim world with olive oil.

Since most of the Arab countries are located in a hot climate zone, the main task when building houses for people was to escape from the extreme summer heat. The houses had underground floors equipped with running water, where they moved in the summer. Wet felt was very common: felt screens were stretched, onto which water flowed from above through laid pipes. The water wet the felt, evaporated and provided coolness. The spoiled inhabitants of Baghdad were even considered unsuited to military action because “they were accustomed to houses on the banks of the river, to wine, ice, wet felt and singers.”
The rooms in the houses were practically empty. The only furniture was a chest used to store clothes and many pillows. Of course, there were no chairs - people sat directly on the floor, which is why carpets were given such great importance. The table was brought in only during meals, already set, and often it was a solid slab of beautiful ornamental stone or a rare type of wood.
Medieval Arab architecture absorbed the traditions of the countries they conquered - Greece, Rome, Iran, Spain. Actually, when starting a conversation about Arab architecture and painting, it should be noted that according to the Koran, the image of any animal form was considered the work of Satan. The lack of depiction of living forms constricted the artistic freedom of Arab artists. Eastern fantasy, and at the same time the absence of living images of fantasy, allowed their artistic thought to play out to the most unbridled grace. From the 10th century buildings began to be decorated with elegant and geometric patterns, which included rhythmically repeating patterns and stylized inscriptions - Arabic script. Europeans gave this ornament the name “arabesque”. The influence of Islam led to the underdevelopment of painting and sculpture in Arab culture, and therefore fine art went into carpeting, the characteristic features of which were patterning and floweriness. The Arabs' favorite color was red - it was the color of women, children and joy; white, black and purple were considered the colors of mourning, green signifying exceptional prestige. Gray color was despised.
After the Arab conquest of the Iberian Peninsula and the formation of a new caliphate there, the capital of Cordoba, which also became the seat of the new caliphate, quickly transformed and achieved the highest degree of prosperity under the control of the Arabs. All the streets of the city were perfectly paved and illuminated by burning lanterns. Arab dwellings with balconies of polished marble hanging over orange gardens, cascades of water, colored glass - Europeans had never seen such luxury. “The luxury of the Arabs went so far that in winter the rooms were heated with warm air perfumed in hiding places. Huge chandeliers descended from the ceilings, some containing more than a thousand lights. Lemonwood furniture inlaid with mother-of-pearl and ivory sat on Persian rugs, interspersed with gorgeous indoor flowers and exotic plants. The libraries contained books decorated with vignettes of extraordinary taste and elegance (miracles of calligraphy, which warned the popes’ book depositories with their appearance). Caliph Alhakem possessed a library of such size that one catalog contained forty volumes. The court splendor was absolutely fabulous. Reception halls were often lined with gold and pearls. The number of palace servants was more than 6 thousand people. The caliph's own guard, who wore golden sabers, numbered 12 thousand people. Harem women were examples of beauty throughout the Mediterranean coast. The Arabs were the first gardeners in Europe; all the most valuable fruits were brought to Europe by them. Fish were bred in artificial pools. They kept huge poultry houses and menageries.
The Arabs found the art of weapon making at its peak. Damascus steel was already widely known all over the world at that time, and the Arabs, with the imagination inherent in their Asian imagination, only had to take care of the appearance of the weapon. Placing patterns on steel (damascusing) increased the value of the weapon many times over.
And baths were a tradition of the Greco-Roman world that was picked up by Muslims with particular enthusiasm. Baths, where people went not only to swim, but also to socialize, became an indispensable part of every city. There were about 5 thousand baths in Baghdad (historians consider the above figures to be clearly overestimated). The interior decoration of these public institutions was far from Muslim, and religious people were clearly suspicious of them and their visitors, considering them breeding grounds for an irreligious and hedonistic spirit. However, Muslim culture preserved this custom until modern times.
The science.
In the 30s of the VIII century. Muslims conquered Egypt, most of Byzantium, Iran, and then North Africa and Spain, advanced to Central Asia and India. The Arabs, who had been in “stagnation” for so long, were moved from their place by a sudden push. With such a powerful impulse of the nation, science and art flourished, and, moreover, art in the full splendor of a southern flower with all the fantasy of a purely Asian imagination. War makes the people live more feverishly, their thoughts work more energetically. The Arabs quickly advanced in mental development.
In the Middle Ages there were many people who knew the Koran by heart. Every Muslim should read and know this great book, and, because. it was forbidden to translate it from Arabic to others, this led to the spread of the Arabic language, which, along with Islam, is a powerful factor uniting all Arab countries.
Much attention was paid in schools to the study of the native language, and that is why there were so many excellent grammarians among the Arabs. The first Arabic alphabet (South Arabic) dates back to 800 BC. e. Since then, writing in the South Arabic language has continuously developed until the 6th century. n. e. The northern Arabs used the written language Aramaic, which is related to Arabic. The earliest North Arabic inscription in the Arabic alphabet is dated 328 AD. e. There was a wealth of poetry in the North Arabic language, testifying to the high ancient culture of the Arabs. That's when the first ones appeared explanatory dictionaries(sometimes in 60 volumes), which explained the meaning of each word. Poetry had all the newest small forms: satire, lyricism, elegy. Thanks to the wealth, luxury and flexibility of language, the Arabs introduced rhyme into their work. The art of rhyming in big cities became a court craft. The poets, among whom there were also women, sometimes even the daughters of caliphs, also acted as literary critics. In the VIII-X centuries. Many works of pre-Islamic Arabic oral poetry were recorded. In the 9th century. 2 collections “Hamasa” (“Songs of Valor”) were compiled, which included poems by more than 500 Old Arabic poets. For all the Arabs' admiration for poetry, their attitude towards poets was not unambiguous. They believed that the inspiration that helps them write poetry comes from demons and devils: they eavesdrop on the conversations of angels and then tell priests and poets about them. Because The Arabs were not at all interested in the specific personality of the poet - it was enough to know whether his talent was great and whether his ability to clairvoyance was strong; not all the great poets of the Arab East have been preserved complete and reliable information.

