Anti-fascist coalition during the Second World War. § Anti-fascist coalition during the war

ANTI-HITLER COALITION, a military-political alliance led by the USSR, USA and Great Britain against the Axis countries (Germany, Italy, Japan) during the Second World War.

After Germany's attack on the Soviet Union, British Prime Minister W. Churchill on June 22, 1941 declared support for the USSR in its fight against fascist aggression; On June 24, US President F.D. Roosevelt made the same statement. On July 12, the USSR and Great Britain concluded the Moscow Agreement on mutual assistance and joint actions against Germany with the obligation not to enter into separate negotiations with it. On August 14, W. Churchill and F. D. Roosevelt promulgated the Atlantic Charter, declaring their goal to restore the sovereignty of conquered peoples and ensure their right to freely choose a form of government. On August 16, the British government provided Moscow with a loan of 10 million pounds. Art. to pay for military purchases in the UK. In September, the London Inter-Allied Conference of the USSR, Great Britain and representatives of the exiled governments of German-occupied European countries approved the Atlantic Charter. At the Moscow Conference of the Three Powers on September 29 – October 1, an agreement was reached on the size of British and American military assistance to the USSR. At the end of 1941, the United States extended the Lend-Lease regime to the Soviet Union (lease of weapons, industrial equipment, food); in 1942–1945, supplies totaling $10.8 billion were made to the USSR.

The anti-Hitler coalition officially took shape on January 1, 1942, when 26 states that declared war on Germany or its allies issued the Washington Declaration of the United Nations, announcing their intention to direct all their efforts to fight the Axis countries. It was signed by the USSR, USA, Great Britain, its dominions Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Union of South Africa, the British Indian Empire, China, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and also the émigré governments of Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Greece. In January 1942, the Joint Chiefs of Staff was created to coordinate the actions of British and American troops. The principles of relations between the leaders of the coalition - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain - were finally established by the Soviet-British alliance treaty on May 26, 1942 and the Soviet-American agreement on June 11, 1942.

During the war, the coalition expanded significantly. In 1942, the Philippines, Mexico and Ethiopia joined it, in 1943 - Brazil, Iraq, Bolivia, Iran and Colombia, in 1944 - Liberia and France represented by the National Liberation Committee, in 1945 - Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela , Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia. Its actual participants were Germany's former allies who declared war on it - Italy (October 13, 1943), Romania (August 24, 1944), Bulgaria (September 9, 1944) and Hungary (January 20, 1945).

The activities of the anti-Hitler coalition were determined by the decisions of the main participating countries. The general political and military strategy was developed at meetings of their leaders I.V. Stalin, F.D. Roosevelt (from April 1945 - G. Truman), W. Churchill (“Big Three”) and foreign ministers in Moscow (19–30 October 1943), Tehran (November 28 – December 1, 1943), Yalta (February 4–11, 1945) and Potsdam (July 17–August 2, 1945).

The allies quickly reached unanimity in identifying their main enemy: although the US Navy command insisted on concentrating the main forces against Japan, the American leadership agreed to consider the defeat of Germany the primary task; At the Moscow Conference, it was decided to fight it until its unconditional surrender. However, until mid-1943 there was no unity on the issue of the US and Great Britain opening a second front in Western Europe, and the Red Army alone had to bear the burden of the war on the European continent. The British strategy envisaged the creation and gradual compression of a ring around Germany by striking in secondary directions (North Africa, the Middle East) and the destruction of its military and economic potential through systematic bombing of German cities and industrial facilities. The Americans considered it necessary to land in France already in 1942, but under pressure from W. Churchill they abandoned these plans and agreed to carry out an operation to capture French North Africa. Despite the insistent demands of J.V. Stalin, the British managed to convince the Americans, instead of opening a second front in 1943 in France, to land in Sicily and Italy. Only at the Quebec Conference in August 1943 did F.D. Roosevelt and W. Churchill finally decide on the landing operation in France in May 1944 and confirmed it at the Tehran Conference; for its part, Moscow promised to launch an offensive on the Eastern Front to facilitate the Allied landings.

At the same time, the Soviet Union in 1941–1943 consistently rejected the demand of the United States and Great Britain to declare war on Japan. At the Tehran Conference, J.V. Stalin promised to enter the war, but only after the surrender of Germany. At the Yalta Conference, he obtained from the allies, as a condition for the start of hostilities, their consent to the return to the USSR of the territories lost by Russia in the Treaty of Portsmouth of 1905, and the transfer of the Kuril Islands to it.

Since the end of 1943, the problems of post-war settlement came to the fore in inter-allied relations. At the Moscow and Tehran conferences, it was decided to create an international organization at the end of the war with the participation of all countries to preserve universal peace and security. At Yalta, the great powers agreed to convene the founding conference of the United Nations in June 1945; its governing body was to be the Security Council, acting on the basis of the principle of unanimity of its permanent members (USSR, USA, Great Britain, France, China).

The question of the political future of Germany occupied an important place. In Tehran, J.V. Stalin rejected F.D. Roosevelt’s proposal for its division into five autonomous states and the project developed by W. Churchill for the separation of Northern Germany (Prussia) from the South and the inclusion of the latter in the Danube Federation along with Austria and Hungary. At the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, the principles of the post-war structure of Germany were agreed upon (demilitarization, denazification, democratization, economic decentralization) and decisions were made to divide it into four occupation zones (Soviet, American, British and French) with a single governing body (the Control Council), about the size and procedure for its payment of reparations, the establishment of its eastern border along the Oder and Neisse rivers, the division of East Prussia between the USSR and Poland and the transfer of Danzig (Gdansk) to the latter, and the resettlement of Germans living in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary to Germany.

