The Great Patriotic War and Stalin’s Dictatorship, 1941–1953 Flashcards
Operation Barbarossa
German invasion of the USSR launched June 1941
3 million invaded, intended to be a quick victory before winter
Was Stalin prepared for operation Barbarossa?
No, he thoguht that to plan would be a direct confrontation
Took 2 weeks for Stalin to respond and speak publically
3 rd June – Stalin made a speech stressing
the themes of patriotism, religion and
unity
Leadership during Operation Barbarossa
Stalin indicisive
Soviet army had inexperienced officers due to the military purges of 1937
Stalin refused to allow his sothern armies to retreat until it was too late
What happened in 1941?
German offensive invade
German army pushed back from Moscow during December
Huge initial losses for the soviets - 665000 soldiers lost at Kiev
What happened in 1942?
New German offensive towards the oilfields
German advance halted at Stalingrad
Russia attempts to establish it’s war economy (Hitler did not have enough resources to compete)
What happened in 1943?
Feb - Germany surrender at Stalingrad
German offensive defeated at Kursk
Kiev liberated by Red Army
Soviets begin to claim victories across eastern Europe
What happened in 1944?
Seige of Leningrad ends
What happened in 1945?
Soviet forces capture Warsaw
Yalta summit meeting to plan postwar world
Defeat of Germany and surrender of Japan
Impact of the GPW?
USSR suffered from great losses, food fuel and shelter in short supply
Around 12 million soviet citizens die in the war
1700 towns and cities and 70,000 villages were destroyed
Thousands of soviets held as prisoners of war
How did the USSR mistrerat their own during the GPW?
Arrests of slackers, deserters
170,000 military personnel executed for treason
Mass deportation of minority groups
Soviet war economy
Stalin’s early errors lost millions of
Red Army men and equipment
Conscriptions brought 29 million men to the red army
German occupation of the western regions destroyed the societ economy, factories relocate to the Urals
Whole factories were dismantled and moved using 20,000 trains - 500 moved from Moscow
How did the USSR improve their military resources?
During 1942, the USSR began to build a huge industrial base for war production
Improvement made to military equipment and tactics, T-34 tank was powerful but quick to make and repair
War fought at home allowed resources to travel quickly
Reasons for Soviet Victory during the GPW?
- German Weakness, strat relied on swiftness, from 1941 Germany had to fight on 2 fronts, experienced generals replaced with ‘yes men’
- Soviet Strengths, Geographical size of USSR meant German resources were stretched, population 3 x that of Germany, Stalin’s war committee became highly effective, propaganda motivated people e.g 4 million volounteers in civilian defence
- Foreign Aid, 300,000 American trucks were supplied through the US Lend-Lease scheme, Britain and France bomb Germany
Result of USSR victory in the GPW?
Superpower status
Communism seen defeating fascism
Cult of Stalin Strengthened
Baltic state territorial gains
20 million dead
Cold war tensions develop
How did Soviet industry recover?
Stalin promised Soviet industry would be powerful by 1960
Gosplan launch 4th 5 year plan in 1946, focusing on reconstruction
In 1945, mining production, electricity generation and steel production were around half of 1940 levels
Transport disrupted
High investment in military effort meant less investment elsewhere
Death of civilians meant workers shortage
How successful was industrial recovery?
Most targets met or exceeded
More coal, oil, steel, cement and electricity were being produced in 1950 compared to 1940
Some improvement to consumer goods
Production of shoes, clothes and furniture lagged behind pre-war levels which were already inadequate
How did soviet agriculture recover?
98,000 collective farms destroyed, machinery and livestock destroyed
Food production in 1945 was at 60% of 1940 levels
Labour shortage
1946 driest year sinch 1891, 1.5 million die due to famine
Payments for farm products were kept very low and taxes were increased, recovery slow
What was high stalinism?
During WW2 many aspects of Stalins dictatorship were softened e.g churches reopened
After WW2, repression returned, period called ‘high stalinism’ and was most repressive period
No party congress between 1939 to 52
Red Army and generals were demoted e.g Zhukov so they weren’t too powerful
Stalin encouraged rivalries within inner circle
How did the cult of personality grow?
Stalin as heroic leader, replaced October rev with greatest victory
It became customary for all books and
articles to start and end with a paragraph
acknowledging Stalin’s genius on the topic
Towns and cities renamed after Stalin
Isolation from the West
Cold war tensions rise, fear of soviets losing their dedication to USSR and communism
Around 15% of the 1.8 million returned
prisoners of war were sent to the gulags
Any contact with foreigners could result in arrest, 1947 illegal to marry a foreigner
Under Zhdanovism, western cultural
influences were blocked – no foreign newspapers and only a few approved books
were translated into Russian
Zhdanovism and the cultural purge
Appointed lead of cultural policy in 1946, support socialist realism
Writers who did not fit party lines were forced to publically apologise or leave the Soviet writers union
Scientific theories were snuffed if they opposed marxist beliefs
NKVD under Beria
Beria deputy prime minister, head of USSR atomic weapon programme
NKVD reorganised to:
MVD control domestic security and gulags
MGB control espionage
The Leningrad Affair
Stalin suspicious of party base in Leningrad
By 1948, Zhdanov fell out of favour with
Stalin
On his death, Stalin launched a purge of
the Leningrad party – leading party
officials loyal to Zhdanov were arrested,
interrogated and executed
By 1950, 2000 party officials were replaced by pro-Stalinists
The Doctors Plot
A doctor and police informer accused the
doctors who treated Zhdanov of
contributing to his death
1952, Stalin uses this as an opportunity to arrest Jewish doctors
Thousands of ordinary Jews were caught
in the purge, including Molotov and
Kalinin’s wives
9 doctors condemned to death but Stalin died before their execution
Emergence as a Superpower
Post war Stalin wants to gain as much control across Central Europe in order to create a buffer zone
They were a military-industrial war
machine with 7.5 million well-equipped
soldiers
Developed an atomic bomb by 1949
Formation of the Soviet Bloc
By 1948, most of the Easter European
countries had either been absorbed into the
USSR or turned into satellite states (Companies which had pro soviet governemnts)
1939 – Eastern Poland was annexed by the
USSR under the terms of the Nazi Soviet Pact
1940 - Baltic States occupied
1945 – Communists led by Josip Tito gained
control of Yugoslavia
Conflict with USA and Capitalism
In 1943, the Allies met at Tehran and agreed to demand unconditional surrender – more to stop separate peaces being drawn, 1944 Churchill and Stalin argue over Poland
In February 1945, the Yalta conference was
dominated by conflicting ideas about post-war borders of Germany and Poland
How did relations break down in 1946?
USA and Britain concerned with USSR expansion
Former Prime Minister Churchill, gave a speech warning of an Iron Curtain falling across Europe and urged for strength in dealing with the USSR
How did relations break down in 1947?
In June the Marshall plan, which offered US aid to European economies, was met with hostility by Stalin
How did relations break down in 1948-49
From June 948, the Berlin Blockade saw Stalin cut off all road and rail links between Berlin and the Western zones of Germany
NATO was formed in 1949 – this was an Atlantic alliance for the defence of Europe and was seen as a threat by the USSR
USSR atomic bomb increase cold war tensions
The victory of the Chinese Communist Party in 1950 further worried the Capitalist West
Stalin’s death and legacy
Stalin dies following a stroke in 1953
Legacy? USSR world leader in industry and nuclear power
Cold war tensions high
No clear successor, Beria executed
