Soviet industry in World War II

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The Soviet Union took part in World War II from 1939^[1] until the war's end in 1945. At the start of the war, the Soviet Union suffered loss of valuable lands with economic and agricultural potential, great industrial losses and human casualties. This was all caused by the invasion of the Soviet Union by Axis forces in Operation Barbarossa, and it resulted in a rapid decline in industrial and agricultural production. This required the country's leadership to take urgent measures to strengthen the nation's economy, with a primary focus on the defense industries.

The Soviet Union's war effort in World War II began when the Soviet Union was invaded on the 22 of June 1941. The Soviet Union was at a disadvantage from the very beginning. This was militarily and economically. Despite having such vast natural resource reserves, high quotas of the initial Five-year plans for the national economy of the Soviet Union required extensive exploitation of European Russia. As a result, the resource base in eastern regions of the Soviet Union remained largely untapped. During the first 6 months of the invasion, German forces managed to occupy or isolate territory which prior to WWII accounted for over 60% of total coal, pig iron, and aluminum production. Nearly 40% of total grain production and 60% of total livestock was lost. Moreover, this area contained 40% Soviet population before the war, 32% of the state enterprise labor force, and one-third of the fixed capital assets of the state enterprise sector.^[2] The sheer speed of the German advance meant that any Soviet evacuation efforts were troublesome. As a result of the German invasion of World War II, the Economy of the Soviet Union suffered punishing blows, with Soviet GDP falling 34% between 1940 and 1942.^[3] Industrial output did not recover to its 1940 level for almost a decade.^[4]