Lend-Lease. Calculations and calculations

Lend-Lease Supplies. Second material Lend-Lease Supplies clearly fell to many readers of "VO" "sickle in one place." No wonder 460 comments were made to him, more than to the article - to the cry of the soul “Do not touch Stalin”. And what commentators didn’t resort to any tricks in order to prove the unprovable in principle. One wrote that “The message of the Soviet government ...”, published in the newspaper Pravda, an organ of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, is “propaganda material” and therefore is not a source. Someone wrote that we could buy something there from other countries. And, of course, there were a lot of people who sang hosanna to Mongolian horses, contrary to the words of their beloved Stalin that the Second World War was a “war of motors”. What surprised me even more was the strange calculations of many commentators who tried to downplay the value of supplies with their help. Although, it would seem, here is a simple afrimetic at the kindergarten level: Pinocchio had two apples, Pierrot gave him two more. And that will be? There will be EXACTLY HALF, but not a third of this total number of apples. Because two and two are FOUR! So with the supplies! And it is obvious that for a number of indicators, if we compare what was produced during the war years and delivered, we will have 50 and more than percent. But our people are cunning, they add up the supply data with what has been produced, and are looking for interest on this total amount. The result is a third! A reception typical of Soviet propaganda ("and they also hang blacks!"), But it does not work today. It would be more correct to add to pre-war stocks produced during the war years, right? But then from the pre-war stocks it is necessary to subtract all that was lost at the beginning of the war. And this is not story Lend-Lease, and the history of the Second World War in full. And, as you know, in our country the fundamental multi-volume work “The Great Patriotic War of the 1941-1945 of the Years” was prepared in 12 volumes, and, in theory, all this should have been, but ... what is not, isn’t. By the way, the quality of this work was already described at VO, as well as how this study should have been supposed. But, unfortunately, it did not. So you don’t need to do casuistry, as well as demonstrate your ignorance to the whole world, but you just need to think a little. It is clear that it is a pity to part with the thought suggested from childhood that “we are great, we are powerful, more than the sun, higher than a cloud”, but it will be necessary. Moreover, the greatness of a nation is not at all determined by the number of people killed in the war, nor by the number of weapons produced by it. The USSR had much more in the 1991 year than in the 1941, and nevertheless, all this iron did not save him from death. It is important to learn from the past in order to adequately respond to the challenges today, and trying to make the past better than it is is an absurd undertaking. Well, now let's turn to more specific subjects, namely, to the issue of paying Lend-Lease.

Distribution of food packages for Lend-Lease in Moscow. 1945 year (RIA "News")

As many as three routes of military assistance

However, before we recall some interesting details. For example, there were not one supply routes, but three at once: the Pacific, trans-Iranian and Arctic. In total, they accounted for 93,5% of all supplies. However, none of them was completely safe. Moreover, those same planes, which were driven across Alaska and Siberia “on their own,” very often died simply by drinking, both on our side and on the American side. Well, due to weather conditions, of course. And again, no one was preparing for such a massive transportation. Neither we nor our allies were ready for them. Ports were not equipped, there were no piers, cranes, warehouses, railways. The same Vladivostok was four times more than Murmansk and almost five times more than Arkhangelsk handled cargo, although it is precisely about the fact that convoys stopped sending us along the northern route in 1943, most of all. Yes, they stopped there, but deliveries sharply increased in other directions. By the way, there was practically nothing to supply from the very beginning. The entire US army at the beginning of the war accounted for 330 tankswhy send something? And these are just quantitative indicators, you can’t even talk about qualitative ones: duralumin aircraft are in any case better than wooden ones, this should be obvious even to a layman.

What did they pay for with gold?

Well, now back to the issue of payment. Let me remind you that in the "Message of the Soviet Government ..." printed in Pravda, deliveries from the UK are indicated for the period from June 1941 to 11 on June 1944, but in the end they continued in May of the 1945. Why since June? Apparently, negotiations on supplies began literally immediately after the German attack on the USSR. In complexity, four million tons of military cargoes were delivered to our country, including also foodstuffs and various medicines. It is believed that the total value of armaments delivered from the UK to the USSR was 308 million pounds, and food and raw materials - this is 120 million pounds. Under the Anglo-Soviet agreement of 27 on June 1942, all military assistance provided by Great Britain to the Soviet Union during the war was completely free. TOTALLY FREE, I stress. But it must be borne in mind that until this date, that is, from 22 June 1941 year to 27 June 1942 year, that is, exactly exactly a year, the USSR paid for all supplies from the UK, paying for them both in gold and at the expense of its foreign exchange reserves . The cost of all these deliveries for this period of time today can be estimated in 55 tons of gold, which was transported from the USSR to England by ships of the British Navy. One of these "golden ships" is the British cruiser "Edinburgh", on board of which there were 5500 kg of gold, it was sunk on 2 on May 1942 of the year during its transportation.

