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when was hitler prepared to invade russia? since when was he preparing it?
hitler was prepared to invade russia in the summer of 1941.
-invasion had been preared since october 1940.
what was the codename for the operatoin?
‘Operation Barbarossa’
why was hitler confident?
-Britain refused to make peace, but was not able to offer a military threat
-The soviet union was badly prepared for war
-german aarmed forces were experienced, battle hardened and well equipped.
how did operation barbarossa start?
-delayed until 22nd june 1941
-3 huge army groups spearheaded the invasion plan:
-north through the baltic states towards leningrad; south and east into ukraine’ and a central thrust towards moscow.
what were the aims of the operation?
not just to achieve military victory, it was also an attempt to seize control over t he entire soviet economy, to destroy communism.
-hitler believed that many soviet citizens would welcome the nazi invaders as liberators (turned out to be false due to russian natinolism/patriotism)
how did past russian diplomacy leave russia unprepared for war?
-Stalin’s miscalculation about the effectiveness of the Nazi-Soviet Pact left the soviet union unprepared for war in june 1941. Even when foreign sources warned stalin that invasion was imminent, he took no action.
stalins reaction
how did stalins inital reaction to the invasion reflect the weakness of the soviet union?
-He did not make a radio broadcast to the people, leaving the task to molotov
-stalin feared the party/people would turn against him
-almost 2 weeks before stalin made a radio bspeech to the nation on 3rd july.
-he had a panic attack after the invasion and failed to give leadership.
when did stalin eventually give a speech to the nation? what did it contain?
radio speech to the nation on 3rd july 1941.
-shift in tone from the terror of the 1930s, appealing to patriotism and religion, and unity among the nationlaities.
how was there a new wave of propoganda?
previous friendship/peace with the germans was replaced with ideological hatred. winston churchill was potrayed as a friend of stalin. propoganda showed the war as a new patriotic struggle, linking to the past struggles of russia.
the impact of stalin’s purges
what are hte statistics of the purge? when was it?
may 1937, stalin launced vast purge of high ranking red army officers, beginning with marshal tukhachevsky. 35,000 officers arrested.
the impact of stalin’s purges
how did the purges impact stalin’s preparedness of the invasion?
-trained leaders were lost at a time when the army had to be expanded
-political control damaged
harmed the swift decision making of mlitary commanders, with commanders waiting for days for orders.
-purge of the military industrial complex led to poor technical decision making. good quality tanks/aircraft were not in mass production.
stalins role in rallying the people
who did stalin call on in his first speech?
“Comrades, citizens, brothers and sisters! fighters of our army and fleet, I adress you my friends”
stalins role in rallying the people
how did stalin describe the war?
a “patriotic war of all the people|”
stalins role in rallying the people
what did stalin do on the eve of the anniversery of the russian revolution?
in october/november 1941, stalin stayed in moscow despite the panic. he addressed the eve of the anniversery of the revolutionary rally, in the ornate hall of the mayakovsky metro station. he vowed to “destroy every german to the very last man”
stalins role in rallying the people
how were films used to promote the war effort?
On a film screened in moscow, recorded in the kremlin, stalin spoke to troops with a passionate appeal to a sense of russian history.
stalins ruthlessness
how did stalins ruthlessness aid the war effort in terms of sending soldiers ?
there is no evidence to suggest stalin suffered even the slightest remorse for sending millions to their deaths in battle.
stalins ruthlessness
what was the case of pavlov?
general pavlov tried to hold the front line in the first week of the war. having failed, he was arrested, accused of involvemen in an anti soviet conspiracy, tortured, sentenced to death and accused of “cowardice, panic mongering, criminal negligence nad unaurhotirsed retreats”
stalins ruthlessness
how was the NKVD used?
a special department of the NKVD was set up to lead the struggle against spies and traitors in the red army. they had authority to execute deserters on teh spot.
stalins ruthlessness
how were government orders used in the military?
