D. Yu. Medvedev-Baryakhtar

More and more often I come across the statement on the Internet that while the Russians, bleeding, fought with German Wehrmacht, our cunning and vile ones sat out overseas and entered the war when its outcome was already a foregone conclusion. To be honest, I don’t like it at all when they give me a ready-made solution, where the emphasis has already been placed according to the “good - bad” principle. I would like, first of all, to remove the subjective assessment of events, and secondly, to try to look at the situation as a whole. By the way, a good exercise for thinking. Therefore, we will try to free events from emotional coloring, like what WWII battle was decisive. We believe that Stalingrad, the British - El Alamein, and the Americans - the Battle of Midway. Everyone has their own reasons and arguments. Let's try to operate only with facts.

On September 27, 1940, after numerous preliminary negotiations, Germany, Italy and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact on political and military mutual assistance, as well as on the delimitation of zones of influence. Since September 1939, Britain and France had been at war with the Axis powers. In June 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union, and in December 1941, the Japanese attacked the US fleet at Pearl Harbor. Thus, the Soviet Union and the United States of America were drawn into the war in 1941 with a difference of about six months and began, naturally, allies in World War II. Two major theaters of military operations emerged - the first in Europe and North Africa, the second in the Pacific Ocean. These are well-known facts. Further, as a rule, our historians argue about the priority of the European War because:

We will refrain from this emotional assessment. We consider the war in Europe to be more important, and the Americans and Japanese naturally give preference to the Pacific. It is clear that your own problems are always the most important for everyone, and other people’s problems are not worth a penny. The Wehrmacht was significantly superior to the Japanese army, but the Japanese fleet was much stronger than the German one. Everyone was preparing for their own war. Japanese aircraft carriers are as useless in the steppes of Ukraine as German tanks are unnecessary in the Pacific Ocean.

The estimate of losses that allies in World War II inflicted on the enemy during military operations, but here too the subjectivity is off the charts. We enthusiastically calculate how many more Wehrmacht divisions fought against us than against the Americans. On Eastern Front The German losses in manpower were indeed significant, but the orderly picture is spoiled by the fact that for some reason we are counting only Wehrmacht divisions. Where did Germany's allies - the Italians and Japanese - go and why were their divisions not included in the count? In addition to losses in manpower, there are also very significant losses in equipment. For a very long time I was looking for the ratio of Luftwaffe losses at the fronts. For some reason, we don’t like to mention them. According to indirect data, in air battles with aircraft allies in World War II The Germans lost 62,733 aircraft on all Western fronts (from September 1, 1939 to May 8, 1945) and about 24,000 aircraft on the Eastern Front (from June 22, 1941 to May 8, 1945). And our share in the destruction of German, Japanese and Italian warships is generally close to zero. In a word, such statistics are a very subjective matter and whoever thinks is the one who gets the result. Talking about the large number of our losses generally looks more than strange. Can you imagine a normal general who takes credit for the losses of his own soldiers? Rather, it should be the opposite, like the Japanese General Nogi, who forced Port Arthur to capitulate in Russo-Japanese war. After the conclusion of peace, he committed seppuku for himself, as he considered the large losses of the Japanese during the assault to be his personal fault. A large number of dead soldiers, at all times, is more likely an inability to conduct combat operations than efficiency. So we will not evaluate who is in charge and who is not, where the priority theater of operations is and where is the secondary one, but simply state the fact of the existence of two theaters of military operations, in which battles are fought at the same time and sometimes not allies in World War II.

The humor is that the Americans talk about our role in the war with Japan in the same way and in almost the same words. I attribute the following phrase to General MacArthur, which he said before signing the surrender of Japan: “The Russians entered the war with Japan when we had already won it. And now they are in a hurry to sign the surrender with us.”