The Polish question caused serious disagreement. The demand of the Soviet Union to recognize the “Curzon Line” as the Soviet-Polish border and the inclusion of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus in its composition in September 1939 encountered resistance from the allies and the Polish émigré government; On April 25, 1943, the USSR broke off relations with him. In Tehran, the American and British leadership was forced to accept the Soviet version of the solution to the Polish issue. In Yalta, W. Churchill and F. D. Roosevelt also agreed to territorial compensation for Poland at the expense of German lands and to the official recognition of the pro-Soviet Provisional Polish government of E. Osubka-Morawski, provided that several moderate emigrant figures were included in it.

Other important political decisions of the leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition were decisions on the restoration of the independence of Austria and the democratic reorganization of Italy (Moscow Conference), on the preservation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iran and on large-scale assistance to the partisan movement in Yugoslavia (Tehran Conference), on the creation of a provisional Yugoslav government based on the National liberation committee headed by Josip Broz Tito and the transfer to the USSR of all Soviet citizens liberated by the allies (Yalta Conference).

The anti-Hitler coalition played an important role in achieving victory over Germany and its allies and became the basis of the United Nations.

Ivan Krivushin

Historically, the anti-fascist coalition emerged in the mid-twentieth century as a bloc of the most diverse political forces of traditional civilization, directed against the most unconventional, brutal, anti-civilization practices of social Darwinism (in common parlance - Nazism, fascism). The coalition proceeded from the premise that there is a certain universal morality that is being decisively and uncompromisingly challenged. The basis of the anti-Hitler coalition was the desire to preserve traditional morality, to prevent the Nazis from “abolishing the ancient chimera called conscience.” At the same time, the breadth of the coalition was determined by the motley variety of parties included in it.

First of all, this is the difficult (and not immediately) achieved unity of the communists and all other socialists, even the most moderate, against the brutal force of social Darwinism. This is a left bloc (in the terminology of Europe at that time - the “Popular Front”), which sacrificed petty party and factional differences in the face of a common threat.

The participation of conservative forces, supporters of the traditional moral climate, that is, the unification of the left and the right against the rabid non-humans, is also important. The left and right may have different understandings of the path to the ideal, but they have a common ideal. Political conflict in the search for means to build a “welfare state” does not negate the very ideal of its construction. And it sharply contradicts the German-Ukrainian neo-slavery , seeking to once again divide people into castes, and peoples into victors - “superman” and exterminated “subhumans”.

It was not communists or socialists who first proclaimed the unity of the human race. It was first proclaimed by the Christian Church, demanding that every person recognize the image and likeness of God, regardless of his class or nationality. How formal such a proclamation was in a particular era is another question (formalism and hypocrisy, in fact, spun off socialists and communists from Christianity) - but the commonality of goals and their opposition to the bestial grin of the “struggle for existence” is obvious.

Socialists, communists and traditional conservatives formed a tenuous but very instructive unity in which centripetal forces overcame centrifugal ones. At the same time, communists saw fascism as a counter-revolution, and traditionalist conservatives, on the contrary, saw a revolution that undermined the basic foundations of the Western world with radically new infernal anti-values.

Which proved once again: words are words, you can play with them, calling the same thing either a counter-revolution or a revolution, but in essence - there are only grace-filled and infernal-graceless movements. Those who care about the bright future of humanity - and those who close this future by plunging into zoological darkness.

This is how the “Allies of World War II” were formed - an association of states and peoples who fought in the Second World War of 1939-1945 against the countries of the Nazi bloc, also called the Axis countries: Germany, Italy, Japan and their satellites and allies. The essence of the two world coalitions can be expressed in just one phrase: recognition or denial of universal morality.

The denial of morality for Germany, Italy, Japan was introduced at a completely official level, and forms the core basis of fascism (including modern, Ukrainian).

For example, in Italy, a song about how a valiant Italian warrior frees an Ethiopian slave was officially banned. It was recognized as ideologically incorrect, because Italy’s goal in Ethiopia is not to liberate, but to enslave. There is no need, they say, to sow false humanism in the soldiers, to deceive them about their ultimate goals - so as not to spoil future slave owners with “lunar cults of equality.”

The soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army were required to “develop insensitivity towards murder,” which led to colossal genocides in Asia, with victims significantly exceeding even the most terrible European counterparts.

The decree “On the application of military jurisdiction in the Barbarossa area and on special measures of troops”, issued in connection with the implementation of the “Barbarossa Plan”, emphasized: “There will be no mandatory prosecution for actions committed by Wehrmacht personnel and service personnel against enemy civilians even in cases where these actions constitute a war crime or misdemeanor.”

Thus, according to the Nazis, the idea of ​​humanity was completely (and everywhere) removed by them, replaced by the consciousness of racial-national domination of the ancient pre-Christian type. In this new morality there is only one sin: weakness. And there is only one virtue that returns society to the animal world - strength. Today, plans of this kind are most actively being implemented in Ukraine and in some other countries (Croatia, Albania, the Baltic countries, etc.)

In contrast to this “new (anti)morality”, the US President proposed a new term - “United Nations”. The point was not to simply mechanically bring all nations together, but that nations were united by common values.

Few people appreciated the revolutionary nature of Roosevelt’s idea, both then and now. The fact is that the world before Hitler was a world of warring nations. This is a colonial world in which there are master nations and slave nations; there can be no talk of any equal cooperation between nations.

Class enmity divided nations from within; predatory and aggressive wars divided them among themselves. Roosevelt raised the question of uniting the eternally divided nations.

