chapter 19: Stalinism in wartime

What was launched in June 1941?

German invasion of USSR, operation Barbarossa

What areas did operation Barbarossa target?

Leningrad in the north, Moscow in the centre and Kiev in the south.

Where did the Germans target in 1642?

Caucasus oil fields to the south, with an attack on Stalingrad, the battle at Kursk in 1643 allowed the soviets to drive the germans back.

What did Stalin authorise in the first weeks Second World War?

Shooting of more officers for 'cowardice' when they failed to prevent the advance of the Germans, senior officers who brought bad news were likely to be arrested.

What allowed a halt to the German advance?

Zhukov's counter offensive in December 1941.

Why did operation Barbarossa take Stalin by surprise?

He was well informed by military officers and British intelligence who forewarned him, he suspected Hitlers attack was a 'limited act of provocation'.

German forces for blitzkerg invasion on USSR

3 million soldiers, 7184 artillery guns, 3850 tanks and 740,000 horses supported by German air force.

Who did Stalin leave public war announcements to?

Molotov, who had to inform the nation of the German invasion to which "the enemy will be smashed, victory will be ours"

What was set up for military planning?

23 June, Stavka made responsible for all military planning, consisted of all Marshalls, chief of general staff and heads of the various military services.

Stalin's response to German invasion

On 30th June withdraws to dacha, and is not seen in public for 10 days.

What is set up by the politburo?

State defence committee (GKO) on the 30th June, a civilian body responsible for organisation and coordination, with absolute authority over all party and state to direct wartime economy as a group of 5.

When does Stalin reassure authority?

1 July, as head of government, leader in Stavka and GKO.

What does Stalin call for on the 3rd July?

Unity through the "issue is one of life and death for the people of the USSR; the issue is whether the peoples of the Soviet Union shall be free or fall into slavery"

What did Stalin increasingly do as war leader?

Make speeches to the public, appealing to the people's love of their country and the threat to their culture.

What did Stalin insist upon Germans nearing Moscow?

The annual red square parade, held on the anniversary of the revolution should take place as long.

Who did Stalin increasingly rely on throughout the war?

Georgi Zhukov

who was Georgi Zhukov?

A civil war veteran, in august 1942 appointed deputy commander-in-chief of the red army, organised the defence of Stalingrad and forced surrender of German 6th army and led the final assault of Germany in 1945.

Empire's response to Germany's invasion

Large numbers in Estonia, Lithuania, Belorussian and Ukraine welcomed German soldiers as liberators became known as collaborationists.

Hilfwillige

Those willing to help the germans, as drivers, cooks hospital attendants and messengers.

What was formed in Ukraine?

The Russian liberation movement under Andrey Vlasov, becoming division of Wafen-SS with 50,000 soldiers at its peak.

How many from the USSR joined hitler?

Over a million, with 250,000 cossacks even if only holding minor roles.

Why did Nazi ideology disadvantage Germans?

Slavs were seen as inferior and could not fight alongside aryans, failing to capitalise on their potential support.

What created the largest partisan in the Soviet Union?

Nazi policy of killing 75% of the slavs and condemning the rest to slavery in Belorussia.

What did winning the war rely on?

'terror-tactics' for the army and civilian population.

What did Stalin order in July 1942 on attack on Stalingrad?

Order 227 'Not one step backwards', any soldier who fell behind or tried or retreat was to be shot on sight, with more than 150,000 sentenced to death.

What were created for those who broke war discipline?

Penal battalions and labelled as cowards, sent to the front to undertake dangerous Jons such as clearing minefields for redemption. With 50% casualty rates.

What was dissolved in August 1941?

The Volga German autonomous republic, and sent its people east.

What was the Volga German autonomous republic?

An autonomous republic within the Russian SFSR, established in 1918 and abolished in 1941. It was formed in response to the Russian Revolution and aimed to recognize the cultural and ethnic identity of the Volga Germans.

Who were deported from homelands?

'Suspect' ethnic groups, Karachi, kalmyks, Chechans, inguishi and more with around 1.5 million people forced to uproot.

How did Stalin address grievances of army officers?

Downgraded the role of the political commissars attached to army units and brought back special badges of rank, also placed emphasis on the political education of the troops.

Party membership during the war

5 million candidate members and 3.6 million new members joined the party.

Army influence on party

By 1945, a quarter of those in armed forces were communists, with 20% members of Komsomol.

What did the war strengthen?

Belief in the communist system over facism

German occupied territory by 1941

Territory contained 63% of country's coal, 68% of iron, 58% of its steel, 45% of its railways and 41% of fertile land.

Scorched earth policy

Destroying anything useful to the enemy before retreating; Stalin ordered soldiers and civilians to deny the German troops basic supplies.

What were transplanted from western Russia to the east?

1523 soviet factories with their workers from July and November 1941.

What allowed the prosper of the military?

Industrial growth from five year plans, with production focused on the military and railways built or redirected to front line.

What were established to supervise different sections of wartime production?

People's commissars, such as tanks, aircrafts and guns.

Why was the wartime economy successful?

System was already highly centralised, with a planned economy. With the whole population harnessed for war and labour controls.

Where was funding allocated in the war?

By end of 1942, had risen from 29% to 57%, with munitions manufacture at 76% of all production. In the Urals 3500 new industrial enterprises were built during the war.

Growth in military production

1940 - 63 million in munitions to 238 million in 1942.

