Economic Origins of the Cold War? An Examination of the Carryover Costs of World War Ii to the Soviet People

Although the total real cost of World War II to the Soviet Union has yet to be fully measured, there is no doubt that the economic cost of the war imposed a tremedous burden upon the Soviet people, both in absolute terms and relative to other participants. Calculations by various methods yield estimates of the replacement cost of total material war losses ranging from 5 to nearly 13 years' earnings of the 1945 labor force; a range which appears consistent with the Soviet claim that the war cost "two Five-Year Plans." Not all of these costs, however, were absorbed by the end of the war. A large portion carried over into the postwar period. This study identifies the carryover costs of WW II to the Soviets and examines how the burden of these costs was allocated. It further proposes a means of examining how the actual allocation of the carryover war costs might have changed had different economic policies been implemented in the immediate postwar period. The economic policies under examination in the analysis are central to the ongoing debate over the origins of the Cold War: (a) additional Lend Lease and United Nations' Relief and Rehabilitation (UNRRA) assistance, (b) the proposed, special US loan, and (c) Marshall Plan aid. One interpretation of the focus of this study is that it measures the economic consequences to the Soviets of the origins of the Cold War.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Economics

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Linz, Susan Johnston

• Economics, History

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8108586

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/67672