This is a two page summary on the USSR's involvement in the second world war with the tactics of both the Nazis and the Soviets as well as covering the Nazi-soviet pact and the initial tensions in Europe.
1930s - a lot of tension in Europe and lots of predictions that there would be another war. League
of nations had been created, but America had not joined making it weak.
1929 - wall streets crash and economy crashes in America and Europe was greatly affected. Most
countries went into a great depression. Inflation. Doubts around democracy.
Stalin knew that communism wasn’t popular but if tension built up in Europe a war could break
out and it would be extremely risky if the USSR was then brought into it, and due to their previous
track record, they would become a target and they could loose all the power they had just spent
money and effort building up. The USSR was still quite industrially backward and their army was
very unprepared compared to the rest of the world - people mainly worked and the officers had
been purged off before this time. All production had been focused on things beside tanks,
ammunition etc..
Nazi-soviet pact -
In August 1939 the pact was signed by both countries to agree that neither the USSR nor
Germany would attack each other - they consequently and privately agreed to share Poland.
Stalin had not thought that Britain or France would become an ally to the USSR due to the fact
that they were both anti communist and had been seen previously to try and appease Hitler. Stalin
wasn’t ready for war, so he tried to make the agreement in the hopes that he could delay it the
USSR’s involvement.
1941 - Hitler breaks the previously signed pact. Thus the start of the USSr’s involvement in WW2.
Germany is now in control of most of eastern Europe which allows them to conduct the invasion
of the USSR. The Nazis had aimed to attack: Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad. Initially the
invasion was very successful and they get deep. Stalin collapsed under the pressure and
abandoned his power, he left Moscow and went to his house, not answering the phone to anyone
even his advisors who were trying to gauge some kind of instruction in how to run the country
while he was MIA. Thus no one was making any decisions. Stalin believed and genuinely trusted
Hitler, he simply couldn’t believe that Germany would attack Russia - this was his biggest
mistake. The cult of personality in the USSR decreased somewhat during WW2 in case they lost
the war.
Most of the soviet industry was in the west and closer to the border between Russia and where
Nazi Germany was invading. If they had lost the factories, they could not have produced anything
and for that to have fallen into Hitler’s hand would have been a disaster. Collectivisation had been
very unpopular in Ukraine that they cheered the Nazi’s on and welcomed the invasion, further
bridging the gap and allowing the Nazis to get closer.
The reason for the Nazis initial success was that the USSR was so unprepared and took Stalin by
surprise. German army had been very successful for the previous two years and had been
preparing for several years.
The soviets moved as much as they could behind the Ural Mountains so they could keep the
factories away from the Nazis and continue to produce weapons and ammunition. Anything that
could have been used by the opposition that they could not save, was destroyed. (a.k.a the
scorched earth policy)
The temperature dropped to below 0 which made it incredibly cold - the nazi’s were not prepared
for the dramatic weather.
In 1943, a huge soviet army was arranged under Zhukov who defeated the Nazis at Stalingrad,
and after February, the Nazis were forced to surrender at Leningrad and Moscow. After which time
Zhukov pushed the German back and reached Berlin in April 1945. This was a huge turning point
in the war for the soviets.
Causes for the soviet success….
German mistakes. Stalin’s dictatorship
They had come unprepared for A lot of the key decisions had been made by Stalin as
the climate and Hitler decided to dictator like moving the factories etc.. and he had been
focus all the army strength on responsible for the military tactics used to fight against the
Stalingrad. But due to the lack of Nazis including putting together the army under Zhukov.
German preparation for the And it was he who provided the leadership and inspired
weather, the Russians were able patriotism throughout the country.
to surround and attack the Nazis.
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