This proposal was readily accepted by the USSR, and during the war years the term “United Nations” became synonymous with the anti-Hitler coalition. The term was first recorded in the 1942 United Nations Declaration (Washington Declaration Twenty-Six). The influence of the anti-fascist coalition on the military and post-war world order was enormous; on its basis, the modern United Nations Organization (UN) was created.

However, today the UN has lost the meaning that Roosevelt put into the concept of “united nations.” It has turned into mechanically united representatives of all nations, in which, according to the idea of ​​the Japanese Nazis, some peoples are “riders” and others are “horses”.

The organic unity of nations was going to be based on the basic values ​​of global cooperation:

- Denial of wars, genocides, terror, predatory annexations - which would promise the inviolability of post-war borders if realized.
- Denial of the ideas of national and racial superiority, denial of slavery and slave ownership, recognition of the basic value of any and all human life.
- Denial of predatory cynicism both in relations between nations and in relations between people.
- Worldwide cooperation in the field of science, culture, progress and prosperity, the desire to “bring up those lagging behind” instead of taking advantage of their backwardness.

Theoretically, these principles could unite both all left-wing socialist forces and all right-wing conservative ones, representatives of all monotheistic religions. We have different means, the politicians said, but a single goal: the success of everyone, the well-being of everyone.

Neo-fascism in the modern world manifests itself in the consistent denial of all the above principles. Neo-fascists preach that war is better than peace, genocide is better than cooperation, they have again raised the idea of ​​national superiority, they revel in social Darwinism (in which not every human life has value - but the possibility of the survival selection of one life from many). But the main thing in neo-fascism is global market liberalism, the main goal of which is not to unite, but to divide people.

Neo-fascism divides the peoples of the world into dominant and “finished”. The fate of the “finished” is to become manure for the rulers. Neo-fascism divides people into “winers” and “losers” - the fate of the losers is to become manure for the winers (winners).

The homogenization of the way of life of people and nations in the twentieth century gave way to a new era of sharp polarization: the “middle peasants” of the middle class are melting like snow in spring, dividing into the poor and the super-rich.

The aggressive, imperialist wars, which resurrected all of Hitler’s remnants, redrew the post-war map of the world beyond recognition, easily creating new pseudo-states, and just as easily denying other peoples the right to their own statehood. Neo-fascists have arrogated to themselves the right to uncontrollably and arbitrarily decide in which case we are talking about “self-determination of nations”, and in which case – about “territorial integrity”. In such conditions, the very existence of the UN looks like a bitter mockery of the original idea of ​​the “united nations”: now their unification is more reminiscent of being together in a prison cell...

Today the world again needs the idea of ​​“united nations”, a broad front of social democratic and religious forces resisting the pressure of the crudest and most cynical social Darwinism.

It is clear why representatives of all religions do not like Darwinism - a doctrine in which basic atheism makes war the norm of life, and a peaceful state a pathology. Of course, in any traditional morality it is peace that is blessed, and war is avoided. Here, it’s exactly the opposite – war “of all against all” is a blessed source of development and health of biological individuals, a peaceful state is a perversion.

And on this basis, all monotheistic religions can find unity with all the social democrats of the world. You don't have to be a believer to be disgusted by social Darwinism. The recognition of peace as a value and war as a disaster unites the most diverse parties of the social democratic spectrum.

The social wing of social democracy opposes bestial individualism, putting the public (social) good above private interests. The democratic wing of social democracy is called upon to resist the voice of money, which drowns out the votes of voters. The pathos of opposition to economic slavery and political despotism of slave owners forces social democratic forces to unite before the onslaught of neo-fascism.

Of course, the breadth of the anti-fascist coalition (it would be more correct to call it anti-satanic , but this will sound too academic) will require all participants to renounce scolding and literalism, from sectarian narrowness of views, which at one time destroyed the CPSU. There are no coalitions based on the principle “those who are not with us are against us.” A coalition can only be built according to the principle “those who are not against us are with us.” Every non-enemy has a presumption of friendliness.

This approach will reduce interfaith and interparty petty squabbles and contrived (most often due to the leaders’ leadership ambitions) enmity. For example, communists must understand that the “Kiev patriarchy” under American pressure is a monstrous perversion of religiosity, an outrage against the basic principles of religion, the most vile spiritual incest. Orthodox Christians, on the contrary, should look more carefully at the social issues raised by communists. If both of them take the now habitual “we don’t care” pose, then neo-fascism will triumph.

United nations can unite only on terms of equality and mutual respect. This is not only the thought of Roosevelt, who created the idea, but in general a requirement of logic itself. How can nations be united on conditions of inequality and mutual destruction? What is the price of “unification”, which is beneficial only to one side, and catastrophically unprofitable for the other side?

Roosevelt's idea of ​​a United Nations was countered by an equally distinct idea of ​​the Third Reich and the Japanese Empire: Captive Nations. It was assumed that the world empire (Germany or Japan, depending on the homeland of the ideology) would dominate and decide everything alone. The enslaved nations around her are "horse to rider" - they will obediently obey - or be exterminated.

The modern model of American world domination is much closer to Hitlerism than to the idea of ​​the UN. The behavior of the United States today is reminiscent of the Third Reich - which recognized only complete submission - or a total war to exterminate the disobedient. The language of the United States, like the language of Hitler, is the language of barking ultimatums, which under Trump began to irritate even the most servile and well-fed satellites of the 4th Reich (EU). America doesn’t want to discuss any questions with anyone; it comes straight away with ready-made answers. They must be accepted - or perish.

Moreover, the range of imposed ultimatums concerns all issues in general, even the most specific and internal ones. The United States invented that it has the right to decide where the patriarch of Orthodox people sit, despite the fact that they themselves are never Orthodox, etc.