So, allies in World War II are fighting in both theaters of war. Since 1941, the Americans have been fighting the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean and, by the way, at first they suffer defeat after defeat. The samurai turned out to be crack nuts and knew how to fight (just forty years ago, in 1905, we had to verify this at own skin). However, the precarious situation in the Pacific Ocean did not prevent the Americans from landing in Morocco in November 1942 (at that time there were street battles in Stalingrad) and, together with the British, starting military operations in North Africa against the Germans and Italians. Here, again, they say that company in Africa is not a war at all, but a walk allies in World War II through the desert. Let us again refrain from emotional assessment. On the one hand, the total number of Axis troops in North Africa was less than in Eastern Europe, but on the other hand, more German and Italian troops were destroyed during Operation Torch in Tunisia than at Stalingrad. We also note that through operations in North Africa and Sicily, the Americans and British practically knocked Italy out of the war. The combat potential of the Italians, relative to the Germans or Japanese, is indeed small, but Italy is still the third member of the Axis. And, what is much more important, in the war with the Italians, we Russians did not lose a single soldier. Therefore, we simply state the fact that the Americans began fighting the Germans in Europe in 1942. The photo shows the landing of American and British troops in North Africa.

In 1944, the Americans transported 3 million soldiers, and God knows how much cargo (up to 10 tons of equipment per soldier) across the ocean to England. The operation is, to put it mildly, large-scale, the costs are enormous. It is unrealistic to keep such a transfer of troops secret, and communications are constantly attacked by German submarines. And all this simultaneously with the war in the Pacific. In June 1944, the Americans, British and Canadians landed at Normandy - widely known even to non-professionals as D-Day. Their contribution to the victory over Germany can be assessed differently, but every German machine gun that mowed down American paratroopers on Omaha Beach did not fire at our soldiers in Belarus. The result is well known - Germany is crushed on both sides by troops allies in World War II and capitulates in May 1945.

By 1945, the Americans gradually put the finishing touches on the Japanese. The basis of Japanese military power- the fleet and aviation were practically destroyed, the Japanese lost all strategic positions and were pushed back to the shores of Japan itself, the military industry was left without resources, the Axis allies in Europe were defeated. By 1945, no one doubted the outcome of the war in the Pacific, not even the Japanese. It was clear to everyone that an island country without a fleet and resources was not capable of fighting against the whole world (by 1945, Japan was at war with about 60 states). We often say that in 1945 Japan was going to continue the war relying on the resources of Manchuria. Maybe, maybe... But there is one difficulty here. In the 20th century, oil was called the blood of war, since all equipment drove, flew and sailed on gasoline, which was obtained from oil. There is no oil and planes will remain at airfields, ships in harbors, and tanks will stop where gasoline ran out, just as German tanks stopped when they broke through the Allied front in the Ardennes. The Japanese push to the south in 1941 - 1942 was due to the fact that the Land of the Rising Sun really needed oil, which the Japanese hoped to get in French Indochina and the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), which they lost by 1945. The fuel situation in Japan by the end of the war was so desperate that the Japanese tried to fill the engines with turpentine extracted from pine trees. Where could Japan get oil to continue the war? Have you heard anything about serious hydrocarbon deposits in Manchuria? I personally don't.

And at this moment of the general crisis of the entire Japanese military machine in August 1945, the Soviet Union entered the war in the Pacific and allies in World War II are now working together against Japan. Soviet tank wedges crush the Kwantung Army, and landings Marine Corps landing on the islands. By the way, think about why our landings were so successful? Imagine what would have happened to our transports if the Japanese fleet had not been disabled by the Americans by this time. The Japanese sank the fleet in 1905 Russian Empire, and by the 1940s the Soviet one was many times weaker than the Russian one. Two Soviet cruisers and 12 destroyers in the Pacific Ocean against Japanese battleships and aircraft carriers are practically nothing. But there is a fact - the Soviet Union entered the war in the East in August 1945. In the photo "Mikuma" is a Japanese cruiser attacked by carrier-based aircraft in the battle near Midway Atoll on June 7, 1942.

So, what do we have as a “bottom line”. There are two largest theaters of war - in Europe and in the Pacific. Since June 1941, Russians have been fighting with Germans in Europe (as well as the British with Germans and Italians in Africa). Since December 1941, the Americans and the Japanese have been enthusiastically drowning each other in the Pacific Ocean. In 1942, the Americans appeared in Africa and, together with the British, crushed the Germans and Italians in Tunisia, Sicily and Italy. At this time, the Russians first retreat to Moscow and the Volga, then methodically begin to “take away our inches and crumbs” and push the Germans to the West. In 1944, the Americans landed in Europe and, together with the Russians, destroyed the Third Reich in May 1945. What's there in the East? From the beginning of the Second World War until August 1945, there was peace and grace on the Soviet-Japanese border along the Amur River. In August 1945, the USSR declared war on Japan and took part in the war in the Pacific. A month later, in September, Japan surrenders and the war ends. It turns out that the Americans fought the Japanese from 1941 to 1945 and the Germans and Italians from 1942 to 1945. From 1941 to 1945, the USSR waged war with Germany, and for one month in 1945 it fought with Japan. This is information that is open and accessible to everyone, freed from emotional connotations.

