The Soviet Union during World War II The History and Legacy of the USSR’s Participation in the War.pdf

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The Soviet Union during World War II: The History and
Legacy of the USSR’s Participation in the War
By Charles River Editors
A picture of German soldiers in the Soviet Union
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Introduction
German soldiers crossing the Russian border on June 22, 1941
"We have suffered a total and unmitigated defeat ... you will find that in a
period of time which may be measured by years, but may be measured by
months, Czechoslovakia will be engulfed in the Nazi régime. We are in the
presence of a disaster of the first magnitude ... we have sustained a defeat
without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us along our
road ... we have passed an awful milestone in our history, when the whole
equilibrium of Europe has been deranged.” – Winston Churchill
World War II was fought on a scale unlike anything before or since in human
history, and the unfathomable casualty counts are attributable in large measure
to the carnage inflicted between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during
Hitler’s invasion of Russia and Stalin’s desperate defense. The invasion came
in 1941 following a nonaggression pact signed between the two in 1939,
which allowed Hitler to focus his attention on the west without having to
worry about an attack from the eastern front. While Germany was focusing on
the west, the Soviet Union sent large contingents of troops to the border region
between the two countries, and Stalin’s plan to take territory in Poland and the
Baltic States angered Hitler. By 1940, Hitler viewed Stalin as a major threat
and had made the decision to invade Russia: “In the course of this contest,
Russia must be disposed of...Spring 1941. The quicker we smash Russia the
better.” (Hoyt, p. 17)
In the warm predawn darkness of June 22, 1941, 3 million men waited along
a front hundreds of miles long, stretching from the Baltic coast of Poland to
the Balkans. Ahead of them in the darkness lay the Soviet Union, its border
guarded by millions of Red Army troops echeloned deep throughout the huge
spaces of Russia. This massive gathering of Wehrmacht soldiers from Adolf
Hitler's Third Reich and his allied states – notably Hungary and Romania –
stood poised to carry out Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's surprise attack against
the country of his putative ally, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
Though Germany was technically Russia’s ally, Stalin had no delusions that
they were friends. Instead, he used this time to build up his forces for what he
saw as an inevitable invasion. First, on the heels of the German invasion of
Poland in September 1939, Stalin had his troops invade and reclaim the land
Russia had lost in World War I. Next he turned his attention to Finland, which
was only 100 miles from the newly named Leningrad. He initially tried to
negotiate with the Finnish government for some sort of treaty of mutual
support. When this failed he simply invaded. While the giant Russian army
ultimately won, the fact that little Finland held them off for three months
demonstrated how poorly organized the bigger force was.
Stalin knew that if he could delay an invasion through the summer of 1941,
he would be safe for another year, but Hitler began to plan to invade Russia by
May of 1941. Since military secrets are typically the hardest to keep, Stalin
soon began to hear rumors of the invasion, but even when Winston Churchill
contacted him in April of 1941 warning him that German troops seemed to be
massing on Russia’s border, Stalin remained dubious. Stalin felt even more
secure in his position when the Germans failed to invade the following May.
What Stalin did not realize was that Hitler had simply overstretched himself
in Yugoslavia and only planned to delay the invasion by a few weeks. Hitler
aimed to destroy Stalin’s Communist regime, but he also hoped to gain access

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