INCLASS-Lead up to WW1

Question 1

Why had Stalin adopted a compromise rather than confrontation foreign policy of “Socialism in One Country”?

Answer 1

as this reduced a likely invasion from a united western front against the USSR at a time of military weakness.

Question 2

Why was it no longer possible to maintain the conciliatory approach with Germany post 1933?

Answer 2

As Hitler’s rise in Germany meant that the two countries were directly opposed ideologically

Question 3

Why was it in the Soviet’s interest to join the League of Nations?

Answer 3

as this was Stalin’s earliest opportunity to reduceisolation and to call for the adoption of the principle of collective security in international affairs.

Question 4

What year was the Pact between USSR, France and Czechoslovakia promising ‘mutual alliance’ if one suffered a military attack?

Answer 4

1935

Question 5

What did the 1935 Pact between the USSR, France and Czechoslovakia promise?

Answer 5

a mutual alliance’ if one suffered a military attack.

Question 6

How was the gain which Stalin Stalin achieved in his new approach to foreign policy proved largely superficial?

Answer 6

asWhile collective security was impressive as a principle, it did not work in practice in the 1930’s as Europe’s two most powerful states, France and Britain, were not prepared to risk war to uphold a principle. Without their participation, there was no possibility of collective security becoming a reality.

Question 7

What year was the Anti-Comintern Pact signed by Germany, Japan and Italy?

Answer 7

1936

Italy 1937

Question 8

What did the Anti-Comintern Pact of 1936 threaten?

Answer 8

threatened to destroy all the efforts made by the Soviet Union to establish security

Question 9

What strengthened Western suspicion of Stalinist Russia?

Answer 9

his consistent purges between 1936-1938 Yezhovchina made making alliances with a nation of such treachery and tyranny unlikley.

Question 10

What year was the Munich Agreement which had isolated the USSR?

Answer 10

1938

Question 11

What agreement was made in 1938?

Answer 11

The Munich Agreement/Conference

Question 12

Who was the Munich agreement between?

Answer 12

France,Britain, Italy and Germany

Question 13

What was the Munich agreement between France, Britain, Italy and Germany a response to?

Answer 13

to the climax of the Czech crisis where Hitler had demanded that the Sudetenland, an area which in 1919 had been incorporated into Czechoslovakia, be a-part of Germany; threatening invasion which was in breach of the Versailles Settlement

Question 14

What did the Munich Agreement grant Hitler?

Answer 14

all his major demands with Britain and France being unprepared to resist him militarily.

Question 15

How was the Munich Settlement seen by Russia?

Answer 15

as an act of appeasement as part of the Anglo-French policy of avoiding war by making concessions to the aggressor, Germany. Stalin saw the conference as a gathering of anti-Soviet nations, intent on giving Germany a free hand to attack a diplomatically isolated USSR.

Question 16

In what year did Litinov and Molotov, his successor as foreign secretary, deliver a series of formal alliance proposals to the French and British governments, though unanswered?

Answer 16

1939

Question 17

What measures did the USSR take in 1939 to attempt to resolve their diplomatic isolation?

Answer 17

Litinov and Molotov, his successor as foreign secretary,delivered a series of formal alliance proposals to the French and British governments, though unanswered

Question 18

What year was the Nazi-Soviet Pact between Germany and USSR?

Answer 18

1939

Question 19

What was the “ Secret Additional Protocol “ agreed in the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939?

Answer 19

this agreed that the USSR would take over the Baltic States and Poland would be divided between Germany and the USSR

Question 20

The pact defied history and logic. What was the axiom Stalin acted on in defending the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939?

Answer 20

“If you can’t beat them, join them”

Question 21

How did the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 first appear fruitful for the USSR?

Answer 21

1)Germany were free to conduct their war against the west while in the east the USSR added to its Polish prize by taking hold of the Baltic States, southern Finland and Bessarabia-Bukovina

Question 22

The Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 first proved fruitful with Germany free to conduct its war against France and Britain in the west while Russia did what?

Answer 22

While Russiaadded to its Polish prize by taking hold of the Baltic States, southern Finland and Bessarabia-Bukovina. By 1941 Soviet Russia had regained all the territories lost in WW1.

Question 23

by what year had Soviet Russia regained all the territories lost in WW1?

Answer 23

1941

Question 24

What was the chief objective of Soviet Foreign Policy which the 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact guaranteed?

Answer 24

freedom from a western attack and the suppression of Communism

Question 25

How was Hitler’s attack on Russia inevitable?

Answer 25

as Hitler’s clear aims set out in Mein Kampf that Germany’s destiny was to expand eastwards at the expense of the Slav nations, including Russia.

Question 26

What did mein Kampf say was Germany’s destiny?

Answer 26

to expand eastwards at the expense of the Slav nations, including Russia.

Question 27

What year was Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union?

Answer 27

1941

Question 28

How did Stalin explain that Operation Barbarossa was fake at first?

Answer 28

he told officials that British counter intelligence distorted the picture of German manoeuvres to make them appear as though it was an invasion;

Question 29

Stalin at first told officials that British counter-intelligence distorted the picture of German manoeuvres to make them appear as though it was an invasion; how did he specifically address them in May 1941?

