Aftermath of World War II (Central Victory)

United Kingdom
By the end of the war, the economy of the United Kingdom was exhausted. More than a quarter of its national wealth had been spent. Until the introduction in 1941 of Lend-Lease aid from the US, the UK had been spending its assets to purchase American equipment including aircraft and ships - over £437 million on aircraft alone. Lend-lease came just before its reserves were exhausted. Britain put 55% of its total labor force into in war production.

In spring 1945, the Labour Party withdrew from the wartime coalition government, forcing a general election. Following a landslide victory, Labour held more than 60% of the seats in the House of Commons and formed a new government on 26 July 1945 under Clement Attlee.

Britain's war debt was described by some in the American administration as a "millstone round the neck of the British economy". Although there were suggestions for an international conference to tackle the issue, in August 1945 the U.S. announced unexpectedly that the Lend-Lease programme was to end immediately.

The abrupt withdrawal of American Lend Lease support to Britain on 2 September 1945 dealt a severe blow to the plans of the new government. It was only with the completion of the Anglo-American loan by the United States to Great Britain on 15 July 1946 that some measure of economic stability was restored. However, the loan was made primarily to support British overseas expenditure in the immediate post-war years and not to implement the Labour government's policies for domestic welfare reforms and the nationalisation of key industries. Although the loan was agreed on reasonable terms, its conditions included what proved to be damaging fiscal conditions for the Sterling. From 1946-1948, the UK introduced bread rationing which it never did during the war.

Soviet Union
The Soviet Union suffered enormous losses in the war against Germany. The Soviet population decreased by about 40 million during the war; of these, 8.7 million were combat deaths. The 19 million non-combat deaths had a variety of causes: starvation in the siege of Leningrad; conditions in German prisons and concentration camps; mass shootings of civilians; harsh labour in German industry; famine and disease; conditions in Soviet camps; and service in German or German-controlled military units fighting the Soviet Union. The population would not return to its pre-war level for 30 years.

Soviet ex-POWs and civilians repatriated from abroad were suspected of being post war Bolsheviks, and 226,127 of them were sent to forced labour camps after scrutiny by Russian intelligence, MGB. Many ex-POWs and young civilians were also conscripted to serve in the Red Army. Others worked in labour battalions to rebuild infrastructure destroyed during the war.

The economy had been devastated. Roughly a quarter of the Soviet Union's capital resources were destroyed, and industrial and agricultural output by 1944 fell far short of pre-war levels. Eastern European territories reverted to what those nations held on December 31, 1937. Along with the detatchment of many south Central Asian areas from the Soviet Union. Close to one quarter of pre-war (1937) Russia was de facto annexed by the Axis; roughly 10 million Russians were either expelled from this territory. The remainder of the Soviet Union was partitioned into three zones of occupation. Karelia was detached and given to Finland in 1947. In 1949, the Russian Democratic Federative Republic was created out of the Western zone. The Japanese zone became the Far Eastern Republic and Siberian Republic.