Annotation: Foreign policy of the USSR in the pre-war years. - The Soviet-German Pact and its consequences. - The beginning of the Second World War. Annexation of the territories of Eastern Europe to the USSR. War with Finland. - The beginning of the Great Patriotic War. - A radical turning point in the war. - Victory over fascism. Defeat of Japan.

Foreign policy of the USSR in the pre-war years. The victory of the Bolsheviks in Russia and the defeat of Germany in the First World War, then the rise to power of the Nazis, put these two countries in the position of outcasts and contributed to their rapprochement. 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.

The apparent balance was maintained only by the efforts of England and France, including due to their desire to use Germany against the Bolshevik threat. This is precisely what explained their policies. "pacification" aggressor, who actually encouraged Hitler’s growing appetites.

The apogee of such a policy was Munich Agreements in September 1938, Hitler began to implement his plans for world domination - he demanded that Czechoslovakia transfer to Germany the Sudetenland, populated mainly by Germans. The meeting in Munich on September 29-30, 1938 between the heads of Great Britain and France with Hitler and Mussolini ended in the shameful capitulation of the democratic powers. As a result of this, Czechoslovakia lost 20% of its territory.

The British and French governments hoped that the Munich Agreement would satisfy Hitler and prevent war. In reality, the policy of appeasement only encouraged the aggressor: Germany first annexed the Sudetenland, and in March 1939 occupied all of Czechoslovakia. The miscalculations and guilt of Western European countries in starting the Second World War are obvious.

In the mid-1930s, realizing the danger of fascism, Soviet leaders tried to improve relations with Western democracies and create collective security system in Europe. In 1934, the USSR joined the League of Nations, and in 1935, mutual assistance agreements were concluded with France and Czechoslovakia.

But in the difficult situation after Munich, the Bolshevik leadership began to maneuver, which resulted in dramatic changes in the foreign policy of the USSR. Overall, a great game of diplomacy was being played in Europe, with each of the three sides seeking to outmanoeuvre the other sides.

The Soviet-German Treaty and its consequences. Hitler expressed his readiness to negotiate with the USSR, because at that time he needed an ally. Germany was not yet ready for a big war with the USSR.

Stalin made the decision to begin negotiations with Germany at the end of July 1939. However, he did not interrupt contacts with Western countries. Thanks to the efforts of Soviet intelligence, he knew about Nazi Germany’s plans to attack Poland and start a war with England and France, and believed that an agreement with Hitler would delay the USSR’s entry into the war, expand Soviet borders and the sphere of influence of socialism.

On August 23, 1939, the so-called "Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact". The negotiations took place in deep secrecy, and therefore the announcement of the signing of a non-aggression pact produced the effect of a bomb exploding throughout the world. The parties also signed a more important document - secret protocols on the division of spheres of influence in Eastern Europe (the existence of the protocols was denied by the Soviet leadership 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 included in the sphere of influence of the USSR. It was a secret conspiracy with the fascist aggressor to divide Eastern Europe behind the back of the world community.

With the signing of these documents, Soviet foreign policy changed dramatically; the Stalinist leadership acted as an ally of Germany in the division of Europe. The situation in Europe as a whole changed in favor of Nazi Germany.

The assessment of the pact of August 23, 1939 and, in general, the rapprochement between the Soviet Union and Germany is the subject of heated debate. Supporters of the pact point out as arguments: the existence of a danger of the emergence of a united anti-Soviet front; on the achieved gain in time before the USSR entered the war; to expand the borders of the Soviet Union on the eve of Nazi Germany’s aggression against it.

The rapprochement with Nazi Germany, the conclusion of a pact and secret protocols with it turned out to be unprofitable for the USSR; it led to war and a military disaster at its beginning. Without the pact, it is unlikely that Hitler would have attacked Poland. By signing a pact with Germany, Stalin gave grounds for accusing the USSR of complicity with Nazi Germany, and by expansion into Eastern Poland and the Baltic states, he opposed the war with Finland, isolated himself from the world community, and in December 1939 our country was expelled from the League of Nations.

The beginning of the Second World War. Annexation of the territories of Eastern Europe to the USSR. War with Finland. On September 1, 1939, Hitler attacked Poland. The Second World War began. 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, conducting the so-called " strange war".

On September 17, when the outcome of the battles in Poland was no longer in doubt, Soviet troops entered Polish territory under the pretext of protecting “Ukrainian and Belarusian brothers.” About 22 thousand Poles, most of them officers, were captured by the Soviets and were shot in 1940 [13.8, pp. 139-140]. This event is known as "Katyn tragedy" because one of the burials was found in the Katyn forest near Smolensk. It was discovered by the Germans, and the Soviet government refused to admit its guilt, claiming that the Poles were executed by the Nazis. It admitted its responsibility only in 1990.

Stalin, having received lost in the Soviet-Polish war of 1920-1921. territories, included them in the Ukrainian and Belarusian Union Republics. The dividing line 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.

On July 31, 1940, Hitler declared that the first priority was war with the Soviet Union. December 18, 1940 plan for attack on the USSR ("Barbarossa") was signed. German troops began to be transferred to the East in deep secrecy.

After the outbreak of the Second World War, in 1939-1940. Stalin's leadership was primarily concerned with the annexation of the territories of Eastern European states to the USSR. “People's governments” were created in the republics; in August 1940, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were included in the USSR as union republics. Everywhere a standard set of socialist transformations was carried out: the destruction of the private sector, collectivization, the elimination of democratic freedoms, arrests, deportation to Siberia, etc.

On November 30, 1939, the Soviet-Finnish war began. Having multiple superiority in manpower, tanks and aircraft, the Red Army for a long time could not break the stubborn resistance of the Finns. The war lasted 3.5 months. According to the peace treaty concluded on March 12, 1940, the USSR received the territories 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. The Red Army showed low combat effectiveness, which served as a factor that strengthened Hitler's determination to force an attack on the USSR.

For Stalin, the relative weakness of the Red Army, revealed during the war, was an incentive for every possible delay in the military conflict and an even greater rapprochement with the Hitler regime. The USSR increased economic ties with it, supplying it with oil, cotton, non-ferrous metals and other strategic materials on a large scale.

By delaying the conflict in every possible way, the USSR made efforts to build up the military-industrial complex. The production of new types of military equipment was mastered, such as T-34 tanks, BM-13 rocket launchers, IL-2 attack aircraft, which were superior to all foreign analogues. On September 1, 1939, the Law on General Military Duty was adopted. The number of armed forces from August 1939 to June 1941 increased from 2 million to 5.4 million people.

However, the efforts made to transfer the economy to a military footing and reorganize the army were belated. Many designers were arrested, some of them worked in special design bureaus created from prisoners ("sharashka").

As a result of the repressions, the overwhelming majority of the senior command staff was 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 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 [13.9, p.66-67; 6, p.279].

The Stalinist leadership also showed blindness in determining the timing of the Nazi-German invasion. Stalin did not believe the arguments of intelligence officers, diplomats and foreign statesmen; he considered them disinformation. Panickingly 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 troops in border districts. 10 days before the start of the war, Soviet aviation flights in the 10-kilometer border strip were prohibited.

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 happen no earlier than 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 degree of Hitler's adventurism. He was confident in his insight and infallibility, as befits an earthly god.

The beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Violating the non-aggression pact, Nazi Germany attacked the USSR on the morning of June 22, 1941, without declaring war. The Great Patriotic War began. The pre-developed Ost plan declared the Slavs to be an inferior race, proposed to “defeat the Russians as a people, undermine their “biological strength,” destroy their culture, deport tens of millions of people, etc.

According to the Barbarossa plan, it was planned to destroy the main forces of the Red Army in a short-term campaign (up to 10 weeks). 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 - Romania, Finland, Italy, Hungary, Spain and Slovakia - entered the war against the USSR. The invading army numbered 4.4 million people, the vast majority of them 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 superior to them in the number of weapons. The Red Army had 3 million people here, 39.4 thousand guns and mortars, 11 thousand tanks and assault guns, 9.1 thousand aircraft [13.1, p. 123]. However, despite the numerical advantages in technology, the vast majority of it was outdated. Pre-war repressions had an extremely negative impact on the combat effectiveness of the Red Army.

The surprise of the attack was a huge gain for the Nazis, as a result of which on the very first day of the war they destroyed 1,200 aircraft, mainly at airfields. The presence of combat experience in modern maneuver 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 Soviet troops on the vast majority of the border and penetrated deeply 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. In the Bialystok-Minsk area alone, 28 Soviet divisions were defeated, 288 thousand people were captured, and Minsk fell on June 28. The Nazis defeated Soviet troops near Kyiv, capturing 665 thousand people because of Stalin’s refusal to allow a retreat. By mid-July, the Germans had captured almost the entire Baltic region, 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 [13.2, p. 103; 6, p.283].

