Sources of victory:

- Patriotic upsurge and mass heroism of the Soviet people at the front and in the rear.

- Unity front and rear.

— Consolidation of Soviet society in the face of fascist aggression.

- The unity of all nations and nationalities of the USSR in the fight against the enemy.

— Successes of the partisan movement.

- The superiority of Soviet military art and the morale and combat potential of Soviet soldiers and officers.

— High mobilization potential of the Soviet economy.

— Military and economic superiority of the USSR over Germany.

- Economic and military-technical assistance of the Allies, carried out under Lend-Lease.

- A powerful propaganda campaign launched in the USSR, supporting the faith of the Soviet people in victory.

The Price of Victory

The human losses of the USSR amounted to over 40% of all human losses in World War II. There has been a significant reduction in the adult working population. During the war years, the USSR lost 1/3 of its national wealth. The total losses amounted to a gigantic sum of 4 trillion dollars. In agriculture, 7 million horses, 17 million cattle, tens of millions of pigs, sheep and goats, and poultry were looted or destroyed. Damage to transport: 65,000 kilometers of railway tracks and 13,000 railway bridges were destroyed; Huge damage was done to industrial and agricultural enterprises. In view of the powerful development of the military industry, significant disproportions arose in the economy. A tragic situation developed in the countryside: in 1945, the volume of agricultural production fell to 60%, the cultivated area was reduced by 1/3.

Results and lessons of the Great Patriotic War

1. The USSR defended its freedom and independence.
2. The security of the Soviet borders was strengthened. The USSR included territories inhabited by ethnic Slavs, Ukrainians and Belarusians; the new borders most fully corresponded to the historically established conditions for the development of the peoples of the USSR.
3. The military and political position of the USSR was strengthened.
4. An important result of the war was that the Eastern Front was decisive in it. Here Germany lost 3/4 of its soldiers, tanks, aviation.
5. The territories of 13 countries of the world were completely or partially liberated from the fascist yoke. Forms of the liberation mission of the Soviet Armed Forces: rendering assistance to the anti-fascist Resistance; creation of foreign military formations; material assistance in the form of food supplies, the restoration of bridges and roads, the clearance of streets, buildings, peasant fields, etc.
6. The process of disintegration of the colonial system accelerated.
7. Reactionary regimes fell in a number of states in Europe and Asia. The positions of progressive, democratic, peace-loving forces have been strengthened.

The Soviet Union made a decisive contribution to the victory of the anti-Hitler coalition: the Soviet-German front was the main front of the Second World War for 4 years of the war.

April 5, 1945 - The Soviet government announced the denunciation of the Soviet-Japanese neutrality pact, concluded in 1941.

July 28 - Japanese Prime Minister Suzuki issued a statement stating that the Japanese government was ignoring the Potsdam Declaration.

Atomic bombing by the Americans of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (08/06/1945) and Nagasaki (08/09/1945).

August 9, 1945 - the entry of the USSR into the war against Japan. The fighting between the Japanese and Soviet troops (general leadership was carried out by A. M. Vasilevsky) began in several directions at once: the Trans-Baikal, 1st and 2nd Far Eastern Fronts against the Kwantung Army of Japan in Manchuria; from August 11, 1945 - the South Sakhalin offensive operation.

August 15 - In accordance with the Decree of the Emperor of Japan Hirohito on the acceptance of the terms of surrender, hostilities between the American, British and Japanese armed forces were stopped.

From August 19 to September 1, 1945, the Soviet troops carried out the final landing operation of the Second World War - the South Kuril landing operation.

September 2, 1945 - The ceremony of signing the Japanese Surrender Act was held on the USS Missouri. This day is considered to be the date of the end of World War II.

The Second World War had a huge impact on the fate of mankind. It was attended by 72 states (80% of the world's population). Military operations were conducted on the territory of 40 states. 110 million people were mobilized into the armed forces. The total human losses reached 60-65 million people. Military spending and military losses amounted to $4 trillion. Material costs reached 60-70% of the national income of the warring states.

As a result of the war, the role of Western Europe in world politics was weakened. The main powers in the world were the USSR and the USA. Great Britain and France, despite the victory, were significantly weakened. For some time after the end of the war, anti-communist armed detachments operated in Western Ukraine, the Baltic states, and Poland. Europe was divided into two camps: Western capitalist and Eastern socialist.

One of the main results of World War II was the creation of the United Nations on the basis of the Anti-Fascist Coalition.

November 20, 1945 - October 1, 1946 in Nuremberg, the trial of the main Nazi criminals was held. An International Tribunal was created from representatives of the victorious states in the Second World War. The essence of fascism, plans for the destruction of states and entire peoples were exposed, for the first time in history, aggression was recognized as the gravest crime against humanity.

May 3, 1946 - November 4, 1948, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East worked in Tokyo - the second trial of the main war criminals responsible for unleashing World War II. The Tribunal included representatives of the USSR, USA, Great Britain, China, France, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Netherlands. Subsequently, India and the Philippines joined the agreement.

The USSR turned into a great world power, which was a tangible consequence of the formation of a new geopolitical situation in the world, characterized in the future by the confrontation of two different systems - socialist and capitalist.

Anti-Hitler coalition- a military-political union of states that acted in World War II against the aggressor countries (Germany, Japan, Italy and their satellites). Although by the end of the war the coalition consisted of more than 50 states, the USSR, Great Britain and the USA played a key role in it.

The beginning of the Great Patriotic War forced the leaders of Western states to reconsider their attitude towards the USSR. Already in the first days of the war, W. Churchill and F. Roosevelt declared their readiness to support the Soviet Union. On July 12, 1941, Great Britain and the USSR signed an agreement on joint actions against Germany, which fixed mutual obligations to provide assistance and support in the war, as well as to refuse to conclude a separate peace with the enemy. Shortly after the conclusion of the agreement, the USSR and Great Britain took joint measures to prevent the use of Iranian territory by the Axis powers. On August 16, Moscow received a loan from the British government in the amount of 10 million pounds sterling, intended to pay for military purchases in the UK. The next step in the creation of the anti-Hitler coalition was the accession of the Soviet Union to the Atlantic Charter, previously signed by the United States and Great Britain.

In parallel, the Soviet government established contacts with the Free France National Committee of Charles de Gaulle and the governments of Czechoslovakia, Poland, and a number of other states captured by the Nazis, who were in exile.

On September 29 - October 1, 1941, a meeting of the heads of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the three states took place in Moscow. Agreements were reached on the supply of weapons and military equipment to the USSR, which, in turn, guaranteed the supply of strategic raw materials to England and the United States. In November 1941, the USSR officially joined lend-lease- the US state program, which provided for the supply of ammunition, equipment, food and strategic raw materials to the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition. Most of them fell on the period from mid-1943 to the end of 1944.

The immediate entry into the war on December 7, 1941 by the United States completed the formation of the anti-Hitler coalition. The Declaration of the United Nations was signed on January 1, 1942 by representatives of 26 states, including the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and China, which further strengthened the alliance of peoples who resisted the aggressors. It contained an obligation to use all resources, military and economic, against those members of the Berlin Pact with which this member of the Declaration is at war.

The important diplomatic documents that held the anti-Hitler coalition together were the Soviet-British Treaty on "An Alliance in the War Against Hitler's Germany and Its Collaborators in Europe and on Cooperation after the War" dated May 26, 1942, and the Soviet-American Agreement "On the Principles Applied to Mutual assistance in waging war against aggression" dated June 11, 1942.

Following the results of the conference of foreign ministers of the great powers, held in Moscow on October 19-30, 1943, its participants adopted a declaration in which it was said that the war should end with the complete and unconditional surrender of Germany. In addition, it formulated the principles of the post-war world order. Another declaration, approved at the same conference, spoke of the inevitable responsibility of the Nazis for the crimes they committed.

The radical turning point in the course of World War II, the entry of the Red Army to the state borders of the USSR clearly demonstrated that the Soviet Union, without outside help, could expel the Nazis from the countries of Europe they occupied. Taking this into account, the United States and Great Britain, not wanting to see Soviet troops in Central and Western Europe before their armies were there, hastened the landing of allied forces in France.

At the end of 1943, when the defeat of Germany was already obvious, the "Big Three" - the leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition W. Churchill, F. Roosevelt, I. Stalin - gathered in Tehran (November 28 - December 1, 1943). Foreign ministers, political and military advisers also took part in the work of the conference.

The main attention of the participants was focused on the problems of the further conduct of the war, in particular, the opening of a second front. As a result, the Declaration on joint actions in the war against Germany and post-war cooperation was approved. Stalin made a statement about the readiness of the USSR to start a war with Japan after the defeat of Germany. It was decided that the Allies would open a second front before the summer of 1944 with their landing in France (this happened on June 6, 1944 - Operation Overlord).

Along with the problems of waging war, the first conference of heads of government discussed issues of post-war organization and ensuring a lasting peace. In particular, the problem of the structure of Germany after the fall of the Nazi regime was touched upon. The United States and Great Britain insisted on the need to divide Germany into a number of small states, the Soviet delegation advocated the demilitarization and democratization of the German state, a public trial of the Nazi leadership, as well as the creation of a strong international body that would in the future become a guarantee that Germany would not become the initiator of new wars.

The agenda of the Tehran conference included the Polish and Iranian issues. Western countries tried to reconcile the USSR and the Polish government in exile in London, relations between which deteriorated sharply after the Germans made public in 1943 the facts of the mass execution of Polish officers by the NKVD in the Katyn forest near Smolensk. The issue of borders also remained a stumbling block in Soviet-Polish relations. The USSR insisted on recognizing the borders of 1939, which generally corresponded to the Curzon line proposed back in 1920, and made it possible to preserve the unity of the Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples.

The liberation by the Red Army from the Nazis of a number of Eastern European countries marked the differences of the allies regarding their post-war structure. The USSR sought to create a "security belt" on its western borders from states friendly to it. Other participants in the anti-Hitler coalition, primarily Great Britain, wanted not only to restore their pre-war positions in these countries, but also to impose obligations on the Soviet Union to divide spheres of influence even before they were liberated.

To this end, in October 1944, W. Churchill paid a visit to Moscow. His proposal was as follows: in Romania, the USSR receives 90% of the influence, and 10% remained for other countries, in Greece this ratio was the same, but in favor of Great Britain. Regarding Yugoslavia and Hungary, the British Prime Minister proposed to establish parity - 50% to 50%, in Bulgaria 75% of influence was given to Moscow and 25% to other states. These proposals were discussed at the level of foreign ministers.

The principal thing was that the USSR agreed to give 90% of its influence in Greece to the British and Americans, despite the fact that there was a high probability that the Communists would come to power in this country. This served as a demonstration of the recognition of the sphere of influence of the allies outside the "security belt" and confirmed Moscow's intention to continue cooperation in the post-war world.

A new meeting of the heads of the three allied states took place on February 4-11, 1945 in Yalta. After listening to the report of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Army A. Antonov on the situation on the Soviet-German front, the allies agreed on military plans for the final defeat of Germany and outlined the principles on which the post-war world order would be based. It was decided to divide Germany into zones of occupation between the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and France. The capital of Germany - Berlin - was also divided into occupation zones. The Central Control Commission in Berlin was to coordinate and control the actions of the occupying authorities. The USSR again opposed the idea of ​​the heads of the Western powers to dismember Germany. The leaders of the "Big Three" were unanimous in their opinion about the need for the complete destruction of German militarism and National Socialism.

During the negotiations, the Soviet side confirmed its commitment to enter the war against Japan 2-3 months after the end of hostilities with Germany. At the same time, the USSR demanded the preservation of the existing position of Mongolia, the restoration of rights to the territories lost as a result of the Russo-Japanese War (South Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands), the internationalization of Port Arthur, the joint operation of the Chinese Eastern and South Manchurian Railways with China.

