Transcript The Soviet Union in World War II, Part III

The Soviet Union
in World War II,
Part III
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Compare US and Soviet wartime
posters:
http://slon.ru/russia/photo/voennye_plaka
ty_vtoroy_mirovoy_nayti_10_otlichiy145.xhtml
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July 1942: Massive German offensive in southern Russia
The city of Stalingrad is besieged
The turning point of World War II
August 23: Massive German bombing destroys 80% of the
city’s residential buildings
Fighting in the city: average life expectancy of the Soviet
soldier – 24 hours
Stalingrad before the war
Stalingrad, September 1942
Women volunteers signing Oath of Allegiance
Red Army infantry
counterattack at Stalingrad
Stalingrad
worker
militia
Soviet “Katyusha” rocket attack
Stalingrad: street fighting
Stalingrad: surrender of German Field Marshal von Paulus
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The Battle of Stalingrad claimed over two million
casualties, more than any other battle in human history,
and was also one of the longest: it raged for 199 days.
Killed, wounded or captured at Stalingrad:
 Germans and allies: 850,000
 Soviets: 1,130,000 (incl. 40,000 civilians)
General Georgiy Zhukov
General Aleksandr Vasilevsky
General Konstantin Rokossovsky
General Ivan Konev
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July-August 1943: The Battle of Kursk
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Casualties:
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50 days
2.7 mln. men
8,000 tanks
5,000 aircraft
German – 260,000
Soviet – over 1 mln.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awRhSozctvs
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The Soviet Steamroller, documentary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uONX
3xzfJkM&feature=related
Vitya Zhaivoronok,
Soviet Army scout,
Yugoslavia, 1945
Ruins of Peterhof
German POWs in Russia
German POWs outside Moscow
Diplomacy in the Grand Alliance
 The main issues:
 Helping USSR
 Opening the 2nd front
 Postwar settlement
The Big Three: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at Yalta, Feb.1945
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Churchill: Stalin is a "devil"-like tyrant leading a vile
system”. (it didn’t prevent him from making a territorial deal
w. Stalin, however)
Roosevelt: “ I just have a hunch that Stalin is not that kind
of a man. . . . I think that if I give him everything I possibly
can and ask for nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige,
he won't try to annex anything and will work with me for a
world of democracy and peace.”
James Byrnes, member of US delegation: “It was not a
question of what we would let the Russians do, but what we
could get the Russians to do."
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Major decisions of the Yalta Conference
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1. Unconditional surrender of Germany
2. Division of Germany into 4 occupied zones
3. Demilitarization and denazification of Germany
4. Germany’s reparations, including by forced labour of its
soldiers
5. A new govt in Poland, including non-Communists
6. Changes of Poland’s borders
7. Return of citizens to USSR and Yugoslavia
8. Soviet Union will participate in the creation of the UNO
9. Stalin agreed to attack Japan within 90 days of
Germany’s surrender.
10. Nazi war criminals were to be hunted down and brought
to justice.
11. A "Committee on Dismemberment of Germany" was to
be set up.
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Hitler’s last public speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRSn
qLFPQ2A&feature=related
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US and British aid to the Soviet ally, 1941-45:
 Food - $1.5 bln. in
 Automobiles – 427,000
 Warplanes – 22,000
 Tanks – 13,000
 Warships – over 500
 Explosives – 350,000 tons
 Other supplies
Total estimated cost of Allied aid to USSR in contemporary
prices –
$100 bln.
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The Battle of Berlin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDxCMuQhe
gs
Hitler phones Stalin (a satire):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pbIrMtmU9
8&feature=related
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The Battle of Berlin
17 days
3.3 mln. men
Total losses: 0.5 mln.
Red flag over Berlin, May 1945
Checking out Hitler’s headquarters, May 1945
Berlin, 1945: surrender of German High Command
Ovens in Buchenwald concentration camp
Survivors of a Nazi concentration camp
June 24, 1945: Marshal Zhukov leads Victory Parade in Red Square
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Victory Parade in Red Square, June 24,
1945:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDQ2
gQttPBs&NR=1
July 1945: Stalin, Truman and Churchill at Potsdam, Germany
Marshal Zhukov and General Eisenhower
August 1945: Defeat of Japanese forces in Manchuria
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Japanese-American historian T. Hasegawa: Soviet
war on Japan was the decisive factor for Japanese
surrender – not the atom bomb
http://books.google.ca/books?id=iPju1MrqgU4C&pri
ntsec=frontcover&dq=racing+the+enemy&hl=en&sa
=X&ei=BM_GT_73B8fJ6gGV7KTMCw&ved=0CDgQ
6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=racing%20the%20enemy&
f=false
The war took
all nine of her
sons
Nazi war criminals on trial at Nuremberg
Soviet losses in World War II
 Over 27 mln. killed (13.6% of the population)
 Of those who survived, 29 mln. took part in the fighting
(including 0.8 mln. women)
 Battlefield losses – 11.5 mln. (Germany lost 8.6 mln.)
 5.8 mln. POWs (of them 3 mln. died in concentration
camps)
 1,710 cities and 70,000 villages completely or partially
destroyed
 40,000 hospitals, 84,000 schools, 43,000 libraries
destroyed
 Historically unprecedented level of damage suffered by a
country