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. He went to his dacha in Kuntsevo and did not answer the phone. The next day, members of the Politburo arrived to see him. According to the memoirs of A.I. Mikoyan, Stalin was even frightened by this visit, thinking that he was going to be arrested. However, his comrades only wanted to return him to leadership and suggested that he create and lead State Defense Committee (GKO)), concentrating all power in his hands. Stalin agreed and, with his characteristic determination, took up leadership, heading the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and the People's Commissariat of Defense.

Ordinary Soviet people were also disoriented and shocked by what was happening. The commanders and Red Army soldiers were not prepared for the tragic development of events; they were brought up in the belief that there would be no war with Germany in the near future, and when it began, it would be fought on foreign territory and with “little bloodshed.”

Gradually, the country's leadership began to control the situation. A restructuring of the command and control of troops and the military industry was carried out, and the evacuation of enterprises and populations from the occupied territories was organized. In August 1941, by order of Headquarters, captured Red Army soldiers were declared traitors, and the families of deserted or captured commanders were subject to arrest. In October-November 1941, as the Germans approached Moscow, Stalin began to use scorched earth tactics. By order of the Headquarters it was proposed to “destroy and burn to the ground all populated areas in the rear of German troops at a distance of 40-60 km in depth from the front edge 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. [13.10, p.69]. Stalin introduced into the army in July 1941 commissioners institute, political instructors who exercised control over the commanders. The brutal measures taken by Stalin undoubtedly contributed to the restoration of discipline and restoration of order in the army.

In general, from the very beginning of the war, according to German generals, Soviet troops defended themselves more stubbornly than in the West, making self-sacrifice in order to destroy fascist soldiers and equipment. The small garrison of defenders of the Brest Fortress, being completely surrounded, put up heroic resistance, fighting the Germans for a month. The further, the more stubborn the resistance of the Soviet troops became. Soviet people were convinced with their own eyes that Germany was waging war to destroy and enslave the Soviet peoples, that Hitler’s “new order” brought slavery, wholesale extermination, the creation of death camps, etc. to the people. Faced with a similar danger, the people rose up to fight the fascist invaders. The war acquired a national character and was rightfully called the Great Patriotic War.

Two months behind schedule, the attack on Moscow began on September 30 under the code name "Typhoon". 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, and Mozhaisk were captured. It is known that Stalin began to think about concluding a treaty with Germany similar to Brest-Litovsk. On October 10, under Zhukov, the leader instructed the NKVD chief Beria to carry out soundings through his agents about the conditions of such a peace [13.5]. 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 were evacuated from Moscow to Kuibyshev. Despite the significant superiority (1.5 times) in personnel, aviation, and tanks (2 times), the Germans were unable to overcome the heroic resistance of the Soviet Army and militias.

The war increasingly acquired the characteristics 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 becoming more and more difficult for the Germans to move forward. On November 7, 1941, on the anniversary of the October Revolution, a parade took place on Red Square, from where troops were sent directly to the front. The enemy approached Moscow by 25-30 km. However, this was the limit of the capabilities of the German army. The efforts of the entire country managed to stop and bleed the enemy. Despite the huge losses, the USSR had even greater material and human resources.

Human losses by the end of 1941 amounted to 3.1 million, and according to some sources, over 5 million people, i.e. 90% of the entire pre-war army. According to German documents, there were 3.9 million Soviet prisoners of war alone, of which 1.1 million were still alive by the beginning of 1942 [13.2, p. 104; 6, p.285]. Essentially, a new army was recreated and managed to stop the enemy’s advance. Fresh Siberian divisions, numbering 750 thousand people, were brought to Moscow.

On the initiative of G. Zhukov, a counteroffensive was prepared near Moscow. On December 5-8, the troops of the Kalinin Front (commander I.S. Konev), the Western Front (G.K. Zhukov), and the Southwestern Front (S.K. Timoshenko) went on the offensive and by the end of January 1942 drove the Germans back from Moscow at 150-200 km. As a result of the battle for Moscow, 38 enemy divisions were defeated, its losses reached 0.5 million people. Our losses were greater - 514 thousand people.

Despite this, the victory near Moscow was of great importance: the Nazi 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 lightning war against the USSR was thwarted. Germany was faced with the need to wage a protracted war, which was not part of Hitler’s calculations.

The victory in the Battle of Moscow also contributed to the strengthening of the USSR's international positions. In the first months of the war, it took shape anti-Hitler coalition. Already on June 22, 1941, Churchill, and on June 24, Roosevelt declared support for the Soviet Union and signed Atlantic Charter.

Nazi troops, seeking revenge, concentrated their main attack in the south of Russia, in the direction of Stalingrad - the North Caucasus. Hitler planned to seize areas rich in oil and grain and then enter the Middle East.

The offensive operations of the Red Army in the spring of 1942 failed; it was unable to unblock Leningrad; on July 4, Sevastopol fell, which for 250 days led a heroic defense, chaining large enemy forces to itself.

In total, according to some sources, 5.7 million Soviet soldiers were taken into German captivity, of which 3.3 million in 1941, according to others, which coincide with German data, 6.3 million, of whom died 4 million, and in 1941 – 3.9 million people [13.2, p.141;6, p.103]. Order of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command No. 270 of August 16, 1941 ordered that all those who surrendered be destroyed, their families arrested or deprived of benefits. 3.2 million German soldiers and officers were captured by the Soviets, of which just over 2 million survived.

From mid-summer to the end of autumn, the whole world watched the Battle of Stalingrad with bated breath. It was then, on July 28, 1942, that the famous order No. 227 was issued "Not a step back!", which provided for the creation of penal companies and battalions (actually suicide bombers), as well as barrage squads.

A radical turning point in the war. The Soviet leadership managed to carry out an evacuation of people and equipment unprecedented 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 (Urals and Siberia), almost 80% of military industry enterprises were removed. Everything that could not be taken out was destroyed [13.3, p. 115]. These were the conditions of the “scorched earth” tactic put forward by Stalin.

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. Both sides suffered huge losses. Hitler continued to try to capture Stalingrad and the Caucasus. 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 at Stalingrad. On November 19, unexpectedly for the Germans, the troops of three fronts launched a counteroffensive and 22 enemy divisions numbering up to 330 thousand people were surrounded. The group led by Field Marshal Paulus was defeated on February 2, 1943, 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 were declared in Germany.

Stalingrad was the largest defeat of the German army and the turning point not only of the Great Patriotic War, but also of the entire Second World War. Having won a victory at Stalingrad, 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 the blockade of Leningrad. However, the forces of Nazi Germany were not yet broken. The absence of a second front allowed the Nazis to concentrate large forces on the Kursk Bulge in the summer of 1943 (Operation Citadel). Our units were superior to the Germans both in manpower and technology: they numbered 1.3 million people, 2,650 aircraft, 3,300 tanks and assault guns, 19,300 guns and mortars, while the Germans had 0.9 million people, 2,000 aircraft, 2,700 tanks, 10,000 guns and mortars.

On July 5, Soviet artillery launched a preemptive strike on enemy positions. 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 1,200 tanks participated on both sides. After this, Soviet troops went on the offensive. On the Kursk Bulge, the Wehrmacht lost 0.5 million people and 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 completion of the turning point in the war and the final transition strategic initiative into the hands of Soviet troops. By the end of 1943, our army liberated Kyiv, Smolensk, Vitebsk - only about half of the USSR territory captured by the Germans. The enemy was thrown back 600-1200 km to the west. 218 divisions were defeated.

The partisans, whose number reached 250 thousand, provided enormous assistance to the regular units. In 1943, the number of partisan sabotages increased 5 times. During the Battle of Kursk they unleashed "rail war" which seriously hampered the transfer of Nazi troops.

The turning point in the war was ensured by the heroism of the workers of the Soviet rear. More than half of all those employed in the economy were women, hundreds of thousands of teenagers worked in factories and on collective farms. The conditions of the war forced Stalin to listen to the voice of the military leaders, to promote talented and extraordinary people to leadership (Zhukov, Vasilevsky, Rokossovsky)

At the same time, the terror continued, and entire nations were subjected to repression. In 1941, more than a million Germans from the Volga region were deported; in 1943, more than 93 thousand Kalmyks and 68 thousand Karachais. In 1944, about 500 thousand Chechens and Ingush, 37 thousand Balkars, 183 thousand Crimean Tatars and others were deported to Siberia, Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

The Gulag system was constantly replenished with new victims of terror. During the war years, the total number of people serving sentences in prisons, camps, and exiles was 5-7 million people, which was comparable to the size of the active army on the Soviet-German front.