What was superior to Germany by 1943?

Industrial output and quality of weapons, with the T-34 tank and Yak-1 fighter being among the best.

Food harvest of 1942

Grain harvest was only 1/3 of that of 1940.

How was survival ensured?

Strict rationing and demanding quotas on collective farms, but peasants were allowed to keep private plots and sell their produce.

What did the UK and USA provide to USSR?

Essential war materials, such as lorries, tyres and telephones carried to Murmansk or sent from Iran.

Foreign military equipment

17.5 million tons from the west, 94% from the USA

Lend-Lease scheme

USA supplied USSR with food and wartime material between 1941 and august 1945; as free aid but was expected that major items would be returned after the war.

How much did USSR receive under lend-lease scheme?

11 billion dollars of aid from the USA, 6430 planes, 3734 tanks, 104 ships, 210,000 vehicles.

How was USSR agriculture survived?

5 million tonnes of food from USA

Response to German invasion

Recruitment stations flooded with volunteers, with 120,000 in Moscow alone, allowing Russian society to reunite.

What were instructed to 'manage society'?

Central authorities made responsible for redeployment of labour.

What was introduced in December 1941?

A law mobilising all undrafted workers for war work, with all men aged 16 to 55 and all women from 16 to 45.

Changes in working structure in war

Working day increased to 12 hours, with average working week of 70-77 hours, factories were placed martial law.

Conditions in factories

Severe punishments for negligence, lateness or absenteeism, with unauthorised absences classed as desertion and punishable by death.

Discipline in the army

Became an offence to be taken captive, while in captivity a soldiers' family's ration cards were confiscated.

Casualties in war

Between 1941 and 1945 8.6 million soldiers were killed Stalin saw the soldiers lives as expendable for the greater good.

Deaths caused by starvation

Of the 25 million deaths, 1/4 were from starvation, as comprehensive rationing system was maintained but allowances were low.

State of domestic industry

Housing and fuel shortages, with refugees fleeing the German advance, as priority was placed on factory building not accommodation.

Gulag slave labour

Produced 15% of all soviet ammunition and large proportion of uniforms.

Death rate in Labour camps in 1942

25%

What did Stalin encourage?

Echoed 'great patriotic war', people were encouraged to sacrifice themselves in the interests of the 'Holy Mother Russia' against godless invaders.

What did Posters commonly display?

'Everything for victory', 'Long live our Motherland, her freedom, her independence! Death to the German invaders!'

How was patriotism harnessed?

Through intense propaganda, with non-Russian nationalities welcomed into Russia, with widely anti-german tendencies.

What was replaced in 1943?

The socialist anthem (Internationale), by new nationalistic dog of the motherland.

Growth in toleration under war

Artists expressed national reconciliation, eg Anna Akhmatova - a poet was brought back to broadcast patriotic verse on the radio.

Maria Yudina

concert pianist flown into leningrad during the siege in 1943, where she performed both live and on the radio with poetry recitals in the intervals

What were reopened?

Churches, The Russian Patriarch was restored and clergy were released from camps, but priests and bishops had to swear an oath to the soviet state.

What were Churches used as

To lift morale, encouraging attendance, where services became patriotic gatherings calling for victory and defiance of the germans praising Stalin.

How was family reemphasised?

July 1944, taxes were increased for those with fewer than two children, restrictions on divorce were tightened and abortion was forbidden.

What mothers of more than two praised as?

'Heroines to the Soviet Union', undermining earlier communist organisations.

Soviet workforce by 1945

Over half of all soviet workers were and 4/5 of all land workers were female.

Role of women in army

Half a million women fought as pilots, snipers and tank commanders.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko

Lady Death: killed 311 men in less than twelve months, including many snipers; had to prove herself as a marksman before she was allowed to join the Red Army.

Partisans

In occupied German territory, military forces of resistance, citizens formed together by guerrilla warfare with over 300,00 by 1943 and over a million by 1945.

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

'Hero of the Soviet Union' - refused to betray her comrades when caught by germans as she cut telephone cables. Photos of her tortued body was used as propaganda against the Nazis.

What developed as red army moved against the Germans in 1944-45?

Satellite states, in central and Eastern Europe, allowing the red army to impose authority, including Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Germany.

How did Stalin benefit publicly from wartime?

His reputation soared, praised as a national superhero with doubts on his leadership incompressible by 1945.

How was Stalin personally effected by war?

Became increasingly paranoid, with suspicions of enemies grown, regarded prisoners of war as tainted with western values due to survival.

Treatment of returned prisoners of war

Transferred directly to soviet labour camps,

Treatment of Cossacks after war

Wiped out for retribution for their support of German armies, with servicemen interrogated by the NKVD in 'filtration camps'.

Effect of Stalinist system (government) in war

Stalin claimed it had 'proved its unquestionable vitality' , allowed the government to become a popular nationalist government internationally. With a reputation as a great military power.

What did Stalin portray victory as?

Victory for the system, not the people, with no desire to run the USSR differently to pre-war state.

Effect of war on the people

25 million people in western provinces lived in wooden huts, but war years were largely easier for the soviet people, as it brought state and people closer.

What spread new liberal thinking?

Comradeship among soldiers, as they saw more of the West, with a movement towards greater liberalisation.

Statistic impact of war

19 milllion civilian deaths, 9 million soldiers killed, 1200 towns destroyed, 70,000 villages destroyed 65,000km of railways destroyed.