Abuses in distribution of American gifts in the Moldavian SSR (1944-1945)

The article covers the distribution of the humanitarian aid collected during the Second World War for Soviet citizens by the American Society for Assistance to Russia in War and the National Section of the Red Cross. The documentary sources (including funds of the State Archive of the Russian Federation) shown there were large-scale abuses in the distribution of American gifts. Representatives of the party and economic nomenclature received most of the best and best clothes and footwear needed by the Moldovan population. Though not wealthy, many of them had additional opportunities for supply (mainly, due to trophy property and so-called manufactured goods limits). Surplus of clothes and shoes were sold for resale often at speculative prices in city markets. Things came to the speculators also as a result of plundering in warehouses and mismanagement of persons responsible for storage. Perpetrators of abuse, as a rule, were subject to disciplinary responsibility. The study shows, however, that these problems were typical for other regions of the country. This allows raising the question of the consolidation of the system of corruption ties in the USSR at the end of the war.

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