The problem of opening a second front remained acute. It became the main theme at the first meeting of the “Big Three” (Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill) in Tehran in late November - early December 1943. After a heated discussion, a decision was made to land Allied troops in France in May 1944.

Victory over fascism. Defeat of Japan. Having 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. 6.3 million people, 5.3 thousand tanks and 10.2 thousand aircraft took part in them. In January, the blockade of Leningrad was finally lifted and the German Army Group North was defeated. Almost simultaneously, an offensive began in Ukraine, which ended in the spring with the liberation of Right Bank Ukraine, Crimea, 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 Lend-Lease in the USSR there are 22 thousand aircraft (18% of the Soviet aircraft fleet), 13 thousand tanks (12% of Soviet production), 427 thousand trucks (twice the Soviet production during the war), 189 thousand field telephones, a million kilometers of telephone cable , 2.6 million tons of petroleum products, 4.3 million tons of food [13.7, pp. 186-188]. Supplies went through Iran, the Far East and Siberia, and the North Atlantic, where Anglo-American convoys, breaking through to Arkhangelsk and Murmansk, suffered noticeable losses.

In 1944, favorable conditions were created for the opening of a second front. On June 6, 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.

Already in the fall of 1944, Soviet troops entered the territory of European countries: Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Norway. This was the liberation campaign of the Soviet army in Eastern Europe. However, it gradually turned into a struggle for spheres of influence, caused by the aggravation of contradictions between the USSR and the USA and Great Britain. On May 8, in Berlin, German, Soviet, American, British and French representatives signed the acts of surrender of Germany. On behalf of the USSR, the act was signed by Zhukov. May 9 became Victory Day for the peoples of the USSR.

In February 1945, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill met in Yalta. They agreed to wage the war until Germany surrendered and agreed on military plans, agreeing on the temporary division of Germany and Berlin into occupation zones. It was decided after Germany's defeat 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 pledged to enter the war against Japan 2-3 months after the surrender of Germany. For this he was to receive the Kuril Islands, South Sakhalin, and the lease of Port Arthur. It was decided to create the UN.

After the surrender of Germany, issues of the post-war world order were discussed at the Potsdam Conference in July-August 1945, the allies agreed to transfer part of German territory to Poland, establish a new Polish-German border, and give part of East Prussia and Königsberg to the Soviet Union.

The USSR, fulfilling its allied obligations, declared war on Japan on August 8. Soviet troops, having at their disposal 1.8 million people, 5 thousand tanks and 5.2 thousand aircraft, began a rapid offensive against the Kwantung Army (0.8 million people, 1.2 thousand tanks, 1.9 thousand .airplanes). Possessing a multiple superiority in manpower and equipment, our troops in just over three weeks completely defeated the Japanese, 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. On September 2, 1945, the act of unconditional surrender of Japan was signed in Tokyo Bay on board the American battleship Missouri. Thus ended the Second World War, the bloodiest in human history, which claimed more than 50 million lives and lasted 6 years.

For the peoples of the USSR, the war came at a high price. At least 27 million people died, of which approximately 11.5 million were military personnel; civilians made up the vast majority. Approximately 30% of the national wealth was lost in the war, 1,710 cities, more than 70 thousand villages, 32 thousand industrial enterprises were destroyed

This terrible price was a payment not only for the defeat of the best military machine in the world and for the miscalculations of the Soviet leadership, which made criminal strategic and tactical mistakes and failed to prepare for war. The people won the war, making countless sacrifices.

Thus, in the pre-war years, Stalin unjustifiably reoriented foreign policy towards rapprochement with Nazi Germany. The signed non-aggression pact and secret protocols became a major miscalculation of the Stalinist leadership, which led to severe defeats for the Red Army in the initial period of the war. The turning point in the war was achieved thanks to the massive self-sacrifice of the people and the gigantic efforts of the entire country. This explains such a high price for victory.

Abstract topics

1. Soviet-Finnish war 1939-40.
2. Political and legal assessment of the Soviet-German treaties and the “secret protocol” of 1939
3. Nazi occupation regime. The problem of collaboration.
4. Outstanding Soviet commanders of World War II.
5. Soviet prisoners of war during the war: a double tragedy.
6. The price of victory: on the question of the number of victims of the war.
7. Fascism as ideology and politics.
8. Anti-fascist underground during the war.
9. The feat and tragedy of besieged Leningrad.
10. Formation of the anti-Hitler coalition: difficulties, significance.

Oh, war, what have you done, you vile one!

B. Okudzhava, front-line poet

Chapter 4

FIRE OF THE GREAT WAR (USSR in 1939-1945)

The highlighted facts and concepts must be remembered and be able to use

1939 - August 23 - Non-aggression Treaty between the USSR and Germany and a secret protocol on the division of spheres of influence in Europe.

September - Beginning of World War II. Adoption of the law on universal military service in the USSR. Annexation of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus to the USSR. Treaty of Friendship and Border with Germany.

November - Beginning of the Soviet-Finnish War (until March 1940).

December - Expulsion of the USSR from the League of Nations.

1940 - Inclusion of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bessarabia (Moldova) into the USSR.

Summer - Enemy offensive on Leningrad, Moscow and Donbass (according to the Barbarossa plan). In accordance with the Ost plan, Nazi Germany began a policy of genocide in the occupied territories, and in response the partisan movement expanded.

September - December - Defensive period of the Battle of Moscow, commander of the Western Front - G.K. Zhukov.

1942 - spring - Unsuccessful offensive of Soviet troops.

Summer - Breakthrough of German troops in the south to the Volga and Caucasus, order No. 227 - “Not a step back!”

Autumn - Military production in the Soviet rear surpassed German military production in quality and quantity.

1943 - January - Elimination of the 330,000-strong encircled enemy group at Stalingrad, breaking the blockade of Leningrad.

July-August - The Battle of Kursk - the completion of a radical turning point in the war.

Autumn - Soviet troops crossing the Dnieper.

November - December - Tehran Conference of Anti-Hitler Coalition Leaders.

The liberation of Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, the beginning of the liberation of Yugoslavia, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia.

Deportation to Siberia and Central Asia “for cooperation with the occupiers” of Crimean Tatars, Chechens, Ingush, Kalmyks, Karachais, Balkars.

April - Berlin operation of the Red Army.

July 17 - August 2 - Potsdam Conference, which summed up the results of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War.

August 8 - The USSR entered the war with Japan (combat operations in Manchuria, Korea, Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands).

§ 19. USSR at the beginning of World War II

Explain the meaning of the words: fascism, communism (Dictionary).

- Indicate the main events and main results of the first stage of World War II: September 1939 - spring 1941 (universal history class, 9th grade, § 11 - 12). List the reasons for the conclusion of the Soviet-German non-aggression pact in August 1939 (§ 18).

1. “Friendship” with Nazi Germany.

Just a week after the signing of the Soviet-German non-aggression pact, on September 1, 1939, German troops invaded Poland. France and Great Britain immediately declared war on Germany. The Second World War (1939-1945) began. Military operations on the Western Front were called the “strange war” - the warring parties practically did not shoot at each other. Meanwhile, the Germans, according to the so-called blitzkrieg (“lightning war”) plan, launched airstrikes on Poland and cut through the Polish defense line with tank wedges. And on September 16, German troops, having broken through the Polish front, reached Warsaw. On September 17, the Polish government left the capital. The Soviet Union began to implement the provision on the division of spheres of interest, enshrined in the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Soviet troops entered the territory of Poland and, almost without encountering resistance, from September 17 to 29 occupied areas of Eastern Poland - Western Belarus and Western Ukraine. It was officially announced that the task of the Soviet troops was to liberate lands inhabited by fraternal peoples - Belarusians and Ukrainians. At a line pre-agreed in the protocol, Soviet troops met with German troops. On the occasion of the victory over the common enemy, a joint Soviet-German military parade took place in Brest, with the red flags of the two states flying nearby: one with a gold star, hammer and sickle, and the other with a black swastika.

On September 28, 1939, a Soviet-German treaty was concluded in Moscow - “On Friendship and Borders,” which clarified the new borders. The USSR supplied Germany, which was at war with England and France, with food, oil, and metals. In the USSR, criticism of fascism was completely stopped. Hundreds of German anti-fascists hiding in the Soviet Union were handed over to the Gestapo. More than 20 thousand Polish officers were captured in Soviet captivity and demanded release, wanting to continue the fight against Germany. In the spring of 1940, NKVD officers secretly shot all Polish officers (most of them in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk). Soviet political workers, accustomed for 20 years to consider fascism the main enemy of communism, calling on citizens to fight the fascists, were now forced to explain to people the need for “friendship” with Hitler.

