The Great Patriotic War

Question 1

What were Hitler’s attitudes towards Operation Barbarossa?

Answer 1

• Saw them as an easy target who were unprepared for war because Britain refused the accept peace even though France had fallen
• Hitler was confident of a rapid and decisive victory as his forces were experienced, battle-hardened and well-equipped
• Hitler wanted control over the Soviet economy and become liberators to eradicate communism

Question 2

Why was operation Barbarossa delayed?

Answer 2

It was scheduled for the 1st of June but Italy caused a crisis in Yugoslavia so Hitler launched a blitzkrieg campaign (lightning war)

Question 3

Why was the actual launch on the 22nd of June challenging?

Answer 3

It would reduced the time window before the winter conditions

Question 4

How was the German army organised?

Answer 4

4 million men were separated into three branches for Leningrad, South east into Ukraine and Moscow. Hitler’s advisors called for a concentrated drive on Moscow but Hitler overruled them

Question 5

Why did Stalin neglect warning of the invasion?

Answer 5

• Fears it would reduce the time until Hitler invaded
• He neglected that it would actually happen due to trust

Question 6

What was Stalin’s response to the outbreak of war?

Answer 6

• He had panic attacks that his government and people would betray him so he forced Molotov to announce the war
• He only made a speech on the 3rd of July shifting from terror to patriotism and religion similar to the national struggles of Russia’s past
• Friendship with Nazi Germany was replaced with Churchill as Stalin had adopted an ideological heated against them

Question 7

What were Stalin’s early failures in the war?

Answer 7

• His lack of leadership encouraged Stalin to consider moving government to Samara
• He relied on inferior commanders who were promoted after the purges
• By September 1941, Stalin prevented the retreat if forces in Kiev until it was too late and there was no urgency to protect Leningrad when it was sieged

Question 8

What was Stavka?

Answer 8

His war cabinet set up on the 23rd of June 1941 with Molotov, Zhukov, and Voroshilov which only improved after initial defeats

Question 9

What saved Russia from total defeat?

Answer 9

Huge population, vast distance, harsh geography and patriotism

Question 10

How did Stalin learn from his mistakes by December 1941?

Answer 10

He gained advanced information from Richard Sorge that saved a two front war. He transferred high quality troops from Siberia to Moscow. Japan instead attacked pearl harbour encouraging the US to join the grand alliance against the axis power and they crucially provided supplies

Question 11

What were the 3 phases of the war?

Answer 11

1 - June 1941 - October 1942
2 - October 1942 - August 1943
3 - August 1943 - Summer 1945

Question 12

Where were initial soviet defeats?

Answer 12

Minsk, Smolensk, Near Kiev where 665,000 troops were expelled, and expulsion in the Baltic states leading to catastrophic loss of aircraft

Question 13

What did Hitler believe after two weeks?

Answer 13

War was essentially won and Moscow would be captured by the end of August

Question 14

When did Leningrad become encircled from?

Answer 14

8th of September

Question 15

How many troops surrendered at the fall of Kiev on the 19th of September 1941?

Answer 15

Half a million

Question 16

What happened on the 15th of October 1941?

Answer 16

Stalin offered a compromise peace due to the threat of the Germans taking Moscow but Hitler disregarded it for total victory. Stalin authorised Beria to open negotiations until 1942 where it gained nothing

Question 17

How did the tides turn for the Russians?

Answer 17

In November the weather worsened ad the Soviet defences hardened with counter-attacks pushing the army back. The rapid victory Germans relied on had failed as the advance on Moscow halted on the 5th of December as they believed they would face 200 Soviet divisions when in reality it was 360

Question 18

What was case Blue?

Answer 18

After little fighting in early 1942, forces were ready from May to launch an offensive in the Caucasus oil fields. This eventually materialised into case blue that launched on the 28th of June. This led to the fall of Rostov on the 24th of July

Question 19

How was Case Blue sidetracked?

Answer 19

Germans attempted to capture Stalingrad, which Stalin focused on protecting as it held his name. Even though 9/10th of the city were in German hands in late summer, Stalin maintained public determination to prevent evacuation as the 12th of October 1942, Hitler’s troops had to retreat as the German Sixth army was cut off and encircled. By continuing to invade Stalingrad, it caused psychological and military defeat for the German army

Question 20

When did Stalin regain Rostov?

Answer 20

3 weeks after Stalingrad

Question 21

What happened because Hitler was running out of men and resources?

Answer 21

He launched operation Citadel on the 4th of July near Kursk. The offensive was halted by Soviet firepower at the battle of Prokhorovka on the 12th of July 1943 by the T-34 tanks opening the road to Berlin. T-34 tanks’ durability and ease to repair was a product of Russia mobilising its economy especially through rearmaments in the Eastern Ural

Question 22

Where die Stalin gain victories from August 1943 to December 1944?

Answer 22

Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Romania, Hungary and lifting the siege of Leningrad on the 27th of December 1944

Question 23

How did Stalin’s international position improve?

Answer 23

• In November 1943, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill met in Tehran as big three members to discuss the inevitable Soviet victory
• Germany were resistant to defenders even after a bomb plot almost killed Hitler in July 1944
• When Stalin met Churchill in Moscow in October 1944, victory was only certain until April 1945 when the red army reached Berlin

Question 24

What was the scorched earth tactic?

Answer 24

Where when Soviets retreated they destroyed resources so the Germans couldn’t take them

Question 25

What is an example of a place that changed multiple times during the war?

Answer 25

Kharkiv was overrun in October 1941, recaptured in February 1942, lost by March, saw a battle in May and liberated by August 1943

Question 26

How many towns and villages were affected by the war?