Significant disagreements among the participants of the conference arose during the discussion of the Polish question. They concerned the establishment of the western border of Poland (the USSR offered to transfer to the Poles a number of territories that belonged to Germany before the war) and the composition of the Polish government. Stalin wanted to make it pro-communist, while Britain and the United States insisted on the legitimacy of the government in exile in London.

The Declaration on a Liberated Europe adopted at the conference provided for the readiness of the allied states to assist the peoples of Europe in establishing democratic power. The conference participants decided to convene the founding conference of the United Nations on April 25, 1945, in San Francisco. All states that declared war on Germany and Japan before March 1, 1945 could become participants in the conference. An agreement was reached that the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR would be members of the UN along with the USSR.

End of World War II

On August 8, 1945, the USSR entered the war against Japan. Under the general leadership of Marshal A. Vasilevsky, the Soviet troops of the Trans-Baikal, 1st and 2nd Far Eastern Fronts inflicted a number of tangible defeats on the Kwantung Army, liberating Northeast China and North Korea. On September 2, 1945, the act of unconditional surrender of Japan was signed. World War II is over. The main result of the war was the defeat of the states of the aggressive bloc led by Nazi Germany and the elimination of the threat of extermination of the Russian and other peoples of the Soviet Union. The prestige and influence of the USSR in the world increased. As a result of the war, more than 60 million people died, including 27 million Soviet citizens.

The role of the USSR in the Second World War and the solution of questions about the post-war structure of the world

The historical significance of the USSR in World War II lies in the fact that it played the role of the main military and political force that predetermined the victorious course of the war and protected the peoples of the world from enslavement. The peoples of the Soviet Union were able to thwart the German plans for a blitzkrieg in 1941 by stopping the victorious march of the Nazis across Europe. The counteroffensive near Moscow destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the Wehrmacht, contributing to the rise of the Resistance movement and strengthening the anti-Hitler coalition. The defeats inflicted on Germany at Stalingrad and Kursk became a radical turning point in the war, forcing the countries of the aggressive bloc to abandon their offensive strategy. The crossing of the Dnieper by the soldiers of the Red Army opened the way to the liberation of Europe. Having liberated Eastern Europe, the USSR returned statehood to the enslaved peoples, restoring historically fair borders.

On the Soviet-German front, the main forces of the aggressor coalition - 607 divisions - were destroyed, while the Anglo-American troops defeated 176 enemy divisions. About 77% of all Wehrmacht losses in World War II were on the Eastern Front. The Soviet-German front was the longest of all the fronts of World War II.

At the heart of the Victory is the patriotic upsurge of Soviet citizens, the unprecedented enthusiasm of the people, the perception by the majority of Soviet people of Nazi aggression as a personal challenge, which gave rise to the desire to carry out a just, liberation war. This attitude is confirmed by examples of mass heroism at the fronts, fierce resistance in the occupied territories, and labor accomplishments in the rear. The economic base created during the first five-year plans made it possible not only to make up for a significant part of the losses incurred as a result of the capture of hotel industrial areas by the enemy, to restore the combat capability of the armed forces as soon as possible, but also to surpass the enemy in quantitative and qualitative terms, which made it possible to carry out a radical change in the war which brought victory to the USSR. Its other components were the successes of Soviet science and technology. The improvement of old and the creation of new models of military equipment, the introduction of scientific achievements into the industrial production of military products, the optimal development of the raw material base, the acceleration of the production process through the use of more advanced technologies - all this served as an aid to the growth of the military power of the USSR. During the war years, the Soviet model of the economy with its inherent planning, directiveness, and strict centralization turned out to be the most appropriate. This made it possible to quickly mobilize and redistribute material and human resources.

As a result of the war, a new alignment of forces has taken shape in international relations. Although the USSR suffered great material and human losses, it significantly strengthened its political positions in the world. By the end of the war, the Soviet Union had the world's largest land army and huge industrial potential. In addition, the economic and political power of the United States has increased. The rivalry between the two superstates became the leitmotif of international relations for the next 45 years.

This became obvious for the first time already during the Potsdam Conference (July 17 - August 2, 1945) of the "Big Three", at which instead of the deceased F. Roosevelt, the United States was represented by a new president, G. Truman, and already during the work of the conference, W. Churchill was replaced by the victorious in the parliamentary elections, the leader of the British Labor Party, K. Attlee. The conference adopted the principles of the "4 D" in relation to Germany: demilitarization, denazification, democratization and decentralization, the bodies of occupation control in Germany were created, the boundaries of occupation zones were clearly marked, and territorial changes in Europe were considered. In particular, the Soviet Union received Königsberg (modern Kaliningrad) and the territories adjacent to it. The USSR confirmed its readiness to start a war against Japan. At the same time, many contradictions between the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition became apparent in Potsdam, which became the prologue to the beginning of the Cold War.

On October 24, 1945, the creation of the United Nations (UN) was completed. The USSR became one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

During the meeting of the heads of the ministries of foreign affairs of Great Britain, the USSR and the USA, held in Moscow on December 16-26, 1945, drafts of peace agreements were drawn up with the former allies of Nazi Germany - Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Finland. Their signing took place already in 1947.

The victory over Nazism led to significant territorial changes in Europe and Asia, approved at the Potsdam Conference by the heads of government of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain and the Paris Peace Conference (July 29 - October 15, 1946) by the foreign ministers of the victorious countries. At these meetings, the territorial acquisitions of the Soviet Union made in 1939-1940 were legalized. In the Far East, the USSR in 1946 returned South Sakhalin, and also received the Kuril Islands.

An important event in international law was the Nuremberg trials (November 1945 - October 1946) over the main Nazi war criminals. The International Military Tribunal, consisting of representatives of the United States, Great Britain and the USSR, sentenced 12 defendants to death (G. Goering, I. von Ribbentrop, V. Keitel, etc.), the rest of the convicts received long prison terms. The entire leadership of the Nazi Party, as well as such organizations as the Gestapo, SD, SS, were recognized as criminal.

Introduction: The situation of the Soviet Union on the eve of the Great Patriotic War

1. The initial period of the war (June 1941 - November 1942). The main task of the army and the people is to survive!

2. 2nd period of the war (November 1942 - the end of 1943). The initiative goes over to the side of the Red Army. German troops are suffering major defeats on the territory of the Soviet Union.

3. The final period of the war (January 1944 - May 1945). Liberation of the USSR and the countries of Eastern Europe from the Nazi yoke.

Conclusion: The great feat of the soldiers of the Red Army and home front workers.

On the eve of the war, a radical restructuring of our armed forces was carried out. The ground forces included rifle (infantry), armored and mechanized troops, artillery and cavalry. They also included special troops: communications, engineering, air defense, chemical defense and others. Organizationally, they united in ZOZ rifle, tank, motorized and cavalry divisions, 170 of which were in the western military districts. In the ground forces, more than 80% of the personnel of the Armed Forces passed smriba. The Air Force and the Navy were greatly strengthened.

The limited time available to our country did not allow us to solve all the issues on which the ground security of the state depended. The Soviet government tried in every possible way to buy time, at least for another one or two years, when the next five-year plan was completed, the main task of which was to rearm the army and fleet. Since 1939, samples of new modern weapons and equipment began to enter the troops: T-34 and KV tanks, BM-13 (Katyusha) multiple launch rocket weapons, F. Tokarev self-loading rifle (SVT-40), heavy machine gun (12 .7 mm) on a tripod. Many activities were unfinished by the beginning of the war.

The peaceful efforts of the Soviet Union to curb fascist aggression were not supported by Britain, France and the United States. France was soon conquered by Germany and capitulated, and the British government, fearing the landing of German troops on the islands, did everything to push German fascism to the East, to war against the USSR. And they achieved it. On June 22, 1941, Germany treacherously attacked the Soviet Union. The European allies of Germany - Italy, Hungary, Romania and Finland - also entered the war against the USSR.

German generals warned Hitler about the danger of a war against Russia, emphasizing that the war should end with a German victory in a maximum of 3 months after the start, since Germany did not have the economic resources to wage a long war in the vast expanses of Russia. To implement the plan for a lightning war ("blitzkrieg") called "Barbarossa" - a plan for the destruction of Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv, Minsk and the seizure of the North Caucasus, and most importantly Baku with its oil, the Nazis created an exceptional military power, the main shock fist of which was tank armies, able to move forward quickly.

To deliver a surprise blow, Hitler pulled 157 German and 37 divisions of Germany's European allies to the borders of the USSR. This armada was armed with about 4.3 thousand tanks and assault guns, up to 5 thousand aircraft, 47.2 thousand guns and mortars and 5.5 million soldiers and officers. The Red Army encountered such a monstrous war machine in June 1941.

The Soviet Army in June 1941 in the border military districts had 2.9 million people, 1.8 thousand tanks, 1.5 thousand aircraft of a new design.

But, the “blitzkrieg” did not work out for the Nazis, they had to fight for almost 4 years (or rather 1418 days and nights), and as a result, lose everything and shamefully capitulate in Berlin.

The war can be conditionally divided into three periods: the first period - June 1941 - November 1942; the second period - November 1942 - the end of 1943; third period - January 1944 - May 1945

1. First period.

So, how were the hostilities during the first period. The main directions of military operations: northwestern (Leningrad), western (Moscow), southwestern (Ukraine). Main events: border battles in the summer of 1941, the defense of the Brest Fortress; the capture of the Baltic states, Belarus by the Nazi troops, the beginning of the blockade of Leningrad; Smolensk battles of 1941; Kyiv defense, Odessa defense 1941 - 1942; fascist German occupation of Ukraine and Crimea; Moscow battle in September-December 1941. In November 1941, the Germans realized that the "blitzkrieg" did not work out, so they had to go on the defensive so as not to lose their main forces in the winter of 1941-1942.

On December 5, 1941, the Red Army went on the offensive near Moscow. This was the first major defeat of the German troops in the Second World War, starting from the autumn of 1939. It was the collapse of the idea of ​​"blitzkrieg" - lightning war war and the beginning of a turning point in its course. The front in the east for Germany and its allies stopped near Moscow.

However, Hitler could not agree that the further conduct of hostilities against Russia would not lead Germany to victory. In June 1942, Hitler changed his plan - the main thing was to capture the Volga region and the Caucasus in order to provide the troops with fuel and food. The Nazi offensive began in the southeast of our country. A bright page in the history of the Great Patriotic War was the heroic defense of Stalingrad (July 17 - November 18, 1942). The battle for the Caucasus lasted from July 1942 to October 1943.

2.Second period of the war

The second period of the war begins with the counteroffensive of our troops near Stalingrad (November 19, 1942 - February 2, 1943). By this time in our country there was an increase in the production of military products, an increase in the combat reserves of the USSR. The defeat of the 330,000-strong German fascist group over Stalingrad meant the achievement of a radical turning point in the course of the war.

Offensive operations in the North Caucasus, the Middle Don, as well as the breaking of the blockade of Leningrad in January 1943 - all this dispelled the myth of the invincibility of the fascist army. In the summer of 1943, Hitler was forced to conduct a total mobilization in Germany and in the satellite states. He urgently needed to take revenge for the defeats at Stalingrad and in the Caucasus. The German generals no longer believed in the final victory over Russia, but made another attempt to take the initiative in the war on the Kursk Bulge. Here the Germans were preparing grandiose tank equipment in order to go on the offensive again. The Battle of Kursk lasted for a month (from July 5 to August 5, 1943). The Soviet command delivered a powerful artillery warning strike, but despite this, the Germans went on the offensive, which lasted from July 5 to July 11, 1943.

And on July 12-15, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive. On August 5, Oryol and Belgrade were liberated, in honor of which the first salute for the war years to our generals and soldiers who won a major victory thundered in Moscow. The victory in the Battle of Kursk is regarded as an event of the war, during which the Soviet army "broke the back" of the German troops. From now on, no one in the world doubted the victory of the USSR.