The alliance of Hitler and Stalin. English caricature. 1939

2. “Sphere of interests” of the USSR.

While Germany, throwing all its forces on the Western Front, conquered Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Holland and France in 1940, the Soviet Union began to strengthen its western borders in the agreed sphere of interests. In September-October 1939, the governments of the Baltic countries - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - were forced to conclude agreements with the USSR and allow limited contingents of Soviet troops into their territories, which local residents greeted with flowers.

In October 1939, the USSR proposed that Finland transfer to the Soviet Union a number of territories near Leningrad (with cities, towns, roads) in exchange for twice the territory on the northern borders (almost uninhabited taiga). The Finnish leadership refused such a proposal. Then on November 26, the Soviet leadership announced that the Finns had shelled one of the Soviet border villages. Finland offered to conduct an objective investigation. Instead, in the early morning of November 30, 1939, the Soviet-Finnish border exploded with artillery cannonade. Units of the Red Army crossed the border and launched an offensive deep into Finnish territory. Thus began the Soviet-Finnish War (1939-1940). Counting on a quick victory, the troops of the Leningrad District, in the winter cold, without sufficient preparation, stormed several belts of Finnish fortifications - the Mannerheim Line. Often the infantry operated without the support of tanks and artillery. It happened that a platoon of Finnish skiers, quickly maneuvering and using their knowledge of the terrain, could hold back the advance of an entire Soviet regiment. With the onset of 30-40 degree frosts, entire units of Red Army soldiers froze in the trenches, not receiving warm clothing, food, or ammunition on time. Commander - Marshal K.E. Voroshilov was replaced by Marshal S.K. Tymoshenko. Fresh reserves, tanks, and artillery began to be brought to the borders of Finland. Finally, in March 1940, at the cost of huge losses, Soviet troops crossed the Mannerheim Line and took Vyborg. Finland sued for peace. According to the peace treaty, the Karelian Isthmus with the city of Vyborg went to the USSR - the border from Leningrad moved tens of kilometers away. The Red Army lost about 127 thousand people killed, missing and captured. Finns - 23 thousand people.

According to the map on p. 196-197 determine which countries the Soviet territory expanded to in 1939-1940.

At the beginning of the Soviet-Finnish War, in the city of Terijoki captured by the Red Army, a “people's Finnish government” was created, headed by the communist O. Kuusinen. It called on the Finns to welcome the Red Army as their liberator. But the Finns did not respond to this. In December 1939, the League of Nations declared the Soviet Union an aggressor and expelled it from the organization. Many countries provided financial and military support to Finland, and England and France were preparing to send their troops to help her.

Three months later, at the height of hostilities in France, when another resounding victory of the Third Reich was already obvious, the Soviet leadership took steps in its “sphere of interests.” On June 28-30, 1940, Romania, under the threat of war with the USSR, was forced to transfer Bessarabia (Moldova) and Northern Bukovina (former territories of the Russian Empire, occupied by Romania back in 1918) to the Soviet Union. Two weeks earlier, on June 14-16, 1940, an ultimatum from the USSR forced the governments of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to resign and allow additional contingents of Soviet troops into their territories. Under the control of delegates from Moscow, “people's governments” were formed in the Baltic countries. In early parliamentary elections, voters in each country were asked to vote for a single bloc of “working people,” dominated by local communist parties. Those who tried to nominate opposition candidates were immediately arrested. To prevent voters from avoiding elections, everyone was given a stamp in their passport, the absence of which meant that he was an “enemy of the people.” At the very first meetings, the new parliaments (whose halls were already decorated with portraits of Lenin and Stalin) decided to become part of the Soviet Union. In July-August 1940, new territories were included in the USSR as union republics: the Moldavian SSR, the Estonian SSR, the Latvian SSR, the Lithuanian SSR. Thus, almost all the territories of the former Russian Empire lost in 1917-1920 (with the exception of Finland and Poland) were returned. The population of the USSR increased by 14 million people, and the border moved to the west by 200-600 km.

3. “Shield of the Country of Soviets.”

In the 1920s, the Red Army was built on revolutionary principles - the absence of officer ranks and insignia. Only a small part of the divisions (formations of 10-15 thousand people) were personnel - with a permanent composition of fighters and commanders, regular military exercises. Most of the divisions were territorial - ordinary workers, peasants, employees of proletarian origin, living in the area and called up for short-term military training, served there. Unlike regular military personnel, they were much less able to shoot, take up defensive positions, go on the attack, and make marches. Under an agreement with Germany (not yet fascist), Soviet commanders adopted from their “German comrades” the experience of using military equipment at a tank school in Kazan, at a flight school in Lipetsk, and at the Academy of the German General Staff. At the same time, Soviet troops lacked the latest military equipment. In addition to the infantry and cavalry divisions in the Red Army in 1927, there were very few combat aircraft (most were plywood) and only one tank regiment consisting of 90 tanks - mostly old English and French vehicles captured during the Civil War. Supporting the “world revolution” by supplying small arms and military specialists to the communist parties of different countries, the command of the Red Army understood that in the event of a war with the developed capitalist powers they would have to mainly defend themselves. Along the western border, a powerful line of fortifications was erected from trenches, wire fences, and cannon-machine-gun concrete pillboxes. The troops practiced defensive actions and the transition to guerrilla warfare in the event of the capture of Soviet territory.

Soviet poster. 1934

The pilots are in new uniforms with officer insignia in their buttonholes. Soviet poster. 1939

The creation of a large industry during the first five-year plan (1928-1932) made it possible to adopt a program for the rearmament of the Red Army. Buying up the latest technologies and designs from Western countries suffering from the global economic crisis, the Soviet defense industry began producing thousands of combat aircraft, T-26 and BT light tanks. In 1935-1936, when Germany had just begun to rebuild its military aviation and armored forces, the USSR already surpassed any country in the world in the number of tanks and aircraft.

When universal conscription was restored in Germany in 1935, military reform began in the USSR: the number of well-trained personnel divisions was increased.

A new uniform and officer ranks were introduced, close to the global ones (generals, colonels, etc.).

The war in Spain in 1936-1938 showed the superiority of Soviet technology over German technology. Soviet fighters of the Republican forces successfully shot down German planes fighting for the Francoists; Soviet BT tanks easily hit German T-I and T-II. In battles in Spain, special anti-tank guns with armor-piercing shells were used for the first time. German industry urgently switched to producing new medium tanks T-III and T-IV with thicker armor and more powerful guns. The foreign aviation industry began to produce high-speed all-metal aircraft: high-speed fighters, high-altitude bombers, attack aircraft and dive bombers, capable of destroying tanks with bombs and cannons from the air. In the USSR during these years, light tanks and aircraft with a large number of wooden parts still prevailed, inferior to foreign ones in speed and flight altitude. Only in 1938-1939 did the development of a new generation of military equipment begin.

In the second half of the 1930s, the Red Army was declared “the most offensive army in the world”; now its fighters were taught only to attack, and defense was considered an unworthy means of struggle. First Deputy People's Commissar of Defense - Marshal M.N. Tukhachevsky developed a military theory of rapidly breaking through enemy defenses with the help of attacks by tank and mechanized formations. German intelligence, knowing about the repressions in the USSR against a number of famous leaders, planted falsified materials on the NKVD about the connections between Tukhachevsky and fascist intelligence (before Hitler came to power, he, like many Soviet military leaders, studied in Germany). The NKVD believed these materials. In 1937, Marshal Tukhachevsky and several other senior commanders, considered “the color and pride of the Red Army,” were arrested, convicted and executed for organizing a “military-fascist conspiracy.” Repressions (arrests and executions) continued, and by 1939 the Red Army had lost 3 marshals out of 5, 13 commanders out of 15, 40 thousand army and navy commanders (about 50%). The places of repressed commanders of divisions and regiments were taken by those who had recently commanded only battalions and companies.

