Finances of the Soviet Union in 1939-1945

Objectives: To evaluate the financial contribution of the Soviet Union to the victory over fascism inWorld War II. Methods: In this paper the author proposes a new approach to assessing the financial activities of the USSR during World War II. Contrary to the traditional historiography, the author uses the method of economic modeling, as well as methods of analysis, deduction, induction, synthesis, and a comparative method to study the financial activities of the Soviet Union not only during the USSR fighting Germany and its allies, but also during the period of 1939-1945. Findings: The article proves that episodes of the Soviet Union fighting Japan and Finland, as well as the Red Army entering the territory of the Western Belarus and Western Ukraine, Moldova and the Baltic states, though not perceived by historians as the direct participation of the USSR in World War II, in fact, were part of the global process of the world repartition. The author examines the finances of the USSR during the years of World War II using the approach chosen for the assessment of the events. The article presents a comparative analysis of the published data of financial activities of the Soviet Union and the results of the summarized data of archival documents. In the end, the author concludes that the USSR military costs in 1939-1945 amounted to nearly 126 billion US dollars at the exchange rate of the 1940s.Improvements/Novelty: The findings can be used by researchers when writing monographs, academic papers and theses on World War II.