The Great Patriotic War Flashcards
1
Q
How long had Hitler been prepping for Operation Barbarossa
A
October 1940
2
Q
How have the German armed forces been described
A
experienced, battle-hardened and well equipped
3
Q
when was the invasion of the USSR originally scheduled for
A
1st June
4
Q
why was Operation Barbarossa delayed
A
the policies of Hitler’s Italian allies had caused a crisis in Yugoslavia
5
Q
when did the Siege of Leningrad start
A
8th September 1941
6
Q
When was the Battle of Moscow
A
December 1941
7
Q
When was the renewed German offensive towards the Caucasus oil fields
A
July 1942
8
Q
When did the German army surround Stalingrad
A
November 1942
9
Q
When did the German army surrender at Stalingrad
A
February 1943
10
Q
When was the Battle of Kursk, a start of a long German retreat
A
July 1943
11
Q
When was the end of the Leningrad siege
A
January 1944
12
Q
When was the Soviet victory in the Battle for Berlin
A
May 1945
13
Q
When was the launch of Operation Barbarossa
A
22 June 1941
14
Q
what approach did the German army take
A
three-headed spear - north through the Baltic states towards Leningrad, South and east into Ukraine and a central thrust towards Moscow
15
Q
What left the Soviets unprepared for war
A
Stalin’s miscalculations
16
Q
What did Stalin do in reference to reports about a German offensive
A
he ignored foreign sources that said that German invasion was imminent
17
Q
What did Stalin do after the Nazi invasion
A
he shrank away from making a radio broadcast to the people; that task was left to Molotov
18
Q
what had it appeared had happened to Stalin
A
He had lost his nerve, expecting that the people and the party would blame him and turn against him
19
Q
How long did it take Stalin to make a radio speech
A
nearly two weeks (3rd July)
20
Q
What did Stalin appeal to in his speech
A
patriotism and religion, and ti unity among the nationalities
21
Q
What did Stalin say in his speech to try and unite the Russian people
A
“he aims to bring back the power of the landowners and restore Tsarism, to destroy the national culture and statehood of Russians, Ukrainians, Belorussians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Uzbeks, Tatars, Moldovans, Georgians, Armenians, and other free people of the Soviet Union”
22
Q
What was Stalin guilty of
A
errors and poor leadership in the early stages of the war
23
Q
What was the issue with Stalin at the beginning of the war
A
he had a panic attack after the invasion and failed to give leadership in the first weeks; he prepared to move the government away from Moscow, to Samara on the Volga, and only decided at the last moment to stay in Moscow
24
Q
Who was Stalin too reliant on
A
his inferior commanders, who had been promoted for political reasons after the purge of the army
25
What did Stalin do in September 1941
he helped to cause a massive defeat of his southern armies at Kiev by refusing to allow them to retreat until it was too late; he also showed no urgency in defending Leningrad after it was besieged
26
What became an effective mechanism to war
Stavka (the war cabinet)
27
what had to happen to the Stavka for it to become successful
a long series of defeats and disasters
28
What saved Stalin
the size of Russia, with its huge population, and vast distances
the severity of the Russian winter
the patriotism of the Soviet people
29
What did Stalin do well
he learned from his mistakes, and eventually was to receive accolades as the 'Great War Hero'
30
What helped Stalin avoid another invasion from a different side
advance information about the intentions of Japan
31
who provided the advance information about Japan
the master spy Richard Sorge
32
What happened to the spy Sorge
he was executed in Tokyo in 1944
33
when were Kiev and Ukraine lost
19 September 1941
34
when were troops transferred from Siberia to Moscow
18 October 1941
35
When did German forces halt close to Moscow and how close were they
27th November 1941, they were 20km away
36