From that moment on, the full strategic initiative passed to the Soviet army, which was held until the end of the war. In August-December 1943, all our fronts went on the offensive, German troops retreated everywhere beyond the Dnieper. Novorossiysk was liberated on September 16, and Kyiv on November 6.

In 1943, Russia achieved complete economic and military superiority over Germany. The restoration of the national economy began in the liberated regions and districts. Western countries (England and the USA) understood that next year the Soviet army would begin the liberation of European countries. Fearing to be late and eager to share the victory over Nazi Germany, the rulers of the United States and Great Britain agreed to open a second front. To do this, they met with the Soviet delegation, headed by Stalin, at the Tehran Conference in 1943.

But even after the agreement on joint actions, the United States and Great Britain were in no hurry to open a second front, guided by their far-reaching plans to bleed the USSR, and after the war to impose their will on Russia.

Military operations are transferred to the territory of Germany's allies and the countries occupied by it. The Soviet government officially declared that the entry of the Red Army into the territory of other countries was caused by the need to completely defeat the armed forces of Germany and did not pursue the goal of changing the political structure of these states or violating the territorial integrity. The political course of the USSR was based on the program of organizing and recreating the state, economic and cultural life of the European peoples, which was put forward as early as November 1943, which provided for the liberated peoples to be given full rights and freedom in choosing their state structure. The heads of the some world powers. W. Churchill and many Western historians spoke of the establishment of "Soviet despotism" in the liberated territory.

Under the blows of the Red Army, the fascist bloc fell apart. Finland left the war. In Romania, the Antonescu regime was overthrown and the new government declared war on Germany. During the summer-autumn of 1944, Romania (2nd Ukrainian Front), Bulgaria (2nd Ukrainian Front), Yugoslavia (3rd Ukrainian Front), Hungary and Slovakia were liberated. In October 1944, Soviet troops entered the territory of Germany. Together with the Soviet troops, the Czechoslovak corps, the Bulgarian army, the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, the 1st and 2nd armies of the Polish Army, several Romanian units and formations took part in the liberation of their countries.

Chronologically, it happened like this. On August 20, the troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts went on the offensive on the southern flank and, after three days of fighting, surrounded the main forces of the German-Romanian troops. On August 23, a military coup took place in Bucharest. The German protege Marshal I. Antonescu and a number of his ministers were arrested. Attempts by German troops to capture Bucharest ran into resistance from the rebellious population of the city. On August 31, Soviet troops entered the capital of Romania.

Foreign policy of the USSR in the prewar years.

International relations that developed after the First World War proved to be insufficiently stable. The Versailles system, which divided the world into victorious powers and countries that lost the war, did not ensure a balance of power. The restoration of stability was also hampered by the victory of the Bolsheviks in Russia and the rise of the Nazis in Germany, leaving these two major powers in a pariah position. They sought to get out of international isolation by drawing closer to each other. This was facilitated by the agreement signed in 1922 on the establishment of diplomatic relations and the mutual waiver of claims. Since then, Germany has become the most important trade, political and military partner of the USSR. She, bypassing the restrictions that the Treaty of Versailles imposed on her, trained officers on Soviet territory and produced weapons, sharing the secrets of military technologies with the USSR.

On rapprochement with Germany, Stalin built his calculations related to the incitement of the revolutionary struggle. Hitler could destabilize the situation in Europe by starting a war with England, France and other countries, thereby creating favorable conditions for Soviet expansion into Europe. Stalin used Hitler as the "icebreaker of the revolution".

As can be seen, the emergence of totalitarian regimes threatened stability in Europe: the fascist regime was eager for external aggression, the Soviet regime was eager to foment revolutions outside the USSR. Each of them was characterized by the rejection of bourgeois democracy.

The friendly relations that had developed between the USSR and Germany did not prevent them from carrying out subversive activities against each other. The German fascists did not refuse to continue the anti-communist struggle, and the Soviet Union and the Comintern organized an uprising in Germany in October 1923, which did not receive mass support and was suppressed. The uprising in Bulgaria, raised a month earlier, and the British miners' strike of 1926, which was financed by the Soviet government, also failed. The failure of these adventures and the stabilization of the democratic regimes of the West did not lead to the abandonment of plans for the implementation of the world revolution, but only prompted Stalin to change the tactics of fighting for it. Now it was no longer the communist movements in the capitalist countries, but the Soviet Union that was proclaimed the leading revolutionary force, and loyalty to it was considered a manifestation of true revolutionism.

The Social Democrats, who did not support the revolutionary actions, were declared the main enemy of the communists, and the Comintern branded them as "social fascists". This point of view has become obligatory for communists all over the world. As a result, an anti-fascist united front was never created, which allowed the National Socialists, led by Adolf Hitler, to come to power in Germany in 1933, and even earlier, in 1922, Mussolini began to rule Italy. In Stalin's position, a logic was visible, subordinate to the plans of the world revolution, and with it, in general, the country's domestic and foreign policy was coordinated.

Already in 1933, Germany withdrew from the League of Nations (a prototype of the UN), and in 1935, in violation of its obligations under the Treaty of Versailles, introduced universal military service and returned / through a plebiscite / the Saarland. In 1936, German troops entered the demilitarized Rhineland. In 1938, the Anschluss of Austria was carried out. Fascist Italy in 1935-1936 captured Ethiopia. In 1936-1939. Germany and Italy carried out an armed intervention in the civil war in Spain, sending about 250 thousand soldiers and officers to help the rebellious General Franco (and the USSR helped the Republicans by sending about 3 thousand "volunteers").

Another hotbed of tension and war arose in Asia. In 1931-1932. Japan annexed Manchuria, and in 1937 launched a large-scale war against China, capturing Beijing, Shanghai and other cities of the country. In 1936, Germany and Japan signed the Anticom Intern Pact, and Italy signed it a year later.

In total, up to 70 regional and local armed conflicts occurred during the period from the first to the second world wars. The Versailles system was maintained only by the efforts of England and France. In addition, the desire of these countries to maintain the status quo in Europe was weakened by their desire to use Germany against the Bolshevik threat. It was this that explained their policy of connivance, "appeasement" of the aggressor, which in fact encouraged Hitler's growing appetites.

The apogee of this policy was the Munich Agreements in September 1938. Hitler, who considered Germany sufficiently strengthened, began to implement his plans for world domination. First, he decided to unite in one state all the lands inhabited by the Germans. In March 1938, German troops occupied Austria. Taking advantage of the passivity of the world community and the support of the German people, who linked hopes with Hitler for the revival of the country, the Fuhrer went further. He demanded that Czechoslovakia hand over to Germany the Sudetenland, populated predominantly by Germans. Territorial claims to Czechoslovakia were put forward by both Poland and Hungary. Czechoslovakia could not resist Germany alone, but was ready to fight in alliance with the French and the British. However, the meeting in Munich on September 29-30, 1938 between British Prime Minister Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Daladier with Hitler and Mussolini ended in the shameful capitulation of the democratic powers. Czechoslovakia was ordered to give Germany the industrially and militarily important Sudetenland, Poland - the Teszyn region, and Hungary - part of the Slovak lands. As a result of this, Czechoslovakia lost 20% of its territory, most of its industry.

The British and French governments hoped that the Munich Agreement would satisfy Hitler and prevent war. In reality, the appeasement policy only encouraged the aggressor: Germany first annexed the Sudetenland, and in March 1939 occupied all of Czechoslovakia. With the weapons captured here, Hitler could arm up to 40 of his divisions. The German army grew rapidly and strengthened. The balance of power in Europe was rapidly changing in favor of the fascist states. In April 1939, Italy captured Albania. In Spain, the civil war ended with the victory of the fascist Franco regime. Advancing further, Hitler forced the Lithuanian government to return to Germany the city of Memel (Klaipeda), annexed by Lithuania in 1919.

League of Nations the status of a free city. Hitler wanted to occupy the city and build a road to it through Polish territory. The Polish government, given what happened to Czechoslovakia, refused. England and France declared that they would guarantee the independence of Poland, that is, they would fight for it. They were forced to speed up their military programs, to agree on mutual assistance, to provide guarantees to certain European countries against possible aggression.

In the mid-1930s, realizing the danger of fascism, Soviet leaders tried to improve relations with Western democracies and create a system of collective security in Europe. In 1934, the USSR joined the League of Nations; in 1935, agreements on mutual assistance were concluded with France and Czechoslovakia. However, the military convention with France was not signed, and the military assistance to Czechoslovakia, which was offered by the USSR, was rejected, because. it was conditioned by the provision of such assistance to Czechoslovakia by France. In 1935, the 7th Congress of the Comintern called for the formation of a popular front of communists and social democrats. However, after the Munich Agreement, the USSR found itself in political isolation. Relations with Japan deteriorated. In the summer of 1938, Japanese troops invaded the Soviet Far East in the area of ​​Lake Khasan, and in May 1939, into the territory of Mongolia.

In a difficult situation, the Bolshevik leadership began to maneuver, resulting in dramatic changes in the foreign policy of the USSR. On March 10, 1939, at the 18th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Stalin severely criticized the policies of England and France and declared that the USSR was not going to “pull chestnuts out of the fire” for “warmongers”, meaning by them precisely these states (and not Nazi Germany ). Nevertheless, in order to calm public opinion in the West and put pressure on Germany, on April 17, 1939, the Soviet government proposed that England and France conclude a Tripartite Mutual Assistance Pact in the event of aggression. Hitler took a similar step to prevent a bloc between the Western powers and Russia: he suggested that they conclude a "Pact of Four" between England, France, Germany and Italy. The USSR began negotiations with England and France, but only as a smoke screen in order to bargain more with Hitler. The other side also used the negotiations to put pressure on Hitler. In general, a great diplomatic game was being played in Europe, in which each of the three parties sought to outmaneuver the other parties.

On May 3, 1939, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs M. M. Litvinov, who was a supporter of an alliance with Western democrats and a Jew by nationality, was replaced by V. M. Molotov. This was a clear symptom of a change in the emphasis of the foreign policy of the USSR, which was fully appreciated by Hitler. Soviet-German contacts immediately intensified. On May 30, the German leadership made it clear that it was ready to improve relations with the USSR. The USSR continued negotiations with England and France. But there was no mutual trust between the parties: after Munich, Stalin did not believe in the readiness of the British and French to resist, they also did not trust the USSR, they were playing for time, they wanted to push the Germans and Russians together. On the initiative of the USSR, on August 12, 1939, negotiations began in Moscow with the military missions of England and France. And here difficulties emerged in the negotiations, especially in terms of assuming military obligations, readiness to deploy troops against the aggressor. In addition, Poland refused to allow Soviet troops to pass through its territory. The motives of the Polish refusal were understandable, but otherwise the Red Army could not act against the German troops. All this made it difficult for the USSR to negotiate with Britain and France.

Soviet-German pact and its consequences

Hitler, on the contrary, expressed a clear readiness to negotiate with the USSR, because. at that time he needed such a partner. Germany was not yet ready for a big war with the USSR, and Hitler chose the Western option. As early as March 8, 1939, at a secret meeting with the Fuhrer, a strategy was outlined that provided for the capture of Poland before the fall, and in 1940-1941. - France, then England. The ultimate goal was proclaimed the unification of Europe and the establishment of fascist domination on the American continent. Therefore, Hitler "was interested in a temporary alliance with the USSR.

Stalin made the decision to start negotiations with Germany at the end of July 1939. At the same time, he did not break off contacts with Western countries. Thanks to the efforts of Soviet intelligence, he knew about the plans of Nazi Germany to attack Poland and launch a war with England and France, believed that an agreement with Hitler would delay the entry of the USSR into the war, expand Soviet borders and the sphere of influence of socialism, and carry out a world revolution with the help of military political power of the USSR.

