WW2 & Stalin's dictatorship fun facts and stats

Molotov

Litvinov's replacement- less friendly with the west. Part of the factionalism surrounding Stalin at this time.

Georgy Zhukov

Prominent Soviet general and military strategist who played a key role in major World War II battles, including the defence of Moscow, the Battle of Stalingrad, and the victory at Berlin. Celebrated as one of the USSR’s greatest wartime commanders.

Friedrich Paulus

German commander at Stalingrad. First Field Marshall to surrender when the 6th Army were encircled and destroyed.

Tito

Yugoslavia leader

Zhdanov

Former boss of Leningrad party

Voznesensky

Politburo member arrested during the Leningrad Affair. Masterminded the Soviet war economy and had plans of NEP-style economic reform

Trepper

A Polish spy who worked for the USSR in Nazi Germany. When he returned to the USSR after the war he was awarded a medal as a Hero of the Soviet Union. He was then rested and put into a gulag

Number of German/Axis forces involved in Operation Barbarossa - largest invasion force in History

3,000,000

Km front in Barbarossa

2,900

KM Axis forces advanced in the first 6 days of Barbarossa

300

Number of RA officers executed between 1937 and June 1941 - more than half of the regiment commanders. inexperienced leaders.

80,000

Number of RA soldiers captured in German encirclement of the Kiev front

500,000

of the population of Leningrad died in the siege - 600,000 people

1/3

Muscovites built defences on the edge of the city in preparation for the German attack

250,000

Number of Soviet troops in June 1941

5-6,000,000

Number of Soviet troops lost by April 1942

3,000,000

Number of Soviet civilians in territory controlled by Germany in April 1942 - nearly half the pre war Soviet population

90,000,000

Soviet troops were shot by zagradotriady NKVD units

158,000

Imprisoned for desertion - many of them then put in penal battalions

436,000

Soviet troops executed for desertion at the height of the Battle of Stalingrad

13,500

% of 18 year olds Soviet soldiers in 1941 still alive in 1945

3%

number of people KILLED in Stalingrad. other estimates go up to 3 million

1,200,000

Truck supplies by USA to USSR

300,000

% of USSR infantry deployed to Kursk

50%

% of USSR tanks deployed to Kursk

66%

medals given out by USSR between 1941-5. 8 times more than the USA in the same period.

11,000,000

% of party’s members in the armed forces during the war - 2/3 of them joined during the war

50%

% of all Soviet ammunition made in labour camps

15%

% death rate in labour camps 1942 - prisoners worked to death

25%

number of soldiers killed in USSR’s military between 1941-45. daily death rate twice as high as D-day

8,600,000

Soviet civilian casualties by 1945

12,000,000

Poles arrested by NKVD by April 1945

40,000

arrested in USSR every year after the war for ‘counter-revolutionary activity’

tens of thousands

Soviet towns destroyed during WW2

1,710

Soviet villages destroyers during WW2

70,000

Soviet buildings destroyed during WW2

6,000,000

% of physical assets destroyed during WW2

25%

Soviet citizens homeless after the war - even more had buildings without heating

20,000,000

minimum increase in gulag population over the war

1,000,000

number of German POWs used for forced labour post war

2,000,000

% increase in taxation of collective harms 1946-8

33%

died in famine of 1946-7

1,000,000

suffered from effects of 1946-7 famine

100,000,000

% reduction in output from mining, electric power and steel from 1940-5

50%

military expenditure as budget proportion 1948-52

18→25%

number of soldiers in RA 1948-52

2,800,000→4,900,000

food production 1945 of 1940 levels

60%

officials purged in Leningrad affair

2,000

Jews in USSR in 1947

2,000,000

22nd June 1941

Operation Barbarossa opens

28th June 1941

Minsk captured - German advance of 300km in 6 days

1st July 1941

Stalin returns to Kremlin after crisis of confidence

20th July 1941

Stalin takes military command

August 1941

Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

8th September 1941

Siege of Leningrad behinds, Zhukov send to take command of the city defence

19th September 1941

fall of Kiev - 500,000 Soviets encircled and captured (largest in history)