The outstanding poet of that time was Abu Nuwas (between 747-762 - between 813-815), who, masterfully mastering the form of verse, sang love, cheerful feasts and laughed at the then fashionable passion for old Bedouin poems. It was a time of courtly culture; The cult of love passion was maintained at a high level both at court and in the circles of the urban intelligentsia. In the love songs of Abu Nuwas there is a longing for boys as much as for girls. At court, everyone without exception had a passion for boys; Abu Nuwas' fans even indignantly rejected rumors that he once fell in love with some woman. The fashion for homosexuality flourished.
I would like to note the work of Abul-Ala al Maari (973-1057/58), who was considered the pinnacle of Arab medieval culture. Having suffered from smallpox at the age of 4 and going blind, he was able to overcome his weakness: he studied the Koran, theology, Islamic law, ancient Arabic traditions and modern poetry. He also knew Greek philosophy, mathematics, astronomy; one can sense colossal erudition in his works. Traveling a lot, he was a constant seeker of truth and justice. The mystery of life and death, the depravity of man and society are the main themes of his lyrics. He considered the presence of evil and suffering in the world to be inevitable laws of existence (book of lyrics “The Obligation of the Optional”, “Message of Forgiveness”, “Message of Angels”).
Golden wax candle
In the face of grief, like me, she is patient.

She will smile at you for a long time,
Even though she is dying, she is resigned to fate.

And without words she says: “People, don’t believe me,
That I am crying out of fear in anticipation of death.

Isn't that what happens to you sometimes?
That tears of laughter will roll from your eyes?”

That love of the Arabs for fairy tales, which manifested itself in such a luxurious form even under the steppe tents, did not die here either: by the evening fire, wandering storytellers and poets unfolded to the full breadth of the eastern imagination, and the folded X-XV centuries. the collection of Arabian tales "A Thousand and One Nights" give us a clear understanding of the playfulness of their thoughts. The collection is based on revised plots from Persian, Indian, Greek legends, as well as Arabic tales. These are tales about Ali Baba, Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor. The favorite character of medieval Arabic literature was the Bedouin - daring and cautious, crafty and simple-minded, the keeper of pure Arabic speech.
Enduring world fame was brought to Omar Khayyam (1048-1122), a Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, by his rubai - a collection of quatrains glorifying earthly joys and reminders of the frailty of the world. Each quatrain is a laconic and witty discussion about the meaning of life, about the world and about people, often they have an openly anti-God connotation. Everyone will be able to find lines from Khayyam that are consonant with his own worldview. Here are the most popular and frequently quoted rubai:
*
To live your life wisely, you need to know a lot,
Two important rules remember for starters:
You'd rather starve than eat anything
And it’s better to be alone than with just anyone.
*
My enemies call me a philosopher,
However, God knows, their judgment is wrong.
I am much more insignificant - because nothing is clear to me,
It’s not even clear why or who I am here.
*
When you are at the table, like a close family,
Sit down again - I ask you, oh friends,
Remember a friend and tip the cup
I was in the place where I sat among you.