On August 23, 1939, after three hours of negotiations in Moscow, the so-called "Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact" was signed. The negotiations were held in deep secrecy, and therefore the announcement of the signing of the non-aggression pact produced the impression of a bombshell all over the world. The parties also signed a more important document - secret protocols on the division of spheres of influence in Eastern Europe (the Soviet leadership denied the existence of the protocols until 1989, their existence was confirmed under Gorbachev by the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR). Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Eastern Poland and Bessarabia were assigned to the sphere of influence of the USSR. It was a secret shameful conspiracy with the fascist aggressor about the division of Eastern Europe.

With the signing of these documents, Soviet foreign policy changed dramatically, the Stalinist leadership turned into an ally of Germany in the division of Europe. The situation in Europe as a whole changed in favor of fascist Germany. The USSR helped her remove the last obstacle to the attack on Poland and] to start the Second World War.

The evaluation of the pact of August 23, 1939 and, in general, the rapprochement between the Soviet Union and Germany is the subject of heated discussions. Supporters of the pact point as arguments: to the existence of the danger of the emergence of a united anti-Soviet front, uniting the fascist and democratic powers; on the gain achieved in time before the entry of the USSR into the war; to expand the borders of the Soviet Union on the eve of Nazi Germany's aggression against it. During the Stalin period, these arguments were not questioned. But later, in the conditions of pluralism of opinions, their inconsistency was revealed.

The possibility of creating a united anti-Soviet front was extremely unlikely; it could not be created even in 1917-1920. The entry into the war against the USSR of the democratic states of Europe was excluded. Moreover, Germany in 1939 in any case could not start a war against the USSR due to the lack of common borders for the deployment of troops and attacks. Moreover, she was then not ready for a big war, which was evident in the military campaign against little Poland. The defeat of the Japanese grouping near the Khalkhin-Gol River in Mongolia (July-August 1939) moderated the ambitions of the eastern neighbor, and Japan began to behave more cautiously. On September 15, 1939, an agreement was signed with the USSR. This defeat was a factor that prompted Japan to subsequently refrain from attacking the USSR. Consequently, the USSR in 1939 was practically insured against a war on two fronts.

Another argument about gaining time is also untenable, since this gain was mutual. The question was who makes the best use of this time. Germany used the 22 months before the attack on the USSR more effectively: it increased its military forces, conquered European states, deployed its divisions near our borders. The leadership of the USSR was more engaged in external expansion and a bloody war with little Finland, the extermination of the command staff of its army. There was also no gain in the acquisition of new territories, because. they were not militarily mastered, the borders were not fortified, they were lost in the first days of the war. A common border with Germany appeared, facilitating its attack on the USSR.

It is also important to take into account the fact that the possibilities for continuing negotiations with Britain and France were also not exhausted. The leadership of the USSR was required to show greater perseverance in overcoming the mutual distrust of the parties, in reaching a compromise with their natural allies, which these countries were. (When the Great Patriotic War began, the harsh reality inevitably forced the USSR to draw closer and become their ally). Instead, it erroneously refocused on Nazi Germany, played a "double game", and then broke off negotiations. It turned out that on August 21, the French representative, General J. Doumenc, received the authority to sign a military convention with Russia.

Rapprochement with fascist Germany, the conclusion of a pact and secret protocols with it was extremely unfavorable for the USSR, it ultimately led to war and a military catastrophe at its beginning and historically did not justify itself. First, the signing of the pact freed the hands of the aggressor, provided him with a reliable rear for unleashing a war and conquering European states. Without the pact, without the neutrality of the USSR, without a reliable rear, it is unlikely that Hitler would have attacked Poland, started a war with England and France, and gained freedom of action in Europe. Secondly, by partitioning Poland in collusion with Hitler, by creating a common border with Germany, the Stalinist leadership facilitated a surprise attack on the USSR with disastrous consequences. Thirdly, having become close to Nazi Germany, signing a pact with it, Stalin lowered the prestige of the country in the world, gave grounds for accusing the USSR of complicity with Nazi Germany, and by expanding into Eastern Poland and the Baltic States, he opposed the war with Finland, isolated himself from the world community and in December 1939 was expelled from the League of Nations.

Fourthly, having drawn closer to Germany, abandoning the tactics of the 7th Congress of the Comintern, the Kremlin gave instructions to stop the fight against fascism, disoriented and disorganized the activities of the Communist Parties; he repressed their disobedient leaders and sent them to the Gulag, handed over hundreds of communists and anti-fascists into the hands of the fascists. And, finally, fifthly, the Soviet-German pact became an obstacle to the possible rapprochement of the USSR with England and France, moved them away from them, making it impossible to fight the aggressor together.

The step taken by the Stalinist regime towards rapprochement with fascist Germany in the desire to delay the start of the war, to expand the sphere of its domination, was logical for him, but unpromising and pernicious for the country. Retribution for him was inevitable, but it did not follow immediately.

Beginning of World War II.

Accession to the USSR of the territories of Eastern Europe. War with Finland

September 1, 1939 Hitler attacked Poland. The second world war began. The Polish army was inferior to the German one in terms of combat power and was unable to offer serious resistance to it. It was more likely preparing for war with the USSR than with Germany, concentrating 30 formations on the Soviet borders, and 22 on the German ones. On September 3, England and France, in accordance with their promises to Poland, declared war on Germany. However, they did not take any military action against Germany, waging the so-called "strange war".

On September 17, when the outcome of the battles in Poland was no longer in doubt, Soviet troops entered Poland under the pretext of protecting the “Ukrainian and Belarusian brothers”. About 22,000 Poles, most of them officers, were captured by the Soviets, and in 1940 they were shot. Stalin wanted to deprive Poland of the military elite. The event is known as the "Katyn tragedy", because. one of the burials was found in the Katyn forest near Smolensk. It was discovered by the Germans, who widely informed the world about it. The Soviet government refused to admit its guilt, saying that the Nazis executed the Poles. It acknowledged its responsibility only in 1990.

At Stalin's insistence, the line for dividing Poland was drawn somewhat differently from what was envisaged by the secret protocols. Central Poland with Warsaw went to Germany, in return the USSR acquired Lithuania. Having received lost in the Soviet-Polish war of 1920-1921. territory, Stalin included them in the Ukrainian and Belarusian Union Republics. The line of division of Poland, which became the Soviet-German border, was fixed in the new treaty "On Friendship and Border", signed by Molotov and Ribbentrop in Moscow on September 29, 1939. On the occasion of the victory over Poland, a Soviet-German parade was held in Brest. This was the fourth partition of Poland (the first three were under Catherine II).

As a result of the conclusion of the pact and treaty of friendship with the USSR, the eastern border of the German conquests was protected, and Hitler could turn his aggression to the West. The Western powers relied on the strength of the French Maginot defense line and the dominance of the English and French fleets at sea. Some Western leaders still cherished dreams of a Soviet-German clash. But Hitler planned the conquest of Russia only after the subjugation of the West. He applied the tactics tested in Poland, which involved the concentration of large forces of tanks and aircraft on the direction of the main attack, a rapid breakthrough of the defense, deep flank coverage and encirclement of enemy forces. On April 9, 1940, German troops captured Denmark almost without firing a shot and launched an invasion of Norway. On May 10, German troops invaded Holland and Belgium. When the French and British troops moved to the aid of Belgium, they were hit by a German tank column that had bypassed the Maginot Line. Having broken through the defense, the Germans reached the English Channel and surrounded the main forces of the Allied forces in Flanders. 330,000 allied troops pressed to the sea barely managed to evacuate from Dunkirk to England.

The outcome of the war with France also became obvious. Despite the presence of significant military forces, the morale of French society, especially the leadership of the country, was broken, capitulatory moods intensified. The government declared Paris an open city, and on June 14 the Germans entered the capital. On June 16, the new French Prime Minister, Marshal Pétain, asked Hitler for an armistice. It was signed on June 22, 1940 in the Compiègne forest, in the same carriage where in 1918 Germany signed the act of surrender in the First World War.

England was the only country that continued the courageous struggle against fascist Germany. Although she did not have significant ground forces, she took advantage of her advantageous geographical position to organize defense. On May 10, 1940, the energetic W. Churchill came to power, who categorically rejected the possibility of a peace agreement with Germany and launched work to mobilize all resources to repulse the V-enemy. Massive bombing of English cities, losses in the fleet from German submarines did not break the morale of the British. Germany failed to gain dominance in the air and at sea, without which the landing on the British Isles was impossible.

In this situation, Hitler postponed the decision of the fate of England to a later date, after the eastern campaign. On July 31, 11940, he declared that the first priority was henceforth the war with Russia. On December 18, 1940, the plan of attack on the USSR ("Barbarossa") was signed. German troops in deep secrecy began to be transferred to the East.

After the outbreak of World War II, in 1939-1940. the Stalinist leadership was primarily concerned with the annexation of the territories of the Eastern European states to the USSR, "unsubscribed" to it under secret agreements with Germany, and further rapprochement with Hitler. Efforts have also been made to strengthen the military and economic potential of the country. Based on secret agreements with Germany, Stalin demanded that the Baltic republics conclude agreements on "mutual assistance" and place their military bases on their territory. In September-October 1939, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were forced to agree to this. Immediately after defeat of France, June 14-16, 1940. Stalin delivered an ultimatum to the Baltic states on the introduction of contingents of Soviet troops on their territory (“to ensure security”) and the formation of new governments that “honestly” fulfill their obligations. people's governments", which, with the help of local communists, established Soviet power. In August 1940, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were included in the USSR as union republics. At the end of June 1940, Stalin achieved the return of Bessarabia, occupied by Romania in 1918.

Thus, practically without losses, the USSR occupied a territory of half a million square kilometers with a population of 20 million people. Everywhere a standard set of socialist transformations was carried out: the destruction of the private sector, collectivization, the elimination of democratic freedoms, executions, arrests, deportation to Siberia of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, Belarusians, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, etc.

The scenario used in the Baltics did not work in relation to Finland: the Finns did not agree to sign a "mutual assistance" agreement, nor to agree to change the border. In October 1939, the Soviet government demanded that Finland move the border away from Leningrad, give up the islands near Kronstadt, lease the Hanko (Gangut) peninsula with a naval base that controlled the entrance to the Gulf of Finland. Instead, Finland was offered twice as much territory, but in uninhabited places in the north. The Finnish government apparently believed that these demands could be followed by others and refused. The answer to the intransigence of the Finns was Soviet aggression.

On November 30, 1939, Soviet troops fired at their frontier post in the town of Mainila. "Putting" the blame on Finland, the Soviet government declared war on it and the Red Army invaded Finnish territory. The puppet "people's government" of Finland was prepared in advance, ready to declare the country another union republic within the USSR. At the head of the "government" was O. V. Kuusinen, a Finnish and Soviet citizen, one of the leaders of the Comintern. However, Stalin did not achieve a quick victory over the 4 millionth Finland. Having multiple superiority in manpower, especially in tanks and aircraft. The Red Army could not break the stubborn resistance of the Finns for a long time. At the cost of huge sacrifices and efforts, it was only in February that she was able to break through the Mannerheim defensive line. The war lasted 3.5 months. According to the peace treaty concluded on March 12, 1940, the USSR received those territories for which it claimed. At the cost of 10% of its territory, Finland retained its independence.

The results of the Soviet-Finnish war, called the "winter campaign", were disappointing for the USSR. For aggression against Finland, the USSR was expelled from the League of Nations and found itself in international isolation. He barely escaped an armed clash with England and France, who were preparing to send their troops to help the Finns, only peace was saved from this. The victory was achieved at the cost of heavy losses, which amounted to 127 thousand people killed on our part (270 thousand wounded and frostbite), on the part of the Finns - 27 thousand. The Red Army showed low combat effectiveness, which served as a factor that strengthened Hitler's determination to force an attack on the USSR. In the spring of 1940, he explained to his generals that the failures of the Soviet troops were the result of internal repression, and that it was important not to give Stalin time to strengthen the army. With this in mind, the timing of the attack of fascist Germany on the USSR, originally scheduled for the spring of 1942, was moved a year earlier.