The triumph of neo-fascism in the world (hidden in the USA, open and defiant in Ukraine) plunges all of humanity into the darkness of total lawlessness, madness and ugliness. All those seams with which the “surgeons of the centuries” sewed civilization together in the form of human rights and international law, alliance and internal civil solidarity, publicity and competitiveness of processes (not only judicial ones), referendums as the highest form of democracy - threaten to separate, flooding humanity with blood.

It will not be an exaggeration to say that in a world where a modern fascist Ukraine is possible, everything is possible . If atrocities and arbitrariness of this level are covered up by the West, then mass cannibalism, child sacrifice, mass disembowelment for organs, and in general the plot of any nightmare are possible.

We have only one way out: a broad anti-fascist coalition, going in breadth (appealing to the powerful social-democratic tradition within the West itself) and in depth (a return to the roots, traditions, paternal faith).

If we do not unite all people of good will, we will face such “perversions” of the human being that will force us to talk about the mutation of the “Homo sapiens” species itself.

For example, the Pan-Asian project created and promoted by the government and military forces of the pre-war Japanese Empire during the reign of Emperor Hirohito was based on the desire to create a “bloc of Asian peoples led by Japan” in eastern Eurasia. It was emphasized that this would be a collaboration between “rider and horse.” The rider is Japan, the horse is all other nations sharing “co-prosperity” with Japan.

The Christian martyrdom of the first centuries was generated by the fact that the secular government (then Roman) forced Christians to worship the “gods” imposed by the empire, while in no way prohibiting them from serving their own. The proposal was the same as today: believe what you want, just first bow to the imperial official cults of this century. Nobody banned Christian rituals - they simply sought to equate them with political cults like “Rome on top of everything.” This led to massive self-sacrifice of Christians, to their martyrdom in the arenas of Roman circuses.

With the entry of the United States into the war, the anti-fascist coalition finally received organizational form. On January 1, 1942, the Allied powers and the governments of countries at war with the Tripartite Pact signed the Declaration of 26 States. It contained obligations to use all resources to defeat the enemy, not to conclude a separate peace, and determined that the post-war peace settlement should be built on the principles of the Atlantic Charter. The declaration was open to the accession of other, not yet at war, countries, which were required to declare war on at least one of the countries.

A difficult path to victory. After the United States entered the war, the states of the anti-Hitler coalition provided an undeniable superiority in material and human resources. However, the turning point in the war did not come immediately. In December

• 1941 German troops suffered their first serious defeat of the war, losing the battle of Moscow. However, their offensive impulse was not yet broken. Spring - autumn
• 1942 German troops broke through to the Volga and reached the North Caucasus. In Africa, the German-Italian army still threatened Egypt, Japan captured Malaya, Burma, the Philippines, Indonesia, and its troops stood on the approaches to India and Australia.

The year 1942 turned out to be a turning point on the main fronts of the war. In June, the Japanese fleet suffered its first setback at Midway Island. This allowed the United States to begin gradually displacing Japanese troops from the islands they had captured in the Pacific Ocean. In November 1942, Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive near Stalingrad, encircling and defeating the largest group of German troops that reached the Volga - 22 German divisions. In February 1943 they capitulated.

The defeat suffered at Stalingrad was a disaster for the countries of the Tripartite Pact. Germany had to declare total mobilization to restore the combat effectiveness of the army. The Eastern Front absorbed all of Germany's reserves; as a result, the Allies managed to completely oust the Italo-German troops from Africa by May 1943.

In 1943, the countries of the Tripartite Pact were still trying to seize the initiative, in particular in July 1943 in the battle of the Oryol-Kursk Bulge, where the largest tank battle of the Second World War took place. This attempt, however, was unsuccessful. Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive, liberating almost the entire territory of Russia proper and most of Ukraine. In September 1943, the Allies landed in Italy. Mussolini was removed from power, the new government of the country declared war on Germany. In response, German troops occupied Northern Italy, restoring the fascist regime on its territory.

In 1944, the Soviet Union almost completely liberated its territory and its troops entered Eastern Europe. Finland, Bulgaria and Romania emerged from the war, Soviet troops reached the borders of Warsaw and Budapest, and fought on the soil of East Prussia. The Allies landed in Normandy in June and liberated France and Belgium. The war came close to the borders of Germany. Her attempt to launch a counteroffensive in the Ardennes and throw Anglo-American troops into the sea ended in failure. At the personal request of W. Churchill, the USSR launched an offensive on the entire Eastern Front at the beginning of 1945, which forced Germany to transfer all reserves against the Red Army.

The national-patriotic forces of the countries occupied by German-Italian troops played a major role in the fight against fascism. The Free French movement, led by General De Gaulle, was the most important force in the Resistance, participating in the liberation of the country together with Anglo-American troops. In Yugoslavia, the liberation movement, whose leader was I.B. Tito, when the Allied troops approached, independently defeated the occupying garrisons remaining in the country. The liberation movement also gained great momentum in other European countries. At the same time, its appearance did not always meet the expectations and plans of the countries of the anti-fascist coalition. In Greece, the British attempt to disarm local resistance groups led to civil war. The USSR was very cool towards the non-communist factions of the Resistance movement in Poland. Their attempt to liberate Warsaw, not coordinated with the Soviet command, was suppressed by German troops, which subsequently gave rise to serious mutual recriminations. By the beginning of 1945, Germany had no chance of victory. However, it capitulated only on May 9, after the defeat of its main forces, the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops and the suicide of A. Hitler.

In August 1945, the USSR, fulfilling its obligations to its allies, declared war on Japan and defeated a large group of its ground forces in Manchuria. On August 6, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, on August 9 on Nagasaki, completely destroying these cities with their entire population. The number of victims was hundreds of thousands of people. People who found themselves in the area of ​​the atomic attack died from radiation decades after the war. On September 2, 1945, Japan surrendered.