Orientalists believe that the dawn of Arabic poetry falls on the 7th-9th centuries: during this period, the developing Arab world stood at the head of world civilization. From the 12th century the level of cultural life is declining.
The research of Arab scientists made a significant contribution to many sciences.
The largest work on optics written in the Middle Ages was the Book of Optics by Ibn al-Haytham. Ibn al-Haytham criticizes the idea of ​​visual rays and assumes that light rays propagate from a light source. Based on the study of the anatomy of the eye, the lens of which was considered the main organ of vision, the scientist examines the mechanism of vision. Next we consider visual perception and optical illusions, the reflection of light from flat, spherical, cylindrical and conical mirrors and the refraction of light are studied in great detail. Ibn al-Haytham's optical research was based on exceptionally high experimental accuracy and extensive use of mathematical proofs. In addition to the “Book of Optics,” he wrote a number of optical treatises, in particular, “The Book of the Incendiary Sphere,” which underlies the theory of lenses. “The Book of Optics” was soon translated into Latin and formed the basis for optical research by scientists of the 13th-14th centuries.
Being engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding, the Arabs first of all needed to know the exact timing of various agricultural works, be able to calculate the size of fields, volumes and areas of dams and canals. To this end, they constantly monitored the movements and changes in the starry sky. Although the astronomical knowledge of the Arabs was closely intertwined with the religious-astronomical view and was under their strong influence, the Arabs at that time already had a clear idea of ​​astronomical geography. Suffice it to say that most of the star names used by astronomers are corruptions of Arabic names; From the Arabic language, which was the main language of science in the countries of Islam, such astronomical terms as zenith, azimuth, almucantarates and alidada were borrowed, and some terms, such as the astrolabe or the title of Ptolemy’s work “Almagest” came to us through the Arabs and We use it in a form close to Arabic (asturlab, al-Majisti). The Arabic names of stars we borrow are also divided into Old Arabic names given to the stars by Arab nomads in the pre-Islamic era, and translations into Arabic of the names of the stars of the Ptolemaic constellations. The first include Tselbalrai ( Ophiuchus) - from qalb ar-ra’y - “Shepherd’s dog” (the Arabs called the star  Ophiuchus the Shepherd), etc.
During the first centuries after the Arab conquest of the territories that became part of the Arab caliphate, scientists of the conquered countries could only work in the capital of the caliphate, Baghdad, or Damascus, which was the capital of the caliphate before Baghdad. The caliphs of the second dynasty, the Abbasids, al-Mansur and Harun ar-Rashid, deeply respecting learning, invited foreign sages to Baghdad. From the 9th century In the Arab Caliphate, a unique mathematical culture began to take shape. Here the methods of Greek mathematics were applied to solve astronomical problems. It was the needs of astronomy that led to the rapid development of algebra and trigonometry.
In the VIII-IX centuries. in the Arab Caliphate they already used the Indian decimal positional system. The treatise “On Indian Counting” is the first Arabic work in which the new Indian numbering was first mentioned; and since it came to Europe through the Arabs, it began to be called Arabic. The author of this work was the outstanding scientist Muhammad bin Musa al-Khwarizmi. The rules for working with decimal numbers are called “algorithms” - from the Latin form of the name al-Khwarizmi. The foundations of algebra as a science were laid by al-Khorezmi’s work “Kitab al-jabr wal-mukabala” (“Book of restoration and opposition”). The solution of linear, quadratic, cubic and indefinite equations, and the extraction of third, fourth and fifth roots were the main achievements of Arabic algebra. Al-Khwarizmi's algebraic treatise was also used in life for practical purposes, for example, in the division of property. Muslim law then provided for a complex system of inheritance, according to which the relatives of the deceased received their share of the inheritance depending on the degree of kinship. However, al-Khwarizmi studied not only mathematics. The list of his works also includes a treatise on astronomy, in which he explores the movement of the Sun, Moon and five planets, gives rules for measuring latitudes and longitudes, determines the dimensions of the solar disk, and talks about solar and lunar eclipses.
The famous poet and mathematician Omar Khayyam authored the algebraic work “Treatise on Proofs of Algebra Problems,” in which algebra now appears as an independent science. The subject of algebra is unknown numbers or unknown quantities correlated with known numbers and quantities. Their relationships are written in equation form. Thus, algebra is considered as the science of equations, which we now call algebraic. In his geometric work, Khayyam examines the theory of parallel lines and the theory of relations. He owns the expression: “If two straight lines approach each other, then they must intersect.”
Arab mathematicians were the first to study all trigonometric functions and compiled tables of sines of angles with an interval of 10’, and with amazing accuracy - up to 1/604. Using trigonometric functions, they studied the relationships between the sides and angles of triangles.
III. Conclusion.
The entire medieval Arab culture, way of life and way of life of people developed under the influence of Islam, which arose on the Arabian Peninsula.
Based on the creation of a common cultural space, Islam and the artistic traditions of the conquered peoples enriched each other. The greatest flowering of Arab medieval culture occurred in the 7th – 9th centuries. Various genres of poetry are rapidly developing, such as: qasida, rubai, gazelle, kyta, dastan. Many works of other peoples, in particular ancient authors, have been translated into Arabic.
The influence of Islam had a negative impact on the development of the Arab culture of painting and sculpture. The aversion from idols excluded the possibility of creating any animal form; The Arabs once and for all renounced the visible image of God. As a richly gifted people, having found themselves deprived of a huge branch of art - sculpture and painting, they realized all the revelry of their imagination in architecture and ornament.
The Arabs made a significant contribution to the development of sciences: medicine, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy. After scientific Arabic treatises were translated into Latin, many ideas of Muslim scientists became the property of European and then world science.
Islam is the youngest of the three world religions, the importance of which is steadily growing.

IV. Used Books.

1. P.P. Gnedich: “History of Art from Ancient Times”; Moscow, LLC Publishing House "Letopis-M", 2000, pp. 225-252.
2. A.N. Markova: Textbook on cultural studies, “History of world culture”; Moscow, Publishing House "Culture and Sport", 2000, pp. 249-261.
3. Zolotko A.K., et al.: “2000 great people. Small Encyclopedia of Personalities"; Kharkov, Torsing LLC, 2001, pp. 357, 422, 428.
4. Omar Khayyam: “How wonderful is the sweet face”, Moscow, Eksmo-Press Publishing House, 2000, pp. 4-25.
5. Encyclopedia for children, Mathematics, volume 11; Moscow, Avanta+ publishing house, 2000, pp. 62-66.

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Both comments and pings are currently closed. The Great Victory also had a Great Price. The war claimed 27 million. human lives . The country's economy, especially in the territory subject to occupation, was thoroughly undermined: 1,710 cities and towns, more than 70 thousand villages, about 32 thousand industrial enterprises, 65 thousand km railway tracks , 75 million people lost their homes. The concentration of efforts on military production, necessary to achieve victory, led to a significant depletion of the population's resources and to a decrease in the production of consumer goods. During the war, the previously insignificant housing construction fell sharply, while housing stock The country was partially destroyed. Later, unfavorable economic and social factors

: low wages, an acute housing crisis, the involvement of more and more women in production, etc.

