Problems of Social Hygiene, Public Health and History of MedicineProblems of Social Hygiene, Public Health and History of Medicine0869-866X2412-2106Joint-Stock Company Chicot155410.32687/0869-866X-2024-32-5-1025-1032НеопределенThe nutrition of population of the USSR during 1949–1954SerebryanyRoman Sniiimramn@mail.ruN. A. Semashko National Research Institute of Public Health, 105064, Moscow, Russia271020243252704202527042025Copyright © 2025,2025<p>The article considers state of nutrition of population of the USSR during post-war recovery period in 19491954 after cancellation of standardized distribution of food cards and implementation of currency reform in 1948.The constant annual increase of quantity and quality of ingested food up to end of studied period is demonstrated. The explanations are given to contradictory assessments by various researchers of efficiency of measures implemented by authorities to improve dietary intake of citizens. It is established that characteristic given by authors, in many respects, is determined by time of study, availability of declassified archives, timeserving to dominated in those years of total negative attitude to Stalinism, proclaimed by N. S. Khrushchev. It is emphasized that administrative command method applied in establishing organization of diet of working population, for all its shortcomings, judging by results, allowed people with every following year to buy more food, was at the same time rather effective. The expectations of population related to hope of better life after devastating war, were reinforced annually by decreasing of prices of consumer goods and increasing of incomes of majority of population, having fair character. The people bringing maximal benefit to society researchers, physicians, teachers had more opportunities to consume balanced food. At the same time, even low-paid workers could afford oneself to buy high-calorie products. Despite constant improvement of nutrition structure, content of macro- and micro-nutrients in food did not meet requirements for saturating organism with full-fledged ingredients (proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins). It is proved that Soviet model of development as exemplified by its implementation in sphere of nutrition of population was accepted by society in 1940s-1950s and requires further investigation and pondering to applied best Soviet practices nowadays.</p>historynutrition of populationthe USSR1949–1954food pricespeople incomes.историяпитание населенияСССР1949—1954 гг.цены на продуктыдоходы людей[Kruglov V. “The last Stalinist famine”: the food supply crisis in the USSR in the early 1950s. Economic history. Yearbook 2013 [“Poslednij stalinskij golod”: krizis prodovol'stvennogo obespechenija v SSSR nachala 1950-h gg. Jekonomicheskaja istorija. Ezhegodnik 2013]. Available at: /https://zapadrus.su/rusmir/istf/1671-posled (in Russian).][Kondrashin V. V. Three Soviet famines. In: Agrarian development and food policy of Russia in the XVIII–XX centuries: history and modernity. Part 1 [Mezhdunarodnoja nauchnaja konferentsija «Agrarnoe razvitie i prodovolstvennaja politika Rossii v ХVIII–ХХ vekax: istorija i sovremennosti». Chast 1]. Orenburg; 2007. P. 299–312 (in Russian).][Volkov I. M. Drought, famine 1946–1947gg. Istorija SSSR. 1991;(4):28–36 (in Russian).][Jacob Mirkin. Six Stalinist price breaks through the eyes of a scientist-economist [Shest stalinskikh cenovikh poslablenijj glazami uchjonogo-ehkonomista]. Available at: https://rg.ru/2022/01/02/shest-stalinskih-cenovyh-poslablenij-glazami-uchenogo-ekonomista.html (accessed 02.01.2022) (in Russian).][Torgashev V. A. Post-war life in the USSR [Poslevoennijj byt v SSSR]. Available at: https://nashenasledie.livejournal.com/2056615.html (accessed 15.08. 