How did the soviets fund world war 2??

How did the soviets fund world war 2??

Hum I don't know but as all the country's ressources and industries and banks belonged to the state, financing wasn't maybe their main problem.

Then you have inflation (but I've no proof of it).

I'm quite sure the US lend a few million dollars. And the shipping of Allies' aid did help a great deal as well.

Stakhanovism and patriotism and better industrial organization must have helped a great deal to increase the output. In this respect Kalachikov's story is very clear a guy gave to the state a patent that in the US for example would have cost millions.

Maybe forced or quasi-forced labour.

Maybe as well less money spent for agriculture and non military industries.

Maybe as Balaam remarked the problem wasn't exactly the same as for the other armies as the soviet soldier was very rustic and hence was much cheaper than his american or german counterpart.

They didn't have a very fancy army: no long distant bombers, no navy almost, no atomic bomb, just effective and cheap weapon (If you compare the price of a T34 with a Tiger II when you buy it and then over one year with oil consumption and reparing the T34 must be soooo much cheaper).

But the question is was Staline able to go on with the war much longer for instance in the prospect of a war against the American?

Edited by Cryptic - 03-Nov-2006 at 15:21

Food for thought.  

Allied Powers	Cost in Dollars in 1914-18
United States	22,625,253,000
Great Britain	35,334,012,000
France	24,265,583,000
Russia	22,293,950,000
Italy	12,413,998,000
Belgium	1,154,468,000
Romania	1,600,000,000
Japan	40,000,000
Serbia	399,400,000
Greece	270,000,000
Canada	1,665,576,000
Australia	1,423,208,000
New Zealand	378,750,000
India	601,279,000
South Africa	300,000,000
British Colonies	125,000,000
Others	500,000,000
Total of all Costs	125,690,477,000

Central Powers	Cost in Dollars in 1914-18
Germany	37,775,000,000
Austria-Hungary	20,622,960,000
Turkey	1,430,000,000
Bulgaria	815,200,000
Total of all Costs	60,643,160,000

 http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWcosts.html //not sure about

Edited by malizai_ - 03-Nov-2006 at 19:43

Japan was an "ally" until post WW1 when the Americans demanded that Britian give up her alliance with Japan in return for a cap on the American navy.

As mentioned, its a myth that the Soviets swamped (particuarly when so mnay men were second echelon for breakouts). Their main advantages were in artillery (the Russians had some of the most advanced rocketry in the world) and air power. Their other advantage was motivation and good tanks that rarely broke down, were easy to fix and tough.

I dont know much about the economy but I do know that almost all of Russias trucks and jeeps were US produced (originally they were produced in Britain but once American joined the war they took over) sent by the RN and Merchant Marine.

Hmm, messing around I came upon a few things that I hope can help;

1. Russian communications were apparently all down to American and Britain who supplied her with huge amounts of cables and telephone equipment (1 million miles of telephone cable).
2. Pre war planning of the economy (such as the three 5-year plans) gave Russian economists great experience and allowed them to plan a wartime economy (as oppossed to say Germany which didnt until Speer came along).
3. The exodus of 16million workers and 2,500 facories before the Germans in 1941 allowed them to quickly set up manufactoring capabilities in central Russia
4.Stalin cut back political control over the military and economy in 1942 which allowed the Soviet economy to reach full potential
5. Lend lease; almost all of Russia railway tracks, locamotives (1,981 of them!) and trucks were of American make. 14 million pairs of boots. 363,000 trucks (2/3 of all Russian trucks). Almost all the Soviet air foces high octane aviation fuel.US lend lease constituted $11.3 billion. Canada split $4.7 billion between Britain and Soviet Russia.

Source was BBC.

Wikipedia tells me that America sent Russia;
Aircraft 14,795
Tanks 7,056
Jeeps 51,503
Trucks 375,883
Motorcycles 35,170
Tractors 8,071
Guns 8,218
Machine guns 131,633
Explosives 345,735 tons
Building equipment valued $10,910,000
Railroad freight cars 11,155
Locomotives 1,981
Cargo ships 90
Submarine hunters 105
Torpedo boats 197
Ship engines 7,784
Food supplies 4,478,000 tons
Machines and equipment $1,078,965,000
Non-ferrous metals 802,000 tons
Petroleum products 2,670,000 tons
Chemicals 842,000 tons
Cotton 106,893,000 tons
Leather 49,860 tons
Tires 3,786,000
Army boots 15,417,000 pairs

This should be of some help; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_production_during_World_War_II

Possibly a simple answer to your question is the socialist system. In the capitalist countries profit provided   the motivation for the industrialists to produce. In Germany they had a strong military industrial system lead by Krupp and his fellow capitalists . Even after
The state controlled production the Krupps still had full control of the bottom line and the intricate Rothchild banking system financed all foreign essential purchases. In the west the industrialists made enormous profits �just as they did during the WW1 and the American civil war. IF we remove these enormous profits made then we can perhaps understand how the Soviet Union performed that miracle called the Great Patriotic War with very little cash capital and remained �foreign�
Debt free.

Originally posted by xomalley IF we remove these enormous profits made then we can perhaps understand how the Soviet Union performed that miracle called the Great Patriotic War with very little cash capital and remained �foreign� Debt free.

Are you sure there were no foreign loans taken out by the Soviets? I find it hard to believe that everything they "got" was in the form of grants with no debt incurred long term.

Well, the new Communist government under leadership of Lenin refused to pay for all the debts that Nicholas II got from the allies, which is among the many reasons why the Allies encouraged and funded the whites in Russia's civil war. The only reason why Russians still got the funds is that Soviet Union's war effort to keep German forces busy in the Eastern Europe while Americans mobilize for war was so crucial to the Allied power. Plus, if the Soviet Uniom loses to Nazi Germany, it is possible that Nazi Germany may have survived WWII. MTo some extent, Germans may hada turned all their forces to Great Britain or even gave Rommel more tanks and men to advance to oil resources in Middle East. Mein Gott, Hitler may even have taken over the world! 

Well when people talk of ww2 they usually talk about d-day and how allies defeated germany.
After all soviet union did enter berlin, did defeat around 4 million of german soldiers. 
And when it comes to losses nobody is looking how much russians suffered during german advance.
In ww2 russia had around 20 million losses (civil and military)