ABSTRACT
A glance at the main Soviet economic indicators during the war reveals that the year 1942 was the low point of economic activity, expressed in national income. The assessments varied as to how rapidly the USSR could reach the pre-war level of economic development. So although most observers came much closer to reality during this latter period of the war, there was still a considerable gap in some respects between reality and assessments. Material destruction was estimated at one fifth or one fourth of all pre-war material assets in the USSR by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in different reports. In 1945 Soviet industry converted from war production to civilian production, which resulted in a fall in industrial production. Instead of realizing that output had increased swiftly after the outbreak of war, some important observers chose to upgrade the pre-war production of munitions, thereby indirectly concluding that the Soviets were unable to increase their wartime production.
