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WORLD WAR II
TURNING POINT OF THE 20TH CENTURY
NATIONAL MYTHS AND THE WORLD WAR II EXPERIENCE
• Each European nation has its own myths regarding WWII…
Ussr/russia
“THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR…”
• For the USSR, World War II was the seminal event. It validated Communism and Stalin and made Russia one of the two superpowers.
Stalinism: the Soviet 1930’s
• small peasant farms→huge collective farms
• small industries→heavy industries
→political terror
→major military power
Ideology was key
Religion ruthlessly suppressed…cathedrals destroyed
FIVE YEAR PLANS
• Central governmentplanners set goals -Soviet industry Almost catches up to Rest of Europe in lessThan 15 years Right: Happy Peasants
COLLECTIVE FARMS
FAMINE IN UKRAINE
• HARVESTS FAIL IN 1932-33
ELIMINATING THE KULAKS
• KULAKS WERE PROSPEROUS PEASANTS, WHO SOMETIMES LENT MONEY AND SEED TO OTHER PEASANTS
• ACCUSED OF SABOTAGE
• STALIN LAUNCHES A CLASS WAR
SOCIALIST REALISM
• ART MUST PROMOTE
THE GOALS OF THEREVOLUTION.
• Poster Art:– left…Look Forward– right…Good Luck to the Red Army
REWRITING HISTORY
The Terror of the 1930’s
• Show trials
• Forced labor in the gulag
• Purges:– Red Army marshals and generals decimated
in 1937-1938
THE GULAG
• WORK CAMPS FOR DISSENTERS OR ANYONE ACCUSED BY PARTY
• MOSTLY IN SIBERIA – MASSIVE PROJECTS BUILT BY SLAVE LABOR
THE GULAG “ARCHIPELAGO”
PURGES• STALIN REMOVED ANYONE HE PERCEIVED
AS A THREAT• EVENTUALLY, ALMOST ALL THE “OLD
BOLSHEVIKS” OF THE REVOLUTION WERE REPLACED BY “LITTLE STALINS”
CULT OF PERSONALITY
STALIN AND HITLER
• HITLER DETESTS COMMUNISM; IS DETERMINED TO DESTROY IT
• STALIN AND HITLER SIGN NONAGGRESSION PACT IN 1939
• Stalin cooperates in Hitler’s invasion of Poland, grabs territory.
• Refuses to believe in 1941 that Hitler would invade Soviet Union
JUNE 22, 1941Germany Invades
What did Stalin do in the first few days?
• Hid in the Kremlin…• AWOL• Molotov gave radio
speech on 22 June• 3 July: radio address by
Stalin…• “Forward to victory.”
Supplies coming across Lake Ladoga
Nameless
• 670,000 died and are buried in mass graves…
THE WAR WAS DECIDED
• By the end of 1941, the Germans had lost the war– The failure of Centre Group to take Moscow– Diversion of resources – US entry into the war
Lend Lease
• Made a huge difference
• Studebaker trucks
• Locomotives and rolling stock
1944-1945…Normandy to Germany
• Race for Berlin began
• Realization that where the lines were when the war ended would determine post war governments
• Yalta..January 1945
THE RUSSIANS WON THE SECOND WORLD WAR AIDED BY BRITISH STUBBORNESS AND AMERICAN TECHNOLOGY….
Jay Winter, Yale