Defeat of the Germans, reasons and results, post war reconstruction Flashcards
Reasons for the defeat of Germany: 4
Hitler’s strategic failures
Soviet military organisation
soviet materiel, production, and manpower
soviet propaganda and terror
Hitler’s strategic failures:
1) What was hugely successful?
2) what was the issue with this?
3) what was inadequate?
4) the German failure to do what was highly significant?
5) What did Hitler’s generals suggest and how did Hitler react?
6) Again, Hitler’s obstinacy in…
1) German Summer offensives 1941 and 1942 hugely successful in making rapid progress through Soviet Union territory.
2) difficult to sustain- required supplying over thousands of miles of terrain.
3) German equipment and clothing inadequate for winter conditions. Soviet equipment was more suited to winter fighting, and the successful defence of Leningrad Stalingrad and Moscow were all achieved in winter months
4) German failure to capture either of the capitals or Stalingrad was highly significant. The fall of any of these cities would’ve proved a fatal blow to Soviet morale and the governments ability to continue the war.
5) Hitler’s general suggested a renewed attack on Moscow in the summer, but Hitler chose to move south towards oilfields in 1492.
6) Again, Hitler’s obstinacy in denying Paulus the opportunity to break out of Stalingrad provided Stalin with the propaganda coup and demonstrated that the German army was not unconquerable.
Soviet military reorganisation
1) what was the soviet military organised around and when?
2) Staffing changes? VAN
3) what had proved ineffective in the first months of the war and how was it reformed?
4) what did Stalin realise?
5) When did the culture of the military change and how?
6) Who is much credit owed to? What was Z good at. What was Z promoted as?
1)Soviet military reorganised 1942
army organised around motorised divisions that could emulate German tactics
2)Vasilevsky was made chief of staff in July 1942
Chief of Operations Antonov appointed in December 1942
Novikov appointed to reorganise the airforce
3)air force was ineffective in the first months of the war. Novikov ensured that ‘air armies’ were concentrated and able for intervention at ‘crucial junctures in battle’.
Novikov also ensured the construction of dummy airfields near to the front to divert the Luftwaffe.
4)Stalin realised the benefits of listening to professionals. He insisted on listening to the advice from front commanders and became more open to hearing the harsh truth.
5)October 1942- political commissars removed from smaller units, traditional methods of hierarchy and discipline and reintroduction of elite guard units contributed to a professional rather than political military culture.
6) much credit owed to Zhukov and Antonov. Zhukov presented well designed plans . Stalin promoted Zhukov Deputy Supreme Commander even though Stalin was jealous of his success and popularity
Soviet material, production and manpower:
1)What dramatically improved production?
2)Soviet tanks:
ratio of Soviet-German tank production
what type of tanks and what did they continue to be?
what new type of tank and when?
what ratio was equalised.
3)what played an enormous part in Soviet victory?
4)What was a positive and a negative?
what did German forces do and how did Russians counter?
5)How many soviet citizens died as a result of the War? How many left incapacitated through injury?
6)What did Davies state?
1)foreign aid dramatically improved production and enabled the Soviet war machine to out-produce its German rival.
2) Soviet tank production out did German tank production by a ratio of over 4:3.
Two thirds of Soviet tanks were T-34s which continued to be modified and improved
The IS-2 Joseph Stalin heavy tank was introduced in 1944
Improved tank use- 7:1 tank loss Soviets v Germans was equalised.
3) the tireless determination of the Soviet military and civilian population
4)Soviet command accepting of heavy casualties.
-German forces advanced with Soviet prisoners in front of them, commanders ordered soldiers to disregard the lives of the citizens in the higher interests of the Soviet people and open fire.
Sacrificial units formed from gulag inmates sent to walk into minefields
4)26 million Soviet citizens died, 24 million incapacitated
5)Davies states in 1942 1.5 million of the 2.5 million prisoners in camps were engaged in forced labour, particularly in construction, mining and timber.
Soviet Propaganda and terror
1)What did the NKVD have full licence to do?
what did this play a considerable part in?
