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We do not know a great deal about the Soviet home front yet. The most significant aspect of the home front was Soviet war production. The Soviets were able to maintain and even expand war production despite the huge area conquered by the Wehrmacht during Operation Barbarossa. The NAZIs did not fully understand this. What the NAZIs failed to appreciate was that much of the areas conquerred were the non-Russian areas of the western Soviet Union (the Baltics, eastern Poland, Bylorussia, and the Ukraine). Enormous damage occurred n the occupied areas and the three great cities (Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad) targetted by the NAZIs. Other areas of Ruddia were largely undamaged by the War. The Luftwaffe did not have a long0-range fleet of heavy bombers with which to conduct a strategic bombing campaign. Children cntinued to attend schools, although all supplies including teachers were in short supply. We have little information on the rationing system. Nor are we sure how Russia survived without the Ukranian bread basket. America provided substantial food supplies, but this was primarily used for the military. One huge problem encountered was large numbers of displaced children. This problem was especially severe in the occupied areas and had to be addressed when they were liberated.
The most significant aspect of the home front was Soviet war production. The Soviets were able to maintain and even expand war production despite the huge area conquered by the Wehrmacht during Operation Barbarossa. The NAZIs did not fully understand this. Stalin had built an industrial base capable of produycing war material on amn immemse level. The Germans were not aware of the full Soviet potential, neither the quantity or the quality of Soviet production. The Soviets managed to pack up and move whole factories east, where they could not be reached by the Luftwaffe's tactical bombers. Production at many of these factories were not back to full production until 1943. Even so the output of these Soviet factories alone exceeded German production. Thus when British and American production were added, it is clear to what extent Barbarossa had changed the strategic ballance. And it was not just uin quantatative terms. Soviet war productin was rationalized. Production of osolete weaponsas terminated and that of more effective weapons like the T-34 tank expanded. Soviet artillery was of a high standard. While the Red Air Force was devestated at the onset of Barbarossa because of obsolete planes, new planes like the Yak fighters (Yak 1, 7, and 9s) and the IL-2 Stormovek were high quality planes that in capable hands could and fid taken on the Luftwaffe. These planmes were also produced in enormous numbers. More than 37,000 Yaks were produced by the Russians, more than any other fighter in the War. As the Allied air assualt on Germany intensified in 1943 and the Luftwaffe had too pull back to defend German cities, the Germas also began loosing their advantage in the air that they had during Barbarossa.
What the NAZIs failed to appreciate was that much of the areas conquerred were the non-Russian areas of the western Soviet Union (the Baltics, eastern Poland, Bylorussia, and the Ukraine).
Enormous damage occurred n the occupied areas and the three great cities (Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad) targetted by the NAZIs. Other areas of Ruddia were largely undamaged by the War. The Luftwaffe did not have a long0-range fleet of heavy bombers with which to conduct a strategic bombing campaign.
I am not entirely sure what happened to schools in the occupied areas. There were differences. Presumably the schools in the Baltics continued to function. In other areas, I am not sure. The NAZIs arrested university professors in Poland. Presumably the same occurred in the areas outside the Baltics. The NAZI plan was to eliminate many Slavs and turn the trest into mannual slave laborors. Thus they saw little need to educate them beyond the bare minimum. Just to what extent they began initiating this system I am not sure. Children continued to attend schools in the unoccupied areas of the Soviet Union, although all supplies including teachers were in short supply.
We have little information on the rationing system.
The peasantry has played a key role in Russia from the very beginning of the Tsarist state. Peter the Great's expanding empire in many ways resembled that of another developing empire at the time--Prussia. The state in both countries developed essentially out of the need to build and support a modern army. The success of these two states largely is due to their effectiveness of doing just this.
The Tsarist state developed autocratically. TheTsar dominated an aristocratic landlord class which was force to fulfill state service and which was rewarded by being allowed to hold the peasantry in serfdom.
Tsar Alexander II emancipated the serfs (1861), but the landlord class was not destroyed until the Revolution (1917) and Civil War (1918-21). The Tsarist Army in World War I desintegrated as peasant soldiers deserted to return home and claim theur share of the old esates. The Bolshevicks promised land to the peasantry, but Stalin initiated a collectivization program that resulted in millions of deaths of peasants who wanted their private parcels. The greatest numbers of deaths occurred in the Ukraine becise of the Great Famine Stalin enginnered, but lsarge numbers if peasants were executed or committed to the Gulag. Stalin had various objectives. He wanted to gain control over agriculture. This was partof his desire to totally control economic activity. It also put him in a position to better redirect resources to the urban proletraiat as part of the 5 Year Plans to expand Soviet industry. As a result, the loyalty of the peasantry when the NAZIs invaded the Soviet Union was far from certain. And in certain areas the Germns were received more as liberators and greated with flowers rather than invaders. This varied greatly by area. The Germans were often well recrived in Belarus (which had been Poland before the Sobiet 1939 invasion) and the western Ukraine. They were less warmly received in Russian areas, but the Soviet offensive before Moscow (December 1941) prevented the Wehrmacht from penetrating deep into the Russian heartland.
The Soviet agricultural sector was devestated by colectivization and the attacks on the kulacks, especially in the Ukraine. Some clame collectivization enabled the Soviets to more effectively resist the the NAZIs. I am not sure about this. Soviet agricultural production was impaired by the man power needs of the army. This was only partially resolved by mobilizing other labor sources such as school children. The war effort also shifted production away from the agricultural sector. The production of farm vehicles was vurtually terminated as was the production of fertilizer. An even greater prblem was the NAZI seizure of huge areas of some of the most roductive farm land in the Sioviet Union. The NAZIs seized much of the Ukraine in 1941 and the rest in 1942. Even when these lands were liberated during 1943-44, farms were damaged by the Soviet scoarched earth effort (1941-42) and the NAZIs destroyed buildings and equipment, especially as they retreated (1943-44). We are unsure how Russia survived without the Ukranian bread basket. America provided substantial food supplies, but this was primarily used for the military. Nor do we have details on how the NAZIs used and exploited the agricuktural lands that they seized and exploited (1941-42).
One huge problem which developed during the War was large numbers of displaced children. As a result of the fighting as well as NAZI attrocuities and pilligaing of Soviet resources, huge numbers of Soviet citizes were killed outright or died as a result of deprivation or mistreatment. No one knows precisely how many Soviet citizens were killed, but most estimtes exceed 10 million people. This includes many children, but it also includes many parents. The NAZIs also shipped large numbers of Soviets west to serve a slave labor in Germany. No provision was made for any children they may have. The result was a huge number of orphaned or displaced children. This problem was especially severe in the occupied areas. The NAZIs ignored the problem because their goal was to reduce the population of Slavs and the children in particular were of no economic value. Soviet authorities were thus left with a massive problem when they began liberating areas occupied by the NAZIS.
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