Now you can ask a rhetorical question. Why did the USSR, having a common border with Japan, not want to help for 4 years? Allies in World War II and open a Second Front in the Far East? The war with the Japanese did not stop the Americans from fighting against the Germans for 3 years, but crossing the Amur is, after all, not crossing an ocean. It is clear that in 1942 - 1945 the Americans did little to distract German soldiers, planes, and tanks. It's time to ask the question - how many Japanese soldiers, ships, and planes have we diverted to ourselves during this period? And do the Americans have the right to say that the USSR entered the war against Japan only when everything in the Pacific Ocean had already been decided?

There is a separate question about American assistance under Lend-Lease. ally in World War II. During the program, the Americans brought military supplies, equipment, food, medical equipment, medicines, strategic raw materials (someone thought up to 300 items) to everyone fighting against a common enemy. The greatest assistance was provided to Britain, then Russia and then China. By the way, the “greedy Yankees” included the following clause in the Lend-Lease law (Article 5): “Supplied materials (cars, various military equipment, weapons, raw materials, other items) destroyed, lost and used during the war are not subject to payment " By the way, think purely logically about why it was necessary to pass the Lend-Lease law. If the British, Russians, and Chinese paid for everything in full, then no law would be needed. Go directly to American corporations that produce what you need (raw materials, medicines, weapons, food), pay money and get the products you need. World trade, including raw materials and weapons, has existed at all times. The meaning of the Lend-Lease law was that the Americans supplied everyone allies in World War II these goods are free. As always, we immediately start talking about the fact that they were transporting the wrong place, not what was needed, and in general not all the cargo arrived, and also that we paid for everything. Maybe not all of them made it (like the notorious convoy PQ-17), but in the winter of 1941/42, for 31 domestic tanks there were 10 imported ones, and for 13 Soviet aircraft, 10 were delivered under Lend-Lease. At the same time, if American tanks were inferior to Soviet ones in many respects, then American-made aircraft were seriously superior to our models. Oh, you must admit, a significant contribution to the most difficult period of the war for us! By the way, the total amount of Lend-Lease Soviet Union was 10.8 billion dollars, of which, after lengthy and repeated negotiations, we agreed to pay, minus those same losses, 800 million (and, it seems, we still have not paid off). But that’s not even important. You can compare equal values. So let’s compare the economic assistance that America provided to the warring Soviet Union with the economic assistance that the Soviet Union provided to America at war. On the second side of the scale there is a complete zero. In general, as a human being, when they give you something, and they give you a lot, and you cannot give anything in return, then you should just say thank you and not make a complaint.

In fact, I think it's pointless to consider allies in World War II through the prism of “who invested more in victory.” Second World War this is the tragedy of millions killed on all sides of the front, these are the crippled destinies of people, these are parents who have lost children and children left without parents, these are destroyed and burned villages and cities. All allies in World War II We invested everything we could into making sure this nightmare ended as soon as possible and helped each other as much as possible. Even the Germans and the French made peace, but we still cannot let go of the shadows of the past and argue over who shed more of our own and other people’s blood on this terrible altar. In the photo, French President Francois Mitterrand and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl at the memorial to the victims. Verdun.

And the United States, taking into account the sharply increased threat to the security of its own countries, issued statements of support for the just struggle of the peoples of the USSR. “Over the past 25 years, no one has been a more consistent opponent of communism than I,” said British Prime Minister W. Churchill in a radio address to his compatriots on June 22, 1941. “I will not take back a single word. But all this pales in comparison to the spectacle now unfolding. The past with its crimes, madness and tragedies disappears. I see Russian soldiers standing on the threshold of their native land, guarding the fields that their fathers have cultivated since time immemorial. I see them guarding their homes, where their mothers and wives pray - yes, for there are times when everyone prays - for the safety of their loved ones, for the return of their breadwinner, their protector and support... This is not a class war, but a war in which the whole British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations are drawn in, without distinction of race, creed or party... If Hitler imagines that his attack on Soviet Russia causes even the slightest divergence in purpose or weakening of the efforts of the great democracies that are determined to destroy him, then he is deeply mistaken.”