For Stalin, the relative weakness of the Red Army, revealed in the war, was an incentive to delay the military clash in every possible way and to draw closer to the Nazi regime. The USSR, undermining the trade blockade of Germany, in 1940 -1 half of 1941 increased economic ties with it, supplied it on a large scale with oil, cotton, non-ferrous metals and other strategic materials necessary for the German economy.

Thus, in the outbreak of World War II, the Stalinist regime took the side of Hitler. In the official statement of Stalin and Molotov, Nazi Germany was portrayed as a peacemaker, while England and France were castigated as warmongers. Stalin handed over to Hitler 800 German and Austrian anti-fascists who were on the territory of the USSR. Public opinion inside the country was disoriented, and the communists abroad and those who sympathized with the USSR were plunged into shock.

However, outwardly quite correct relations between the USSR and Germany only masked the true intentions of the parties. The truce between them could only be temporary, as both dictators aspired to world domination and were intensively preparing for war. Hitler brought his troops into Finland and resumed the supply of weapons to her, ignoring the discontent of the USSR. On September 27, 1940, Germany, Italy and Japan signed an agreement in Berlin on a military-political alliance and the division of spheres of influence - the Tripartite Pact.

During Molotov's visit to Berlin on November 12-14, 1940, Hitler invited the USSR to take part in the division of the British Empire. However, the Führer rejected the demand of the USSR for the inclusion of Bulgaria in its sphere of influence. In the meantime, on December 18, Hitler set the date for the attack on the USSR - May 15, 1941. Then, due to the occupation of Yugoslavia and Greece by Germany, as well as the difficulties of the front location of the troops, the invasion of the USSR was postponed until June 22.

In every possible way delaying the timing of the collision, the USSR made efforts to build up the military-industrial complex. During the period 1939 - July 1941, the share of military spending increased from 26 to 43%, the output of military products was three times higher than the overall rate of industrial growth. Defense plants and backup enterprises were being built at an accelerated pace in the east of the country: by the beginning of the war, almost a fifth of all military plants were already located there. The production of new types of military equipment was mastered, such as T-34 tanks, BM-13 rocket launchers, IL-2 attack aircraft, which surpassed all foreign counterparts. The army switched from a mixed territorial-personnel system, introduced in the mid-1920s in order to save money, to a personnel system. On September 1, 1939, the Law on Universal Conscription was passed. The number of armed forces from August 1939 to June 1941 increased from 2 million to 5.4 million people.

However, the ongoing efforts to transfer the economy to a war footing and reorganize the army were belated. In addition, this work was carried out in an atmosphere of physical and moral terror, accompanied by major mistakes and miscalculations. Many designers and engineers were arrested, some of them later worked in special design bureaus created from prisoners (“sharashkas”). Because of the repressions, entire branches of the defense industry were in a fever, and the production of new models of military equipment was delayed. Although the USSR before the war produced more aircraft than Germany, but the majority of them were outdated. A similar situation was observed with tanks. By unjustified decisions, before the war, Stalin removed the 76-mm and 45-mm guns from service, the production of which was then urgently resumed. Because of Stalin's confidants, who lagged behind modern requirements and lived with memories of the civil war, the development of mortars and machine guns, which the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense G.I. Kulik considered "police weapons", was delayed. The replacement of a horse in the army with a car by the People's Commissar of Defense K. E. Voroshilov called "a wrecking theory."

Stalin's repressions were a terrible blow that hit the army, as a result of which the overwhelming majority of the highest command personnel, including almost all the most trained commanders and military theorists, were destroyed. Of the 85 senior military leaders, members of the Military Council under the People's Commissariat of Defense, 76 people were repressed. A significant part of the middle and junior command staff also suffered: only in 1937-1938. 43 thousand commanders were repressed. The quality of the military personnel deteriorated sharply: only 7.1% of the command staff had a higher military education, 3/4 of the commanders were in their positions for less than a year.

As you can see, the army on the eve of the war was practically beheaded. The fact remains that the losses of the highest commanding staff as a result of Stalin's repressions far exceeded the subsequent losses in the war with Germany. The consequence of this was a sharp drop in the level of Soviet military art, which was clearly manifested on the eve and at the beginning of World War II.

Stalin not only beheaded the Red Army, putting the country under attack, but also showed blindness in determining the timing of the fascist-German invasion. He received information about the impending attack on the USSR, compiled on the basis of a variety of (military and diplomatic sources, numbering in dozens about the impending invasion of the USSR, Stalin was warned (Churchill, the German ambassador to the USSR, an opponent of such a war, Schulenburg. The remarkable Soviet intelligence officer in Japan, Richard Sorge, transmitted the most valuable information about the plans and intentions of both Germany and Japan. However, Stalin did not believe the arguments of intelligence officers, diplomats and foreign statesmen, considered them disinformation. About Sorge, Stalin said: in Japan he has already acquired factories and brothels and even deigned to announce the date of the German attack on June 22. Will you order to believe him too?

In a TASS report published on June 14, 1941, the statements of the foreign press about the impending German attack on the USSR were "exposed". Panically afraid of provoking a conflict with Germany, Stalin strictly suppressed any actions that could be regarded as preparation for war, including increasing the combat readiness of the troops of the border districts. 10 days before the start of the war, flights of Soviet aviation were banned in the 10-kilometer border strip.

Stalin's mistakes in assessing the situation and the moment of Nazi Germany's attack on the USSR can be explained by the fact that he was afraid of this war and tried in every possible way to delay it, incorrectly believing that it would not happen before 1942. The geopolitical calculation of the leader, who believed that Hitler would not will risk starting a war on two fronts, with unconquered England behind him. Stalin underestimated the extent of Hitler's adventurism. He was sure of his foresight and infallibility, as befits an earthly god.

All this could happen only under the conditions of a cult of personality, when the monopoly on solving crucial issues belongs to one person. Consequently, the origins of the numerous tragic miscalculations of the Soviet leadership, made in 1939-1941, were rooted in the totalitarian system itself. It did not allow for a comprehensive discussion and democratic decision, taking into account alternative options, and so on. The mistakes that led to the military catastrophe were the product of the Stalinist regime.

The beginning of the Great Patriotic War

Violating the non-aggression pact, fascist Germany invaded the USSR on the morning of June 22 without declaring war. The Great Patriotic War began, which became an important part of the Second World War. From that moment on, it became more bloody and cruel, because. Hitler demanded to wage a war "of annihilation". The pre-designed Ost plan declared the Slavs an inferior race, proposed to “defeat the Russians as a people, undermine their “biological strength”, destroy their culture, carry out deportations of tens of millions of people, etc.

According to the Barbarossa plan, it was planned in a short-term campaign (up to 10 weeks) to destroy the main forces of the Red Army, striking in three main directions: Leningrad, Moscow and Kyiv. The fascist directive stated: "The ultimate goal of the operation is to create a defensive barrier against Asiatic Russia along the Volga-Arkhangelsk common line." The industrial cities of the Urals were also to be bombed. The occupied territories were supposed to be included in Germany or turned into its colonies and populated by Germans.

Germany's allies entered the war against the USSR: Romania and Finland, which had their own accounts for it after the annexations of 1940, and later Italy, Hungary, Spain and Slovakia. The invading army consisted of 4.4 million people, overwhelmingly Germans, 39 thousand guns and mortars, 4 thousand tanks and assault guns. Soviet troops in the western districts were inferior to the enemy in numbers, but significantly outnumbered him in the number of weapons. The Red Army had here 3 million people, 39.4 thousand guns and mortars, 11 thousand tanks and assault guns, 9.1 thousand aircraft.

However, with numerical advantages in technology, the vast majority of it was obsolete. Aircraft and tanks of new models had just begun to enter the troops, therefore, in terms of combat characteristics, Soviet weapons were significantly inferior to German ones. The army was in dire need of ammunition, tractors, communications and fuel. The pre-war Stalinist repressions had an extremely negative impact on the combat capability of the Red Army. In the command staff, 90% of the commanders were knocked out, and now they had to be appointed from among insufficiently trained personnel. In addition, fear settled in the army, which fettered any initiative, when the commanders were afraid to take responsibility and make independent decisions.

The surprise of the attack gave the Nazis a huge win (this was Stalin's "merit"), as a result of which, on the very first day of the war, they destroyed, for example, 1200 aircraft, mainly at airfields. The presence of combat experience in modern mobile warfare and the high offensive spirit of the German troops, fueled by previous victories in Europe, played a role. Already in the first hours of the war, the Germans easily suppressed the disorganized resistance of the Soviet troops on the overwhelming part of the border and deeply wedged into the territory of the USSR. Two days later, German tanks in the main directions broke through 230 km from the border. "Cauldrons" were formed, in which hundreds of thousands of Red Army soldiers remained. Only in the area of ​​Bialystok-Minsk, 28 Soviet divisions were defeated, 288 thousand people were taken prisoner, and Minsk fell already on June 28. The Nazis defeated the Soviet troops near Kyiv, capturing, because of Stalin's refusal to allow the retreat, 665 thousand people. By mid-July, the Germans had captured almost the entire Baltic, Belarus and Right-Bank Ukraine. The troops of the border districts were. defeated, the irretrievable losses of the Red Army amounted to more than 700 thousand people, 3.5 thousand aircraft, 6 thousand tanks, 18.5 thousand guns.

Soviet society was in shock, including the dictator himself. According to the memoirs of G.K. Zhukov, Stalin could not believe that the invasion of German troops was not a provocation, but the beginning of a war. In the Directive sent to the troops after the official declaration of war, he emphasized that they should not violate the German border. The leader did not find the strength to speak to the people and announce on the radio a government statement about the beginning of the war, entrusting this to Molotov. The dictator fell into a severe depression, and the news of the fall of Minsk, received on June 29, plunged him into a state of shock. He went to a dacha in Kuntsevo and did not answer the phone. The next day, members of the Politburo came to see him. According to the memoirs of AI Mikoyan, Stalin was even frightened by this visit, thinking that they were going to arrest him. However, his comrades-in-arms only wanted to return him to leadership, they suggested that he create and head the State Defense Committee (GKO), concentrating all power in his hands. Stalin agreed and, with his characteristic decisiveness and ruthlessness, took over the leadership, headed the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander and the People's Commissariat of Defense.

Not only the leader fell into depression, ordinary Soviet people were also disoriented, shocked by what was happening. The commanders and Red Army soldiers were not ready for the tragic development of events, they were brought up on the conceptually erroneous slogans that there would be no war with Germany in the near future, and when it starts, it would be fought on foreign territory and with “little bloodshed”. Therefore, it was difficult for them to understand what was happening, they easily succumbed to panic when the leadership of the troops was disorganized, the retreat was disorderly and with heavy losses.

Stalin, in his usual manner, sought and found the perpetrators of the military catastrophe. The role of scapegoats was assigned to the commander of the Western Front, General D. G. Pavlov, his chief of staff, V. E. Klimovskikh, the commander of the Air Force of the Red Army, P. V. Rychagov, and dozens of other generals. They were blamed for the defeat of the troops, and they were shot by order of the leader. He himself led the defense of the country, became a symbol of resistance to the enemy. On July 3, speaking on the radio, he addressed the "brothers and sisters" with a call for national unity. Gradually, the country's leadership began to control the situation. The management of the troops and the military industry was restructured, the evacuation of enterprises and the population from the occupied territories was organized.

Having shot the command of the Western Front, Stalin continued the repressive measures against officers, Red Army soldiers and the population. In August, by order of the Headquarters, captured Red Army soldiers were declared traitors, and the families of deserted or captured commanders were subject to arrest. In September, even those taken hostage began to be considered "accomplices" of the Nazis. In October-November 1941, as the Germans approached Moscow, Stalin began to use the "scorched earth" tactics. By order of the Stavka, it was proposed to "destroy and burn to the ground all settlements in the rear of the German troops at a distance of 40-60 km in depth from the front line and 20-30 km to the right and left of the roads", using all available means for this, including aviation, artillery, partisan sabotage groups equipped with Molotov cocktails, etc.