On September 1, 1939 (the day Germany attacked Poland and the beginning of World War II), the USSR adopted the Law on Universal Conscription. The conscription age was lowered from 21 to 18 years, and the period of military service was increased to 3-5 years. As a result, the size of the army and navy increased from 1.1 million people to 5 million. From April 1940 (when Germany carried out the “blitzkrieg” in Denmark and Norway), the rearmament program of the Red Army began to operate until 1942. In industry in 1940, the working day was increased to 8 hours, weekends were abolished, and leaving enterprises was prohibited. In the mornings, people ran to work, since absenteeism and tardiness were punishable by 4 months in prison. During 1940 - the first half of 1941, military production in the USSR exceeded similar production in Germany. At the Leningrad Locomotive Plant, a heavy tank KV (Klim Voroshilov) was created, which during the Soviet-Finnish war turned out to be practically impenetrable with guns. At the Kharkov Tractor Plant, designer M.I. Koshkin created the T-34 medium tank. Its first examples in the battles at Khalkhin Gol provided a quick breakthrough of the Japanese defense and infantry support. Aviation Design Bureau S.V. Ilyushin developed a new attack aircraft, the Il-2, capable of withstanding many hits from enemy bullets and shells; Bureau A.I. Mikoyan and A.S. Yakovleva - high-speed fighter Yak-1, V.M. Petlyakova - high-speed dive bomber Pe-2. The Red Army received more than 1,800 of the latest tanks (638 KV and 1,225 T-34), 2,700 of the latest aircraft.

Tank T-34

Katyusha rocket launcher

Sturmovik Il-2

Anti-tank rifle

Shpagin submachine gun (PPSh)

All Soviet divisions became personnel. However, as military exercises and the experience of the Soviet-Finnish war showed, the Soviet infantry did not know how to interact with artillery, tanks and aviation; Most of the fighters were poorly trained in shooting, attack and defense; in the event of an alarm, a significant part of the tanks and other equipment did not reach the combat line due to breakdowns and poor training of the crew. After the repressions of 1937-1939, there was an acute shortage of trained commanders to train and lead the fighters. Many junior commanders promoted to high positions had little understanding of military maps, did not know how to control equipment, or lead units in battle. There were not enough mechanics and pilots who had mastered the latest tanks and aircraft.

In 1939-1941, the USSR strengthened its defense capability before entering World War II.

1. Using facts, determine the position of the USSR in 1939-1940 in relation to Nazi Germany: enemy, ally, neutrality. How justified do you think this position is?

2. In your opinion, is the annexation of the Karelian Isthmus, the Baltic states and Moldova an aggression on the part of the USSR? Explain your answer.

3. Divide the process of development of the Soviet armed forces in the 1920-1930s into stages. Determine and prove with the help of facts which strategy prevailed at each stage - defensive or offensive.

From the ideological attitudes of the pre-war years (1938 - 1941):

The Red Army was actively equipped with new military equipment, and an offensive military doctrine was adopted. The film “If Tomorrow is War” was especially popular, in which a song was sung based on the verses of V. Lebedev-Kumach with the following words: “And on enemy soil we will defeat the enemy with little bloodshed, with a mighty blow.”

From the memoirs of Great Patriotic War veteran M.P. Shmulev: “Whoever started the war knows how regiments, divisions, entire armies, technically unequipped, poorly armed and unprepared for defense, perished because of the stupidest military doctrine - “beat the enemy on his territory, with little blood, with a mighty blow.” Hence the encirclement, captivity and colossal losses of our troops.”

Compare assessments of the effectiveness of the USSR's preparations for war in 1938-1941.

How do they contradict each other? Formulate a problematic question.

How effectively did the USSR use the pre-war years to prepare for entry into the war?

According to the map on p. 196-197 determine which countries the Soviet territory expanded to in 1939-1940.

Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania.

1. Using facts, determine the position of the USSR in 1939-1940 in relation to Nazi Germany: enemy, ally, neutrality. How justified do you think this position is?

These countries were neutral towards each other. They took no hostile actions either towards each other or towards each other's opponents. Stalin used Hitler's victories to expand his territory, but at the expense of the territory of countries that were neutral at that time.

2. In your opinion, is the annexation of the Karelian Isthmus, the Baltic states and Moldova an aggression on the part of the USSR? Explain your answer.

This is pure aggression, because they were not provoked by a policy hostile to the USSR. In some cases, the reason was provocations at the borders. But today it is clear that they were set up by the Soviet side. Stalin planned in advance to annex new territories to the USSR, which was stipulated in the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which was concluded long before these imaginary provocations.

3. Divide the process of development of the Soviet armed forces in the 1920-1930s into stages. Determine and prove with the help of facts which strategy prevailed at each stage - defensive or offensive.

At the first stage in the early and mid-1920s, the main feature of the Red Army was the formation of most divisions on the principle of actually militia. Such an army was not capable of long-distance campaigns of conquest.

The second stage lasted from the beginning of industrialization in the late 1920s until the mid-1930s. It was characterized by the rearmament of the Red Army, the emergence of new models of equipment and their mass production. The army was becoming personnel. However, the strategy was predominantly defensive. It was then that a complex of defensive structures on the border called the Stalin Line was erected.

In the second half of the 1930s (before the agreement with Germany in August 1939), the Red Army was declared "the most advanced in the world", despite the fact that the construction of the Stalin Line continued until the borders were moved. For the future offensive, predominantly light but high-speed tanks were developed; aviation for tactical bombing (for direct support of the advancing troops) significantly prevailed over aviation for strategic strikes (deep into enemy territory).

The last stage is preparation for entry into World War II in 1939-1941. At that time, the size of the army was significantly increased due to the introduction of universal conscription on September 1, 1939, an increase in the service life for conscripts, and an increase in the production of military equipment. However, disputes still persist over whether the USSR was preparing for a defensive or an offensive war. Both versions have quite a few supporters.

On June 1, 1939, the French ambassador to the Nazi capital, Coulondre, told Foreign Minister Bonnet that Hitler “would risk going to war if he did not have to fight Russia. If he knows that he will have to fight with Russia, he will retreat so as not to expose the country, the party and himself to destruction.” Coulondre added that Hitler's two top military commanders, OKW Chief of Staff Keitel and Army Commander-in-Chief Brauchitsch, told the Fuehrer that if Germany had to fight Russia, it would have little chance of winning the war. Initially, the success of the military campaign against Poland outlined in the Weiss plan was directly linked by the German leader to whether it would be possible to achieve the political isolation of Poland: “The goal of our policy is to localize the war within Poland.”

There is now a popular myth in Russian history that the USSR was very afraid of a war with Germany and therefore concluded the (Molotov-Ribbentrop) pact in order to better prepare for this war. But this is a blatant lie. Now we can provide data on the Red Army: after the mobilization of 1939. In September 1939, the strength of the Red Army increased to 5.3 million people; it was armed with 43,000 guns, 18,000 tanks, and 10,000 aircraft. Data on the German army as of September 1939, after mobilization: the entire army numbered 4,528 thousand people (of which 3.7 million were in the ground forces), there were 3,195 tanks including tankettes without guns and training vehicles (of which: 1,145 - T-I, 1223 - T-II, 98 - T-III, 211 - TIV), there were also 4,500 aircraft, 27,000 artillery pieces and mortars in service. Now I will not compare tanks and artillery, but I say with confidence that the USSR has them better, for example, one fact, the German T-I tank did not have a gun at all, the T-II tank had such a weak gun that it could not hit the Soviet armored vehicles, and only 300 T-III and T-IV tanks (about 10% of the total) were relatively combat-ready. So, at the time the pact was signed and the attack on Poland, the USSR had a superiority in men over Germany, in tanks by more than four times, in artillery by 63%, in aircraft by more than two times. In addition, between Germany and the USSR there was Poland with an army of almost a million, and therefore, as of August 1939, the German invasion of the USSR was not a threat.

On August 23, Hitler’s plan for the partial isolation of Poland was a success, the USSR and the Nazis signed a non-aggression pact, along with the non-aggression pact, a secret protocol was also signed according to which, during the reorganization of the areas that are part of the Polish state, the border of the spheres of interest of Germany and the USSR will approximately pass along lines of the rivers Pissa, Narew, Vistula and San. This marked the beginning of the aggressive war against Poland and the Second World War as a legal fact. But the signing of the non-aggression pact was also important because it removed the threat of war for Germany on two fronts. According to Article 3 of the Polish-Soviet non-aggression treaty, the USSR pledged not to take part in any agreements that were clearly hostile to the other side from an aggressive point of view. Undoubtedly, the secret agreements concluded by the USSR and Germany regarding Poland in August-October 1939 were of a nature that clearly contradicted this article.

According to V.M. Molotov, who spoke during negotiations in Berlin on November 12, 1940, the agreements of August 1939 were primarily “in the interests of Germany,” which was able to “get Poland” and later seize France and start a serious war against Great Britain, having "a strong rear in the East." Later, in 1946, recalling this event at the Nuremberg trials, Ribbentrop said: “When I came to Moscow in 1939 to see Marshal Stalin, he discussed with me not the possibility of a peaceful settlement of the German-Polish conflict within the framework of the Kellogg-Briand Pact, but made it clear that if he does not receive half of Poland and the Baltic countries without Lithuania with the port of Libau, then I can immediately fly back.”

