6. (c) Significance of Hitler’s Decision to Invade Russia in 1941

Question 1

What were Hitler’s economic motivations for invading the USSR?

Answer 1

To give Germany access to vast reserves of fuel, food, and raw materials (self-sufficiency); land for German people to work and live on; would create closed economic system; would give access to forced labour reserves

Question 2

What role may Britain have played in causing Hitler’s decision to invade the USSR?

Answer 2

Britain had refused to react to Hitler’s peace-feelers in June 1940. So, was it British intransigence that prompted Hitler to bring forth his plans for war against the USSR?

Hitler felt that, if he could get the USSR to surrender, Britain would also do so.

Question 3

Describe one other reason Hitler decided to invade the USSR.

Answer 3

1. Anti-communist motives/ideological struggle between Nazism (the Nazis perceived themselves as ‘forces of light’, eptiomised by the German racial state) and communism/the conspiracy planned in name of Judeo-communism

You could have also said:

• Racial terms: extermination of millions of Jews, Roma and Slavs and creation of new, ‘racially pure’ super-state, but also the German perception of the Russians as racially inferior led Hitler to believe that they would not be able to defeat the German army
• Political terms: would confirm superiority of Nazism; German concern about mounting Soviet ambitions
• Hubris: Hitler believing he would succeed

Question 4

When did Hitler invade the USSR?

Answer 4

22nd June, 1941

Question 5

How did the invasion of the USSR mark the widening scope of regions exposed to the conflict?

Answer 5

• USSR was involved
• Nazi Germany invaded Soviet-occupied eastern Poland as part of its attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941.
• September 1942: When the Germans reached the outskirts of Stalingrad and approached Groznyy in the Caucasus, this was the furthest extent of German domination during WWII.

Question 6

How did the invasion of the USSR later mean the ‘turn of the tide’ for Germany?

Answer 6

• Later on into the invasion of the USSR came the Battle of Stalingrad from 17th July, 1942 to 2nd February, 1943. This was a key turning point in the war, as this German offensive failed.
• Surrender of 300,000 troops at Stalingrad marked the beginning of the Soviet counter-offensive, showing that the German armies were no longer invincible

Question 7

Describe one other reason for the significance of Hitler’s decision to invade the USSR in 1941.

Answer 7

1. Allied alliance solidified: The most important factor influencing the Soviets to enter into an alliance with the USA when the US joined the war in December 1941 was the invasion of the USSR by Germany.

Other answers could be:

• Non-aggression element of Nazi-Soviet Pact overridden
• Racial war: The invasion of the USSR in June 1941 marked a decisive development in the racial war, as SS Einsatzgruppen (death squads) moved in behind the advancing armies. By 1943, over 2 million Soviet Jews had probably been murdered by various German organisations. With the invasion of Russia, there was also the growing question of how the Jews should be dealt with, leading to Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’.