In addition, relying on the experience of the civil war, in July 1941, Stalin introduced into the army the institution of commissars, political commissars, who exercised control over the commanders, limiting their powers, and participated with them in making combat decisions. The cruel measures taken by Stalin undoubtedly contributed to the restoration of discipline and the establishment of order in the army. However, they also suppressed the initiative of the soldiers, gave rise to a panic fear of any accusations. This was demonstrated on June 22, when many commanders waited until the last moment for instructions from above and did not put their units on alert.

But in general, from the very beginning of the war, according to the testimony of German generals, Soviet troops defended themselves more stubbornly than in the West, made self-sacrifice in order to destroy Nazi soldiers and equipment. The small garrison of the defenders of the Brest Fortress, being completely surrounded, offered heroic resistance, fighting the Germans for a month. The further, the more stubborn was the resistance of the Soviet troops. The Soviet people were convinced with their own eyes that Germany was waging a war to destroy and enslave the Soviet peoples, that Hitler's "new order" brought slavery to the peoples, the eviction of the Slavs beyond the Urals, the total destruction of communists, gypsies, Jews, the creation of death camps, etc. Faced with such a danger, people rose to fight against the fascist invaders. The war acquired a national character, began to rightfully be called the Great Patriotic War. Accordingly, the losses of the Nazi troops also increased, amounting to 100 thousand people by mid-July. There were fierce battles, a long-term defense of a number of cities was organized, including a two-month battle for Smolensk, the defense of Kyiv (70 days), Odessa (73 days). Finally, at the beginning of September, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive near Yelnya, during which 8 German divisions were defeated. As a result, the terms of the German offensive on the capital were disrupted.

With a delay of two months against the planned schedule, on September 30, under the code name "Typhoon", an attack on Moscow began. The Germans broke through the Soviet defenses near Vyazma and Bryansk, where units of three Soviet fronts - 663 thousand people - were surrounded. In October, Orel, Kaluga, Kalinin, Volokolamsk, Mozhaisk were captured. It is known that Stalin began to think about concluding an agreement with Germany similar to Brest. On October 10, under Zhukov, the leader instructed the chief of the NKVD, Beria, to conduct soundings through his agents about the conditions of such a world. As is known, the Soviet proposal for a separate peace was rejected by Hitler.

In connection with the threat, on October 15, government agencies and foreign missions began to be evacuated from Moscow to Kuibyshev, which caused panic among the population. Tens of thousands of refugees moved east. City government was lost, looters robbed shops, liquidation teams mined factories, bridges and railways. Stalin was also ready to leave the capital: his train was under steam. Uncertainly sounded his question to Zhukov about whether we can defend Moscow. Perhaps the firm response of the marshal, his assurance to protect the capital influenced Stalin - he remained in Moscow, and the panic gradually subsided.

On October 19, a state of siege was declared in Moscow. Despite a significant superiority (1.5 times) in personnel and aviation, in tanks (2 times), the Germans could not overcome the heroic resistance of the Red Army and the militias. The war increasingly took on the features of a people's war: in the summer and autumn of 1941, up to 10 million civilians participated in the construction of defensive lines, up to 2 million people joined the people's militias. It was getting more and more difficult for the Germans to move forward. On November 7, 1941, on the anniversary of the October Revolution, a parade was held on Red Square, from where the troops were sent directly to the front. Stalin made a speech, appealing to the images of Russian commanders - Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, Suvorov, Kutuzov. Holding the parade was a demonstration of determination to stand to the end.

As resistance to the enemy intensified, due to the autumn thaw, which slowed down the advance of equipment, the bursting frosts, the German offensive was suspended. Only by mid-November, having brought up new reserves, the Wehrmacht was able to resume the offensive "made a desperate attempt to capture Moscow. The enemy approached Moscow by 25-30 km. However, this was the limit of the German army's capabilities. Through the efforts of the whole country, having mobilized all forces, it was possible to stop and bleed the enemy "Despite the huge losses, the USSR had even greater material and human resources. The country lost the territory on which 40% of the population lived, 60% of steel and 70% of coal were produced, industrial production fell by 2 times. However, the production of tanks in the second half of 1941 increased by 2.8 times, aircraft - by 1.6, guns - by 3. This helped to partly compensate for the colossal loss of weapons. By the end of the year, human losses amounted to 3.1 million, and according to some sources, more than 5 million people, i.e. 90% of the strength of the entire pre-war army.According to German documents, only Soviet prisoners of war, they had 3.9 million, of which by the beginning of 1942, 1.1 million remained alive. A new army was recreated, which managed to stop the advance of the enemy. Mobilization, the formation of battalions of volunteer militia, as well as information from intelligence officer Sorge that Japan was not going to attack the USSR in the near future, allowed replenishing the army. As a result, fresh Siberian divisions numbering 750 thousand people were brought up to Moscow.

1 Although there was no numerical superiority of forces, on the initiative of Zhukov, a counteroffensive near Moscow was prepared. On December 5-8, the troops of the Kalinin Front (commander I. S. Konev), the Western Front (Zhukov), the South-Western Front (S. K. Timoshenko) went on the offensive and by the end of January 1942 drove the Germans back from Moscow by 150 200 km, entrenched on the Vyazma-Gzhatsk-Rzhev line. At the same time, strikes were made near Tikhvin, Rostov-on-Don, and troops were landed on the Kerch Peninsula. As a result of the battle for Moscow, 38 enemy divisions were defeated, his losses reached 0.5 million people. Our losses were even greater - 514 thousand people.

The Soviet counteroffensive did not lead to the solution of all the assigned tasks: it was not possible to defeat the main German forces between Moscow and Smolensk, to unblock Leningrad, which since the autumn of 1941 heroically fought in the siege for 900 days, paying for it with the lives of 800 thousand inhabitants. Despite this, the victory near Moscow was of great importance: the fascist German troops suffered their first major defeat in the entire Second World War. The myth of the invincibility of the German army was dispelled, and the plan for a blitzkrieg against the USSR was frustrated. Germany was faced with the need to wage a protracted war, which was not part of Hitler's calculations. Now the USSR had the opportunity to mobilize not only its huge human and material resources for the needs of the war, but also to ensure the patriotic spirit of the army and people, to inspire confidence in victory.

The victory in the Battle of Moscow contributed to the strengthening of the international positions of the USSR. In the first months of the war, an anti-Hitler coalition took shape. Already on June 22, 1941, Churchill, and on June 24 Roosevelt, declared their support for the Soviet Union. On July 12, a Soviet-British agreement was adopted on joint actions against Nazi Germany. In August, Roosevelt and Churchill met in the Atlantic off the coast of Canada and signed the Atlantic Charter, which set out the programmatic goals of the anti-Hitler coalition. They declared that they did not seek territorial conquest or other acquisitions, respected the right of peoples to choose their own form of government, supported the restoration of their sovereign rights, and sought full cooperation among all countries in the fight against aggression. On August 24, the USSR joined the Atlantic Charter.

On September 29 - October 1, 1941, tripartite decisions were made on the supply of weapons to the USSR and strategic raw materials to England and the USA. On November 7, Roosevelt extended the Lend-Lease Act to the USSR. Although during the war years Lend-Lease deliveries to the Soviet Union amounted to only 4% of military production, but in a number of positions they were important and significant. For example, deliveries of Studebakers and Jeeps helped to motorize the Red Army.

On December 7, 1941, Japanese sea-based aircraft attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean, destroying 247 aircraft and 14 ships. On December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The war for the United States began extremely unsuccessfully, the Japanese gained advantage at sea, by the spring of 1942 they captured the vast majority of Southeast Asia. However, the Soviet victory near Moscow and the entry of the United States into the war became one of the key points of the Second World War, which changed the course of further struggle. It became obvious that from now on the war would be waged on attrition, the chances of Germany and its allies to win it were small, since their resources were significantly inferior to the potential of the anti-Hitler coalition.

Meanwhile, things were moving towards the completion of the formation of the anti-Hitler coalition. On January 1, 1942, representatives of 26 states signed the Declaration of the United Nations in Washington. Associating themselves with the purposes and principles of the Atlantic Charter, they declared that they would fight against members of the Tripartite Pact, cooperate with each other, and not conclude a separate truce or peace with the enemy.

In addition to the USSR, the real fight against the Nazis was carried out only by Great Britain in North Africa, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. Considering the difficult situation of the USSR, the Allies decided to open a second front in Europe in 1942. However, to implement their decision

They were in no hurry due to the riskiness of the landing in France, the unpreparedness of the American army, and so on. The Americans landed in North Africa, thereby postponing the opening of a second front in Europe to 1943, then to 1944. So the problem of a second front became one of the most painful in the USSR's relations with the USA and England.

On the Eastern Front, the fascist German troops, striving for revenge and being unable to advance along the entire front, concentrated the main blow in the south of Russia, in the direction of Stalingrad - the North Caucasus. Hitler planned to defeat the entire southern flank of the Soviet troops, capture areas rich in oil and grain, and then go to the Middle East. At the same time, he took advantage of the military-political miscalculations of Stalin, who, having overestimated his own strength, demanded offensive operations along a broad front from Leningrad to the Crimea. In addition, Stalin and the General Staff incorrectly assumed that the Germans would inflict the main blow on Moscow.

All the "preemptive" offensive operations of the Red Army, undertaken in the spring of 1942, failed and led to a new military catastrophe. She was unable to unblock Leningrad, the 2nd shock army was defeated near Volkhov and its commander, General A. A. Vlasov, was captured. The units of the Red Army in the Crimea suffered a particularly severe defeat due to the tyranny and incompetence of the Stalinist commissar L. 3. Mekhlis, as a result, about 175 thousand people were captured near Kerch. It also led to the fall of Sevastopol on July 4, which for 250 days led a heroic defense, chaining large enemy forces to itself. The catastrophe befell the troops of the Southern and Southwestern fronts advancing on Kharkov due to the fact that Stalin did not allow the retreat, did not heed the warning of N. S. Khrushchev, a member of the Military Council of the Southwestern Front, that the Soviet troops were threatened with encirclement. The case ended with their defeat and the capture of 200 thousand soldiers.

In total, according to some data, 5.7 million Soviet soldiers fell into German captivity, of which in 1941 - 3.3 million, according to others, coinciding with German data - 6.3 million, of which died 4 million, and in 1941 - 3.9 million people. Despite this, Stalin declared: “There are no Russians in captivity. The Russian soldier fights to the end. If he is captured, he automatically ceases to be Russian.” Order of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command No. 270 dated August 16, 1941 ordered all those who surrendered to be destroyed, their families to be arrested or deprived of benefits. While the British and Americans regularly sent parcels with medicines, clothes, food through the Red Cross to their prisoners of war. The Soviet government did not provide any assistance to its captured compatriots. The Nazis already considered the Slavs "subhuman" and treated them accordingly. Executions, starvation, disease, torture claimed the lives of 3.3 million people (according to other sources, 4 million). About half died in 1941, then the mortality rate decreased, as the Nazis, in connection with the prolongation of the war, began to use prisoners of war as cheap labor. 3.2 million German soldiers and officers fell into Soviet captivity, of which just over 2 million survived.