On July 12, 1941, a Soviet-British agreement was concluded in Moscow on joint actions in the war against Germany and her allies. It was the first step towards creating an anti-Hitler coalition. Legally, the coalition took shape in January 1942, when in Washington, the capital of the United States, which entered the war with Japan and Germany after the Japanese armed forces struck the American base at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands in December 1941, the Declaration was signed by representatives of 26 states United Nations on the fight against the aggressor. During the war, more than 20 more countries joined this Declaration.

In October 1941, the USSR, England and the USA reached an agreement on Anglo-American supplies of weapons and food to our country in exchange for strategic raw materials. In May 1942, an agreement was concluded with England on an alliance in the war and cooperation after its end, in July - an agreement with the United States on assistance under Lend-Lease (loan or lease of weapons, ammunition, food, etc.) - In September of that same year soviet government recognized General Charles de Gaulle, who led the Free France movement, as the leader of “all free Frenchmen, wherever they are.”

The total volume of deliveries under Lend-Lease was estimated at 11.3 billion dollars. A quarter of all cargo was food (stewed meat, fats, etc.), the rest was military equipment, equipment and raw materials. For individual types, the figures were very impressive: 10% of domestic production of tanks, 12% of aircraft, 50% of cars, over 90% of steam locomotives, 36% of non-ferrous metals. In general, according to economists, allied supplies did not exceed three percent of Soviet food production, 4% of industrial output, including defense. As Ernest Bevin, the Minister of Labor in the wartime government of W. Churchill, later noted,<вся помощь, которую мы были в состоянии оказать, была незначительной по сравнению с громадными усилиями советских людей. Наши потомки, изучая историю, будут с восхищением и благодарностью вспоминать героизм великого русского народа>.

The stumbling block in the relations of the “Big Three” (USA, England, USSR) was the question of opening a second front against Nazi Germany in Western Europe, which would allow diverting a significant part German troops from the Eastern Front and bring the end of the war closer. The initially reached agreement on its deployment in 1942 was not fulfilled by the ruling circles of England and the USA. Their activity was limited mainly to the periphery of the theater of operations (in 1941 -1943 - battles in North Africa, in 1943 - landing in Sicily and Southern Italy).

Allied Conferences.

In November 1943, the first meeting of the leaders of the “Big Three” took place in Tehran: I.V. Stalin, US President F. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister W. Churchill. The Western allies, having accepted with satisfaction Stalin's decision to dissolve the Comintern (May 1943), promised to open a second front in Northern France in May 1944. This happened a month later, when the ability of the USSR to independently complete the defeat of Germany became obvious.

At the Big Three conferences in Yalta (February 1945) and Potsdam (July - August 1945) 1 the focus was on the basic principles of the post-war world order. At the conferences, new Western and eastern borders Poland, a decision was made to transfer Eastern Prussia with its main city of Königsberg (since 1946 - Kaliningrad). Germany and Berlin were temporarily divided into occupation zones: American, British, French and Soviet. Its complete disarmament, the destruction of monopolies and the military industry, and the liquidation of the Nazi Party were envisaged. Germany pledged to pay significant reparations to states that suffered from aggression.

1 The US delegation was headed by the new President G. Truman, and the British delegation - after the start of negotiations - by the leader of the Labor Party, which won the elections, C. Attlee.

At the Yalta Conference, it was decided to create a special international institution aimed at protecting the world from a new military catastrophe and maintaining interstate stability - the United Nations.

In adopted there<Декларации об освобожденной Европе>the allied powers declared their readiness to help the European peoples<создать демократические учреждения по их собственному выбору>. But much more important for the fate of the post-war world was what was not enshrined in official documents<большой тройки>, but only implied. The Western allies were forced to agree de facto to the inclusion of the countries of Central and Southern Europe (except Austria), liberated by the Soviet Army, into the sphere of interests of the USSR. Regarding the reasons for such tacit agreement, Western historians rightly note:<Советский Союз уже держал в руках то, что он хотел, и лишить его этого можно было только применением силы>. But the USSR’s war allies were not prepared for such a turn of events.

Far Eastern campaign of the Soviet Army.

In accordance with the agreement in principle reached in Yalta, the Soviet government denounced the neutrality pact with Japan on April 5, 1945, and on August 8 declared war on it.