Until the last moment, German leaders hoped for a turning point in the war. These hopes, on the one hand, were associated with plans to create some kind of miracle weapon. Germany's military-technical thought has indeed done a lot, coming very close to the creation of intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. On the other hand, the fascist elite counted on the aggravation of disagreements in the anti-Hitler coalition and its split. These calculations also did not come true.

USSR and Western countries: problems of relationships. Fundamental issues of relations between the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition were resolved at meetings of the leaders of the USSR, USA and Great Britain. During the war, three such meetings took place - in Tehran (1943), Yalta (1945) and Potsdam (1945).

The common interest in victory made it possible to find compromise solutions to controversial issues. At the same time, many of the decisions reached were considered by the parties as forced and subject to revision in the future. The allies did not have complete trust in each other, which also affected the resolution of current issues of cooperation.

During the periods of the war, the most difficult for the USSR, Western countries more than once suspended the supply of equipment and weapons under Lend-Lease, believing that Stalin might capitulate to Hitler. In the USSR, irritation against the allies grew, due to the fact that until the summer of 1944 the Red Army fought against the main forces of Germany, while England and the USA were limited to operations in secondary directions. This raised suspicions that the Allies were deliberately delaying the opening of a second front in Europe in order to achieve mutual weakening of the USSR and Germany. Towards the end of the war, fears began to grow in Moscow that Great Britain and the United States would agree to conclude a separate peace with Germany.

These suspicions had some basis. After the assassination attempt on A. Hitler in the summer of 1944, emissaries from Washington and London in neutral Switzerland negotiated the possibility of a truce with Germany on the Western Front in the event of the removal of A. Hitler and the most odious figures from his circle from power. In the ruling circles of the United States, supporters of the policy of prolonging the war and exhausting future potential opponents did not hide their views. In particular, they were expressed by G. Truman, who became vice president in 1944, and in 1945, after the death of F.D. Roosevelt, President of the United States.

At the same time, while the war continued, and even after its conclusion in Europe, differences between the allies did not come to the fore. The USA and Great Britain were interested in the USSR entering the war with Japan, which otherwise could have dragged on, according to some estimates, until 1947. Even those issues to which there were obviously different approaches found a compromise solution on principles very far from the principles of the Atlantic charters.

Great Britain sought to preserve its colonial empire and secure spheres of influence in Europe liberated from fascism. In October 1944, W. Churchill, during a visit to Moscow, proposed to I.V. Stalin should establish balances of influence in the countries liberated from fascism in the following proportions: Romania and Bulgaria - 90% and 75% of the influence of the USSR, respectively; Greece - 90% of British influence; Hungary and Yugoslavia - 50% to 50%. The Soviet leader left these proposals without comment, but also without objection. Moreover, the USSR expressed interest in obtaining a mandate for the former Italian colonies in North Africa.

The aspirations of the Soviet Union to preserve the territorial acquisitions of 1939-1940. did not cause much controversy. Finland and Romania were allies of Germany, and the question of returning the territories annexed to the USSR to them in principle could not arise. Relations with the Polish government in exile, located in London, which previously considered the USSR an aggressor, were normalized already in July 1941. The Soviet side recognized Poland's right to independent existence and agreed to clarify the post-war borders in accordance with the ethnic principle. The problem of the Baltic countries was resolved during a meeting in Tehran. In Stalin’s conversation with Roosevelt, the latter made it clear that the United States did not intend to enter into conflict with the USSR over the Baltic states, although they did not recognize the legality of the inclusion of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia into the USSR.

The issue of USSR support for revolutionary movements outside the territories that the Allies were ready to recognize as its sphere of interests was not discussed during the war. In 1943 the Comintern was dissolved. This was supposed to eliminate concerns about the USSR’s intentions to Sovietize and bring countries liberated from fascism under its control. In addition, after Germany’s attack on the USSR, communist parties in the occupied countries collaborated with political forces of a wide range, including bourgeois-liberal orientations, without focusing on their plans for the post-war period.

Results of the Second World War. The Second World War was the largest and most destructive in human history. More than 50 million people died in Europe alone. Moreover, unlike the war of 1914-1918, due to aerial bombing and stubborn fighting, the extermination of peoples declared inferior, civilian casualties were not inferior to military losses. The greatest losses in the war were suffered by China - 35 million dead, the USSR - about 27 million people, Poland - about 5.6 million, Yugoslavia - 1.8 million. 6.5 died in Germany and Japan that started the war million and 2.6 million people.

The most important result of the war was the increased awareness among the peoples and the governments of most states of the danger of a selfish, self-interested policy that ignores international legal norms and obligations. The defeat of the powers that started the war, the recognition of their leaders as war criminals, and their condemnation by international tribunals for the first time in history created a precedent for the personal responsibility of politicians for actions that brought death and suffering to peoples.

In the post-war years, with the aggravation of relations between the states of the anti-fascist coalition, disputes arose between them as to whose contribution to the victory over fascism was decisive. In particular, many Soviet historians tried to prove that the USSR almost single-handedly defeated Germany and Japan. Western countries ignored the decisive contribution of the Soviet Union to the victory over Germany.

At least 2/3 of Germany’s ground forces were defeated on the Soviet-German front. In turn, the Allies defeated the main forces of Italy and bombed German territory, which undermined its economic potential. It remained very significant even at the end of the war. Until mid-1944, the production of weapons and ammunition in Germany was steadily increasing, and its resistance capabilities were still very high. Only the Allied landings in Normandy prevented Germany from prolonging the war, which would have led to its acquisition of nuclear weapons. Additionally, the Allies bore the brunt of the war in the Pacific, with most of Japan's ground forces pinned down by China. The role he played in World War II is generally forgotten.

