Hi there. I'm new to this forum so please forgive me if my question isn't terribly original. (I did check the popular questions section and the closest I could find was this, which wasn't as specific as I would have liked.)
My question: How did the USSR emerge from World War II as one of only two super powers given that it experienced more destruction than any other nation during the war?
According to Robert McMahon, for example, the Soviets lost 25 million people, had 6 million buildings destroyed, and saw "much of the country's industrial plant and productive farmland laid to waste" (McMahon, 2003). Oftentimes, the explanation I read for why the US emerged from the war as a major super power is that it was already an industrial power and that its losses were minimal compared to those suffered by England, France, Germany, Japan, and so on. But the USSR suffered far more than any of the preceding countries and had much of its industry destroyed during the course of the war. Given this distribution of destruction, I might have foreseen the rise of a unipolar world with the US being the world's sole super power.
I would be interested if anyone could clarify this issue for me.
Thanks!
There are two main reasons why the Soviet Union became a superpower after WWII
The first reason is industry. Many democratic countries, such as the UK and the US, normally have two separate industrial policies, a wartime policy and a peacetime policy. While the peacetime policy grants a large amount of control to private industries, wartime policies include seizing a large amount of industry for war and boost productivity in any way possible.
The Soviets more or less had a wartime policy all the time. In addition, the Soviet Union was very resource rich, and Stalin was attempting to industrialize (with the infamous Gulags) many parts of the countries where he knew it would be difficult for the Nazis to destroy, such as in the Steppes or Siberia. Stalin's 5 years plans, as infamous as they were, were also one of the most effective industrialization methods. (Here's the official report on the results of the first 5 year plan and its success)
The second reason is the dramatic increase in size of the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union. Here's a map of the expansion of communism. Please note that before the war, the only communist states were the USSR and Mongolia, while immediately after the war, communism spread vastly. With the exception of China, Albania, North Korea and Yugoslavia, all these new communist countries were in the Soviet's sphere of influence. These new puppet governments (Along with Albania, who eventually left the Warsaw Pact during the Sino-Soviet Split) of Eastern Europe made up the Warsaw Pact, and provided eachother (but mainly the Soviets), with their resources, industry, wealth, and military.
There are a few other reasons that can be attributed to the rise of the USSR, such as scientific discoveries rivaling the United States, shrewd diplomatic practices to try to increase their sphere of influence, and, of course, the Nuclear Arms Race.
So, in short, the USSR did suffer extreme causalities in WWII, but they were also the clear victors of the war and was given the most as a result of it. This, combined with Stalin's iron fist and loyal administration (thanks to the purge), and rich resources, allowed the USSR to build up their industry higher than before and set up a diplomatic tree of allies.