The Belfast cruiser belonged to the same series as the Edinburgh cruiser, but, unlike the latter, the first was much more fortunate

Unique operation

As you know, during a unique operation on the bottom of the Barents Sea in 1981, it was possible to raise 431 a bar of gold weighing 5129,3 kg. Then the gold was divided in accordance with the agreement of the parties and the ownership of the goods in the following respect: 1 / 3 - went to the UK, 2 / 3 - received the USSR. Rescuers were paid 45% of the value of all the gold they saved. Five years later, in September 1986, the lifting operation was continued. From the day, 29 ingots weighing 345,3 kg were recovered. Nevertheless, five ingots weighing 60 kg still remained lying in the depths of the Barents Sea. Divers simply could not find them in the dark through the rusted ship, which was also flooded with a thick layer of fuel oil. Since the Soviet press reported that the ship was transporting gold in exchange for a land lease, the idea that land lease was paid for in gold was firmly rooted in the minds of Soviet citizens. Ignorant people still think so, however, in fact, “Edinburgh gold”, as well as all other gold received from the USSR to England from 22 June 1941 year to 27 June 1942 year, has nothing to do with Lend-Lease supplies . This is the most common trade when people pay for the goods they purchase. We emphasize once again - deliveries from England to the USSR during this time, this is not a Lend-Lease!

Edinburgh during sea trials

Once again to the question of sources

In order not to repeat and not again refer to Pravda, I want to inform you that the “Resolution ...” indicated in it was then printed in the next edition: “Foreign Policy of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War. - T.2: Documents and materials 1 January - 31 December 1944. - M: OGIZ, Gospolitizdat, 1946. - C.142-147. Any reader of VO can find this book on the net and look at these pages. All the figures given from the article are in it. That is, we are talking about the fact that in the USSR all this information was. However, as I already noted, there was freedom of speech and freedom not to use it! In the same newspaper, Pravda, dated April 5 of 1942, in the editorial devoted to the victory in the Battle of the Ice, there is not a word that the Teutonic Knights drowned in the lake. Not a single one! "Truth" does not lie! But then all the others (and no one bothered them with this) simply excitedly talked about how they were drowning and how many of them, worthless, there were thousands. And some, including even already completely new textbooks for the school, still repeat this nonsense. It was also with information about Lend-Lease. For people who know and for the same West, whose opinion the USSR valued, we had all the necessary information. But "out there." And for the "commoners" there was a massive flow of information in which the truth was lost, like a needle in a haystack. And it didn’t hurt, you could use it. This is indicated, incidentally, even by the readers of VO. Well, at that time, nobody would just print such material with links even to the State Political Publishing House! No wonder nobody used them even in memoirs!

Unloading another convoy in the Murmansk port

For the price of the gold standard of 1944 of the year!

But we continue to consider the issue of prices and payment. After England, we look at supplies from the United States, and here it turns out that aid under the Lend-Lease of the USSR corresponds to no less than 50 000 tons of gold (based on the 1944 gold standard, which is almost twice as much as the modern total gold reserves of all the leading countries of the world (including the USA itself). Moreover, under the terms of the Lend-Lease agreement, the USSR was not supposed to pay for supplies of the USA during the war years, as well as to pay for materials spent during the war, machines and other things were subject to payment. equipment that simply cannot be I was to return back - for example, the equipment of oil refineries. The amount of payment for all this was to be determined only after the end of the war.

We him, they ... us!

By the way, it is very interesting that the aggregate tonnage of Lend-Lease assistance sent from the USA to the USSR was approximately equivalent to the total grain shipments from the USSR to the USA from 1930 to 1940 a year inclusive (there are 19,5 million tons of grain worth 200 million dollars). That is, at first we fed them, and received in exchange for bread and fur of pedigree horses, tractors, machine tools and factories, and then ... then they supplied us with everything that we urgently needed during the war years. Such a relationship between our countries has always been a very close economic connection, which, by the way, even today, despite all the sanctions on a number of indicators of trade, exceeds 50% of the sales volume line. Although, in general, for Russia as a whole, the United States in terms of total turnover is only partner No. 6 with a share of only 4,2%. Like, by the way, in the 30 years! But then it was not so with tractors, but now ... with titanium. Well, progress is evident.

Unloading Matilda tanks in the port of Arkhangelsk

Well, about how the USSR, and then Russia paid for the Lend-Lease, you will learn from the next part.

PS Usually I don’t trust the materials published in “live magazines” too much. But this one seemed very interesting to me. And since the respected public reading VO usually does not bother reading such publications as Voprosy istorii, USA and Canada, History of the Russian State and Law, Homeland, and VIZH, I highly recommended to read the material here hence.

To be continued ...