Russia after the War: Hopes, Illusions, and Disappointments

The Soviet Culture of Victory

“…23 Further down the hierarchy even more radical ideas were circulating. State officials began to think it might be a good idea to legalize the black market, in order to tax it, 24 the intelligentsia hoped for a liberalization of cultural production, 25 and at the bottom of the hierarchy, rumours of the impending dissolution of the kolkhoz system swept both the demobilizing army and the countryside most of the soldiers initially returned to. 26 Many of these soldiers had seen life outside the Soviet Union during the war and brought back stories of easy living and at times reports about political freedom existing elsewhere, "abroad" (za granitsei literally: "on the other side of the border").…”

USA/USSR: Architecture and War

“…Repression in the late 1940s targeted the elite. 80 In the field of architecture, only the most prominent members of the profession were accused of cosmopolitanism and of "bowing to the bourgeois West." Others, who had expressed similar "pro-Western" sympathies, continued to work effectively within the profession.…”

Stalinist Reconstruction and the Confirmation of a New Elite, 1945–1953

“…Millions of peasants demonstrated their dislike for collective farms by migrating to cities, and among those who remained on kolkhozy, passive resistance to labor demands was common. 146 Collectivizing the Soviet Union's newly annexed territories proved to be a significantly longer and even more difficult undertaking. Most of these areas had only briefly experienced Soviet rule before the war, so postwar campaigns had the dual functions of establishing kolkhozy and securing Soviet authority more generally.…”