The fall in fertility in the first post-war years was associated with the death of entire age groups of men. The death of a significant part of the country's male population during the war created a difficult, often catastrophic situation for millions of families. A large category of widowed families and single mothers has emerged. The woman had double responsibilities: providing financial support for the family and caring for the family itself and raising children. Although the state took upon itself, especially in large industrial centers, part of the care of children, creating a network of nurseries and kindergartens, they were not enough. To some extent, the institution of “grandmothers” saved me.

The difficulties of the first post-war years were compounded by the enormous damage suffered by agriculture during the war. The occupiers destroyed 98 thousand collective farms and 1876 state farms, took away and slaughtered many millions of heads of livestock, and almost completely deprived the rural areas of the occupied areas of draft power. In agricultural areas, the number of able-bodied people decreased by almost one third. The depletion of human resources in the village was also a result natural process urban growth. The village lost an average of up to 2 million people per year. Difficult living conditions in the villages forced young people to leave for the cities. Some of the demobilized soldiers settled in cities after the war and did not want to return to agriculture.

During the war, in many regions of the country, significant areas of land belonging to collective farms were transferred to enterprises and cities, or illegally seized by them. In other areas, land became the subject of purchase and sale. Back in 1939, a decree was issued by the Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party (6) and the Council of People's Commissars on measures to combat the squandering of collective farm lands. By the beginning of 1947, more than 2,255 thousand cases of land appropriation or use had been discovered, a total of 4.7 million hectares. Between 1947 and May 1949, the use of 5.9 million hectares of collective farm land was additionally revealed. The higher authorities, starting from local and ending with republican ones, brazenly robbed collective farms, collecting from them, under various pretexts, actual rent in kind.

The debt of various organizations to collective farms amounted to 383 million rubles by September 1946.

In the Akmola region of the Kazakh SGR, the authorities in 1949 took 1,500 heads of livestock, 3 thousand centners of grain and products worth about 2 million rubles from collective farms. The robbers, among whom were leading party and Soviet workers, were not brought to justice.

The squandering of collective farm lands and goods belonging to collective farms caused great indignation among collective farmers. For example, at the general meetings of collective farmers in the Tyumen region (Siberia), dedicated to the resolution of September 19, 1946, 90 thousand collective farmers participated, and the activity was unusual: 11 thousand collective farmers spoke. In the Kemerovo region, at meetings to elect new boards, 367 chairmen of collective farms, 2,250 board members and 502 chairmen of the audit commissions of the previous composition were nominated. However, the new composition of the boards could not achieve any significant change: state policy remained the same. Therefore, there was no way out of the deadlock.

After the end of the war, the production of tractors, agricultural machinery and equipment was quickly established. But, despite the improvement in the supply of machinery and tractors to agriculture, the strengthening of the material and technical base of state farms and MTS, the situation in agriculture remained catastrophic. The state continued to invest extremely insignificant funds in agriculture - in the post-war five-year plan, only 16% of all allocations for the national economy.

In 1946, only 76% of the sown area was sown compared to 1940. Due to drought and other troubles, the 1946 harvest was lower even compared to the para-war year of 1945. “In fact, in terms of grain production, the country a long period was at the level that pre-revolutionary Russia had,” admitted N. S. Khrushchev. In 1910-1914, the gross grain harvest was 4380 million poods, in 1949-1953 - 4942 million poods. Grain yields were lower than those of 1913, despite mechanization, fertilizers, etc.

Grain yield

1913 -- 8.2 centners per hectare

1925-1926 -- 8.5 centners per hectare

1926-1932 -- 7.5 centners per hectare

1933-1937 -- 7.1 centners per hectare

1949-1953 -- 7.7 centners per hectare

Accordingly, there were fewer agricultural products per capita. Taking the pre-collectivization period of 1928-1929 as 100, production in 1913 was 90.3, in 1930-1932 - 86.8, in 1938-1940 - 90.0, in 1950-1953 - 94.0. As can be seen from the table, the grain problem has worsened, despite a decrease in grain exports (from 1913 to 1938 by 4.5 times), a reduction in the number of livestock and, consequently, in grain consumption. The number of horses decreased from 1928 to 1935 by 25 million heads, which resulted in savings of more than 10 million tons of grain, 10-15% of the gross grain harvest of that time.

In 1916, there were 58.38 million cattle on the territory of Russia; on January 1, 1941, its number decreased to 54.51 million, and in 1951 there were 57.09 million heads, that is, it was still below the level 1916. The number of cows exceeded the 1916 level only in 1955. In general, according to official data, from 1940 to 1952, gross agricultural output increased (in comparable prices) by only 10%!

The plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in February 1947 demanded even greater centralization of agricultural production, effectively depriving collective farms of the right to decide not only how much, but what to sow. Political departments were restored in machine and tractor stations - propaganda was supposed to replace food for the completely starved and impoverished collective farmers. Collective farms were obliged, in addition to fulfilling state deliveries, to fill up the seed funds, set aside part of the harvest in an indivisible fund, and only after that give the collective farmers money for workdays. State supplies were still planned from the center, harvest prospects were determined by eye, and the actual harvest was often much lower than planned. The first commandment of the collective farmers, “give first to the state,” had to be fulfilled in any way. Local party and Soviet organizations often forced the more successful collective farms to pay in grain and other products for their impoverished neighbors, which ultimately led to the impoverishment of both. Collective farmers fed themselves mainly from food grown on their dwarf plots. But in order to export their products to the market, they needed a special certificate certifying that they had paid for mandatory government supplies. Otherwise, they were considered deserters and speculators, and were subject to fines and even imprisonment. Taxes on personal plots of collective farmers have increased. Collective farmers were required to supply products in kind, which they often did not produce. Therefore, they were forced to purchase these products at market prices and hand them over to the state for free. The Russian village did not know such a terrible state even during the time of the Tatar yoke.

