The Soviet monetary system stood the test of war. Thus, the money supply in Germany during the war years increased 6 times (although the Germans brought goods from all over Europe and a large part of the USSR); in Italy - 10 times; in Japan - 11 times. In the USSR, the money supply during the war years increased only 3.8 times.
However, the Great Patriotic War gave rise to a number of negative phenomena that needed to be eliminated. Firstly, there is a mismatch between the amount of money and the needs of trade. There was a surplus of money. Secondly, several types of prices have appeared - rations, commercial and market. This undermined the importance of cash wages and cash incomes of collective farmers by workdays. Thirdly, large sums of money settled with speculators. Moreover, the difference in prices still gave them the opportunity to enrich themselves at the expense of the population. This undermined social justice in the country.
The state immediately after the end of the war held a series of measures aimed at strengthening the monetary system and increasing the welfare of the population. The purchasing demand of the population increased by increasing wage funds and reducing payments to the financial system. So, from August 1945, they began to abolish the military tax on workers and employees. The tax was finally abolished in early 1946. They did not conduct monetary and clothing lotteries anymore and reduced the size of the subscription for a new state loan. In the spring of 1946, savings banks began to pay workers and employees compensation for vacations not used during the war. The post-war restructuring of industry began. There was some growth in the commodity stock due to the restructuring of industry and due to a reduction in the consumption of the armed forces and the sale of trophies. To withdraw money from circulation, the deployment of commercial trade continued. In 1946, commercial trade gained a fairly wide scope: a wide network of shops and restaurants was created, the range of goods was expanded and their price was reduced. The end of the war led to a drop in prices on collective farm markets (by more than a third).
However, by the end of 1946, the negative phenomena were not completely eliminated. Therefore, the course on monetary reform has been maintained. In addition, the release of new money and the exchange of old money for new was necessary in order to eliminate the money that went abroad and improve the quality of banknotes.
According to the USSR People’s Commissar of Finance Arseny Zverev (who managed the finances of the USSR since 1938), Stalin first inquired about the possibility of monetary reform at the end of December 1942 and demanded that the first calculations be presented at the beginning of 1943. Initially, they planned to carry out the monetary reform in 1946. However, because of the famine caused by drought and crop failure in a number of Soviet regions, the start of the reform had to be postponed. Only on December 3, 1947 did the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decide to abolish the card system and begin monetary reform.
The conditions for monetary reform were defined in the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of December 14, 1947. Money exchange was carried out throughout the Soviet Union from December 16 to 22, 1947, and in remote areas ended on December 29. When recalculating wages, money was exchanged so that wages remained unchanged. The change coin was not subject to exchange and remained in circulation at face value. For cash deposits with Sberbank, amounts up to 3 thousand rubles were also subject to a one-to-one exchange; on deposits from 3 to 10 thousand rubles, savings were reduced by one third of the amount; for deposits of more than 10 thousand rubles, two thirds of the amount were subject to withdrawal. Those citizens who kept large amounts of money at home could exchange at the rate of 1 new ruble to 10 old. Relatively favorable conditions for the exchange of cash accumulations were established for holders of bonds of state loans: bonds of a loan in 1947 were not subject to revaluation; bonds of mass loans were exchanged for bonds of a new loan in the ratio of 3: 1, bonds of a freely sold loan of 1938 were exchanged in the ratio of 5: 1. Funds that were in the settlement and current accounts of cooperative organizations and collective farms were revalued from the calculation of 5 old rubles to 4 new ones.
At the same time, the government abolished the card system (earlier than other victorious states), high prices in commercial trade and introduced uniform lower state retail prices for food and industrial goods. So, for bread and flour prices were reduced by an average of 12% against the current ration prices; for cereals and pasta - by 10%, etc.
Thus, the negative consequences of the war in the monetary system were eliminated in the USSR. This allowed us to switch to trading at uniform prices and reduce the money supply by more than three times (from 43.6 to 14 billion rubles). In general, the reform was successful.
In addition, the reform had a social aspect. Speculators pressed. This restored social justice, trampled during the years of war. At first glance, it seemed that everyone was hurt, because everyone had some money on hand on December 15th. But an ordinary worker and employee living on a salary, who by the middle of the month was no longer a lot of money, suffered only nominally. He didn’t even have money left, since on December 16 they began to issue salaries with new money for the first half of the month, which they usually did not. Salaries are usually paid monthly after the end of the month. Thanks to this extradition, workers were provided with new money at the beginning of the reform. The exchange of 3 thousand rubles of a 1: 1 deposit satisfied the vast majority of the population, since people did not have significant funds. Based on the entire adult population, the average contribution to the savings book could not be more than 200 rubles. It is clear that the “Stakhanovites”, inventors and other small groups of the population who had super-profits lost some of their money with speculators. But taking into account the general decline in prices, they, without winning, nevertheless did not suffer much. True, those who kept large amounts of money at home could be unhappy. This concerned speculative groups of the population and part of the population of the South Caucasus and Central Asia who did not know the war and for this reason had the opportunity to trade. who kept large amounts of money at home. This concerned speculative groups of the population and part of the population of the South Caucasus and Central Asia who did not know the war and for this reason had the opportunity to trade. who kept large amounts of money at home.
It should be noted that the Stalinist system was unique, which was able to withdraw most of the money from money circulation, and at the same time most ordinary people were not injured. At the same time, the whole world was struck by the fact that only two years after the end of the war and after a crop failure in 1946, the main food prices were kept at the ration level or even reduced. That is, almost all food was available to everyone in the USSR.
This was a surprise for the Western world and an offensive surprise. The capitalist system was literally driven into the mud by the ears. Thus, Great Britain, on the territory of which there was no war for four years and which suffered immeasurably less in the war than the USSR, could not cancel the card system in the early 1950s. At that time, miners went on strike in the former "workshop of the world," which demanded that they provide a standard of living like the miners of the USSR.
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