2019) (in Russian).][Kuznetsova N. V. The decline in retail prices and the material standard of living of the population of the USSR in 1947–1952 gg. Vestnik VolGu. 2008;1(13):32–42 (in Russian).][Evseeva E. N. USSR in 1945–1953 gg: economy, power and society. Novyy istoricheskiy vestnik. 2002;(6):179–213 (in Russian).][Ilyushenko D. V. Public catering in the USSR in 1941–1965 gg: a vector of evolution. Molodojj uchjoniy. 2015;2(82):402–6 (in Russian).][Zubkova E. Y. Post-war Soviet Society: Politics and Everyday Life. 1945–1953 [Poslevoennoe sovetskoe obshhestvo: politika i povsednevnost. 1945–1953]. Moscow: ROSSPEN; 2000 (in Russian).][Voronina T. A. Nutrition of the Russian people during the restoration of the national economy (1945–1964). Tradicii i sovremennost. 2019;(23):87–116 (in Russian).][Pokhlebkin V. V. History of the most important foodstuffs [Istoriya vazhneyshikh pishchevykh produktov]. Moscow: Centrpoligraf; 1997 (in Russian).][Litvinovsky I. A. Restoration of the national economy of the USSR after the Great Patriotic War. In: Russian and slavonic studies [Rossiyskiye i slavyanskiye issledovaniya.]. Minsk: BGU; 2004. P. 228–32 (in Russian).][Nevezhin V. A. Priem v Kremle komandujushhih vojskami Krasnoj Armii 24 maja 1945 goda. In: Vojna. Narod. Pobeda. Materialy mezhdunar. nauch. konf. Moscow; 2008. P. 430–48 (in Russian).][Baskov L. P. Consistency in catering planning [Sistemnost' v planirovanii obshchestvennogo pitaniya]. Moscow: Economics; 1983 (in Russian).][Ioffe Ja. A. We and the planet. Figures and facts [My i planeta. Tsifry i fakty]. Moscow: Politizdat; 1988 (in Russian).][Matjuha I. Ja. Statistics of the living standard of the population [Statistika zhizhnennogo urovnja naselenija]. Moscow: Statistika; 1973 (in Russian).][Mamjachenkov V. N. Food consumption in the families of workers and industrial employees of the Sverdlovsk region in 1946–1991. In: [Materialy Vserossijskoj nauchno-prakticheskoj konferencii “Devjatye Tatishhevskie chtenija”]. Ekaterinburg; 2012. P. 299–303 (in Russian).][Vasil'ev A. Correctly determine the population's need for 8egetables. Sovetskaja torgovlja. 1958;(1):117–120 (in Russian).][Gubareva O. E. Sources of growth of national welfare in the USSR [Istochniki rosta narodnogo blagosostojanija v SSSR]. Moscow: Mysl'; 1968 (in Russian).][Shnirlin Ju. L. Scientifically based consumption standards [Nauchno obosnovannie normy potreblenija]. Moscow: Vysshaja shkola; 1961 (in Russian).][Klinova M. A. Norms of rational nutrition in the USSR of the second half of the 1950s — 1980s: causes and vector of transformations. Uchenye zapiski. Jelektronnyj nauchnyj zhurnal Kurskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. 2017;4(44):73–78 (in Russian).][Levin B. M. Standard of living: income, consumption, leisure [Uroven zhizni, dokhody, potreblenie, dosug]. Moscow: Znanie; 1970 (in Russian).][Rossinskij M. B. Some issues of expanding the production of consumer goods and improving consumer services for the population. In: Questions of industrial economics [Voprosy jekonomiki promyshlennosti]. Sverdlovsk: UrGU; 1963. P. 131–4 (in Russian).][Sarkisjan G. S. The growth of the welfare of the Soviet people [Rost blagostojanija sovetskogo naroda]. Moscow: Ehkonomika; 1967 (in Russian).][Popov V. G. Stalin and the Soviet economy in the postwar years. Otechestvennaja istorija. 2001;(3):61–77 (in Russian).][Zhuravljov V. V., ed. Reforms in Russia from ancient times to the end of the XX century. 1917–1991 [Reformy v Rossii s drevnejjshikh vremjon do konca XX v.1917–1991 gg.]. Moscow: ROSSPJeN; 2016 (in Russian).]