Transcript Slide 1
•Operation Barbarossa: Nazi Germany’s invasion
of soviet union on June 22, 1941
-This resulted in the Russian involvement in
the war
•Alliance of Britain, USA, and USSR- formed in
1941 after bombing of Pearl Harbor
•Battle in Stalingrad in 1943 is considered as
decisive. It had positive psychological results on
the Russians and negative on the Germans.
with the strategic goal of cutting off fuel to
Stalin's war machine. The fact that the city
bore the name of the leader of the Soviet
Union, Joseph Stalin, would make its
capture an ideological and propaganda
coup and a huge psychological blow to the
Russian citizens.
The Great Patriotic War 1941-1945
When Germany attacked the USSR
in 1941, Stalin used the same
ruthlessness to defend his country.
The defence of the USSR was the
bloodiest war in history and cost
the lives of millions of people and
the destruction of thousands of
villages, towns and cities.
The final victory in 1945 was, like
everything else, put down to the
personal leadership of Stalin by the
Soviet propaganda machine.
•In January 1945 Russian troops began final push to
Berlin
War Production
- Half of the national income was being devoted
to a military expenditure
-Immediately after the German invasion, all the
factories in the West were relocated to Urals
-The railway system was reconstructed and
extended so the troops and supplies could move
fast
- New weapons: T-34 tanks, Katyusha rockets,
Yak fighter planes
- By 1943 Russia produced more war material
than Germany
•Stalinism
- Command style of economy continued, and
gulag remained full
-pre war policies remained imposed and
censorship grew tighter
•Stalin’s political power declined after the war
The Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain
symbolized the ideological and
physical boundary dividing
Europe into two separate areas
from the end of World War II in
1945 until the end of the Cold
War
•There was no change in the way the public
viewed stalin
•Stalin’s cult of personality was enhanced
because of the USSR victory, he was a national
hero, and the power of propaganda grew
•Power of patronage was weakened
•Establishment of NATO in 1945
Cold War
•The west saw Stalins’ moves as expansionist and
because it violated previous agreements
•Ideological differences between Stalin and the
West and he refused the Marshall Plan
The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May
1949) was one of the first major international
crises of the Cold War and the first such crisis
that resulted in casualties. The Soviet Union
blocked the Western Allies' railway and road
access to the sectors of Berlin under their control.
Their aim was to force the western powers to
allow the Soviet zone to start supplying Berlin
with food and fuel, thereby giving the Soviets
practical control over the entire city.
•Truman Doctrine 1947
•Start of Cold War is debatable but, Stalin's
aggresive actions may have been a main
trigger of the start of the Cold War
•Russian civilian losses were 19 million and
9 million soldier casualties
• In 1949 there was another Party purge‘the Leningrad Affair’. Leading Party and
city officials were arrested and shot
•Mass executions of the people who fought for Germany in order
for the USSR to gain order. Those executed were fighting men and
also whole communities that supported Hitler’s forces
• The Soviet prisoners of war (POWs) were largely transported
from German prison camps to Soviet labour camps because Stalin
thought that they collaborated with Germans in order to stay alive
(10million were transported, 5-6million of these died in captivity)
• Anti-Semitism policy continued even after the war
• During 1947-1953, 1million died in
various purges and repressions
• 1953- Stalin dies
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