The Great Patriotic War Flashcards
Stalin’s Strenghs
Check!!
• In April 1945 Stalin ordered Zhukov & Ivan Konev to hurry forward their preparations for Berlin helping the Soviets get so far
• Encouraged all Soviets to be determined -Guided public opinion and mental state when many doubted their chances of victory at war
Counter:
Purges
- Trained leaders lost when Red Army expanding rapidly - 35,000 officers arrested - Made Foreign Governments view the Red Army as a broken shell • Wasteful war with Finland Soviet Union were on the winning side in WW2 but the USSR when fighting Finland between 1939-1940 had over 200,000 casualties compared to Finland’s 70,000 causalities * On 28th July 1942 Stalin issued Order No.227, ‘Not A Step Backward!’. Retreat, unless it had clear sanction from the Kremlin, was to be treated as treason. This Order had been edited & signed by Stalin. - Discipline in troops * Stalingrad • ‘Purge’ Generals - John Simkin - only one of seventeen field Marshall’s managed to keep his role involved in advising Hitler during War. 36 colonel-generals involved in advising Hitler during ww2 with 26 sacked or executed. 7 killed in action so only 3 held onto postions throughout war
Economic/Resources check
Output?
1941 and 1944 respectively
Tanks
USSR 6,599 28,963
Germany 5,200 27,300
1941
Oil
USSR 33.0 (MILLION tonnes)
Germany 5.7 (million tonnes)
1941
Coal
Million Tonnes
USSR 151.4
Germany 315.5
Resilience of the Soviet People Again Check
3% of Soviet soldiers born in 1923 survived World War Two
Power of brainwashing. At the Front fighting for cause, giving everything and most likely to die.
Orlando Figes: “One of the most important elements in the Soviet war effort was the cult of sacrifice.”
Orders 227 plus 270 were more scary than German discipline
Order 270 required encircled soldiers to use every possibility to fight on, and to demand that their commanders fight on and organize resistance to the enemy.
Defending their nation/communities/families
-Think Propaganda
Propaganda CHECK and Edit after getting it back
V.Koretsky, Red Army Serviceman, Save! (1941)
Do you want your family to be hurt by the Nazis or do you want to stop this? Join the Army
Fight for you family Also shows Stalin compromise values
Effectiveness: Made it personal and made it feel like you had to do something as they were defenceless
No solider to dehumanise it
Kill as many Germans as possible as they’re not human
Effective as motivating and makes it feel morale
19.16
The Kukryniksy, Smash and Destroy the Enemy Without Mercy
We’re going to win.
Effective good about Soviet bad about German
19.10 Victor lvanov and Olga Burova’s poster ‘Frontline thanks to leading collective farms!’, 1944
Thanks to the farmers, work harder
Women poster
Fight for your country
Historians
Were the Soviet Generals better than the German Generals?
Robert Service: sees the contribution of generals in the Red Army, as being equally as important to the Soviet victory as Stalin’s.
People’s resilience
Economy
Geoffrey Hosking: stresses that productivity was impressive in terms of military output
Propaganda
Orlando Figes: “One of the most important elements in the Soviet war effort was the cult of sacrifice.”
Orders
On 28th July 1942 Stalin issued Order No.227, ‘Not A Step Backward!’. Retreat, unless it had clear sanction from the Kremlin, was to be treated as treason. This Order had been edited & signed by Stalin. - Discipline in troops
What was Stalin’s order 270?
270, issued on 16 August 1941, by Joseph Stalin during the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, ordered Red Army personnel to “fight to the last,” virtually banned commanders from surrendering, and set out severe penalties for senior officers and deserters regarded as derelicting their duties.
Stalingrad
For a people para
Page 344
September to November 1942 thousands of courageous Soviet men and women held up the German despite 75% calsculties. This allowed Zhukov to plan the encircling counter offensive. First time Soviets managed to plan and execute an operation involving millions of men trapped German 6th Army. Hitler ordered Pauli’s to stand fast rather than break out. The whole operation lead to 800k Germans being lost proving very successful for the Soviets.
Battle of Kursk
1943 - The Battle of Kursk was the largest tank battle in history, involving some 6,000 tanks, 2,000,000 troops, and 4,000 aircraft. It marked the decisive end of the German offensive capability on the Eastern Front and cleared the way for the great Soviet offensives of 1944–45.
General Zhukov predicted the Germans would launch a large attack at Kursk with Stalin prepared to sit tight and wait with the Reg Army and local population digging 3,000 miles of trenches and 400,000 mines.
At Kursk, Zhukov’s ruthless tactics (which he didn’t tell Stalin about) were effective.
40% of Red Army’s manpower into battle zone ready for attack
German attack lasted a week but the Soviets survived stopping any chance of Germany victory in the East which allowed Operation Bagration to take place.
Ignore
Check and add to
Stalin poor leadership admitting
Most importantly, Stalin pretty much accepted responsibility, admitting to his closest associates, “Lenin left us a great legacy, but we, his heirs, have (messed) it up”
Operation Bagration -
Operation Bagration 1944
Lasted 68 days
Ends successfully with 1.2 million strong German Army Group Centre destroyed
Prepared in utmost secrecy and used massed aircraft and tanks
Surprised Germans with scale and ferocity
Berlin
• In April 1945 Stalin ordered Zhukov & Ivan Konev to hurry forward their preparations for Berlin helping the Soviets get so far
Berlin
Stalin was determined to reach Berlin first
Selected best field commanders and encouraged professional rivalry between Zhukov and Konev. 300,000 caulsuties including 78,000 dead in desperate attempt to get to Berlin
2 May 1945 Berlin surrendered
Stalin useless
In April 1942 Stalin overrode Stavka & compelled its military specialists to organise an offensive in eastern Ukraine; the Red Army drove its tanks straight into the jaws of defeat.
Stalin overall role
Overall gave more power to Generals but it was his decision late on to rush to Berlin
Number of people who lost their lives
27 million Soviet people died in the war, of which 10 million were in the armed forces.
7 million German people died in the war, of which 5 million were in the armed forces.