Allied supplies under Lend-Lease were of great importance. Although they accounted for about 4% of the total volume of industrial products produced in the USSR, for certain types of equipment and weapons their role was significant: 13% for aircraft, 7% for tanks, 200% for cars.

Creation of the UN. The countries of the anti-fascist coalition outlined their views on the principles of the post-war world order in the Charter of the United Nations (UN) - a document adopted by delegations of 50 states at a conference in San Francisco (April - June 1945) and reflecting the main ideas of the Atlantic Charter. The United Nations was designed to ensure stable peace and international security. Its Charter proclaimed the following principles: the need to respect human rights and dignity, the equality of small and large nations; compliance with international obligations and international legal norms; UN members' commitment to social progress and improving people's living conditions in greater freedom.

An attempt was made to take into account the lessons of the failure of the League of Nations, which failed to prevent the Second World War. Unlike the League of Nations, the founders of the UN declared the principles of its Charter to be universal, that is, binding on all states, including those that are not members of the UN. The most important body of the UN was the Security Council, which included as permanent members the largest founding states of this international organization - the USA, USSR, Great Britain and France. Any state that became a victim of an attack could appeal to the Security Council, which was empowered to take measures, including military measures, to stop the aggression.

The creation of an authoritative body, which by the end of the 20th century included almost all countries of the world, to which any state could appeal in case of infringement of its interests or threats to security, was of great importance for the establishment of legal foundations in international life. At the same time, the effectiveness of the UN's work depended on the unanimity of the permanent members of the Security Council, without which decisions could not be made on the application of sanctions or the use of military force. The principle of unanimity made it possible to eliminate the risk of using UN mechanisms against one of the great powers belonging to the winning camp, but when disagreements, especially conflicts, arose between them, the influence of the UN fell sharply, which is what happened during the Cold War.

Table 4.

The role of the Eastern Front in World War II

Documents and materials

"Common Declaration of the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, China, Australia, Belgium, India, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Luxembourg, Czechoslovakia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala , Haiti, Honduras, Holland, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Poland, the Union of South Africa and Yugoslavia. The governments that signed this have previously adhered to the common program of goals and principles embodied in the common Declaration of the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Great Britain of 14. August 1941, known as the Atlantic Charter, being convinced that complete victory over their enemies is necessary for the defense of life, liberty, independence and religious freedom and for the preservation of human rights and justice both in their own countries and in other countries, and that they are now engaged in a common struggle against the savage and brutal forces seeking to conquer the world, they declare:

• 1. Each Government undertakes to use all its resources, military and economic, against those members of the Tripartite Pact and its affiliates with whom that Government is at war.
• 2. Each Government undertakes to cooperate with other Governments that have signed this and not to conclude a separate truce with enemies.

The above Declaration may be acceded to by other nations that provide or may provide material assistance and assistance in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism."

“The dissolution of the Communist International is correct and timely, since it facilitates the organization of the general onslaught of all freedom-loving nations against the common enemy - Hitlerism. The dissolution of the Communist International is correct, since:

• a) he exposes the lies of the Nazis that Moscow supposedly intends to interfere in the life of other states and “overwhelm” them. This lie is now put to an end;
• b) he exposes the slander of opponents of communism in the labor movement that the communist parties of various countries allegedly act not in the interests of their own people, but on orders from outside. This slander also comes to an end from now on;
• c) it facilitates the work of patriots of freedom-loving countries to unite the progressive forces of their country, regardless of their party affiliation and religious beliefs, into a single national liberation camp - to launch the struggle against fascism;
• d) it facilitates the work of patriots of all countries to unite all freedom-loving peoples into a single international camp to fight against the world domination of Hitlerism, thereby clearing the way for organizing in the future a commonwealth of peoples on the basis of their equality.

I think that all these circumstances taken together will lead to the further strengthening of the united front of the Allies and other united nations in their struggle for victory over Hitler's tyranny."

"The British people and the people of America are full of sincere admiration for the victories of the Russian army<...>I must tell you today that the advance of the Russian armies from Stalingrad to the Dniester, during which their vanguards reached the Prut, having covered a distance of 900 miles in a year, represents the main reason for Hitler's failures. Since the last time I spoke to you, the Hun invaders have not only been driven out of the lands they devastated, but thanks mainly to the valor of the Russians, their general skill, the guts of the German army have been cut out."

Questions and tasks

• 1. Make a detailed plan for the message: “The main stages, events of the Second World War.” Highlight its most important, turning points.
• 2. How did the relationship between the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition develop? What significance did it have for the course and outcome of the war?
• 3. Reveal the results of the Second World War, its lessons, its cost to humanity. Compare the consequences of the first and second world wars and draw conclusions.
• 4. Name different points of view on the contribution of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition to the victory over fascism. Which one do you share? Give reasons for your answer.
• 5. How were controversial issues of the post-war world order resolved? Where did the interests of the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition diverge? Describe the significance of the dissolution of the Comintern.
• 6. When, for what purpose and on what principles was the United Nations created? How is it different from the League of Nations?

Immediately after Germany’s attack on the USSR, the leaders of England and the USA declared their support for our country. The basis for cooperation was the common desire to defeat Hitler and his allies. On January 1, 1942, in Washington, 26 states that fought with Germany signed the Declaration, which completed the creation of the anti-Hitler coalition. At the same time, the leaders of these countries had different ideas about the post-war world order. Therefore, disputes and contradictions were inevitable, especially on such important issues as the supply of weapons and military materials, coordination of military operations and the opening of a second front against Germany in Europe, post-war borders, the fate of Germany, etc.

