Taxation of urban population during the Great Patriotic War (a case study of West Siberia)

During the Great Patriotic War the real salary in 1945 was about 40 % of prewar salary. Since April 1942 raised wages for aftertime work and weekend work were not paid. Archive documents show that wages were not always paid on time. So, special messages from the office of People's Commissariat for State Security in Tomsk to the secretary of the Tomsk Committee of the All-Union Communist Party say, many letters of workers passed the military censorship, factory workers complained of delay in payments. From 1941 till 1943 the state unbalanced budget was covered with a new note issue. Part of the money the government tried to return by a hard tax policy. In wartime fiscal charges from population increased enormously. Since July 1941 an addition was set to the agricultural tax and to the income tax, the income tax from workers and employees was increased to 50-10 %. It was imposed a tax on single and childless persons. In 1942 a military tax was imposed. All citizens of the USSR, who arrived at the age of 18, were taxed with it. Number of taxable population was continuously under control. One more expense item for population was the financing of military economy by "free-will donation". It was realized by various means: government loan, cash and prize lottery, contribution to the Defence Fund. Furthermore very common were earmarked levies for different needs (levies for building of tanks, planes, etc.), mass campaigns for gathering and dispatch of warm clothes to Red Army soldiers. The issue about voluntariness of population by the financial assistance is to discuss. Archive documents also contain information about massive ideological indoctrination and psychological pressure on every person. Nevertheless the share of inpayment from population in the state budget income during the War increased significantly. It was an important source of mobilization of funds.

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