Realizing what kind of reception awaits them in their homeland, and out of a desire to survive, some of the Soviet prisoners of war fought on the side of the Wehrmacht. S. Ya. Lavrenov, I. M. Popov in the book “The Collapse of the Third Reich” (M., 2000) cite an amazing figure - about 1 million Russian volunteers turned out to be on the side of the Wehrmacht, who participated in almost all theaters of military operations - from Norway to North Africa. According to V. V. Malinovsky, in total, 600 thousand Soviet citizens served in the eastern formations created by the Germans. These people were a valuable help to the German command in the implementation of the imposed "new order". 50 thousand prisoners joined the "Russian Liberation Army" (ROA) Vlasov. In addition to it, there were several more "Russian armies". In 1943, more than 20 Cossack regiments fought on the side of the Wehrmacht. In addition, Ukrainian, Caucasian, Turkestan, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Kalmyk national formations were created. Such an impressive number of people who went over to the side of the enemy could not be explained by betrayal alone. People who embarked on the path of cooperation with the Nazis were driven by a variety of motives, including hatred of the Soviet system with its repressions, an elementary desire to survive in a brutal war, etc.

As a result of the defeats of the Red Army in the spring of 1942, the path to the East was opened, and the Nazi troops launched a swift offensive on the southern sector of the front, occupied Crimea, Voronezh, Rostov, reached Stalingrad and the Main Caucasian Range, hoisted a banner with a swastika on top of Elbrus . According to Zhukov's memoirs, panic moods and violations of military discipline reappeared in the Red Army units. The dangerous moment has come again. From mid-summer to the end of autumn, the whole world followed the Battle of Stalingrad with bated breath. It was then, on July 28, 1942, that the famous order No. 227 “Not a step back!” was issued, which provided for the creation of penal companies and battalions (actually suicide bombers), as well as barrage detachments in the rear of the units that were supposed to shoot the retreating.

Stalin again thought about making peace. As V. M. Berezhkov writes in his book “Next to Stalin”, Stalin told Molotov: “No matter how, Vyacheslav, we did not have to add to the list of governments in exile.” In September, Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs VG Dekanozov met in Stockholm with the German envoy Schnurre. Stalin agreed to give up Western Ukraine, Western Belarus, Bessarabia, let German troops into the Middle East. The Fuhrer was confident of victory and did not give an answer to the Soviet proposals. However, Hitler, like Stalin, dispersed his forces, sought to capture both Stalingrad and the Caucasus at the same time, and as a result did not get either one or the other. A turning point in the war

The turning point in the course of the war was prepared by the transfer of industry to a military footing and the increase in the production of armaments. As you know, the result of the German invasion was a 50% decline in industrial production. The Soviet leadership managed to carry out an unprecedented evacuation of people and equipment in history: already in the first six months of the war, 10 million people and more than 1.5 thousand industrial enterprises were moved to the East, almost 80% of the enterprises of the military industry were exported. Everything that could not be taken out was destroyed. These were the conditions for Stalin's scorched earth tactics. At the new location, the factories were put into operation in the shortest possible time, and the machines began to work in the open. The Urals and Siberia became the country's major arsenals. In total, 667 enterprises were relocated to the Urals. In 1942, the production of machine-building plants increased 4.5 times in comparison with 1940 in the Urals, 7.9 times in Western Siberia, and 5.1 times in Uzbekistan. b

172 industrial enterprises, separate workshops and installations arrived in Bashkiria. They were located in Ufa, Sterlitamaek, Beloretsk. All enterprises of the republic switched to the development of military products: they mastered the production of mines, shells, grenades, air bombs and other products. The Ufa locomotive repair plant has mastered the production of armored trains, the Tirlyansky metal-rolling plant has mastered the production of high-quality steel sheets for defense plants, the Sterlitamak machine-tool plant has mastered the production of a number of complex machine tools that are essential for the defense industry. The Ufa Motor-Building Plant has become a major manufacturer of aircraft engines. Bashkiria remained the leader in the "Second Baku" and increased the supply of fuel, mastered new types of high-octane grades of gasoline, autol, kerosene.

The working people of Bashkiria actively participated in providing all-round assistance to the Red Army in such forms as raising funds for the defense fund, for the construction of tank columns, air squadrons, collecting warm clothes and sending gifts for front-line soldiers, etc. In total, for the production of weapons, military equipment for the Red Army from workers of Bashkiria received 225 million rubles. More than 83,000 pairs of felt boots, 21,000 sheepskin coats, 23,000 padded jackets and trousers, 35,000 earflaps, over 17,000 pairs of underwear, and more than 100,000 pairs of socks and stockings were collected.

The USSR, having a smaller industrial potential than Germany and the countries working for it, produced much more weapons and equipment during the war years. By the end of 1942, the country's economy was put on a war footing and was building up military equipment at a tremendous pace. Thus, the material prerequisites for a turning point in the course of the war were created. As a result of the huge mobilization work in the rear, the restructuring of the entire economy, the overall balance of forces for the first time since the beginning of the war began to change in our favor. By mid-November 1942, a general superiority of forces over the Nazi troops had been created: 6.6 million people against 6.2 million, 78 thousand guns against 52 thousand, 7.3 thousand tanks against 5 thousand, 4 .5 thousand aircraft versus 3.5 thousand

The decisive battle of the 1942 military campaign took place in Stalingrad. The fighting went on in the city, and in August the Nazis reached the Volga. The soldiers of the 62nd Army, General V.I. Chuikov and the 64th General, M.S. Shumilov, who fought for every house, had only a small foothold on the right bank of the river. Both sides suffered huge losses. Hitler, despite the lack of forces, on the advice of his generals, still tried to capture Stalingrad and the Caucasus. But the Soviet command had favorable opportunities for the implementation of the counteroffensive. It provided the necessary superiority of forces on the flanks, where the Romanian units were located, worse armed and less resistant than the German divisions. Under the leadership of Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief Zhukov and Chief of the General Staff A. M. Vasilevsky, an operation was developed to encircle enemy troops near Stalingrad. On November 19, unexpectedly for the Germans, the troops of three fronts launched a counteroffensive - the Southwestern Front (commander N.F. Vatutin), the Don (commander K.K. Rokossovsky) and Stalingrad (commander A.I. Eremenko).

Soviet troops united near the cities of Kalach and Sovetsky. Hitler did not allow the retreat, and 22 enemy divisions numbering up to 330 thousand people were surrounded. The grouping sent to their aid under the command of Manstein failed to break the Soviet ring and was thrown back. Hitler rejected the Soviet ultimatum to surrender. On February 2, 1943, the group led by Field Marshal Paulus was defeated and 91 thousand people were taken prisoner. The total losses of the Nazi troops in this gigantic battle amounted to 1.5 million people. Four days of mourning has been declared in Germany.

Stalingrad was the largest defeat of the German army and the turning point not only of the Great Patriotic War, but of the entire First World War. The outcome of the battle had a positive effect on strengthening the anti-Hitler "coalition, strengthened the defeatist mood in the countries of the fascist bloc. On November 23-24, 1942, the 200,000-strong British army of General Montgomery defeated the 100,000-strong German-Italian corps of Field Marshal Rommel near El Alamein in Egypt, not earlier, on June 4, 1942, at Midway Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, the Americans defeated the Japanese, destroying four of their best aircraft carriers, one cruiser and 275 aircraft.These victories signaled the beginning of a turning point in World War II Now the strategic initiative passed into the hands of the USSR, the USA and Britain.

Having won a victory at Stalingrad, the Soviet troops launched a general offensive, pushed the Germans back from the Volga and the Caucasus by 600-700 km, liberated Krasnodar, Voronezh, Kursk, Belgorod, Kharkov, and broke through the blockade of Leningrad. However, the forces of Nazi Germany were not yet broken. In the spring of 1943, the Germans again took Kharkov and Belgorod, trying to defeat the Soviet troops on the Kursk salient. Hitler, having carried out a total mobilization, which was subject to men from 16 to 65 years old and women from 17 to 45 years old, was able to some extent make up for human losses and dramatically increase the production of military equipment, including its new models. The absence of a second front allowed him to concentrate large forces on the Kursk Bulge in the summer of 1943: up to 50 divisions and more than 2/3 of all tanks and aircraft located on the Soviet-German front were drawn up.

According to the plan of Operation Citadel, the Germans intended to encircle and destroy the Soviet troops located on the Kursk Bulge with converging attacks on Kursk from Orel and Belgorod and thereby open the road to Moscow. Rather, it was a desperate attempt in one battle to turn the tide of the war. The Soviet command unraveled Hitler's plans and created a preponderance of forces. Our units in the battle area were superior to the Germans both in manpower and in equipment: they numbered 1.3 million people, 2650 aircraft, 3300 tanks and assault guns, 19300 guns and mortars, and the Germans had 0.9 million people, 2000 aircraft, 2,700 tanks, 10,000 guns and mortars.

The headquarters decided on a deliberate defense on the Kursk Bulge in order to bleed the enemy, and then go on the counteroffensive. This plan was implemented. From the testimony of the prisoner, the time of the German attack became known. Two hours before it, on July 5, Soviet artillery launched a preemptive strike on enemy positions. The Germans failed to achieve noticeable success during the offensive. During the week, our troops stubbornly defended themselves and stopped the enemy, who, due to the unprecedented concentration of forces in separate sectors, was able to advance 10-35 km. The culmination of this gigantic battle was the largest tank battle in history, which took place on July 12 near the village of Prokhorovka, in which 1200 tanks participated on both sides. Since that time, Soviet troops went on the offensive. On the Kursk Bulge, the Wehrmacht lost 0.5 million people, 1.6 thousand tanks.

Thus, the last major German offensive on the Eastern Front failed. It led to irreparable losses for the Wehrmacht. The Battle of Kursk marked the end of the turning point in the war and the final transfer of the strategic initiative into the hands of the Soviet troops. By the end of 1943, they took Kyiv (timed to coincide with the anniversary of October), Smolensk, Vitebsk, crossed the Dnieper, which Hitler expected to turn into an "impregnable rampart", and liberated about half of the territory of the USSR captured by the Germans. The enemy was driven back to the west by 600-1200 km. 218 divisions were destroyed.

The partisans, whose number reached 250 thousand, provided enormous assistance to the regular units. The Nazis waged a merciless fight against them, carried out punitive operations against them, sometimes destroyed entire villages with their entire population, but they could not put an end to the partisan movement. Moreover, it expanded due to the cruelty of the occupation order. AT! In 1943, the number of partisan sabotage increased 5 times. They unleashed a "rail war" during the Battle of Kursk, which seriously hampered the transfer of Nazi troops.

The turning point in the war was ensured by the unparalleled heroism of the workers of the Soviet rear. More than half of all employed in the economy were women, hundreds of thousands of teenagers worked in factories and collective farms. People fainted from hunger and chronic overwork, but they did not give up work. The conditions of the war forced Stalin to listen to the voice of military leaders, to nominate talented and extraordinary people to the leadership. These were among the military leaders Zhukov, Vasilevsky, Rokossovsky (released from prison), among civilians - Voznesensky, Kuznetsov, Kosygin and others.

The war made some adjustments to the official ideology. In the socialist shell, traditional Russian and even imperial values ​​were revived, which Stalin considered more reliable in those conditions than communist clichés. Officers, shoulder straps, guards were restored, non-revolutionary orders appeared: Suvorov, Kutuzov and even Alexander Nevsky, despite the fact that the latter was canonized as a saint. The rehabilitation of the Orthodox Church began.

In general, the Stalinist regime retained its essential features: political terror continued, entire nations were already subjected to repression. In 1941, more than a million Volga Germans were deported, in 1943 more than 93,000 Kalmyks and 68,000 Karachais. In 1944, about 500,000 Chechens and Ingush, 37,000 Balkars, 183,000 Crimean Tatars, 12,000 Bulgarians, 91,000 Turks, Kurds, Hemshils, and others were deported. by the soldiers of the NKVD. The huge sacrifices suffered by the deported peoples during their resettlement to new undeveloped places in Siberia, Kazakhstan and Central Asia cannot be counted.

The Gulag system was constantly replenished with new victims of terror. During the war years, the number of prisoners (excluding exiled settlers) did not decrease much: from 2.4 million in 1941. up to 1.7 million in 1945 The total number of people serving sentences in prisons, camps, exiles was 5-7 million people, which was comparable to the size of the active army on the Soviet-German front. It is not surprising that the German secret services planned to land troops near the largest Stalinist camps, free prisoners, deprive the regime of workers and exert propaganda influence on the population.