Many accuse England and France of also supporting Hitler's aggressive plans in 1938, referring to the Munich Agreement of 1938 regarding the peaceful transfer of the Sudetenland by Czechoslovakia to Germany. But there are fundamental differences here: firstly, England and France did not commit actions that could be interpreted as military aggression, secondly, they did not participate in hostilities on the side of the Nazis, thirdly, they did not participate in the dismemberment of another state , with the addition of a part of it. They tried to make concessions to Germany in terms of annexing ethnically German territories unjustly taken from the German nation, and to prevent another world war in Europe. It was England and France that declared war on Germany after the German attack on Poland, but already on September 17 the USSR officially entered the war on the side of Germany, and on September 28 it began to publicly threaten its entry into the war against England and France if they did not stop all operations against the German army in the West. Now the passive war of the Allies against Germany in the fall of 1939 is called strange, although if you look at it, everything is understandable, because they hoped that the military alliance between Germany and the USSR would quickly disintegrate, which, in principle, happened.

Starting the war against Poland, Hitler wanted to return only the original German lands occupied by the Poles, according to the Treaty of Versailles. On the remaining territory, he allowed the existence of Poland as an independent state, even taking into account the transfer of Western Ukraine and Belarus to Russia. This would be a buffer between Germany and the USSR. But Stalin insisted on the complete liquidation of Poland. It was thanks to this decision of Stalin that Germany and the USSR received a common border. So, by concluding a pact with Germany and a secret protocol on the division of Poland and the Baltic states, Stalin acted not for defensive purposes, but solely to seize new territories and unleash a war in Europe and its subsequent Sovietization.

From September 1, the Minsk radio station began to be used as a radio beacon to support Luftwaffe raids. This was a direct violation of the V Hague Convention on the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers and Persons in the Event of Land War of 1907, ratified by Russia. That is, already on the 1st day of the war the USSR was not neutral, but supported the Nazis in the war against Poland.

September 3. Ribbentrop sends telegram No. 253 to the German Ambassador in Moscow:"Please discuss this with Molotov immediately and see if the Soviet Union would not consider it desirable for the Russian army to move at the appropriate moment against the Polish forces in the Russian sphere of influence and, for its part, occupy this territory. In our opinion, this not only helped would be for us, but also, in accordance with the Moscow agreements, it would be in Soviet interests."

September 4. All German ships in the North Atlantic were ordered to “proceed to Murmansk, keeping as far north as possible.” On September 8, Moscow gave permission for German ships to enter Murmansk and guaranteed the transportation of goods to Leningrad. In total, in the first 17 days of September, 18 German ships found refuge in a Soviet port.

September 8. Telegram from the German ambassador in Moscow No. 300 from, sent to the German Foreign Ministry: “I have just received the following telephone message from Molotov: “I have received your message that German troops have entered Warsaw. Please convey my congratulations and greetings to the government of the German Empire." Moscow gave permission for German ships to enter Murmansk and guaranteed the transportation of goods to Leningrad. In total, in the first 17 days of September, 18 German ships found refuge in a Soviet port.

September 11th. Hysterical anti-Polish propaganda was unleashed in the Soviet media.

September 14. Telegram No. 350 from the German ambassador in Moscow, sent to the German Foreign Ministry: “In response to your telegram No. 336 of September 13, Molotov called me today at 16 o’clock and stated that the Red Army had reached a state of readiness sooner than expected. Given the political motivation for the Soviet action (the fall of Poland and the protection of Russian “minorities”), it would be extremely important for [the Soviets] not to begin to act before the fall of the administrative center of Poland - Warsaw. Molotov therefore asks that he be told as precisely as possible when he can count on the capture of Warsaw.”

September 17. A Soviet group of about 600,000 people, about 4,000 tanks, more than 5,500 artillery pieces and 2,000 aircraft struck the rear of the Polish army fighting the Nazis, which was a direct violation of the non-aggression pact between the USSR and Poland (later Stalin would call it a treacherous violation of the non-aggression pacts, actions Germany in June 1941). There were more than 300 thousand Polish troops in the offensive zone of the Soviet troops.

September 25. In telegram No. 442 from the German ambassador writes to the German Foreign Ministry, “Stalin and Molotov asked me to arrive in the Kremlin today at 20 o’clock. Stalin stated the following. In the final settlement of the Polish question, it is necessary to avoid anything that could cause friction between Germany and the Soviet Union in the future. From this point of view, he considers it wrong to leave the remainder of the Polish state independent. He proposes the following: from the territories east of the demarcation line, the entire Lublin Voivodeship and that part of the Warsaw Voivodeship that reaches the Bug should be added to our portion. For this we renounce claims against Lithuania.

September 28, 1939. The Treaty of Friendship and Border between the USSR and Germany was concluded, by which the territory of Poland was divided between the two aggressors in accordance with the previously signed secret protocol of August 23, 1939. At the time of the conclusion of the treaty, Germany was almost completely exhausted militarily; almost all ammunition and fuel were used up in the troops. Germany had no opportunity to even wage a defensive war on the Western Front. To save his ally, Stalin openly supported Germany and threatened France and England with Nazi support if the war continued. It was the possibility of war against Germany and the USSR that restrained France and England from attacking Germany in the fall and winter of 1939 (the Strange War).

The results of the USSR military aggression against Poland.

The combat losses of the Red Army during the Polish campaign of 1939, according to Russian historian Grigory Krivosheev, amounted to 1,173 killed, 2,002 wounded and 302 missing. Losses in the equipment of tank and mechanized brigades of the Red Army (including irrecoverable ones) amounted to 42 armored units - of which 26 on the Belorussian Front and 16 on the Ukrainian Front. Assessing the combat losses of the Polish army in battles with the Red Army, Russian historian Mikhail Meltyukhov gives figures of 3,500 killed, 20,000 missing and 454,700 prisoners. According to the Polish Military Encyclopedia, 250,000 military personnel were captured by the Soviets. Almost all of the captured officers were subsequently shot by the NKVD, including about 14,000 captured officers who were killed by Soviet executioners at Katyn.

In a statement made in October 1939, Molotov cited the following figures for captured military property: “over 900 guns, over 10 thousand machine guns, over 300 thousand rifles, more than 150 million cartridges, about 1 million shells and up to 300 aircraft.” So the USSR's invasion of Poland was an aggressive military operation, and not a liberation campaign.

JOINT STATEMENT OF THE SOVIET AND GERMAN GOVERNMENTS OF SEPTEMBER 28, 1939
After the German government and the government of the USSR, by the treaty signed today, have finally settled the issues arising from the collapse of the Polish state, and thereby created a solid foundation for lasting peace in Eastern Europe, they mutually agree that the elimination of the present war between Germany, on the one hand, and England and France, on the other hand, would meet the interests of all peoples. Therefore, both Governments will direct their common efforts, if necessary, in agreement with other friendly powers, in order to achieve this goal as quickly as possible. If, however, these efforts by both governments remain unsuccessful, then the fact will be established that England and France are responsible for the continuation of the war, and in the event of a continuation of the war, the governments of Germany and the USSR will consult each other on the necessary measures.

If we turn to the records of the conversation with Ribbentrop and Stalin on September 28, 1939, then Stalin, in his first statement after Ribbentrop’s long discussions (according to the German recording), stated his point of view as follows: “The point of view of Germany, which rejects military aid, is worthy of respect . However, a strong Germany is a necessary condition for peace in Europe - therefore, the Soviet Union is interested in the existence of a strong Germany. Therefore, the Soviet Union cannot agree that the Western powers create conditions that could weaken Germany and put her in a difficult position. This is the commonality of interests between Germany and the Soviet Union.”

September 30, 1939. The newspaper Pravda published Ribbentrop’s statement “...Both states want peace to be restored and for England and France to stop the absolutely senseless and hopeless struggle against Germany. If, however, warmongers gain the upper hand in these countries, then Germany and the USSR will know how to respond to this.”

The USSR not only helped the Nazis in word, but in deed, not only in September 1939, by striking in the rear of the Polish army, which accelerated the transfer of German units to the West. The “anti-fascist” socialist state did everything to weaken the trade blockade of Nazi Germany and help it as much as possible in the war against England and France, for which on February 11, 1940, an economic agreement was signed between the USSR and Germany in Moscow. It stipulated that the Soviet Union would supply Germany with the following goods:
· 1,000,000 tons of feed grains and legumes, worth 120 million Reichsmarks
· 900,000 tons of oil worth about 115 million Reichsmarks
· 100,000 tons of cotton worth about 90 million Reichsmarks
· 500,000 tons of phosphates
· 100,000 tons of chromite ores
· 500,000 tons of iron ore
· 300,000 tons of cast iron scrap and pig iron
· 2,400 kg of platinum

“The trade turnover between Germany and the USSR already in the first year of the agreement will reach a volume exceeding the highest levels ever achieved since the World War” [Pravda, 02/13/1940].