By that time, the Western allies of the USSR had carried out a number of successful offensive operations against Japan in the Pacific. During 1944, the Anglo-American expeditionary force, having defeated the Japanese fleet, occupied the Mariana and Marshall Islands. By the summer of 1945 they liberated the Philippines, Burma, and part of Indonesia. Fighting transferred to the territory of the aggressor country itself. But the resistance of the Japanese militarists had not yet been broken. The resources of Northeast China and Korea remained in their hands. A powerful group of Japanese troops was stationed in Manchuria. ground forces- million-strong Kwantung Army.
The general leadership of the Soviet troops aimed at the Kwantung Army was carried out by Marshal A. M. Vasilevsky. It was planned to strike in three directions: from the territory of Mongolia (Trans-Baikal Front - commander Marshal R. Ya. Malinovsky), from Soviet Primorye (1st Far Eastern Front - commander Marshal K. A. Meretskov) and from the area of ​​Blagoveshchensk and Khabarovsk (2nd th Far Eastern Front - commander General M.A. Purkaev). The fronts had 1.5 million people, 27 thousand guns and mortars, 5.2 thousand tanks and 3.7 thousand aircraft.

Within a short time after the start of hostilities soviet armies They made a forced march through the Khingan ridge, which was considered impassable for equipment, and went behind enemy lines. Tank and infantry units supported the ships of the Pacific Fleet and Amur flotilla. On August 19, the command of the Kwantung Army announced its readiness to lay down arms. On September 2, under the joint attacks of the Allied armed forces, Japan completely capitulated.

This was the final event of the Second World War. The southern part of Sakhalin and the islands of the Kuril chain were transferred to the Soviet Union. His sphere of influence extended to North Korea and China.

Results of the war.

USSR made a decisive contribution to ridding the world of the threat of fascist enslavement. In terms of its scale, the Soviet-German front was the main one throughout the Second World War. It was here that the Wehrmacht lost more than 73% of its personnel, up to 75% of its tanks and artillery pieces, and more than 75% of its aviation.

However, the price paid by the peoples of the USSR for victory over the aggressor was excessively high. 1,710 cities of our country lay in ruins, over 70 thousand villages and hamlets were burned. The invaders destroyed almost 32 thousand plants and factories, 65 thousand km of railways, flooded and blew up 1,135 mines, looted 427 museums and 43 thousand libraries. Direct material damage reached almost a third of the country's national wealth. Up to 27 million people died at the front, in captivity and on occupied lands (of which 11.4 million were irretrievable losses of the Armed Forces). Total losses The armed forces of Germany and its allies amounted to over 15 million people (of which 8.6 million were irretrievable losses on the Soviet-German front). The USA and England each missed several hundred thousand dead military personnel.

The unprecedented losses of the Soviet Union were the result of both the Nazis’ purposefully aimed at the total destruction of Russian statehood and people, and the neglect of Soviet political and military leaders towards the lives of their compatriots. The history of the Great Patriotic War was replete with examples of how unprepared and technically unsupported offensives were launched.

One of the main results of the war was a new geopolitical situation. It was characterized by growing confrontation between the leading capitalist powers and the Soviet Union, which extended its influence to a number of countries in Europe and Asia. What made this confrontation exceptionally dramatic was the fact that it developed during the nuclear age, which humanity entered in August 1945. By order of the US President, atomic bombs were then detonated over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

1. Read W. Churchill’s radio address to his compatriots on June 22, 1941 and compare it with the statements of Western diplomats in the mid-30s. (see 51). What questions could you ask the British Prime Minister if<прямого эфира>?
2. Using textbooks on the history of Russia and foreign countries, make a plan listing the main measures to create an anti-Hitler coalition. Assess the effectiveness of the efforts of the countries participating in this process. What opinions do historians express about the importance of foreign assistance to the USSR and the role of the second front during the Great Patriotic War?

3. On the contour map, indicate the territorial acquisitions of the USSR according to the decisions of international conferences.

4. ESSAY: Compare the human losses and material damage to our country after the Civil (see 39) and the Great Patriotic Wars. What thoughts do these comparisons make you think about?

Levandovsky A.A., Shchetinov Yu.A. Russia in the 20th century. 10 -11 grades. - M.: Education, 2002

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It is not customary to talk much about the assistance of the USSR allies during the Second World War. However, it was there, and it was considerable. And not only within the framework of Lend-Lease. Soviet troops were supplied with food, medicine, and military equipment.