Answer 26

1700 towns and cities plus 70,000 villages

Question 27

What resources were low?

Answer 27

- Food - Fuel - Shelter - Factories - Hospitals - Urban housing

Question 28

How many people died during the siege of Leningrad due to hunger and cold?

Answer 28

600,000

Question 29

How many civilians died by 1945?

Answer 29

12 million

Question 30

Where were the Nazis initially welcomed and how did this shift?

Answer 30

Ukraine and the Baltic states. However, Stalin and Germany were surprised by the loyalty of the people as the people were alienated by the repressive actions and atrocities by German occupiers

Question 31

What happened in prisoner of war camps?

Answer 31

- Thousands of soviet soldiers went but few came home plus many were conscripted to work in German factories - Hitler ordered the instant execution of Soviet commissars - Stalin harshly treated returned POWs and those who worked in German liberated areas

Question 32

What happened at Babi Yar in Ukraine?

Answer 32

34,000 Jews were shot in mass graves by the SS from September 1941 after the occupation of Kiev

Question 33

What saw vicious reprisals?

Answer 33

Bands of partisans who harassed German forces behind the lines

Question 34

How did terror increase?

Answer 34

- Stalin hunted down to arrest and execute thousands of slackers - Suspicious of ethnic minorities like the Chechens and Crimean Tartars as in May 1944, their entire population of 240,000 were deported to Uzbekistan as they saw themselves as a separate nation

Question 35

What myth emerged?

Answer 35

Stalin was seen as a uniter of people who shared sacrifices for Soviet victory whilst this can be true through propaganda to instil patriotism, many spoke out and party officials began to act selfishly

Question 36

How did the economy improve through mobilisation?

Answer 36

- Bombardment and deliberate Soviet destruction lost the basis of Soviet economy in agriculture and industrialisation - Equipment, workers and factories were relocated through 20,000 trains to the Urals forming as total war - They took 3000 wagons of steel factory equipment per day from the Dnieper area - 80,000 wagons moved 500 factories from Moscow - During the war, centrally controlled command economy was extremely successful as it built a base for gun, tanks and air craft production. This is based on the foundations let by Andrei Tupolev from Junkers factory

Question 37

How did the economy improve through foreign aid?

Answer 37

- Despite textbooks and news reports stating little abut aid, the US gave over $500 million worth of supplies in rearmament, industrial goods and food - The main supply lines were the Artic convoys at the end of the fragile maritime lifeline across the Atlantic to Britain and then via he north sea and North Russia to Murmansk. Plus, the Persian corridor through the Persian gulf across Iran to the Caspian sea to Baku, Volga river and beyond the Urals - 300,000 Studebaker Us6 model American trucks allowed for transportation after the railways were damaged in the inter of 1942-43

Question 38

Why was victory delayed?

Answer 38

The need for unconditional surrender due to fears the allies would make separate peace treaties

Question 39

What cities were already liberated by the red army before Berlin?

Answer 39

Budapest, Warsaw, Prague and Vienna in all out frontal assault at maximum speed

Question 40

What happened on the 27th of March?

Answer 40

Eisenhower gave an order to slow the allied advance to let the reds reach Berlin first to minimise casualties and clashes with soviet forces. By the time the red army reached Berlin in April, they met up with American forces on the 25th of April at Torgau on the Elbe culminating into the battle of Berlin led by Zhukov on the 2nd of May

Question 41

Why did Stalin want to politically win Berlin?

Answer 41

To create a buffer zone against future threats as it was symbolised by the storming of the Reichstag

Question 42

What were the soviet strengths?

Answer 42

- The vast geographical supplies cut off communication lines for the Germans and allowed re-mobilisation of the economy - The 171 million population by 1941 was 3x larger than Germany's meaning Russia could exploit manpower and easily replaces losses - Vast natural resources which were exploited to be stronger within war production factories and by 1943, out-produced Germany - Command economy was suitable for the needs of war - Stalin was a capable war leader and civilians and the armed forces wanted to fight for him due to propaganda and patriotism - The role of women as infantry soldiers, tank captains at the battle of Kursk, skilled workers in munitions factories and a wide range of auxiliary organisations

Question 43

What were the German weaknesses?

Answer 43

- Failed to win a lighting war - From December 1941, Germany had to fight in a two-front war - Lacked self-sufficiency in raw materials therefore towards the end of the war, they had dwindling economic and human resources - Hitler made crucial mistakes such as replacing his best generals with yes-men - The people of Germany were alienated

Question 44

How did the allies contribute to the end of the war?

Answer 44

- Stalin's allies posed a dangerous threat to Hitler in west causing his attention on the east to be duverted - Mass British and American boming significatnly damaged the German war effort through limited resources such as when Dresden was bombed in February 1945 - Allied code breaking undermined German warfare at crucial times especially when Stalin learned of Hitler’s plans for the battle of Kursk - Military and economic aid provided for the USSR

Question 45

What were the results of the Soviet victory?

Answer 45

- It became a superpower with military and economic strength as it had the ability to re-build on a large scale unlike Britain who were bankrupt - Germany who was the main enemy was not economically and militarily destroyed as it was under occupation - Strengthened communist ideology over fascism and capitalism as they were weakened because of the war - Territorial expansion - Many eastern European countries were occupied by the red army and were in a position to establish pro-soviet regimes - A mass migration of 12 million refugees mostly ethnic Germans fleeing westwards between 1944-5 during the red army advance - Fear about the economic power of America and how it might be used in Europe - Stalin distrusted his people especially those who spent time out of Russia - Lingering disagreements over the 4 power occupation of Germany as the USSR gained land with limited economic value - Social and economic damage as infrastructure was destroyed with 20 million dead and only 7.5 million in the armed forces