Orders 270 and 227 were issued, highlighting that deserters, and those who surrenreded were traitors. any officer caught infringing the order woud be shot or sent to punishment companies.
stalins ruthlessness
what were the punishment companies?
over 450,000 men served in the punishment companies. they were sent through minefields and on other suciidal missions.
how did stalin make mistakes near the start of the war?
-relied in political loyalists appointed as commanders
-in september 1941, he helped cause a massive defeat of his southern armies in kiev by refusing to allow them to retreat until it was too late.
how did stlain eventually organise his war government?
stalin created the war cabinet, stavka on 23rd june 1941. it compromised key generals such as timoshenko and zhukov, along with key politicals like molotov and voroshilov.
what were the phases of the great patriotic war?
1) june 1941- summer 1942 (struggle for suvival)
2) 1942 - summer 1943 (halt german advances, establish war industry
3) 1943 - summer 1945 (soviet offensive, total victory)
struggle for survival
how many soviet soldiers died / were imprisoned in the first part of hte invasion ?
between june and december 1941, red army lost 2,663,000 soldiers, with 3,350,000 taken prisoner. (two million prisoners died from starvation,disease and poortreatment by february 1942)
Struggle for survival
between what period was the struggle for survival?
june 1941 - october 1942
Struggle for survival
how did the germans advance?
Hitler convinced victory was close, catastrophic loss of soviet aircraft, leningrad encircled in september 1941. forces in place for final push for moscow.
Struggle for survival
what was stalins offer to hitler?
by october 1941, stalin had authorised molotov and beria to open secret negotians with germany, for a comrpomise peace. nothing came of this, and hitler was convinced he could win.
-demonstrates the losses of the soviets in the first phase of the war.
Struggle for survival
what was one of hte lowest moments for the USSR in the war ?
renewed german offensivein operation ‘case blue’, fall of rostov on the don in july 19th 1942 was one of the lowest moments ofr the ussr.
Struggle for survival
how did stalingrad turn the tide?
for many weeks in the summer of 1942, it seemed stalingrad would fall to the germans.(9/10ths of the city in german occupatino) stalin refused to evacuate the civilian population. the ussr was building up new armies and new weapons. by october 1942, it was the germans who were on the defensive, fighting for survival. on hitlers orders, they were forbidden to retreat.
-the battle became a symbolic battle between hitler and stlain. eventually turned the tide of the war.
turning the tide
when did the tide of the war turn?
october 1942, to august 1943
turning the tide
what was hitlers mistake in stalnigrad?
hitlers strategic mistake in defending stalingrad made the battle into a catastrophic german defeat, psychologically as well as militarily.
three weeks later after the deffene of stalingrad, in 1942 soviet armies were able to regain the rostov of the don.
turning the tide
how did hitler launch a new soviet offensive? what happened?
in 1943 hitler launched operation citadel, an offensive near kursk in july. the offensive was halted by massive osivet firepower at the battle of prokhorovkka, the biggest tank battle in history, won by the soviets with its massive force of T-34 Tanks.
the battle developed into a springboard for soviet forces to counter attack and regain huge territotires from nazi occupation. the road to berlin was open.
road to berlin
when was the road to berlin?
august 1943-may 1945
road to berlin
what was the new aim of the war? what were the new soviet victoreis?
after kursk, the war was no longer a struggle for survival, but a an offensive war to push the germans all the way back to berlin. from august 1943 to december 1944, there was a chain of soviet victories stretching across eastern europe, reconquering ukraine, lifting the siege of leningrad, invading poland, lithuania, romania nad hungary.
road to berlin
what was a wartime confrence?
in november 1943, stalin, roosevelt and churchill met at tehran, the first ‘big three’ summit to discuss what to do with the allied victory inevitable. the victory howeve, was not swift. retreating german forces proved resiliant. germany continued sneidng millions more to fight the allies.
road to berlin
when did the red army reach berlin?
on the 2nd may 1945, soviet forces occupied the berlin reichstag, raising the soviet flag over it.
The USSR under occupation
what tactics were used as the soviets retreated?
-how many towns and vilages were destroyed?
scorched earth tactics were used, as the Soviet’s contributed to the destruction caused by the Nazis.