10th October 1941

Zhukov returns from Leningrad to take control of Moscow defence

15th October 1941

Stalin orders gov evacuated from Moscow to Kuibyshev. Reaches to Germany for peace to no reply. Mass arrests cannot stop the looting and fear. only 400,000 able to get out before routes are closed.

mid-November 1941

German forces bogged down in mud and snow near Moscow

7th December 1941

Japan attacks Pearl Harbour

April 1942

Soviet counter-attack pushes the German back to Smolensk

28th May 1942

Second battle of kharkov ends in USSR defeat → clear path for case blue

28th June 1942

Case blue beings. German attack Southern USSR

17th July 1942

Battle of Stalingrad opens

2nd February 1943

Battle of Stalingrad ends

May 1943

Stalin dissolves the comintern

November 1943

Tehran conference

6th November 1943

USSR recaptures Kursk

January 1944

Siege of Leningrad lifted

August 1944

Operation Barbarossa concludes

August 1944

Warsaw uprising begins

October 1944

Percentages agreement

February 1945

Yalta conference

30th April 1945

Hitler suicide

8th May 1945

Germany surrenders

July 1945

Potsdam conference

1946

Stalin has a mild stroke

9th February 1946

Stalin calls for another 5YP to ready for Cold War

14th August 1946

cultural clampdown intensified with censorship of 2 Leningrad journals

January 1947

Head of Agitprop censored for not highlighting the Russian contribution to European philosophy enough in his publication

February 1947

Law passed outlawing marriage to foreigners

July 1947

2 scientists dragged before spectators for charges of sharing cancer research with US scientists in visit to US

June 1947

Marshall Plan conference. Eastern bloc pulls out.

September 1947

Cominform established

1948

Israeli ambassador Golda Meir appointed and cheered by crowds when she gave speeches

1948

Solomon Mikhoels, head of Jewish theatre in Moscow killed by MVD

1948

Zhdanov dies in hospital, doctor writes letter with concerns of his care to Stalin

June 1948 cominform

Yugoslavia is expelled from Cominform

June 1948 FP

Berlin Blockade begins

April 1949

NATO formed

May 1949

Berlin Blockade ends

1951

Georgian Purge

1952

Doctor’s plot

December 1952

Stalin declares ‘every Jew is a potential spy for the United States’

5th March 1953

Stalin dies

Pravda

Goddess of Slavic mythology. She had a red star on her forehead. She fought for light and justice against Krivda- the deity of darkness. It was her red star which the Red Army adopted as their symbol

Red Star

Some gave it mythical origins- the Red Star which was an icon of communism also supposedly represented the five continents with its five points.

RA WEAKNESS

Though the Red Army had more tanks and planes than Germany, thank to Stalin's aggressive military build-up, they were poorly led. The best generals who had planned for war with Germany for over a decade had been shot or were in jail. Political officers were appointed to each regiment and they had to approve the decisions of the military commander. Stalin's focus was on loyalty- not performance. Suited for internal control, but not for external conflict. Soviet troops were poorly led- and it showed in the Winter War and the early stages of the German invasion of 1941.

Lebensraum

Hitler had written in Mein Kampf that Germany needed more land or 'living space' (Lebensraum). He believed this land would be towards Germany's East- Poland and the USSR which contained large amounts of fertile farmland. Hitler also believed that the Slavic peoples were an inferior race and planned to remove and enslave them

Bolshevik Judaism

Hitler believed that Judaism and Marxism were essentially the same thing. This is for historical reasons- the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a book published in the early 20th century, was a forgery outlining supposed plans for Jewish world domination. This book was created by a pro-Tsar supported and framed enemies of the Tsar as Jewish. When the Tsar was overthrown, people made the assumption that the new regime was therefore Jewish in nature. When combined with the fact that Trotsky was from a Jewish family, many believed that Marxism was a Jewish creation.