Transcript Russia in the Anti-Hitler Coalition, Part II

Russia in the
Anti-Hitler
Coalition, Part II
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July 1942: Massive German offensive in southern
Russia
The city of Stalingrad is besieged
The focal point of the entire war
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
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The battle that changed the course
of the war:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
4pXvQpuJYw8&feature=PlayList&
p=48BAD29A71CD9387&index=35
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The architects of victory at
Stalingrad
General Georgiy Zhukov
General Aleksandr Vasilevsky
General Konstantin Rokossovsky
General Ivan Konev
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:
Soviets: 1,290,000
 Germans and allies: 850,000
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German POWs in Russia
German POWs outside Moscow
Diplomacy in the Grand Alliance
 The main issues:
 Helping USSR
nd front
 Opening the 2
 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”. (didn’t prevent him from making a territorial deal w.
Stalin)
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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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
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Total estimated cost of Allied aid to USSR in
contemporary prices –
$100 bln.
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
July 1945: Stalin, Truman and Churchill at Potsdam, Germany
Marshal Zhukov and General Eisenhower
August 1945: Defeat of Japanese forces in Manchuria
DIMENSIONS OF WORLD WAR TWO
Ideological:
Global Right (The Axis: Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain,
and smaller allies)
vs.
Global Left (The USSR and the international communist
movement)
vs.
Global Center (US, Britain, Nationalist China)
1939: Right and Left make a deal, liberal democracy the
big loser; the Right and Center at war
1941: The Right attacks the Left and the US; a Center-Left
coalition is formed
1945: The Right is defeated by the Center-Left coalition;
the war’s aftermath gives a major boost to the global
Left; liberal internationalism becomes the blueprint of a
new world order
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Geopolitical
 The Axis as the challenger to the world order
 The West is torn apart by war
 USSR as a status-quo power and a victim of aggression
– not as a revolutionary state
 The battle for Russia as decisive for defeat of the Axis
challenge
 Russia’s decisive role entitles it to geopolitical gains from
common victory
 BUT: In the ideological atmosphere of 1945 (democracy,
anti-imperialism, rights of nations, human rights) a
geopolitical deal could only be couched in ideological
terms incompatible with Stalinism
 The geopolitical deal contained a timebomb: ideological
conflict between democracy and Stalinism
The war took
all nine of her
sons
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 – 9-11 mln. (Germany lost 3.25 mln.)
 5.8 mln. POWs (of them 3 mln. died in concentration
camps)
 1710 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