Answer 29

by refusing them to respond in any way to prevent a provocative response from Germany.

Question 30

Why was Stalin sure that Germany would not invade despite the alleged Operation Barbarossa?

Answer 30

as he was assured that Germany would not risk a two-front war.

Question 31

Where did news reach 1 week before Operation Barbarossa in 1941 which warned that Germany was intent on invasion?

Answer 31

the Kremlin

Question 32

Who was Sorge?

Answer 32

A Comintern agent in Japan

Question 33

Sorge was a Comintern agent in Japan, what did he provide Stalin- though was still ignored?

Answer 33

he provided hard evidenced report on Germany’s assault on Russia a week before the invasion;

Question 34

How did Stalin respond to Sorge’s hard evidenced report that Germany were to invade?

Answer 34

Stalin wrote dismissively of it believing it to be a ‘German misinformation.’

Question 35

What has ian Kenshaw suggested that Stalin’s refusal to acknowledge the imminent German invasion can be explained by?

Answer 35

by his denial as the Soviet army were simply not strong enough to make a pre-emptive strike against Germany; Stalin had hoped Soviet resistance would deter German aggression.

Question 36

Even as troops crossed Soviet borders, why were wagons and Lorries loaded with materials to be sent to Germany ?

Answer 36

under the terms of the Nazi-Soviet Pact

Question 37

Personally, why was Stalin rigid in his defence that Germany were not invading?

Answer 37

as The Nazi-Soviet Pact had been projected as an example of Stalin’s matchless statesmanship and so he feared public humiliation.

Question 38

Arguably Stalin’s greatest mistake was not in misreading German intentions in 1941, but was what?

Answer 38

but in having decimated his armed services in the purge of 1938-39. The Soviet army was so ill-prepared to face the greatest invasion in Russian history.

Question 39

Ian Kershaw drew attention to the admission made by Marshal Zhokov that after the war. What did he say?

Answer 39

thathad Stalin accepted the plan put forward by some of his generals for a pre-emptive strike to start in May, then all the probabilities were that the Soviet forces would have been smashed beyond recovery and the USSR defeated in 1941.

Question 40

Who said that Stalin’s refusal to acknowledge the imminent German invasion can be explained by his denial as the Soviet army were simply not strong enough to make a pre-emptive strike against Germany; Stalin had hoped Soviet resistance would deter German aggression?

Answer 40

Ian Kershaw

Question 41

Germany invaded Russia with (4)…?

Answer 41

• 3 million troops
• 0.5 million motorized vehicles
• 4000 tanks
• 3000 aircrafts

Question 42

Germany invaded Russia with how many troops?

Answer 42

3,000

Question 43

While Germany invaded Russia with •	3 million troops
•	0.5 million motorised vehicles 
•	4000 tanks 
•	3000 aircrafts 
how did the Soviet compare?(3)

Answer 43

• Matched Germany in the number of troops
• Had 4 times the number of tanks
• 3 times the number of aircraft

Question 44

by what year had Hitler calculated total victory for his armies?

Answer 44

1942

Question 45

Hitler had calculated total victory for his armies by 1942. Why did he not?

Answer 45

because of • Stalin’s recovery of nerve
• The lateness of launching Barbarossa
• General Winter which the Russian’s were equip for
• Nazi racism

Question 46

How did Stalin appeal in his first radio broadcast of the war for the people?

Answer 46

he appealed that his people “defend mother russia” by adopting methods of warfare that had saved the nation in the glorious past.

Question 47

Stalin had refused to abscond Moscow in spite of its likely fall to the German’s, when?

Answer 47

October 1941

Question 48

By how many weeks did events elsewhere in Europe delay Operation Baraborossa?

Answer 48

6 weeks

Question 49

Between what years was there thick mud from a torrential autumn, followed by severe snow and ice which had slowed the German movement?

Answer 49

1941-42

Question 50

How was the weather an advantage for the Soviet?

Answer 50

as while the thick mud from a torrential autumn and thick snow and ice between 1941-42 slowed the German movement, Russian forces were able to regroup and begin counter-attacks under Marshal Zhukov in DEC 1941

Question 51

What did the secret Clause in the Nazi-Soviet Pact do?

Answer 51

this divided Poland into German and Russian zones, while also recognizing the Baltic states as under the USSR’s jurisdiction

Question 52

In what year did war between Finland and the USSR break out, known as the Winter War?

Answer 52

1939

Question 53

Although the USSR were victorious in the Winter War of 1939, what was a disadvantage:?

Answer 53

the fact that the USSR faced numerous humiliating defeats, with deaths approaching c200,000 until a peace treaty was signed in 1940

Question 54

When did Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany, and later Italy.?

Answer 54

1936

Question 55

What year were Manchurian forces annihilated by the Red Army?

Answer 55

1939

Question 56

After Voroshilov was repaced as Commissar for Defence by ________, harsher discipline was inflicted?

Answer 56

Timoshenko