In 1947, a significant part of the country's European territory suffered famine. It arose after a severe drought that affected the main agricultural breadbaskets of the European part of the USSR: a significant part of Ukraine, Moldova, the Lower Volga region, the central regions of Russia, and Crimea. In previous years, the state completely took away the harvest as part of government supplies, sometimes not even leaving a seed fund. Crop failure occurred in a number of areas that were subject to German occupation, that is, they were robbed many times by both strangers and their own. As a result, there were no food supplies to survive the difficult time. The Soviet state demanded more and more millions of pounds of grain from the completely robbed peasants. For example, in 1946, a year of severe drought, Ukrainian collective farmers owed the state 400 million poods (7.2 million tons) of grain. This figure, and most other planned targets, were set arbitrarily and did not in any way correlate with the actual capabilities of Ukrainian agriculture.

Desperate peasants sent letters to the Ukrainian government in Kyiv and the allied government in Moscow, begging them to come to their aid and save them from starvation. Khrushchev, who was at that time the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine, after long and painful hesitation (he was afraid of being accused of sabotage and losing his place), nevertheless sent a letter to Stalin, in which he asked for permission to temporarily introduce a card system and save food for supplies to the agricultural population. Stalin, in a reply telegram, rudely rejected the request of the Ukrainian government. Now the Ukrainian peasants faced hunger and death. People began to die in the thousands. Cases of cannibalism appeared. Khrushchev cites in his memoirs a letter to him from the secretary of the Odessa Regional Party Committee A.I. Kirichenko, who visited one of the collective farms in the winter of 1946-1947. This is what he reported: “I saw a terrible scene. The woman put the corpse of her own child on the table and cut it into pieces. She spoke madly as she did this: “We have already eaten Manechka. Now we will salt Vanichka. This will support us for a while.” "Can you imagine this? A woman went crazy because of hunger and cut her own children into pieces! Famine raged in Ukraine.

However, Stalin and his closest aides did not want to reckon with the facts. The merciless Kaganovich was sent to Ukraine as the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (Bolsheviks), and Khrushchev temporarily fell out of favor and was transferred to the post of Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of Ukraine. But no movement could save the situation: the famine continued, and it claimed about a million human lives.

In 1952, government prices for grain, meat, and pork supplies were lower than in 1940. Prices paid for potatoes were lower than transportation costs. Collective farms were paid an average of 8 rubles 63 kopecks per hundredweight of grain. State farms received 29 rubles 70 kopecks per hundredweight.

In order to buy a kilogram of butter, a collective farmer had to work... 60 workdays, and to purchase a very modest suit, he needed a year's earnings.

Most collective and state farms in the country in the early 50s harvested extremely low harvests. Even in such fertile regions of Russia as the Central Black Earth Region, the Volga region and Kazakhstan, harvests remained extremely low, because the center endlessly prescribed what to sow and how to sow. The matter, however, was not only about stupid orders from above and insufficient material and technical base. For many years, the peasants were beaten out of love for their work, for the land. Once upon a time, the land rewarded the labor expended, for their dedication to their peasant work, sometimes generously, sometimes meagerly. Now this incentive, officially called the “material interest incentive,” has disappeared. Work on the land turned into free or low-income forced labor.

Many collective farmers were starving, others were systematically malnourished. Household plots were saved. The situation was especially difficult in the European part of the USSR. The situation was much better in Central Asia, where there were high procurement prices for cotton, the main agricultural crop, and in the south, which specialized in vegetable growing, fruit production and winemaking.

In 1950, the consolidation of collective farms began. Their number decreased from 237 thousand to 93 thousand in 1953. The consolidation of collective farms could contribute to their economic strengthening. However, insufficient capital investments, mandatory deliveries and low procurement prices, the lack of a sufficient number of trained specialists and machine operators, and, finally, the restrictions imposed by the state on personal plots of collective farmers deprived them of incentive to work and destroyed hopes of escaping the grip of need. 33 million collective farmers, who fed the country's 200 million population with their hard work, remained, after the prisoners, the poorest, most offended layer of Soviet society.

Let us now see what the position of the working class and other urban sections of the population was at this time.

As is known, one of the first acts of the Provisional Government after February Revolution was the introduction of an 8-hour working day. Before this, Russian workers worked 10 and sometimes 12 hours a day. As for collective farmers, their working day, as in the pre-revolutionary years, remained irregular. In 1940 they returned to 8 o'clock.

According to official Soviet statistics, the average wage of a Soviet worker increased more than 11-fold between the beginning of industrialization (1928) and the end of the Stalin era (1954). But this does not give an idea of ​​​​real wages. Soviet sources give fantastic calculations that have nothing to do with reality. Western researchers have calculated that during this period, the cost of living, according to the most conservative estimates, increased 9-10 times in the period 1928-1954. However, a worker in the Soviet Union has, in addition to the official salary received in person, an additional salary in the form of social services provided to him by the state. It returns to workers in the form of free medical care, education and other things part of the earnings alienated by the state.