The Allies stepped up their operations against the German-Italian troops in Africa. In May 1943, they defeated the enemy grouping here, capturing 240 thousand people. In July-August 1943, Anglo-American forces landed in Sicily, and in September - in the Apennines. In July, Mussolini's government was overthrown, he himself was hanged by Italian partisans. In October, Italy declared war on Germany. From the autumn of 1942 in the Pacific, the Americans began to take the offensive against Japan and won a number of major naval battles. Thus, the Allies made an undoubted contribution to completing the turning point in the war against fascism.

But the Eastern Front remained the main one: two-thirds of the fascist troops were stationed here. Therefore, the problem of opening a second front remained acute. This topic became the main one at the first meeting of the "Big Three" (Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill) in Tehran in late November - early December 1943. After a heated discussion, it was decided to land allied troops in France in May 1944 (Churchill, wishing cut off the USSR from Europe, insisted on landing in the Balkans). The Tehran Conference also discussed the fate of post-war Germany, which the Allies wanted to divide into a number of states, but Stalin did not agree. The question of the future borders of Poland was also decided.

victory over fascism. Destruction of Japan.

With an overwhelming superiority in manpower and equipment, the Soviet armed forces in 1944 consistently carried out major offensive operations along the entire length of the Eastern Front. They involved 6.3 million people, 5.3 thousand tanks and 10.2 thousand aircraft. In January, the blockade of Leningrad was finally liquidated, the German Army Group North was defeated. Almost simultaneously, an offensive began in Ukraine, which ended in the spring with the liberation of the Right-Bank Ukraine, Crimea, and Moldova and the defeat of Army Group South.

In the offensive of the Red Army along the entire front, a significant role > was played by the help of the allies, who supplied the USSR with 22 thousand aircraft to 18% of the Soviet aircraft fleet), 13 thousand tanks (12% of Soviet production), 427 thousand trucks (twice as much as Soviet production in years of war), 189 thousand field telephones, one million kilometers of telephone cable, 2.6 million tons of oil products, 4.3 million tons of food. Deliveries went through Iran, the Far East and Siberia, the North Atlantic, where the Anglo-American convoys, breaking through to Arkhangelsk and Murmansk, suffered heavy losses.

In 1944, favorable conditions were created for the opening of a second front. On June 6, the Anglo-American troops under the command of D. Eisenhower, taking advantage of multiple superiority in forces, launched the largest landing operation in history across the English Channel and landed in northern France. Coordinated with the landing of the allies, Soviet troops launched a new offensive in Belarus (Operation Bagration), surrounded and defeated a group of 100 thousand people in the Minsk region. Further, the Army Group Center was defeated, Belarus, Western Ukraine, and a significant part of the Baltic states were liberated.

Already in the autumn of 1944, Soviet troops entered the territory of European countries: Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Norway. Romania and Finland withdrew from the war and then declared war on Germany. On September 9, the pro-fascist government of Bulgaria was overthrown, and she also declared war on Germany. It was the liberation campaign of the Soviet army in Eastern Europe. However, it gradually turned into a struggle for spheres of influence, which caused an aggravation of contradictions between the USSR, on the one hand, and the USA and Great Britain, on the other. The desire of the USSR to form pro-Soviet governments in its neighboring countries caused concern among the allies, especially Churchill.

The problem of delimiting spheres of influence in South-Eastern Europe has since become the most acute for the Allies. Their unity was severely tested, in particular on the Polish question. The USSR did not recognize the Polish emigrant government, located in London, and the Craiova Army subordinate to it, which fought in Poland. The USA and England supported them. As the Soviet troops approached Warsaw, on August 1, 1944, the Home Army rose in revolt, seeking to establish their power in the capital before the Soviet occupation. The rebels, armed only with small arms, found themselves in an extremely difficult situation and were forced to ask for Soviet support. However, no assistance was provided: the offensive of the Red Army was suspended in anticipation of pulling up reserves, Stalin almost did not give weapons to the rebels. When their defeat was imminent, he allowed the US to deliver weapons to them by allowing American planes to make intermediate landings at Soviet airfields. The uprising was suppressed by the Germans with extreme cruelty: 22 thousand rebels and 180 thousand civilians were killed. On January 12, 1945, the Red Army went on the offensive with fresh forces and took Warsaw in one day.

While the war was going on, the allies held back their differences, especially since Hitler counted on the aggravation of relations between his opponents. In February 1945, when the Allied forces reached the German border, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill met at Yalta. They agreed to wage war until the surrender of Germany and agreed on military plans, agreed on the temporary division of Germany and Berlin into zones of occupation. It was decided after the defeat of Germany to disband its armed forces, liquidate or take control of its military industry, collect reparations and give half to the USSR, ban the Nazi party, and bring its leaders to trial as war criminals. The USSR undertook to enter the war against Japan 2-3 months after the surrender of Germany. For this, he was to receive the Kuriles, South Sakhalin, the lease of Port Arthur. It was decided to create the UN.

Roosevelt died on April 12. The death of US President Gitleo and Goebbels declared a heaven-sent miracle that would save Germany. But the miracle did not happen, the course of events did not change, it was determined by real forces. The Anglo-American troops, having with great difficulty repulsed the German counteroffensive in the Ardennes in late 1944 and early 1945, went on the offensive. In March they crossed the Rhine, and in April they surrounded and then captured a large group of Germans in the Ruhr. Since the main forces of Germany were still concentrated on the Soviet-German front, the Allies moved further east, almost without resistance.

In January 1945, Soviet troops launched a powerful offensive. Having broken the enemy defenses, they liberated Poland and Budapest, and in March crossed the Oder. On April 16, the troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts under the command of Zhukov and Konev, respectively, regardless of losses, launched an attack on Berlin. Stalin, by his order, assigned the center of the city to Zhukov, thus noting his merits in the war and appointing him the winner. April 24 Berlin was surrounded, street fighting began. On April 30, Hitler committed suicide. On May 2, the Berlin garrison capitulated. Beyond Berlin, on the Elbe, the Soviet units met with the Americans. May 7 in Reims, France, May 8 in Berlin German, Soviet, American, British and French representatives signed the acts of surrender of Germany. From the USSR, the act was signed by Zhukov. Further, the Soviet troops moved to the aid of the insurgent Prague. The rebels were clearly inferior militarily to the Nazis, but unexpectedly one of the divisions of the Vlasov army helped them, hoping to earn forgiveness. On May 9, the Red Army entered Prague. May 9 became Victory Day for the peoples of the USSR.

After the capitulation of Germany, the issues of the post-war order of the world were discussed at the Potsdam Conference in July-August 1945. The USSR was represented by Stalin, the USA - by President G. Truman, Great Britain - first by Churchill, then he was replaced by C. Attlee, who became Prime Minister after the victory of the Laborites in the elections . The Allies confirmed the decisions of the Yalta Conference, agreed to transfer part of German territory to Poland, establish a new Polish-German border along the Oder and Neisse rivers, and give part of East Prussia with Koenigsberg to the Soviet Union. The decisions of the Potsdam Conference determined the fate of Europe for almost half a century, laid the foundation for the geopolitical split of the continent, and indeed the whole world, into two warring blocs. The blocs arose later and were led by two superpowers - the USA and the USSR. The reasons for the split were the increasingly diverging geopolitical interests of the former allies, their struggle for hegemony in Europe and the world.

The need to fight Japan did not yet allow the allies to move on to open confrontation. The USSR, fulfilling its allied obligations, back in April 1945 denounced the treaty with Japan on neutrality and on August 8 declared war on her. The Soviet troops, which had at their disposal 1.8 million people, 5 thousand tanks and 5.2 thousand aircraft, under the command of Vasilevsky launched a swift offensive against the Kwantung Army (0.8 million people, 1.2 thousand tanks, 1.9 thousand aircraft). Possessing a multiple superiority in manpower and equipment, our troops completely defeated the Japanese in just over three weeks, capturing 0.6 million people, and liberated China, North Korea, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.

On August 6 and 9, 1945, the Americans dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The death toll was up to 300 thousand people. The use of nuclear weapons was caused not so much by military as by political reasons - the desire to put pressure on the USSR, to make it compliant. On September 2, 1945, in Tokyo Bay, on board the American battleship Missouri, an act of unconditional surrender of Japan was signed. Thus ended the Second World War, the bloodiest in the history of mankind, which claimed more than 50 million lives, and lasted 6 years and one day.

For the peoples of the USSR, the war cost dearly. At least 27 million people were killed, among which there were 10-12 million military personnel, civilians made up the vast majority. Approximately 30% of national wealth was lost in the war, 1710 cities, more than 70 thousand villages, 32 thousand industrial enterprises were destroyed. The country has lost about half of the urban housing stock and up to 30% of rural homes. 6 thousand hospitals, 82 thousand schools, 43 thousand libraries were destroyed.

This terrible price was the payment not only for the defeat of the best military machine in the world and for the fascist genocide. It was also a payment for the “costs”, the miscalculations of the Soviet totalitarian regime, which carried out terror, made criminal strategic and tactical mistakes, failed to prepare for war, effectively manage its military potential, and up to the last days of the war did not take into account human losses in order to achieve its goals. . The people won the war, bringing incalculable sacrifices. And official propaganda proclaimed Stalin "the organizer and inspirer of all our victories."



In the conditions of the outbreak of the world war, the Stalinist leadership hoped to strengthen the military and economic potential of the country, to maintain the neutrality of the USSR for as long as possible and to advance its borders to the west. In September 1939, the USSR, in accordance with secret protocols, annexed Western Ukraine and Western Belarus; in June 1940, Romania transferred Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the USSR; in the same year, under pressure from the Soviet leadership, the Baltic republics joined the USSR. November 1939 - March 1940 the Soviet-Finnish war took place, as a result of which Finland ceded part of its territories to the USSR. By the autumn of 1940, Germany had occupied most of Western Europe, including France, and by the beginning of 1941, the German leadership already had a detailed plan for a war against the USSR - the Barbarossa plan. It should be remembered what goals fascist Germany pursued when it attacked the USSR on June 22, 1941. Hitler demanded to wage a war of annihilation against the USSR, liquidate the Soviet state, “defeat the Russians as a people”, disunite them, reduce the Russian population, and the European part of the USSR turn into a "living space" for the German colonists. On September 1, 1939, when the Nazi troops invaded the territory of Poland, the Second World War began. Its scale significantly exceeded the scale of the First World War. It lasted 6 years, 61 states (80 percent of the world's population) participated in it. Over 50 million people died during the war. people, and material damage was 12 times greater than in the First World War. Like the First World War, the Second World War arose as a result of a sharp aggravation of contradictions between hostile coalitions of states. Fascist and militaristic states were dissatisfied with the Versailles-Washington system and strove for a new redistribution of the world. However, in the Second World War, unlike the first, liberation, anti-fascist tendencies appeared from the very beginning, which intensified during the war and became decisive after the entry of the USSR into it. Domestic historians distinguish five periods of the Second World War. The first period - the beginning of the Second World War: from the German attack on Poland to the attack on the USSR (September 1, 1939 - June 22, 1941). The second period is the expansion of fascist aggression: from the German attack on the USSR to the counteroffensive of the Soviet troops near Stalingrad (June 22, 1941 - November 1942).

The third period is a radical turning point in the course of the Second World War: from the counteroffensive of the Soviet army near Stalingrad to the offensive in Ukraine and the central sector of the front (November 1942 - December 1943).

The fourth period - the defeat of fascism in Europe: from the offensive of Soviet troops near Leningrad and the opening of a second front in France to the defeat of Nazi Germany (January 1944 - May 9, 1945).

Fifth period - the defeat of militaristic Japan: from the surrender of Germany to the surrender of Japan (May 9 - September 2, 1945).