In this and the following chapter I take a detailed look at living conditions from 1946 through to the early 1950s. I begin by looking briefly at some of the problems of interpreting the data on the USSR's postwar recovery, and then discuss the food crisis of 1946–7, the regime's response to that crisis, and its impact on the non-agricultural population. In chapter 3 I continue the story by examining the modest recovery which began after the end of rationing and the reform of the currency. I also look at the state of housing and health care, which after food had the greatest impact on the quality of life.

Postwar recovery and consumption: analytical problems

When the Soviet Union went to war with Nazi Germany it was already an extremely poor country. Industrial production had grown immeasurably during Stalinist industrialization, but this had not translated itself into a higher standard of living for the population. On the contrary, the standard of living fell during the 1930s for both rural and urban residents. It is therefore not difficult to imagine how much worse – catastrophically worse – the situation was when the war ended in 1945. Mark Harrison has recently argued that during the war available resources had been so badly constrained that the country had been unable to sustain its entire civilian population.