According to calculations by the largest American specialist on the Soviet economy, Janet Chapman, additional increases in wages of workers and employees, taking into account changes in prices, after 1927 were: in 1928 - 15% in 1937 - 22.1%; in 194O - 20.7%; in 1948 - 29.6%; in 1952 - 22.2%; 1954 - 21.5%. The cost of living in the same years grew as follows, taking 1928 as 100:

From this table it is clear that the increase in wages of Soviet workers and employees was lower than the increase in the cost of living. For example, by 1948, wages in monetary terms had doubled since 1937, but the cost of living had more than tripled. The fall in real wages was also associated with an increase in the amount of loan subscriptions and taxation. The significant increase in real wages by 1952 was still below the level of 1928, although it exceeded the level of real wages in the pre-war years of 1937 and 1940.

To get a correct idea of ​​the situation of the Soviet worker in comparison with his foreign colleagues, let us compare how many products could be bought for 1 hour of work expended. Taking the initial data of the hourly wage of a Soviet worker as 100, we obtain the following comparative table:

The picture is striking: for the same time spent, an English worker could purchase more than 3.5 times more products in 1952, and an American worker could purchase 5.6 times more products than a Soviet worker.

Among Soviet people, especially the older generations, the opinion has taken root that under Stalin prices were reduced every year, and under Khrushchev and after him prices were constantly rising. Hence, there is even some nostalgia for Stalin’s times

The secret of lowering prices is extremely simple - it is based, firstly, on the huge rise in prices after the start of collectivization. In fact, if we take 1937 prices as 100, it turns out that yen for baked rye bread increased 10.5 times from 1928 to 1937, and by 1952 almost 19 times. Prices for first grade beef increased from 1928 to 1937 by 15.7, and by 1952 - by 17 times: for pork, by 10.5 and 20.5 times, respectively. The price of herring increased by almost 15 times by 1952. The cost of sugar rose 6 times by 1937, and 15 times by 1952. The price of sunflower oil rose 28 times from 1928 to 1937, and 34 times from 1928 to 1952. Prices for eggs increased from 1928 to 1937 by 11.3 times, and by 1952 by 19.3 times. And finally, potato prices rose 5 times from 1928 to 1937, and in 1952 they were 11 times higher than the 1928 price level

All this data is taken from Soviet price tags for different years.

Having once raised prices by 1500-2500 percent, then it was quite easy to organize a trick with annual price reductions. Secondly, the reduction in prices occurred due to the robbery of collective farmers, that is, extremely low state delivery and purchase prices. Back in 1953, procurement prices for potatoes in Moscow and Leningrad regions equaled... 2.5 - 3 kopecks per kilogram. Finally, the majority of the population did not feel any difference in prices at all, since government supplies were very poor; in many areas, meat, fats and other products were not delivered to stores for years.

This is the “secret” of the annual price reduction during Stalin’s times.

A worker in the USSR, 25 years after the revolution, continued to eat worse than a Western worker.

The housing crisis has worsened. Compared to pre-revolutionary times, when the housing problem in densely populated cities was difficult (1913 - 7 square meters per person), in the post-revolutionary years, especially during the period of collectivization, the housing problem became unusually worse. Masses of rural residents poured into the cities, seeking relief from hunger or in search of work. Civil housing construction was unusually limited during Stalin's times. Apartments in the cities were given to senior officials of the party and state apparatus. In Moscow, for example, in the early 30s, a huge residential complex was built on Bersenevskaya Embankment - the Government House with large comfortable apartments. A few hundred meters from the Government House there is another residential complex - a former almshouse, converted into communal apartments, where for 20-30 people there was one kitchen and 1-2 toilets.

Before the revolution, most workers lived near the enterprises in barracks; after the revolution, the barracks were called dormitories. Large enterprises built new dormitories for their workers, apartments for engineering, technical and administrative staff, but it was still impossible to solve the housing problem, since lion's share appropriations were spent on the development of industry, the military industry, and the energy system.

Housing conditions for the vast majority of the urban population worsened every year during Stalin's reign: the rate of population growth significantly exceeded the rate of civil housing construction.

In 1928, the housing area per city resident was 5.8 square meters. meters, in 1932 4.9 square meters. meters, in 1937 - 4.6 square meters. meters.

The 1st Five-Year Plan provided for the construction of new 62.5 million square meters. meters of living space, but only 23.5 million square meters were built. meters. According to the 2nd five-year plan, it was planned to build 72.5 million square meters. meters, 2.8 times less than 26.8 million square meters were built. meters.

In 1940, the living space per city resident was 4.5 square meters. meters.

Two years after Stalin's death, when mass housing construction began, there was 5.1 square meters per city resident. meters. In order to realize how crowded people lived, it should be mentioned that even the official Soviet housing standard is 9 square meters. meters per person (in Czechoslovakia - 17 sq. meters). Many families huddled in an area of ​​6 square meters. meters. They lived not in families, but in clans - two or three generations in one room.