When was the German drive on Moscow halted
5 December 1941
37
When were there big german victories in Ukraine
31 May 1942
38
When was case blue and what was it
the German offensive towards Caucasus oilfields, on 28 June 1942
39
When was the fall of the Rostov on the Don
24th July 1942
40
When was the start of the bombardment of Stalingrad
23 August 1942
41
When did the German advance at Stalingrad halt
12 October 1942
42
Where did the German armies encircle in the early points of the invasion
Minsk, Smolensk, Kiev
43
how many soldiers were captured at Minsk and Smolensk
665,000
44
How many Soviet soldiers surrendered after the fall of Kiev on 19 September
half a million
45
When did Soviet leadership offer negotiations for a compromise peace
15th October
46
What sidetracked Case Blue
Hitler's decision to divert forces to the capture of Stalingrad
47
What made Stalingrad into a catastrophic defeat
Hitler's strategic mistake in persisting with defending Stalingrad to the death
48
What had happened to Hitler by early 1943
he was running out of men, resources and time
49
what was the offensive launched near Kursk in July
Operation Citadel
50
What was the biggest tank battle in History
Battle of Prokhorovka
51
What tank helped the Red Army win the Battle of Prokhorovka
the massed force of T-34 tanks
52
When did Hitler call off the Kursk offensive
13th July
53
What was all but certain after Kursk
Soviet victory
54
When was the liberation of Kiev
6 November 1943
55
When was the Tehran Summit
28 November 1943
56
When did Soviet troops enter Poland
4 January 1944
57
When did the Siege of Leningrad end
27 January 1944
58
how long did the Siege of Leningrad last
972 days
59
When was Crimea liberated by the Red Army
13th May 1944
60
When was Vilnius in Lithuania captured
13th July 1944
61
when did the soviet siege of Budapest start
29th December 1944
62
When was the city of Kharkiv in Ukraine first overrun
October 1941
63
when was Kharkiv recaptured and then lost
Feb 1942 and lost again in March
64
When was Kharkiv finally liberated
August 1943
65
Why was life for civilians on the Home front unrelentingly harsh
food, fuel and shelter were all in short supply
66
How many people died of hunger and cold in the siege of Leningrad
600,000
67
what is it estimated that civilian deaths reached in 1945
more than 12 million
68
What did Hitler order right from the start of the war
the instant execution of captured Soviet commissars
69
What was Babi Yar
where the SS rounded up the Jewish population near Kiev. 34,000 were taken to Babi Yar, a ravine outside the city, shot and put into mass graves.
70
What were commissars and secret police obsessed with
hunting down 'slackers', 'deserters' and 'defeatists'
71
Who was expelled due to fear of collaboration with the Germans and where did they go
Chechens and the Crimean Tatars were expelled to Central Asia in May 1944
72
What great national myth emerged out of the Great Patriotic War
a united soviet people pulling together through shared sacrifices, following the great leader of Stalin
73
How is it partly true that the war brought people together
The experiences of total war, and the massive propaganda campaigns that shaped them, did bring people together.
74
What was the key unifying factor
fear and hatred of the Germans; a deep patriotism in defending the Motherland; an underlying faith in the revolution and in Stalin
75
What was the soviet solution to the economic hardships caused by vast occupations
relocation
76
what was the relocation
equipment, workers and whole factories were packed up, put on 20,000 trains and shifted hundreds of miles to the east, beyond the reach of the German bombs
77
What were the two main routes for this vital supply line
the arctic convoys and the so-called Persian corridor
78
How many American trucks were the USSR given
300,000
79
When was Lend-lease
March 1941
80
What did Lend-Lease do
it empowered FDR to give military aid to Britain and to extend help to the USSR in October.