-over the course of the war, 1700 soviet towns, along with 70,000 villages were destroyed (both nazis and soviets) Kharkiv is an example of one of these towns.
The USSR under occupation
what was the food,fuel and shelter situation?
-what is an example in terms of leningrad?
food, fuel and shelter in short supply
-during the leningrad seige between autumn 1941 to spring 1944, 600,000 died of hunger and cold.
The USSR under occupation
how many civilian deaths in 1945?
12,000,000
The USSR under occupation
the nazis planned to ‘liberate’ soviet people. did such tactic work?
the plan of the nazi leaders to gain soviet citizens support worked only to a superficial extent in ukraine and the baltic states.
-it eventually failed, with both nazis and soviets being suprised by the loyalty of the soviet citizens . local populations were rapidly alienated by the opressive actions of the german occupieres.
Resilience of the soviet people
what was the role of women in the soviet resistance?
stalin praised the contribution of soviet women to the war effort.
-around 500,000 soviet women served in the war.
highly skilled female soviet pilots and snipers. snipers killed 12,000 german soldeiers.
-wmen made up 41% of the workforce, 80,90% of light industry workforce.
Resilience of the soviet people
how was guerilla warfare used?
stalin ordered the creation of partisan units in occupied terriroty, to operate '“anywhere and everywhere” to cause havoc for the nazis via guerilla warfare.
Propaganda
how was censorship used?
over 1000 writers and artists joined the campaign to report on the fornt.
-their work was controlled by the sovinformburo. everything from prava, to the news sheets tht sholdiers were given was moniteered for ideological mistakes.
-people were imprisoned for ‘defeatist talk’ about news on the front
Propaganda
how was art used?
soviet artists worked to promote soviet propoganda.
-among 200 artists in moscow alone who worked on posters displayed on windows and distributed throughout the country.
Propaganda
how was the russian orthodox church used?
-war was described by church as “holy war”
-as the 1937 census showed that 55% of the population were religious, the orthodox church was used to promote propoganda.
-15,000 orthodox church re-openings.
mistakes of the germans
what were the mistakes of the germans in terms of ideology?
-hitler and nazi generals greatly underestimted the strenght of the soviet people, as they viewed them as a subhuman species of people.
-hitler called for the annihlation of slavic culture with “unmerciful and unrelenting harshness” this greatly alienated the soviet peole, leading to a wave of patriotism, rather than the poor morals the germans wanted.
-during the battle of prokhorovka in 1943, the nazis relied on a small number of technically advanced tanks, while the soviets won with their massive force of cheap, simple T-34 tanks.
Role of the economy
what was the issue of industry early on?
how was it solved?
german invasion and occupation of western ussr in 1941 and early 1942 destroyed the basis of soviet industry and agriculture. much of the gains from the 1930s were lost.
-solution was to relocate and rebuild. equpment, workers, whole factories were packed up, put on 20,000 trains and shifted hundreds of miles to the east, beyond the reach of the germans.
Role of the economy
how was the ussr’s economy strengthened during the war?
3500 new factories created over the course of the war.
-USSR out produced germany in the second half of 1942.
-production concentrade in a few regions. 6 sites made 90% of all tanks.
Role of the economy
how were workers pushed to provide for the economy?
civilian economy neglected. living standards fell on average by 2/5ths. millions severely overworked.
Role of the economy
how was agrilculture pushed to the limit?
farming families received no state rations
-private trade revived for the first time since the NEP.
-state procurement of food from collective farms was arguably more ruthless than during the civil war .
Foreign aid to the USSR
what was lend lease?
the Lend Lease Act of March 1941 in the United States allowed the president to give military aid to britain and the USSR in october.
-great bulk of supplies came from the USA, and also britain and its commonwealth.
-in 1943 and 1944 lend lease contributed 10% of the GDP of he USSR.
Foreign aid to the USSR
what have experts said about the land lease program?
experts have argued that without the land lease program defeat of the germans would have taken 12 to 18 months longer.
Foreign aid to the USSR
what is a specific example of aid?
300,000 american trucks given to the USSR.
