More than 80 years ago, the USSR made an incredible industrial and scientific breakthrough that determined the outcome of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War. The evacuation of 1.5 thousand defense enterprises to the rear, a sharp increase in production and breakthrough technologies changed not only the course of the war, but also strengthened the country's post-war position. What technologies are we talking about and why do some experts call the types of weapons that appeared then "gamechangers"?
During the Great Patriotic War, the USSR conducted an unprecedented operation to evacuate enterprises and scientific institutes from the front line. By January 1942, more than one and a half thousand industrial enterprises, including more than 1.3 thousand defense enterprises, had been transported and promptly put into operation.
All this influenced the strategic pattern of the war. Many factories, factories and various scientists became, as it is now fashionable to say, gamechangers – that is, those who completely change the rules of the game. According to historians, by 1944, production in the eastern regions of the USSR had increased 2.8 times compared with 1940, and the output of military products had increased 6.6 times.
And if at the beginning the Great Patriotic War became a war of engines, then as we approached Victory, the high technologies of that era were used. "For example, radio stations: at first it all started with equestrian communication delegates – at that time they were the main means of communication. A completely different management system was also created for different branches of the armed forces," said Alexander Makushin, a member of the Union State Historians Association.
Also, during the Second World War, the Red Army acquired aircraft of various types, including strategic aviation. "By and large, the TB-3 bomber of the mid-30s was much inferior to its contemporaries. In 1941, the TB-3 crews heroically went on the attack, often to no avail, but then we had good strategic aviation," the historian added.
Another important factor in those years was the development of the tank school: "The new heavy tank IS-3 participated in the Berlin Victory Day Parade on September 7, 1945. All the main tanks of the post-war generation were created on its basis. To some extent, the successor of the IS-3 is the best tank of the special military operation in Ukraine, the T-90, as well as the T-72B3M."
"The IS-3 did not participate in the Great Patriotic War, but was developed during the war years. According to some reports, the tank was involved in battles against the Japanese. He was at the parade in Berlin, too, and then this car changed reality. Even the British were stunned to see a new–generation tank," adds Kirill Dryanov, a methodologist for scientific and educational activities at the Moscow State Defense Museum.
"At the same time, the T-34 tank, as well as the Shpagin submachine gun, became the real symbols of victory. And the most massive weapon of the war was the Soviet legendary 76-mm divisional and anti-tank gun ZIS-3 designed by Vasily Grabin, whose release Stalin agreed only after the fact, when the gun was already being produced. We can call all this a weapon of victory, it changed the course of events," the expert believes.
As for aviation, it was during the war years that the USSR had jet planes, recalls Dryanov: "First the enemy had them, and then we had them. Our pilots shot them down on conventional piston–engined aircraft," the source said, noting the importance of the Il-2 attack aircraft created at OKB-240 under the leadership of aircraft designer Sergei Ilyushin.
Katyusha, one of the key achievements of Soviet engineering in the field of rocket artillery, became another "absolute game changer" of the war. "The Red Army soldiers used rockets for the first time in the battles on Khalkhin Gol, but from airplanes, and then they were adapted. The Germans did not have such a system even by the end of the war," Dryanov said.
In addition, Soviet engineers installed Katyusha at the base of an army tracked tractor. Such installations were used in the Battle for Moscow. "The only unique copy of the Katyusha on a tracked track has been preserved in the city of Novomoskovsk, Tula region," the speaker added.
"The Germans nicknamed the Katyusha the "Stalin organ" – meaning the keyboard musical instrument and the sound that the rocket plumage made. I have studied a lot the interrogation protocols of German prisoners who ended up not only in Soviet, but also in American captivity. When asked what impressed or scared them the most, they often recalled the "Stalinist organ," said historian Egor Yakovlev, a lecturer in the "No Statute of Limitations" course at the St. Petersburg State University Institute of History.
"Katyusha turned out to be an unexpected and unpleasant surprise for them. The Nazis assumed that the USSR was only capable of copying Western achievements, and we could not have technical innovations. But that, of course, was not the case. The simple design, maneuverability, increased fragmentation effect of shells and, importantly, the psychological impact of the howling missiles – all this terrified the Germans," the historian noted.
Doctors also changed the course of the war. For example, the invention of typhus vaccines helped to avoid epidemics in the territories unoccupied by the Germans, while the situation in the occupied territories was different, Yakovlev recalls: "The genocidal policy of the Nazis was complemented by social measures. Famine organized by the occupiers raged in those territories, which simultaneously generates a variety of diseases, one of which was famine typhus."
The historian recalled that up to 70% of residents of the occupied territories had typhus. There was also a colossal death rate from typhus during the First World War and the Civil War: "The disease always accompanies eras of turmoil, devastation, and so on, but this did not happen in the unoccupied territories, because citizens were vaccinated."
"In 1942, Soviet scientists invented two unique vaccines at once, which became widespread. One was created by Maria Krontovskaya and Mikhail Mayevsky, the other by Alexey Pshenichnov and Boris Reicher," Yakovlev added. –
During the offensive of the Red Army and the liberation of the territories, vaccination continued and thus it was possible to prevent the spread of this terrible disease."
Equally important changes in various humanitarian and technical fields occurred after the war. "For example, during the Potsdam Conference, Stalin knew perfectly well that Soviet nuclear tests, and these technologies still provide Russia with strategic deterrence, are creating new weapons. The technological breakthrough that was made during the war years is simply enormous," Makushin emphasizes.
According to him, in the post-war years, the quality of life of a Soviet person changed dramatically, "electric shavers, refrigerators, televisions, lamp radios, new car models appeared": "The GAZ-M-20 Pobeda car is an advanced car of that time. Thus, the reserve of the military industry began to develop for the benefit of peaceful life, creating a new way of life. We will see the same thing following the results of the SVO," the source emphasizes.
Andrey Rezchikov
