WWII Flashcards
How many Russians died?
24 million
Proportion of this total being civilians
2/3
how many died during the Siege of Leningrad 1941-44?
1 million
how many died during the Battle of Stalingrad 1942-3?
1.1 million
What were politicians in the post war years were faced with the problem of?
a shortage of all types of labour- essential if russia was to move successfully into the new technological age
How many taken prisoner by Germany?
5 million
How many russian citizens fought on the side of germany at the battle of stalingrad?
50,000
How many deserters shot?
13,000
What did little to enhance Stalin’s relations with the allies during wartime conferences and afterwards when proposals for economic aid and reconstruction were discussed?
Treatment of prisoners of war, deserters and non-russian women
What did the government had a huge challenge in addressing the damage to?
Industrial and rural infrastructure which had been damaged through shelling and Stalin’s scorched earth policy
What worsened the damage?
During the war many industrial enterprises had to be relocated to the Urals, Volga basin and Central Asia to be protected
What was a costly industrial enterprise after the war?
many factories had to be reconverted from munitions production back to their original function
What economy did the government run?
A command economy and was responsible for all industrial enterprise
What did the Soviet government’s reconstruction programme revolve around?
A fourth five year plan 1946-59
What was the specific aim of the reconstruction programme?
Get the soviet economy back to growth levels achieved before the war
• this plan would be followed by 2 others which would accelerate the development of heavy industry
What was neglected as a result of the reconstruction programme?
The production of consumer goods was neglected
How long did it take until the targets set by the fourth five year plan were achieved?
3 years
What only favoured Russia after the war?
Availability of free labour- 4 million prisoners of war, soviet prisoners, conscript labour
• unilateral trade agreements
• external financial aid- from the UN, the USA, Britain and Sweden
• the commitment of the Russian people- ordinary russian workers continued to labour for excessivlely long hours and under very challenging conditions to increase production and productivity in all of the staple industries
What was the biggest flaw in Stalin’s post war strategy?
his continuation of gargantuan projects
• great amounts of capital were ploughed into schemes such as the Volga-Don canal with very little economic return
Why did agriculture fail?
War years had seen a reversion to small scale ownership of land plots and collective farms
• those who acquired private plots were soon hit by exorbitant taxes
• the collectives suffered from shortages of labour and materials
When was there famine and rural unrest?
1947
How did minister for agriculture Khrushchev attempt to resolve some of the problems?
Through farm amalgamation; had a limited impact
What did WII have a limited impact on politically?
Structure
What positions did Stalin have?
The chairman of the State Defence Committee which had absolute control over the lives of soviet citizens
• took the role of supreme commander of the military, like Nicholas II in WW1
Until his death, what positions did Stalin retain?
head of government and party secretary
What of the Politburo remained the same?
the composition
in 1948 the prominent members had been in existence 10 years earlier
How did communist party membership increase?
from 3.8 million in 1941 to 5.8 million in 1945
Why did party membership increase?
additions in the military who were rewarded for their gallantry with official party membership
What was very active during and after the war?
the NKVD
what was the NKVD involved in during the war?
policing prisons and the deporting national minorities
after the war, what did the NKVD revert to?
purging the party and other groups of dissidents eg the Leningrad Affair resulted in over 200 supporyers of Zhdanov being purged
What policy was significantly affected by the war?
Foreign policy
What did Stalin believe were the benefits of joining the Grand Alliance?
Placed Russia in a very strong bargaining position over making territorial gains
What was Stalin’s main objective of foreign policy?
keep the frontiers established under the Nazi-Soviet pact
As a result of Yalta, what was Stalin able to influence?
the nature of government in Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania and insist that they were ruled by communist regimes
When did Churchill agree that Russia could maintain these areas as a sphere of influence after the war?
October 1944
Why did Stalin want these areas?
to maintain a physical barrier between the west and the western russian border, also promote communism
What did Churchill later refer to this barrier as?
Iron Curtain and start of cold war
What zone of Germany did Russia have jurisdiction over?
Eastern
Why did Russia block all communication links with the western part of the city?
June 1948- the western powers combined to introduce a new currency in the zones under their control.
Russia saw this as an attempt to show how capitalism could bring prosperity to Berlin
What worsened relations between Russia and the west?
Berlin Blockade of 1948 lifted in 1949 and the erection of the berlin wall