Supplies of weapons, food and other necessary materials to the USSR from the USA and England began in 1941 and continued until 1945. The bulk of them went in three ways: through the Middle East and Iran (British and Soviet troops entered Iran in August 1941 ), through Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, through Vladivostok. In the United States, the Lend-Lease law was passed (on the transfer of necessary materials to the allies on loan or lease). The total cost of this assistance was about $11 billion. Particularly important were the supplies of trucks, a number of metals, aircraft, etc.

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United States. At the same time, the United States declared war on Germany. By the summer of 1942, Japan had captured Southeast Asia, but then the Americans went from defensive to offensive. British troops defeated the German group in North Africa in November 1942. In 1943, the Anglo-Americans completely liberated North Africa. In the summer of 1943 they landed on the island. Sicily and then in Italy. In September 1943, Italy went over to the side of the anti-Hitler coalition. Most of Italy was captured by the Germans. The USSR sought the speedy landing of Anglo-American troops in France and the opening of a “second front” there. Although the Allies promised to do this in 1942, in reality this happened on June 6, 1944.

During the war years, three meetings of the leaders of the USSR, England and the USA took place. The first meeting of the “Big Three” took place in Tehran on November 28 – December 1, 1943. It discussed the opening of a “second front”, the USSR’s entry into the war with Japan after the defeat of Germany, the fate of Germany and the borders of Poland. At a meeting in Yalta (Crimea) in February 1945, an agreement was reached on occupation zones in Germany, on French participation in the occupation of Germany, on the punishment of fascist war criminals, on German reparations (compensation for damage caused by fascist Germany to the peoples of Europe), on the establishment The UN and its structure, about the eastern and western borders of Poland (as “compensation” for Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, Poland received territories in the west and north), about the USSR’s entry into the war with Japan. In essence, the Yalta Agreements replaced the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, established post-war borders in Europe and lasted until the early 90s. From July 17 to August 2, 1945, the last meeting took place in Potsdam (near Berlin). It was attended by J. Stalin, G. Truman (F. Roosevelt died in April 1945), W. Churchill (from July 28 he was replaced by Labor leader K. Attlee, who won the parliamentary elections). This conference confirmed the main decisions of the Yalta meeting. An agreement was adopted on the disarmament of Germany, the ban on Nazi organizations, and the democratization of the social system; about collecting reparations from Germany, about bringing the main war criminals to trial. A new border for Poland along the Oder and Neisse was determined. The city of Königsberg and the surrounding areas of East Prussia (now Kaliningrad and the Kaliningrad region) were transferred to the Soviet Union.

The Second World War was an extremely complex and diverse event, in which various class interests and goals, and various political aspirations were intertwined. The war began with an attack by the fascist aggressor on Poland, which had joined the Anglo-French bloc.

Thus, the war arose between two imperialist factions. Despite this, from the very beginning it contained liberation, anti-fascist tendencies, since fascism, which sought world domination, threatened the independence of states and the lives of peoples who became victims of aggression.

Gradually, the liberation tendencies of the war grew stronger. The peoples subjected to Hitler's invasion rose up to fight against the occupiers, which led to the strengthening of the anti-fascist nature of the war, its development into a liberation struggle against fascist enslavement. In this complex and difficult process, the decisive role belonged to the Soviet Union.

After Hitler's Germany attacked the Soviet Union, the war was irrevocably defined as anti-fascist and liberation. For the democratic forces around the world, it was now not only about the struggle for the independence of their own countries, but also about the defense of the country of socialism.

The peculiarity and originality of the Second World War were manifested in the creation of an anti-fascist coalition of powers with different social systems - the Soviet Union, the United States and England.

About 50 other states joined this coalition during the war. Meanwhile, after the formation of the anti-fascist coalition, not a single state joined the bloc of fascist aggressors - Germany, Japan and Italy.

The creation of the anti-fascist coalition was due to objective circumstances. Germany, which launched a war for world domination in September 1939, destroyed the independence of most European states.

Many European nations fell under the yoke of the Nazi invaders. Of the powers that were at war with the fascist aggressors, only England survived by mid-1941, but it also found itself in extremely difficult conditions.

The threat of a German invasion of the British Isles, despite Germany's preparations for an attack on the USSR, was not completely removed. Getting rid of this mortal danger could only bring the English people help from the two great powers of the world - the Soviet Union and the United States of America.

Even before the start of the war, the USSR advocated the creation of a front of peace-loving states against the fascist aggressors. In the critical months on the eve of the war, the Soviet Union made enormous efforts to create an anti-Hitler coalition of England, France and the USSR.

However, the then governments of Western states, stubbornly pursuing an anti-Soviet Munich policy, thwarted the creation of an anti-fascist coalition. The trials of the war showed the depravity of the calculations of the Munich people.

After the occupation of many European states by Germany and the heavy defeats of the British armies, difficult days came for England.

The realistically thinking circles of the bourgeoisie that came to power, assessing the full danger of the situation created for England, moved towards rapprochement with the USSR. Thus, in the anti-fascist coalition, the Soviet policy of collective security was realized in military conditions.

Germany's seizure of dominance over a large part of the European continent caused great concern in the United States of America. From the beginning of the war, the United States became increasingly closer to England, providing it not only with material assistance, but also protecting British possessions in the Pacific Ocean with its fleet.

The danger of the war spreading to this area grew every day. An ally of Hitler's Germany, militaristic Japan was leading the way to war against the United States and the British Empire. In this case, the ruling circles of the United States counted on help from the Soviet Union.

Thus, the military-political cooperation of the USSR, England and the United States stemmed from the common interests of these countries in the fight against a common enemy - the fascist aggressors, primarily against Hitler's Germany, and then against militaristic Japan.

