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Soviet Union [USSR] World War II
After the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact of 1939, the Soviet
Union occupied Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, eastern Poland, and
portions of Finland and Romania
(see Soviet Union USSR - Prelude to War
, ch. 2).
Consequently, before Germany's 1941 attack on the Soviet Union, the
size of the Soviet rail network increased by the assets located in
these areas and countries. During the Soviet-Finnish War (November
1939 to March 1940), Soviet railroads supported military
operations. Over 20 percent of the rolling stock was used to supply
the operations against the Finnish forces. Although military cargo
shipments originated in many parts of the country, they all fed
into the October and Murmansk railroads in areas where few highways
were able to handle motor transport. This fact and the distance
that freight had to travel to the front combined to cause unloading
bottlenecks at final destination stations and yards. Although
delays were substantial, civilian and military railroad authorities
learned important lessons from the Finnish campaign.
During World War II, railroads were of major importance in
supporting military operations as well as in providing for the
increased needs of the wartime economy. Because of their importance
and vulnerability, trains, tracks, yards, and other facilities
became the prime targets of the German air force and, in areas
close to the front, of German artillery.
Railroad operations during the war corresponded to the main
phases of military operations. The first phase extended from the
German offensive on June 22, 1941, to the Red Army's
counteroffensive, which culminated in a Soviet victory at
Stalingrad in February 1943. During this phase, the railroads
evacuated people, industrial plants, and their own rolling stock to
the eastern areas of the country. From July to November 1941, some
1.5 million carloads of freight were moved eastward. The railroads
also carried troops and military matériel from rear areas to the
front. All of the operations were accomplished under threatened or
actual enemy fire.
The second phase extended throughout most of 1943, when the Red
Army slowly advanced against strong German resistance. The
railroads coped with increasing demands for transportation services
as industrial plants increased production. In addition, the Red
Army relied heavily on the railroads to move personnel and supplies
for major operations. Thus, during the first three months of the
Kursk campaign (March to July 1943), three major rail lines
averaged about 2,800 cars with military cargo per day, reaching a
daily peak of 3,249 in May. Moreover, as the Soviet forces regained
territories, military and civilian railroad construction teams
restored and rebuilt trackage destroyed by the retreating enemy.
In the third phase, from early 1944 to the end of the war in
May 1945, the Red Army rapidly extended the front westward, causing
the distances between production facilities (in the Ural Mountains
and Siberia) and military consumers to grow accordingly, thereby
further straining railroad resources. The Red Army's Belorussian
offensive, which was launched on June 23, 1944, required, during
its buildup phase, 440,000 freight cars, or 65 percent of Soviet
rolling stock. In early 1945, the Red Army pursued German forces
into neighboring countries, requiring the railroads to cope with
different track widths, which went from 1,520-millimeter-gauge
track to 1,435-millimeter-gauge track in Romania, Bulgaria,
Hungary, Poland, and eventually in Germany itself.
Despite the effort made to haul men and matériel to the front
and to provide at least some service to the civilian sector, as
well as to restore operations in war-damaged areas, the Soviet
Union managed to build 6,700 kilometers of new lines during the war
years. The new lines tapped areas rich in the mineral resources
that were required for the war effort or shortened the distances
between important economic regions. Of the 52,400 kilometers of
Soviet main track roadway damaged during the war, 48,800 kilometers
were restored by May 1945. About 166,000 freight cars were
destroyed, and the number of locomotives decreased by about 1,000,
although almost 2,000 were furnished by the United States as part
of an agreement authorized by its
Lend-Lease Law (see Glossary).
Data as of May 1989
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