As you know, from love to hate there is only one step. Especially in politics, where it is quite permissible to smile at those whom yesterday you reviled as fiends of hell. Here we are, if we open the Pravda newspaper for 1941 (before June 22), we will immediately find out how bad the Americans and British were. They starved their own population and started a war in Europe, while the Chancellor of the German people, Adolf Hitler, was just defending himself...

Well, even earlier in Pravda one could even find the words that “fascism helps the growth of class consciousness of the working class”...

And then they became suddenly good...

But then came June 22, 1941, and literally the next day Pravda came out with reports that Winston Churchill had promised the USSR military assistance, and the US President unfrozen Soviet deposits in American banks, frozen after the war with Finland. That's all! Articles about hunger among British workers disappeared in an instant, and Hitler turned from “Chancellor of the German People” into a cannibal.

Convoy "Dervish" and others

Of course, we don't know about all the behind-the-scenes negotiations that took place at that time; Even the declassified correspondence between Stalin and Churchill does not reveal all the nuances of this difficult period of our common history. But there are facts showing that the Anglo-American allies of the USSR began to provide assistance, if not immediately, then in a sufficiently timely manner. Already on August 12, 1941, the Dervish convoy of ships left Loch Ewe Bay (Great Britain).

On the first transports of the Dervish convoy on August 31, 1941, ten thousand tons of rubber, about four thousand depth charges and magnetic mines, fifteen Hurricane fighters, as well as 524 military pilots from the 151st Air Wing of two Royal Military Squadrons were delivered to Arkhangelsk. British Air Force.[С-BLOCK]

Later, pilots even from Australia arrived on the territory of the USSR. There were a total of 78 convoys between August 1941 and May 1945 (although there were no convoys between July and September 1942 and March and November 1943). In total, about 1,400 merchant ships delivered important military materials to the USSR under the Lend-Lease program.

85 merchant ships and 16 warships of the Royal Navy (2 cruisers, 6 destroyers and 8 other escort vessels) were lost. And this is only the northern route, because the cargo flow also went through Iran, through Vladivostok, and planes from the USA were directly transported to Siberia from Alaska. Well, then the same “Pravda” reported that in honor of the victories of the Red Army and the conclusion of agreements between the USSR and Great Britain, the British were organizing folk festivals.

Not only and not so much convoys!

The Soviet Union received assistance from its allies not only through Lend-Lease. In the USA, the “Russia War Relief Committee” was organized.

“Using the money collected, the committee purchased and sent medicines, medical supplies and equipment, food, and clothing to the Red Army and the Soviet people. In total, during the war, the Soviet Union received assistance worth more than one and a half billion dollars.” A similar committee led by Churchill’s wife operated in England, and it also purchased medicines and food to help the USSR.

When Pravda wrote the truth!

On June 11, 1944, the Pravda newspaper published significant material on the entire page: “On the supply of weapons, strategic raw materials, industrial equipment and food to the Soviet Union by the United States of America, Great Britain and Canada,” and it was immediately reprinted by all Soviet newspapers, including local and even newspapers of individual tank armies.

It reported in detail how much had been sent to us and how many tons of cargo were floating by sea at the time the newspaper was published! Not only tanks, guns and airplanes were listed, but also rubber, copper, zinc, rails, flour, electric motors and presses, portal cranes and industrial diamonds![С-BLOCK]

Military shoes - 15 million pairs, 6491 metal-cutting machines and much more. It is interesting that the message made an exact division of how much was purchased in cash, that is, before the adoption of the Lend-Lease program, and how much was sent after. By the way, it was precisely the fact that at the beginning of the war a lot of things were purchased for money that gave rise to the opinion that still exists today that all Lend-Lease came to us for money, and for gold. No, a lot was paid for with “reverse Lend-Lease” - raw materials, but the payment was postponed until the end of the war, since everything that was destroyed during hostilities was not subject to payment!
Well, why such information was needed at this particular time is understandable. Good PR is always a useful thing! On the one hand, the citizens of the USSR learned how much they supply us with, on the other hand, the Germans learned the same thing, and they simply could not help but be overcome by despondency.