In the second half of 1941 and the first half of 1942, the creation of an anti-fascist coalition was secured by relevant agreements and obligations. The people of the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the United States welcomed the creation of an anti-fascist coalition.

After the USSR entered the war, the working masses of the capitalist countries of the anti-Hitler bloc began to more clearly recognize the liberation goals of the war and more actively influence the policies of their governments. The peoples of the countries enslaved by the fascist invaders also perked up.

During the war years, the USSR established connections with a large number of states and governments. If before the Great Patriotic War diplomatic relations were maintained with 17 states, then during the war the number of states with which the USSR had diplomatic and consular relations increased to 46.

The cooperation of the participants in the anti-fascist coalition was carried out in difficult conditions of overcoming acute contradictions between them. These contradictions were due to differences in the social system of the allies and, consequently, different attitudes towards the final goals of the war.

For the Soviet Union, the goal of the war was the speedy defeat of Nazi Germany and its allies, the destruction of fascism, the cleansing of Soviet territories captured by the fascists, the liberation of European peoples from fascist slavery, the establishment of a lasting peace based on the recognition of the sovereignty of each state and the right of peoples to establish their own social system at will.

The Soviet Union's struggle to implement a consistent anti-fascist program and its decisive contribution to the war against Hitler's Germany ensured its leading place in the anti-Hitler coalition.

The goals of the ruling circles of England and the United States of America were different. They sought to eliminate Germany and Japan as their imperialist competitors and hoped that after the defeat of the powers of the aggressive bloc, they would be able, having gotten rid of the “extremes” of fascism, to restore in these states the order that existed there before the fascists seized power, and to prevent those social changes that led to which the anti-fascist war could wage.

The Western powers sought to preserve the capitalist system everywhere, and in the colonial and semi-colonial countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America - their dominance.

The United States wanted even more - to establish its hegemony in the post-war world. The ruling circles of the Western powers believed that they would be able to carry out their plans, since as a result of the war the Soviet Union would be so weakened that it would be practically impossible to prevent them.

The different goals of the war also determined the different approaches of the participants in the anti-fascist coalition to pressing military and political problems.

After Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, the brunt of the war fell on the USSR. In the first months of the Great Patriotic War, when the Red Army suffered defeats and was forced to retreat, the allies refrained from providing it with effective assistance, because they did not believe that the Soviet Union would withstand the onslaught of Nazi Germany. Reputable British and American military experts predicted a quick defeat of the USSR.

However, the collapse of the lightning war and the defeat that befell the Nazi army near Moscow forced England and the United States to reassess the role of the USSR in the war. This led to the strengthening of inter-allied relations. The Soviet Union began to receive military materials and weapons from its allies.

At that difficult time for the USSR, this assistance was useful, although it satisfied only a small part of the needs of the Soviet Armed Forces, against which the bulk of Hitler’s army and the armies of Nazi Germany’s satellites were concentrated. Sailors of the allied states risked their lives to deliver valuable military cargo to the USSR. Many sailors died heroically while doing their duty.

Until the end of 1943, the main issue in the anti-Hitler coalition remained the question of opening a second front in Western Europe. The governments of England and the United States repeatedly promised the Soviet Union to land their troops in France and open a second front there. But they did not fulfill their promises for a long time.

By delaying the opening of a second front, the governments of England and the United States sought to fight for as long as possible with the hands of the Soviet Union, conduct operations on secondary fronts themselves, seize advantageous strategic positions, accumulate forces and wait for the moment when the best divisions of the Wehrmacht would be ground down on the Soviet-German front, and The forces of the Soviet Union will be exhausted in this grueling struggle.

All this, according to their calculations, was to ensure the military and political dominance of the Western powers by the end of the war. The blows delivered by the Allies in North Africa and Italy to a certain extent weakened the Hitler bloc. But they did not significantly ease the burden of the Soviet Union, since the main forces of Nazi Germany were still confined to the Eastern Front.

In 1943, it became clear that the Soviet Union, although the war was still raging on its territory and the Red Army still had a long and difficult journey to the western state borders, was capable of defeating the fascist aggressor on its own. Awareness of this fact greatly influenced the decision of England and the United States to finally open a second front in June 1944.

At the conferences of the heads of government of the allied powers in 1943 in Tehran and in 1945 in Yalta, decisions were made on military-strategic and basic political problems. The Tehran and Yalta decisions strengthened the anti-fascist coalition.

In June 1944, American-British troops landed in Northern France and a second front was opened. The implementation of the agreed military plans was generally successful until the complete defeat and unconditional surrender of Hitler's Germany, and then of militaristic Japan.

The situation was more difficult with the implementation of agreed political decisions. As the defeat of Nazi Germany approached, reactionary tendencies in the policies of the ruling circles of England and the United States intensified.

This affected primarily their attitude towards the countries of Europe liberated from fascist invaders, where England and the United States began to support the very reactionary parties that capitulated to fascism at the beginning of the war. Plans also arose for a new anti-Soviet unification of capitalist states.

However, progressive forces in England and the United States exposed these machinations.

The leftward movement of the popular masses, observed throughout the world towards the end of the war, in turn had a noticeable impact on the position of the Western allies, and for the time being they had to adhere to the program proclaimed by the anti-fascist coalition: the defeat and eradication of fascism, giving the liberated peoples the right to decide their own fate.

Through the joint efforts of the participants in the anti-fascist coalition, the United Nations was created at the border of war and peace. The prospect of fruitful cooperation in the conditions of peace, which was won at a high price, opened up.

The Soviet Union welcomed such cooperation. But it depended not only on the goodwill of the USSR. The United States of America and England took a different path.