In 1940, open pro-Nazi propaganda was also carried out in the USSR. Articles published in the Soviet press, including in the Soviet officialdom - the newspapers Pravda and Izvestia, were used by Dr. Goebbels' department for its propaganda purposes. Propaganda speeches were reproduced in the German press, including direct speeches by Hitler. At the same time, information messages from the war front in the West, mainly about the successes of the Luftwaffe in the “Battle of Britain,” occupied a special place. According to radio broadcasts in the Latest News programs, the losses of British aviation and the destruction of English cities were described as a feeling of deep satisfaction. Wagner's music was played daily on radio stations, which was very popular among the NSDAP leadership.

The following facts are also in no way compatible with the neutral status of the state: transit through the entire territory of the USSR from the Far East to Germany of a large group of officers from the German cruiser Graf Spee sunk in the Pacific Ocean. No circumstances can justify the agreement of the Soviet leadership to service Nazi warships in Soviet ports in the Barents Sea basin (in October 1939, the Soviet Union agreed to the use by the German Navy of the port of Teriberka east of Murmansk as a repair base and supply point for ships and submarines conducting operations in the North Atlantic).

Molotov's note on Stalin's meeting with British Ambassador Stafford Cripps in July 1940: “Stalin does not see any threat to hegemony from any country in Europe, and he is even less afraid that Europe could be absorbed by Germany. Stalin follows German politics and is well knows several German figures. He did not detect any desire on their part to swallow European countries. Stalin does not believe that Germany’s military successes pose a threat to the Soviet Union and its friendly relations with it ... "

It is no coincidence that after the Second World War, at the end of November 1945, the list of issues that were not subject to discussion at the Nuremberg trials, approved by the Soviet delegation, in order to prevent counter-accusations of the defense against the governments of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, the first point provided for a ban on discussing the USSR’s attitude to the Treaty of Versailles , and point nine - the issue of Soviet-Polish relations.

With the defeat of Poland by German and Soviet troops, only the first act of World War II ended. Almost immediately after the end of hostilities in Poland, the “peaceful” socialist state begins a war against Finland. The military operations, which were a completely failed blitzkrieg attempt with huge losses and ended after 3.5 months of fierce fighting with a Pyrrhic victory (on the Soviet side, up to 960 thousand people took part in them, and the irretrievable losses of the Red Army amounted to over 131 thousand, and according to Russian military historian Krivosheev, the total sanitary losses amounted to 264,908 people, that is, the losses of the neutral state, which allegedly did not participate in the outbreak of the world war, many times exceeded the irretrievable losses of the Wehrmacht in the first two years of the Second World War.

Many argue that the USSR did not carry out military aggression against Poland in September 1939, but carried out some kind of liberation campaign with the goal of reuniting Belarusians and Ukrainians or even restoring the historical borders of the Russian Empire. But these arguments have no basis. Firstly, the Belarusians and Ukrainians in the territories that were part of Poland did not ask for such a liberation campaign from the USSR; moreover, 400 thousand people were repressed in the first two years after the Soviet occupation. Secondly, according to existing international treaties, an invasion of the territory of a foreign state was aggression.

According to Art. 2 of the Convention on the Definition of Aggression, concluded in London on July 3, 1933 by the USSR with other states, not only a declaration of war on another state is recognized as aggression (this case is provided for in paragraph 1 of Article 2), but also an invasion of armed forces, even without a declaration of war , on the territory of another state (clause 2 of article 2), an attack by land, sea or air armed forces, even without a declaration of war, on the territory, sea or aircraft of another state (clause 3 of article 2). At the same time, according to Art. 3 of the said convention, no considerations of a political, military, economic or other nature can serve as an excuse or justification for the attack provided for in article two 3. As an example of such ““considerations””, the signatories of the convention, in paragraph three of the Appendix to Article 3 of the convention named the internal situation of a state, the imaginary shortcomings of its administration.

In a conversation with Comintern Chairman Dimitrov, Stalin stated: “The destruction of this state [Poland] under current conditions would mean one less bourgeois fascist state! What would be bad if, as a result of the defeat of Poland, we extended the socialist system to new territories and populations.” (Diary of G. Dimitrov, entry 09/07/1939).

The attack on Finland led to the fact that in December 1939 the USSR, as a military aggressor, was expelled from the League of Nations. The immediate reason for the expulsion was the mass protests of the international community over the systematic bombing of civilian targets by Soviet aircraft, including the use of incendiary bombs.

Between June 15 and June 20, 1940, the “peace-loving” Soviet Union takes decisive steps and forces the Baltic countries to create pro-Soviet governments, threatening with military force and violating previously signed treaties. Having suppressed the press, arrested political leaders and outlawed all parties except communist ones, the Russians staged mock elections in all three states on July 14th. After the “elected” parliaments voted for the annexation of their countries to the Soviet Union, the Supreme Council (parliament) of Russia accepted them into their homeland: Lithuania - on August 3, Latvia - on August 5, Estonia - on August 6.

But how did it happen that a military conflict began between two allies - the Nazis and the Communists in June 1941, which escalated into the so-called Great Patriotic War.

The Chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces (OKH), Colonel General F. Halder, analyzing the situation in 1940 after the war, believed that at that time Hitler believed it was possible to avoid a war with Russia if the latter did not show expansionist aspirations in a western direction. To do this, Hitler “considered it necessary to divert Russian expansion into the Balkans and Turkey, which would certainly lead to a conflict between Russia and Great Britain.”

At the beginning of 1940, Romania agreed to transfer its oil fields in Ploiesti (the only explored fields in Europe at that time) to the Germans in exchange for political and military protection. On May 23, at the height of the Battle of France, the Romanian General Staff sent an SOS signal to the OKW, informing the Germans that Soviet troops were massing along the Romanian border. The next day, Jodl summarized the reaction to this message at Hitler’s headquarters: “The situation in the East is becoming threatening due to the concentration of Russian forces on the borders of Bessarabia.” However, the USSR, threatening military aggression, forced Romania to cede Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, and the latter was not included in the circle of areas of Soviet interests agreed upon with Germany. Under the influence of these steps, a threat was created to the Romanian region of Ploesti - the only serious source of oil supplies for Germany, which could paralyze the German economy and army.
German Foreign Minister I. Ribbentrop: “On June 23, 1940, a telegram from our ambassador in Moscow arrived in Berlin: the Soviet Union intends to occupy the Romanian province of Bessarabia in the coming days, and is only going to inform us about it. Adolf Hitler was then amazed by the rapid Russian advance without prior consultation with us. The fact that the predominantly German-populated Northern Bukovina, the ancestral land of the Austrian crown, was to be occupied especially stunned Hitler. He perceived this step by Stalin as a sign of the Russian onslaught on the West. The large concentration of Soviet troops in Bessarabia caused Adolf Hitler serious concerns from the point of view of further waging war against England: under no circumstances could we give up Romanian oil, which was vital for us. Had Russia advanced further here, we would have found ourselves dependent on the goodwill of Stalin in the further conduct of the war. During one of our conversations in Munich, he told me that, for his part, he was considering military measures, because he did not want to be taken by surprise by the East.

So let's give another word to the second man in Nazi Germany, Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Public Education and Propaganda:
06/25/40 Stalin informs Schulenburg that he intends to act against Romania. This again contradicts our agreement.
06/29/40 Romania lost to Moscow. Bessarabia and S. Bukovina will go to Russia. This is not pleasant in any way for us. The Russians are taking advantage of the situation.
5/07/40 Slavism is spreading throughout the Balkans. Russia is seizing the moment.
07/11/40 There is some concern among the [German] people about Russia.
07/17/40 The Russians continue to gather troops [towards Romania]. We are no less. King Carol wants German military occupation. It doesn't matter when or where. Fear of Moscow.
07/19/40 The Russians have become quite cocky."

And finally, the Fuhrer of the German people himself, Adolf Hitler (in a conversation with Mussolini 01/19/41): “Previously, Russia would not pose any danger to us at all, because it was not able to threaten us. Now, in the century aviation, Romanian oil fields can be turned into smoking ruins as a result of an air attack from Russia or the Mediterranean region, but the very existence of the Axis powers depends on these oil fields" (B. Liddell-Hart. "Second World War" M. AST 2002).

