Moscow, Nauka Publishing House. 1970. 499 pp. The print run is 4000 copies. Price 2 rubles 24 kopecks.

"The economic victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War has always attracted the attention of Soviet researchers. Many monographs, articles, and pamphlets have been written on this topic, but the vast majority of them are devoted to socio-political issues. Only a few papers specifically address economic problems1 . They mainly consider the branches of the USSR military industry in 1941-1945 or certain areas of the country's economic life of that period. Only a few authors set out to highlight not only the state of the military economy, but also the entire economy of the USSR during the war period. But nevertheless, even in them, the issues of the development of agriculture and transport remained almost unexplored. The main part of the text, as a rule, was devoted to the development of industry during the war, fundamental changes in its location, structural shifts in the economy as a whole and in industry in particular, the pace and proportions of its development, the introduction of new technology and improvement of production technology, etc.). More or less complete coverage of the Soviet economy during the Great Patriotic War Russian mines of 1941-1945 in all its spheres and branches were first published in the peer-reviewed work of a team of authors - employees of the Institute of Economics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, edited by I. A. Gladkov2 .

Careful selection of sources and literature, critical analysis of factual material allowed this team to create a fundamental study. Despite the fact that the authors took a wide range of questions to study, they managed to avoid vagueness and fragmentary presentation. The book clearly highlights a number of fundamental problems in the development of the USSR economy during the Great Patriotic War. The idea of the leading role of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in creating a developed economy and strengthening the defense capability of the USSR during the pre-war five-year plans runs through the entire monograph. The importance of socio-economic transformations in our country for creating a reliable military-economic base is shown.

The paper thoroughly reveals the problem of restructuring the national economy, creating and developing a well-coordinated military complex. In this regard, the role of the State Defense Committee formed at the beginning of the war is particularly emphasized. The authors provide rich material showing what a heroic feat of the Soviet people was this perestroika.

One of the central problems of the book is the strengthening of the country's military-industrial potential already during the Great Patriotic War. The authors examine in detail the changes that have taken place in the location and structure of industrial production, emphasize the increased role of the East of the country, and analyze changes in the pace and proportions of industrial production development. However, when describing the sectoral structure of industry, it was not necessary to cover all branches of the military industry in aggregate. Apparently, it would be more expedient, as in the analysis of the state of civil industry, to consider military production by its most important branches (armored, aviation, artillery, etc.).

The book correctly shows the importance of eliminating the economic backwardness of the national republics, which is important for the defense power of the Soviet state. The authors comprehensively analyze the development of missile defense systems-

1 n. Voznesensky Cathedral. Military economy of the USSR in the period of the Patriotic War, Moscow, 1948; G. I. Shigalin. Narodnoe khozyaistvo SSSR v period Velikoy Otechestvennoy voyny [National Economy of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War]. Voennaya ekonomika SSSR. 1941-1945 gg. M. 1943; Ya. E. Chadaev. Economics of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), Moscow, 1965.

2 Authors: G. D. Bakulev, A. I. Buzlaeva, Yu. V. Vorob'ev, I. A. Gladkov, G. A. Dikhtyar, V. P. Dyachenko, V. A. Zhamin, L. N. Kamusher, V. D. Kalinin, R. A. Lokshin, A. N. Markova, E. K. Pospelova, Z. N. Stroeva, L. V. Fomina, V. N. Yakovtsevsky.

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industries of the eastern regions of the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, the republics of Central Asia and Transcaucasia. Bright pages are devoted to the friendship of the peoples of the USSR, which was tested in the harsh years of wartime. In connection with the characteristics of industrial production, the authors consider the issues of labor and training of personnel for industry. But the coverage of these issues could be deepened, in particular, by expanding the material on socialist competition and the movement of innovators of production, rationalization and invention, on the growth of labor productivity, on the wage system, and on the principles of food supply in the country.

An important place is given in the book to the problem of providing industry with raw materials, and the army and the population with food. The authors approach the characterization of the state of agriculture during the war years with great attention, and to a large extent in a new way. Specific material shows the changes in the development and location of agricultural production that occurred as a result of collectivization. Of great interest is the section devoted to the issue of providing collective and state farms with labor during the war years and on the remuneration of workers engaged in agricultural production. For the first time in Soviet historical and economic literature, the forms of struggle of the rural population in the occupied territory, primarily the peasantry, against the "agrarian" policy of the invaders are comprehensively covered and systematized. The materials presented in this book about assistance in restoring agriculture in the areas liberated from temporary occupation by the collective and state farms of the rear districts, on the one hand, and cities and industrial enterprises, on the other, are yet another vivid evidence of the life - giving power of friendship between the peoples of our country and the unbreakable union of the working class and the peasantry.

The book fully reveals the role of the Soviet state in leading the war economy in 1941-1945, the importance of the planned beginning in the country's economy, which not only ensured the maximum mobilization of industrial and agricultural production in the interests of the war economy, but also subordinated the work of transport, trade and supply, foreign economic relations and finances to the needs of the war. At the same time, the problem of organizing production management in general and changes in industrial production management methods in particular under wartime conditions is raised by the authors and requires further comprehensive research.

The paper contains important material on the development of public education, healthcare, science and culture during the difficult years of the Great Patriotic War. However, the small number of pages devoted to the presentation of these questions did not allow the authors to fully cover the topic. This is especially true for describing the state of higher and secondary special schools, the role of science in the development of military production, and the importance of socialist culture in the patriotic education of the Soviet people.

There are a number of general shortcomings in the book. It opens with a discussion of the main advantages of the socialist economy in wartime conditions. This question is very important, especially in terms of analyzing the advantages of socialism. But wouldn't it be better to consider this problem in the final part of the paper? Then it would be possible to draw conclusions based on the rich factual material of the book. It should be borne in mind that this publication is the final part of a six-volume series devoted to the history of the national economy of the country from the Great October Socialist Revolution to the present day, and therefore the problems of pre-war and post-war development of the country's economy have already been covered in the previous volumes .3 Unfortunately, in a number of other cases, it is allowed to repeat the material of previous volumes.

Such a solid publication as a peer-reviewed work is hardly conceivable without a detailed analysis or at least a more or less complete review of the literature on the topic published by both central and national publishing houses. The book doesn't even have a bibliographic index. Little attention is paid to the authors so-

3 I. A. Gladkov. Essays on the Soviet economy. 1917-1920, Moscow, 1956; "Soviet National Economy in 1921-1925", Moscow, 1960; "Building the foundation of the socialist economy in the USSR, 1926-1932". M 1960; "Socialist national economy of the USSR in 1933-1940", Moscow 1963; "Development of the socialist economy of the USSR in the post-war period", Moscow 1965.

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the same criticism of the attempts of bourgeois falsifiers to distort the economic history of our Motherland during the war years. Meanwhile, the actual material of the monograph makes it possible to respond more thoroughly to these attacks of bourgeois authors.

The problem of foreign economic relations of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War is poorly considered in the book. In particular, the authors ' statement on the Soviet state's assistance to the peoples of Central and South-Eastern Europe who were freed from Hitlerism and embarked on the path of people's democratic transformation needs serious comments. It is hardly legitimate to put this assistance on a par with other forms of foreign economic relations.

The book was published on the eve of the V International Congress on Economic History, held in Leningrad in August 1970. The Soviet Historical and Economic Front demonstrated some success at this forum, completing the publication of a series of books that systematically cover the experience of economic development during the socialist and communist construction in the USSR for more than half a century.

V. T. Chuntulov

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