The war imposed on our country by Nazi Germany interrupted the creative work of the Soviet people and demanded a radical restructuring of the national economy.
Food companies together with other industries subordinated their work to the interests of the front and rear.
It was carried out in the environment of huge difficulties caused by war. In a zone of time occupation and military actions appeared more than half of all quantity of the food enterprises, including 199 sugar, 294 alcoholics, 99 oil-fatty, 42 soap-making factories, 15 tobacco factories, and many other things.
Raw material base for many technical crops - sugar beet, sunflower, potatoes, tobacco, and others - was seriously damaged. In the areas covered by the war, there were 88% of sugar beet crops, 99% of sunflower and castor oil crops, more than 50% of tobacco and manual plantations. The volume of production and preparations of these crops sharply decreased. The work of the enterprises was complicated by difficulties of the military economy - shortage of labor force, decrease in its qualification, lack of provision with raw materials, fuel, energy, transport, material supply, etc.
- Along with the production of food products the food industry enterprises participated in servicing of military needs: in production of alcohol, glycerin, acetone, some types of ammunition, means of antichemical defense.
In a short period of time, there was created a large production of breadcrumbs, mass production of concentrates and vitamins. It took urgent measures to evacuate a large number of enterprises to the eastern regions of the country. Fast rates and on a large scale works on the forced start up there in operation of the evacuated equipment were conducted. In difficult conditions of war in the short term, there was carried out construction in the east of 10 sugar factories, 26 alcoholics, 15 oil-fatty, 12 canning, 12 bakeries, 18 tobacco factories,
11 soap factories and a number of enterprises of other industries - beer brewery, confectionery, food concentrate, etc.
In the course of the offensive of the Red Army, the digestive workers started the revival of destroyed plants and factories in the areas liberated from the Nazi invaders. Showing enthusiasm and initiative, using the remnants of the destroyed equipment, metal and building materials of the defeated enemy fortifications, the workers of the restored factories achieved their launch in the shortest possible time. Restoration works were carried out in the conditions of extreme limitation of material means. First of all the damaged technological, general factory and power equipment were restored.
The colossal damage caused to the national economy of the country in the zone of temporary occupation has touched the majority of branches of food industry. The largest canneries of the South, mechanized bakeries of Donbas, occupiers have taken out the most part of the equipment of confectionery factories, have destroyed winemaking combined sets on Don, in USSR and Moldavia have been destroyed. The fishing industry has seriously suffered, having lost one-third of the fleet and almost all fish processing enterprises of Northern, Baltic and Southern basins.
Destroyed factories.
A significant part of the factories was destroyed, and many completely destroyed the energy base and technological equipment.
The raw material base of the food industry was also seriously damaged.
Losses of capacities and disorder of a raw-material base of the food-processing industry have led to sharp fall in volume of manufacture of the major foodstuff. In 1945 it was equal in % to 1940.The following: meat - 44,1; fish catch - 80,1; whole-milk products - 44,6; animal oil - 51,7; vegetable oil - 37,8; sugar - 21,4; canned food - 50,1; confectionery - 26,8; grape wine - 37,4; beer - 33; tea - 71,3; cigarettes and cigarettes - 25 1.
All gross output of the food industry was in 1945, only 50% °t at the level of 1940. These figures show what enormous and complex tasks the food industry faced after the Great Patriotic War in the restoration of the pre-war scale of production and development of its numerous industries to meet the needs of Soviet people more and more fully.
- Returning to peaceful creative work, the Soviet country has resumed the path of development, which was outlined by the XVIII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - the way to complete the construction of socialist society and the gradual transition from socialism to communism.
The main economic and political task formulated in the Law on the five-year plan of restoration and development of the national economy of the USSR for 1946-1950 was to raise the level of the affected regions of the country, to restore and surpass the pre-war level of industry and agriculture. In the field of manufacture of foodstuff, the Law prescribed: "to provide fast restoration and development of all branches of the food-processing industry, to restore pre-war assortment and to improve quality of production" 2.
The huge scale of development of the food industry, planned for the five-year period (1946-1950), is testified by the fact that for all the most important types of products the volumes of production, significantly exceeding the level of pre-war 1940, were established.
For the realization of restoration works, reconstruction of many enterprises and new capital construction the food-processing industry has received from a national economy for the period 1946-1950 more than 1,36 billion rbl. of investments, it exceeds the sum of capital investments in the food-processing industry for all years of pre-war five years3.
The general rise of the national economy which took place in the first postwar five-year plan has opened the possibility to expand the manufacture of foodstuff. On the basis of fast rates of development of the socialist industry and on the basis of the lifting agriculture all branches of the food-processing industry have risen and developed.