The family of a cleaning lady at a large Moscow enterprise in the 13th century A-voy lived in a dormitory in a room with an area of ​​20 square meters. meters. The cleaner herself was the widow of the commandant of the border outpost who died at the beginning of the German-Soviet war. There were only seven fixed beds in the room. The remaining six people - adults and children - lay out on the floor for the night. Sexual relations happened almost in plain sight, they got used to it and didn’t pay attention. For 15 years, the three families living in the room unsuccessfully sought relocation. Only in the early 60s were they resettled.

Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people lived in such conditions Soviet Union in the post-war period. This was the legacy of the Stalin era.

With the end of the Great Patriotic War, the country returned to peaceful creative work. The state and the entire Soviet people faced the main tasks recovery period- to consolidate the victory, restore the national economy in the shortest possible time, achieve a powerful rise in the economy and culture, ensure the well-being and decent standard of living of the Soviet people. These tasks were to be solved by the fourth five-year plan for the restoration and development of the national economy of the USSR for 1946-1950. It was planned to further strengthen socialism in the USSR and in Eastern European countries.

Transition to peaceful construction.

The restoration and development of the national economy of the USSR in the post-war years took place in difficult conditions. The country, especially her European part, was in complete ruin - industry and agriculture practically had to be restored anew. The country lost about 30% of its national wealth. The situation was aggravated by a lack of financial and human reserves. About 28 million people died on the war fronts, in fascist captivity, or died of hunger and disease. The consequences of the war were hundreds of thousands of orphans, widows, old people, whose children and close relatives died in battles with the Nazi invaders.

In the first year after the war, the country's leadership took a number of measures to transition to peaceful construction. Thus, in May 1945, the State Defense Committee transferred part of the defense enterprises to the production of consumer goods. In September 1945, this Committee was abolished due to the end of its wartime functions. Peaceful construction was headed by the Council of People's Commissars, which in 1946 was transformed into the Council of Ministers of the USSR. On the basis of the military people's commissariats, new ones were created - the People's Commissariat of Mechanical Engineering and Instrument Making, the People's Commissariat of Tractor Manufacturing, etc.

In order to normalize the work regime, the overtime work, the 8-hour working day and annual paid vacations were restored.

The strategic task of the Fourth Five-Year Plan (1946-1950) was to first of all restore the areas of the country that were under occupation, achieve the pre-war level of development of industry and agriculture and then surpass them (by 48 and 23%, respectively). The plan provided for the priority development of heavy and defense industries. Due to the reduction in allocations for military needs, significant funds, material and human resources were directed here. It was planned to develop new coal regions, expand the metallurgical base in Kazakhstan, the Urals, Siberia, etc. The Soviet people as a whole fulfilled the strategic task of restoring and developing the national economy of the USSR in the post-war period.

Restoration and development of industry.

Solving these problems was fraught with great difficulties. The Nazis caused enormous damage national economy. The fascist invaders occupied 1.5 million square meters. km of our country's territory. Six Soviet republics were occupied completely and two partially. Before the war, it was the most industrially developed and most populated part of the country. 88 million people lived here - 45% of the total population of the Soviet Union, 71% of the all-Union production of cast iron, 58% of steel, 57% of rolled ferrous metals, 63% of coal was produced. This territory accounted for 47% of all cultivated areas in the country and 45% of livestock.

During the war, 1,710 cities, more than 70 thousand villages and villages, about 32 thousand industrial enterprises were destroyed, 98 thousand collective farms, 1,876 state farms and 2,890 MTS were destroyed. The direct damage caused to our country alone amounted to 2 trillion. 569 billion rubles. The United States was in a different position. In the war they lost 250 thousand people, i.e. only 1% of the adult male population. Not a single city or house in the country was damaged by the war.

The first post-war five-year plan was generally fulfilled thanks to the heroic efforts of the entire Soviet people. The mines of Donbass, Zaporizhstal, Dneproges and many others were restored. The level of industrial production in 1950 exceeded the pre-war level by 73%, and the production of means of production doubled. Fixed assets of industry during the five-year plan increased by 34% compared to 1940, and labor productivity by 37%.

Over the course of five years, over 6.2 thousand large enterprises were restored, rebuilt and put into operation. The production of the most important types of equipment, machines and mechanisms has increased significantly compared to the pre-war level: metallurgical equipment - 4.7 times; oil equipment - 3; coal miners - 6; gas turbines - 2.6; electrical equipment - 3 times, etc. In a number of industries, especially in mechanical engineering, the range of manufactured products has been significantly updated. Enterprises were equipped with new technology. The mechanization of labor-intensive processes in the iron and steel and coal industries has increased. Electrification of production continued, which by the end of the five-year plan exceeded the 1940 level by 1.5 times.

Work to restore industry was largely completed in 1948 thanks to the massive heroism of the Soviet people. They actively participated in numerous labor communes (the introduction of high-speed work methods, the movement for saving metal and high quality products, the movement of multi-machine operators, etc.), which contributed to the fulfillment of overloaded planned tasks.

Restoration of agriculture.

One of the most difficult tasks of the post-war five-year plan was the restoration and further development of agriculture. It was complicated by the fact that in 1946 the country was struck by a severe drought that affected Ukraine, Moldova, the right bank regions of the Lower Volga region, the North Caucasus, and the central black earth regions. The outbreak of famine caused a massive outflow of the rural population to the cities.