81
What was the initial effect of Lend-Lease
it contributed to 5 per cent of Soviet GNP
82
What gave the red army vital mobility
trucks, jeeps and railway resources
83
What did Khrushchev admit about Lend-lease in his memoir
"Without them our losses would have been colossal because we would have had no manoeuvrability"
84
How much of the Russian GDP came from lend-lease in 1943 and 44
10%
85
Without Lend-Lease, how much longer would the defeat of the Wehrmacht
12-18 months
86
What was the worst year for agriculture
1943
87
what was agricultural output in 1943 compared to 1940
it was 38% of the 1940 level in 1943
88
How much of the population did not receive state rations
half the population
89
What was revived for the first time since NEP
private trade
90
What did Alec Nove say about the economic situation
"there was much that was genuinely heroic in the conduct of millions of overworked and underfed peasants, mostly women, who somehow kept the town and soldiers fed under conditions that we have difficulty even imagining"
91
What happened to women after the war
any image of a soviet woman as a military officer or pilot was buried by the overwhelming official emphasis on the Soviet woman as mother, wife and builder of society
92
what were women incredibly successful as in the Red Army
snipers
93
What did Stalin order the partisans to do
to operate anywhere and everywhere, to cause havoc by guerrilla warfare
94
What order was issued by the Germans in September 1941
between 50 and 100 communists should be killed for every German victim of a partisan attack
95
how many people were killed in anti-partisan operations in Belorussia
250,000
96
What happened to the partisans in 1942
each partisan unit had an NKVD cell attached to it to keep the group inline
97
What was Evan Mawdsley's judgement about the partisans
they probably reduced collaboration with the Germans by the local population and were responsible for the largest and most successful guerrilla campaign of the Second World War
98
How many women served in the ranks of the armed forces
500,000
99
how many women worked in civilian support staff
500,000
100
What turned out 1061 snipers and 407 instructors
the central women's school for sniper training
101
how many German soldiers were killed by female snipers
12,000 German soldiers
102
what per cent of the workforce were women
51-53 per cent
103
How many writers joined the campaign to report on the front
1,000
104
how many writers would die in the fighting
400
105
what were people imprisoned for
'defeatist talk about the situation on the front'
106
what were political officers ordered to do
'teach people implacable hatred and rage against the enemy'
107
Who were two of the most talented writers for the Sovinformburo
Konstantin Simonov and Ilya Ehrenburg
108
How does Eisenstein's 'Alexander Nevsky' end
'whosoever comes against us by the sword shall perish by the sword. Such is the law of the Russian land and such it will always be'
109
How was the war described
a holy war
110
In 1937, what per cent of people were religious
55%
111
when did Stalin allow religious freedoms
September 1943
112
What did the church do
tamed and removed rebels and contributed to the Russification of the borderlands
113
How did the Church describe Stalin
'the divinely anointed leader of our armed forces leading us to victory over the Barbarian invasion'.
114
what was the church able to do for Stalin
rally support among the followers of the church
115
What did John Barber say about propaganda
"perhaps what Stalin represented for ordinary people more than anything else during the war was hope - the hope of victory, the hope of survival, hope against hope that those in power cared about the millions they ruled"
116
What did David Glantz argue about propaganda in the Red Army
"persuasive and constant propaganda and political agitation" was one of the factors which helped make the Red Army fight so hard
117
How was the soviet union more prepared for war than many of the other combatants
it had a centralised command and propaganda structure, both political and economic, which enabled it to react quickly to the necessities of war and mobilise and deploy its population
118
What did the war do for the image of Stalin
it consolidated his position and, indeed, promote his image as its indisputable and indispensable leader
119
What did Kevin McDermott suggest
Stalin did not think Hitler would strike east until he had defeated or reached an agreement with Great Britain
120
what was the codeword for the start of Operation Barbarossa
Dortmund
121
What did members of the politburo say when they went to see Stalin
they had decided on establishing a state committee for the defence to run the war and requested that he should become its commissar
122
How can the patriotism of the Soviet people be described
it was spontaneous, they were just not reacting to the horrors of Nazi occupation and the reinvigoration of nationalism and Orthodoxy by the Soviet government
123
How did a Jewish scientist describe the war
the war was the 'best time of our lives because at that time we all felt closer to our government than at any other time in our lives. It was not their country then bout our country. It was not they who wanted this or that to be done, but we who wanted to do it. It was not their war, but our war. It was our country we were defending, our war effort'
124
What did Stalin say about his allies
there was a "coalition of the USSr, Great Britain and the USA against the German-fascist imperialists' that made the defeat of nazism possible".
125
What did Stalin say about Lend-Lease
"if we had had to deal with Germany with one-to-one we could not have coped because we had lost so much of our industry"
126
What did the sheer size of the USSR do in the war
its sheer size and difficult climate contributed to Russian victory. Stalin referred to 'general winter', which played a part in defeating the Germans who were ill-prepared for the winter conditions.