German Foreign Minister I. Ribbentrop: “...Molotov’s visit to Berlin (November 12-13, 1940 - Comp.) was not under a lucky star, as I wished. From these conversations with Molotov, Hitler finally formed the impression of a serious Russian aspiration to the West.” The next day, Jodl summarized the reaction to this message at Hitler’s headquarters: “The situation in the East is becoming threatening due to the concentration of Russian forces on the borders of Bessarabia.”

From Stalin’s speech to graduates of military academies in May 1941 “... Our policy of peace and security is at the same time a policy of preparing for war. There is no defense without offense. We must educate the army in the spirit of offensive. We must prepare for war." (Diary of G. Dimitrov, entry 5/5/1941).

Politburo member Andrei Zhdanov said at a meeting of the Main Military Council of the Red Army on June 4, 1941: “We have become stronger, we can set more active tasks. The wars with Poland and Finland were not defensive wars. We have already taken the path of an offensive policy... There is one step between peace and war. This is why our propaganda cannot be peaceful... We had a policy of offensive before. This policy was determined by Lenin. Now we are just changing the slogan. We have begun to implement Lenin’s thesis.”

Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union N. G. Kuznetsov (in 1941 - Admiral. People's Commissar of the USSR Navy, member of the Central Committee, member of the Headquarters of the High Command since its creation): “One thing is indisputable for me: I. V. Stalin not only did not exclude the possibility of war with Hitler’s Germany, on the contrary, he considered such a war... inevitable... J.V. Stalin carried out preparations for war - broad and versatile preparations - based on the deadlines he himself had outlined... Hitler violated his calculations" (The day before. . P. 321).

A small touch to the overall picture.13-14/05/40. Moscow. Meeting on military ideology. Chief of the General Staff Meretskov speaks: “We can say that our army is preparing for an attack, and we need this attack for defense. Based on political conditions, we must attack, and the Government will tell us what we need to do.”

This means that Hitler was, after all, the “icebreaker” of the world socialist revolution for the communists, who had been arming Germany since the 20s. It was the fighting actions of the Nazis that provided the basis for the subsequent entry of the Red liberators into Western Europe. And there’s no getting around it. But he dealt a preemptive blow to Bolshevism, this blow, despite the defeat of Germany and the temporary victory of the communists, turned out to be fatal for communism in Europe.

See also.

Soviet Union during World War II

The Second World War was the greatest tragedy of the 20th century. 61 states, over 80% of the planet's population, were drawn into it. For six whole years (from September 1, 1939 to September 2, 1945), the bloodiest and most destructive war in the entire history of mankind lasted. It claimed over 50 million lives. Material damage amounted to $316 billion.

Secret negotiations between Germany and the Soviet Union led to the signing of the Non-Aggression Pact on August 23, 1939 in Moscow. The additional secret protocol attached to the Pact delimited the “spheres of interest” of Germany and the USSR in Eastern Europe. According to this protocol, Poland (with the exception of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus) became the German “sphere of interests”, and the Baltic states, Eastern Poland, Finland and Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, which were then part of Romania, became the “sphere of interests” of the USSR, i.e. The Soviet Union received the opportunity to return those lost in 1917-1920. territory of the former Russian Empire.

The Second World War began on September 1, 1939 with the attack of Nazi Germany on Poland. Poland's allies - England and France - declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. The US declared its neutrality.

Having overcome the defenses, fascist German troops rushed to the territory of Poland and by September 17, 1939, captured the main regions of the country. More than 100 thousand Polish soldiers and officers were captured. England and France did nothing real to protect Poland. The USSR, in accordance with the Soviet-German secret protocol, sent its troops into Eastern Poland, which in the period from September 17 to 28, 1939 occupied the regions of Western Belarus and Western Ukraine. Poland ceased to exist as an independent state. On September 28, 1939, the USSR and Germany signed a new treaty “On Friendship and Borders,” according to which the western border of the Soviet Union was established approximately along the “Curzon Line.” At the same time, new secret agreements on borders not only secured the accession of Western Belarus and Western Ukraine to the Soviet Union, but also made it possible to conclude “Mutual Assistance” agreements with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Soviet Union received the right to station its troops in the Baltic republics and create naval and air bases on their territories.

On October 12, 1939, the Soviet government proposed that Finland move the state border away from Leningrad, providing in return a much larger territory north of Lake Ladoga, and conclude a mutual assistance agreement, but the Finnish leadership refused this. In response, the USSR, on November 28, 1939, unilaterally denounced the non-aggression treaty with Finland, concluded in 1932.

On November 26, 1939, the Soviet government announced Finnish artillery shelling of Soviet territory and, in an ultimatum, demanded the withdrawal of Finnish troops from the border. After Finland refused to fulfill this demand, the troops of the Leningrad District were ordered to cross the border and defeat the Finnish troops. On November 30, 1939, the Soviet-Finnish war began.

On November 30, 1939, troops of the Leningrad Military District, without sufficient preparation, launched an assault on the deeply echeloned defensive "Mannerheim Line". In difficult conditions of off-road, wooded and swampy terrain, the Red Army suffered heavy losses. In 105 days (from November 30, 1939 to March 12, 1940), it lost 289,510 people, of which 74 thousand were killed and about 200 thousand were wounded and frostbitten.

The Finns lost 23 thousand people - killed and missing and about 44 thousand wounded.

The Soviet command, having regrouped and significantly strengthened its troops, launched a new offensive on February 11, 1940, which this time ended with the breakthrough of the fortified areas of the “Mannerheim Line” on the Karelian Isthmus and the retreat of Finnish troops. The Finnish government agreed to accept the terms previously offered to it.

On March 12, 1940, a peace treaty was signed in Moscow, according to which the border on the Karelian Isthmus was moved beyond the Vyborg Kexholm line. Part of the Rybachy and Sredny peninsulas was transferred to the Soviet Union; in addition, the Hanko Peninsula in the Gulf of Finland was leased for 30 years with the right to create a naval base on it. The distance from Leningrad to the new border increased from 32 to 150 km.

In the spring of 1940, Nazi Germany captured Denmark, Norway, Holland, and Luxembourg. German troops, having bypassed the French defensive line "Moginot" from the north, entered Paris on June 10, 1940. On June 22, 1940, France signed the instrument of surrender. Its territory was occupied. In the south of France, in the city of Vichy, a puppet “government” of Marshal A. Petain was created.

In June 1940, the USSR government, in the form of an ultimatum, demanded from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia consent to the immediate entry of Red Army units into their territory to ensure the safety of the contingent of Soviet troops. The Baltic republics agreed to fulfill these demands. A few days later, “people’s governments” were created there, which soon established Soviet power in the Baltic states, at the request of which the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in August 1940 accepted Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia into the Soviet Union. On June 28 - 30, 1940, at the request of the USSR, Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, occupied by Romania in 1918, were returned to it. In August 1940, the Moldavian SSR was formed, which included Bessarabia, and Northern Bukovina was included in the Ukrainian SSR. As a result of all the mentioned territorial acquisitions, the borders of the USSR were moved west by 200 - 300 km, and the country's population increased by 23 million people.

Meanwhile, Hitler's Germany at the end of 1940 achieved accession to the Triple Alliance of Hungary and Romania, captured Bulgaria in March 1941, and occupied Yugoslavia and Greece in April. In preparation for the war, Germany involved Norway and Finland.

Nazi Germany launched systematic and multilateral preparations for war against the USSR. The number of armed forces is growing: from 1940 to May 1941. it increased from 3,750 thousand to 7,330 thousand people.

The German General Staff developed in detail a plan for a lightning war against the USSR - “blitzkrieg”; victory over the USSR was planned during one short-term campaign. On December 18, 1940, Hitler signed the Barbarossa plan, which provided for the lightning defeat of the main forces of the Red Army west of the Dnieper and Western Dvina rivers and access to the Arkhangelsk-Volga-Astrakhan line. The war was supposed to be won within 2 - 3 months.

The growing military threat confronted the USSR with the need to strengthen the Red Army. On September 1, 1939, the Law “On General Military Duty” was adopted, which removed class restrictions in military service. According to the new law, the service life of privates and sergeants was increased. This made it possible to increase the size of the army and navy from 1.7 million in 1937 to 5 million people by June 1941. The growth in the size of the army and navy required an increase in the composition of command personnel. A number of military colleges and schools were organized.

In March 1940, a plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was held, which discussed the results of the war with Finland and noted shortcomings in the preparation of troops for modern warfare. The leadership of the Armed Forces was replaced.

S.K. Timoshenko was appointed People's Commissar of Defense instead of K.E. Voroshilov, and G.K. Zhukov was appointed Chief of the General Staff. Troop training had improved significantly, but there was little time to fully complete this work.