2)who was made responsible for who?
3)What order acted to what?
4)What was Stalin transformed into?
what was played down in favour of what?
5) What does McDermott note?
6)What was overall a motivating factor for the civilians
7)What counter productive programme?
1) NKVD had full licence to deal with enemies of the State as military threats, which played a considerable part in maintaining order in Leningrad and Moscow.
2) apartment managers directly responsible for their tenants
3) Order 227 acted to equate panic with desertion, and becoming a prisoner of war was an act of treason as every soldier should fight to the death
4) Stalin was transformed into a national military leader. Marxist Leninism was played down in favour of the imagery of mother Russia.
5) McDermott notes how Stalin exploited the ‘usable past’ to engender patriotic fervour with the promotion of Russian language, literature, history and the sacredness of the soil itself.
6) overall, German ill-treatment of the occupied West, a passionate anti German attitude that took hold.
7) Counter productive deportation programme in 1941- 450,000 Volga Germans sent to siberia and central Asia
Post War reconstruction:
% of people killed in the war were men- this included a ?/? of all young males
by ___ women outnumbered men by nearly __ million at a ratio of nearly ?:?
what quickly grew as the war ended?
what was abruptly stopped?
Alongside the _______ and ____ that took place with the defeat and occupation of Germany, the NKDV…
What played a minimal role in Soviet economy?
the number of children in ____ __ __________ was reduced.
By____ what was restored?
What was mainly retained?
70%
1/3
by 1946 women outnumbered men by nearly 22 million at a ratio of nearly 4:3
suspicion and mistrust grew between the Soviet Union and Western Allies as the war ended.
The lend lease programme was abruptly stopped in September 1945 once Japan had been secured.
Alongside the looting and rape that took place with the defeat and occupation of Germany, the NKVD organised the wholesale export of industrial and scientific equipment including German technicians and their families to the soviet Union.
Reparations played a minimal role in Soviet recovery, Davies estimates this around 1.5% of GNP.
the number of children in post 15 education was reduced. This had implications for a trained workforce
By 1950 pre war levels of children in education up to 15 was restored
The war’s recuitment of a higher proportion of women into the workforce was almost mainly retained. However they remained less well paid and in less senior positions
Fourth 5 year plan:
when?
emphasis on?
succeeded in?-investment in–_____ production exceeded what—conversion of what?
1)1946-1950
2)emphasis on heavy industry and capital goods
3)succeeded in slightly exceeding pre war levels
-investment in capital goods increased by 21%
-by 1950 oil, coal, electricity and steel production exceeded planned targets.
-conversion of armaments factories to durable goods production (bedsteads, radios, clocks) increased by 250%
-
1) Conditions improve or worsen?
2) what did Graeme Gill claim?
3) what remained below pre war levels
1) Conditions worsened and discipline was tightened
2) Graeme Gill claims that ‘the physical demands of the war snapped energy out of the Soviet people’ and growth rates remained disappointing.
3) consumer goods remained below pre war levels
Agriculture:
1) grain harvest in 1950:
2) agriculture was dependent on:
3) many young men:
4) What was re-imposed?
5) where and when was there famine?
6) What remained very low while what increased?
7) what received little investment?
8) production of what matched what when?
9) what was there a greater emphasis on?
10) what did the early 1950s see?
1) still below pre war level and per head was lower than pre First World War levels.
2) agriculture was dependent on a largely ageing and female labour force
3) many young men left villages to find work in towns
4) collectivised practice was re-imposed and newly imposed in the newly created Baltic states.
5) serious famine in Ukraine in 1946
6) State payments for procurement of grain remained very low, while the cost of basic commodities had multiplied tenfold 1928-52
7) collective farms received little investment in their social amenities.
8) production of consumer goods nearly matched that of capital goods 1950-52
9) greater emphasis on incentives and profit and loss accounting and relaxation of controls over the movement of labour.
10) the early 1950s saw a further shift towards an industrialised economy, agriculture falling from 47-20% of the economy 1928-55 and increase in industry from 20-37% 28-55