127
What were the Red Army able to do that the Germans didn't
The Red Army coped much better with the climate and, as they drove the Germans back to Berlin, the distances
128
What was a big issue for the Nazi leadership
their ideology
129
What did the German ideology lead to
the Germans making a serious underestimation of the USSR
130
What did Hitler promise
a war of annihilation 'conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness'
131
What did Hitler order about how Russians should be treated when captured
all captured Jews, party and state functionaries and intellectuals were to be killed
132
What has service said about the Germans role in aggravating the Russian people
'if it had not been for Hitler's fanatical racism, the USSR would not have won the struggle on the Eastern Front. Stalin's repressiveness towards his own citizens would have cost him the war against Nazi Germany'
133
How many people were evacuated in the removal of factories to the east
over 10 million
134
what was the comparison of 1942 production figures compared to 1941
In 1942, the number of tanks and planes exceeded figures achieved in 1941
135
What new weapons were produced
T-34 tanks, Katyusha rockets and Yak fighter planes
136
What were working hours extended to
12 hours per day
137
What had happened to production in 1943
the USSR produced more war materials than Germany
138
What stopped the Germans from advancing further
Hitler kept switching strategies
139
What did General Halder write in his diary on 3rd July
"it is no exaggeration to say that the campaign against Russia has been won in 14 days"
140
What did Hitler do on the 14th of July 1941
he ordered a reduction in the number of troops on the eastern front and switched some divisions from the Moscow front to reinforce the attacks on Leningrad and Kiev
141
Who was placed in charge of Moscow's defences
the incredibly competent General Zhukov
142
What did Zhukov organise
hundreds of thousands of women and children who dug anti-tank ditches and built tank traps and gun emplacements
143
Why were the Soviet troops increasingly tenacious
strict army discipline
144
how was strict army discipline achieved
NKVD agents were active within every army units
145
what was set up by the Germans to go from town to town to liquidate jews
Special Task Forces (Einsatzgruppen)
146
What did the Einsatzgruppen do
1150 jews were shot in Dvinsk, 7000 Jews were rounded up and shot in Lvov, 1460 in Lutsk, 300 and 500 at Zolochew and 3302 at Tilsit
147
what happened at Kishinev in Bessarabia
the SS indulged in a two-week campaign of slaughter in which over 10,000 jews were murdered
148
How many Jews died at Odessa
75,000
149
What happened in August in Auschwitz
600 Russian prisoners were used in experiments to test a new method of mass killing - the gas chamber
150
How did Pravda describe Stalin
the 'genius organiser of our victories' and the 'great captain of the Soviet people'
151
How did the historian Volkogonov (a stalinist critic) describe Stalin's decision to hold the revolutionary rally during the war
‘bold and fair-sighted move, reflecting the sure hand with which Stalin influenced public opinion and guided the people’s mental state, and that at a time when many were doubtful about the outcome of the war’
152
What did Lev Kopelev say about Russian propaganda
‘millions of people had been brutalised and corrupted by the war and by our propaganda’
153
What were orders 270 and 227
it outlined how a soldier would be a deserter if he surrendered and a traitor if he retreated
154
what did Samsonov say about the enforcement of discipline in the military
‘order 227, of course, was extremely severe, but necessary at that terrible moment’
155
what did Soldiers say about the enforcement of discipline by Stalin
‘all my life I will remember what Stalin’s orders meant, not the letter, but the spirit and the content of the order definitely made possible the moral, psychological and spiritual break-through in the hearts and minds of all to whom it was read’
156
Who did Stalin delegate an increasing amount to
on Vasilevsky (chief of the general staff), Antonov and Zhukov, who was the hero of Leningrad and Moscow.
157
What did Antonov and Zhukov advise Stalin on
Zhukov and Vasilevsky would be the ones to advise Stalin on the deep, double encirclement of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad, which was key to success
158
What plans did Stalin accept
Stalin accepted Zhukov’s rejection of his plans for a ‘pre-emptive offensive’ in favour of a deep defence at Kursk, which was a plan supported by Vasilevsky and Antonov
159
What was Sir Alan Brooke's reaction to Stalin
he was ‘more than ever impressed by the dictator’s military ability’