In order to organizationally and economically strengthen agricultural structures, the Council for Collective Farm Affairs was created under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. A comprehensive system of measures to boost agriculture in the post-war period was outlined by the February (1947) Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. The main ways of its rise were identified: providing the village with tractors, agricultural machines and fertilizers, improving the culture of agriculture. An important stage in the development of agriculture was the consolidation of agricultural artels. On the basis of 254 thousand small collective farms, 94 thousand enlarged ones were created, which made it possible to more efficiently use agricultural machinery, strengthen production ties and bring the city and countryside closer together.

New collective farms were created in the western regions of Belarus and Ukraine, in the Baltic republics, and in Right Bank Moldova. Collectivization was carried out by violent methods, accompanied by repressions and deportations of the population. More than 19.3 thousand peasant families with a total number of 70 thousand people were evicted from Lithuania alone in May-July 1948.

By the end of the five-year plan, the production of grain, cotton, flax, sugar beets, oilseeds and fodder crops increased, and positive changes were noted in the development of livestock farming. However, agriculture in the USSR still seriously lagged behind the pace of the country's overall economic development.

Social status of the population.

The successful implementation of the economic tasks of the first post-war five-year plan made it possible to improve the well-being of the people. At the end of 1947, a monetary reform was carried out in the USSR. Old money held by the population was exchanged in a ratio of 10:1. It pursued the goal of eliminating the consequences of the Second World War in the field of monetary circulation, restoring full-fledged Soviet ruble. The monetary reform was not carried out at the expense of the people; it was not accompanied by an increase in prices for consumer goods or a decrease in real wages. On the contrary, during the Fourth Five-Year Plan, prices for consumer goods were reduced several times.

Simultaneously with the monetary reform, the card system for supplying the population was abolished, and a transition was made to expanded trade using a single state prices. At the same time, prices for some food products (bread, cereals) were set 10-12% lower than the previously existing so-called ration prices, and several times lower than commercial prices.

The streamlining of monetary circulation, the growth in the production of consumer goods and retail trade turnover ensured an increase in the real wages of workers and employees, and the incomes of collective farmers.

Despite the extreme strain on the state budget, a significant part of which was spent on financing military programs, funds were found for the development of science, public education, and cultural institutions. During the 4th Five-Year Plan, the Academy of Arts of the USSR, the Academies of Sciences in Kazakhstan, Latvia and Estonia were created, and the number of research institutes increased by almost a third. New universities are opening (in Chisinau, Uzhgorod, Ashgabat, Stalinabad), and graduate schools are being established at universities. In a short time, the system of universal primary education, and since 1952, education in the amount of 7 grades has become compulsory, and evening schools have been opened for working youth. Soviet television begins regular broadcasting.

Ideology, policy of repression.

At the same time, the Stalinist administration is tightening the fight against freethinking and strengthening total control over the spiritual life of society. In August 1946, on Stalin’s initiative, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution “On the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad”. It was intended to “restrain” the intelligentsia, to squeeze their work into the Procrustean bed of “party spirit” and “socialist realism”. After After the defeat of Leningrad writers, the Stalinist regime took up theatres, cinema, and music. Accordingly, resolutions of the Party Central Committee were adopted “On the repertoire of drama theaters and measures to improve it”, “On the film “Big Life”, “On Muradeli’s opera “The Great Friendship”, etc. The resolutions of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on cultural issues were a vivid example of gross administrative intervention in culture, an example of command leadership in this area, the total suppression of individual rights. On the other hand, it was a powerful lever for the self-preservation of the regime.

Similar goals were pursued by the pogrom “discussions” that began in 1947 in philosophy, biology, linguistics, and political economy. The ideological leadership of the party was also implanted in the natural sciences - genetics was destroyed, and the development of cybernetics was artificially inhibited.

At the end of the 40s, a new campaign began - to combat “cosmopolitanism” and “adulation to the West.” First of all, this was due to the fact that Stalin tried to use a “witch hunt” to restore the image of the “internal enemy”, which had been shaken during the war. And this Stalinist version was designed ideologically to ensure the second (after the mid-30s) wave of social terror. Since 1948, mass repressions have resumed. “Cases of saboteurs” were fabricated, allegedly engaged in sabotage in the production of aviation equipment (“Case of Shakhurin, Novikov, etc.”), in the automotive industry (“About hostile elements at ZIS”), in the Moscow healthcare system (“About the situation in the MGB and about sabotage in medical practice"). In 1949, the leaders of the Leningrad party organization were accused of creating an anti-party group and carrying out sabotage work (“Leningrad affair”). The accused were party leaders, Soviet and government officials: A. A. Kuznetsov - Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, M. N. Rodionov - Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, P. S. Popkov - First Secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee and City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) , Ya. F. Kapustin - second secretary of the Leningrad City Party Committee, etc. At the same time, charges were fabricated against A. A. Voznesensky, chairman of the State Planning Committee of the USSR, a prominent economist and academician. He was accused of unsatisfactory leadership of the State Planning Committee and of anti-state and anti-party actions. The organizers of the non-existent anti-party group were sentenced to death, and several people were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. In 1952, the so-called “Doctors’ Case” was fabricated. A group of prominent medical specialists who served prominent government officials was accused of involvement in an espionage organization and the intention to commit terrorist acts against the country's leaders.

All this indicates that in the post-war years, Soviet society set a course towards actually intensifying repression, which was a shock for many millions of Soviet people who lived through the most terrible war in the history of mankind and were confident that the terrible years of 1936-1937 with its victory was left behind. These were illusions and self-deception. The repressive machine of Stalinism took only a short break and began to work with renewed vigor.