Being Soviet: Identity, Rumour, and Everyday Life Under Stalin 1939-1953 by Timothy Johnston

Author:Timothy Johnston [Johnston, Timothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, General, Russia & the Former Soviet Union, Modern, 20th Century, Social History, Political Science, Political Ideologies, Communism; Post-Communism & Socialism
ISBN: 9780199604036
Google: _74x2N4gRYMC
Amazon: 0199604037
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2011-08-17T16:00:00+00:00

A counter-narrative did emerge at the end of the war, but largely in the post-war period, which argued that Lend Lease had been an essential mechanism for the wartime victory. This was argued by a number of respondents to HIP, possibly to flatter their American interviewers.65 It also appeared as an example of anti-Soviet prosecut- able speech by 1945.66 Some Soviet citizens, demonstrating what was almost certainly diplomatic politeness, thanked American representa- tives for their help during the war.67 However, the wartime profile of Lend Lease was strikingly low. It made a very limited impact on the wartime rumour network, and rarely become a source of conversation or speculation. This lack of comment suggests that Soviet citizens did not regard Lend Lease, unlike the Second Front, as a vital strategic feature of the anti-Hitler struggle.

When they personally interacted with Lend Lease goods, however, Soviet citizens developed a diversity of complex and nuanced views concerning the foreign-produced material. Lend Lease was not a strate- gic priority in the minds of the Soviet population, but the opportunity to make use of British and American technology resulted in inevitable comparisons with their Soviet-made equivalents. They employed the ‘tactic’ of bricolage, fusing personal experience with their pre-existing prejudices and the language of Official Soviet Identity, to generate a plethora of different responses.

The evidence concerning these reactions is fragmentary, but it does demonstrate that at least some Soviet citizens reiterated the claims of Official Soviet Identity that the goods were inferior to their domestic equivalents. Such comments were particularly common amongst Red Army soldiers who were often very critical of Anglo-American tanks.

A. T. Mar’ian wrote in his wartime diary in June 1943,

I saw some English tanks in the neighbouring brigade. They are better than the Americans ones but incomparably worse than our [T] 34s. They are not that manoeuvrable and very high. Of course they are frightening to Africans but

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