How much can you trust these numbers? Obviously it is possible. After all, if they contained incorrect data, then only German intelligence would have figured it out, although according to some indicators, how could they declare everything else propaganda and, of course, Stalin, giving permission for the publication of this information, could not help but understand this!

Both quantity and quality!

IN Soviet time It was customary to scold the equipment supplied under Lend-Lease. But... it’s worth reading the same “Pravda” and in particular the articles of the famous pilot Gromov about American and British aircraft, articles about the same English Matilda tanks, to be convinced that during the war all this was assessed completely differently than after its end!

How can one appreciate the powerful presses that were used to stamp turrets for T-34 tanks, American drills with corundum tips, or industrial diamonds, which Soviet industry did not produce at all?! So the quantity and quality of supplies, as well as the participation of foreign technical specialists, sailors and pilots, was very noticeable. Well, then politics and the post-war situation intervened in this matter, and everything that was good during the war years immediately became bad with just the stroke of a leading pen!

On the same topic:

What assistance did the USSR allies provide during World War II? The best fighters during World War II

World War II 1939-1945 - the largest war in human history, unleashed by fascist Germany, fascist Italy and militaristic Japan. 61 states were drawn into the war (more than 80% of the population globe), military operations were carried out on the territory of 40 states.

In 1941, when the Nazis attacked the USSR, Great Britain was already at war with Germany, and the contradictions between the USA, Germany and Japan were on the verge of armed conflict.

Immediately after the German attack on the USSR, the governments of Great Britain (June 22) and the USA (June 24) came out with support for the Soviet Union in its fight against fascism.

On July 12, 1941, a Soviet-British agreement on joint actions against Germany and its allies was signed in Moscow, which marked the beginning of the formation of the anti-Hitler coalition.

On July 18, 1941, the USSR government signed an agreement with the government of Czechoslovakia, and on July 30 - with the Polish government on a joint fight against a common enemy. Since the territory of these countries was occupied by Nazi Germany, their governments were located in London (Great Britain).

On August 2, 1941, a military-economic agreement was concluded with the United States. At the Moscow meeting, held on September 29-October 1, 1941, the USSR, Great Britain and the USA considered the issue of mutual military supplies and signed the first protocol on them.

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a war against the United States with a surprise attack on the American military base at Pearl Harbor in the Pacific Ocean. On December 8, the USA, Great Britain and a number of other states declared war on Japan; On December 11, Nazi Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

At the end of 1941, the following countries were at war with the aggressor bloc: Australia, Albania, Belgium, Great Britain, Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras, Greece, Denmark, Dominican Republic, India, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Luxembourg, Mongolian People's Republic Republic, Netherlands, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Poland, El Salvador, USSR, USA, Philippines, France, Czechoslovakia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Yugoslavia, Union of South Africa. In the second half of 1942, Brazil and Mexico entered the war against the fascist bloc, in 1943 - Bolivia, Iraq, Iran, Colombia, Chile, in 1944 - Liberia. After February 1945, Argentina, Venezuela, Egypt, Lebanon, Paraguay, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and Uruguay joined the anti-Hitler coalition. Italy (in 1943), Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania (in 1944), and Finland (in 1945), which were previously part of the aggressive bloc, also declared war on the countries of the Hitlerite coalition. By the end of hostilities with Japan (September 1945), 56 states were at war with the countries of the fascist bloc.

(Military Encyclopedia. Chairman of the Main Editorial Commission S.B. Ivanov. Military Publishing House. Moscow. In 8 volumes, 2004. ISBN 5 203 01875 - 8)

The contribution of individual countries to achieving the goals of the anti-Hitler coalition was different. The USA, Great Britain, France and China participated with their armed forces in the fight against the countries of the fascist bloc. Separate units of some other countries of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, India, Canada, the Philippines, Ethiopia, etc. also took part in the hostilities. Some states of the anti-Hitler coalition (for example, Mexico) helped its main participants mainly with military supplies raw materials.

The USA and Great Britain made a significant contribution to achieving victory over the common enemy.

On June 11, 1942, the USSR and the USA signed an agreement on mutual supplies under Lend-Lease, i.e. loan of military equipment, weapons, ammunition, equipment, strategic raw materials and food.

The first deliveries arrived back in 1941, but the bulk of deliveries occurred in 1943-1944.

According to American official data, at the end of September 1945, 14,795 aircraft, 7,056 tanks, 8,218 anti-aircraft guns, 131,600 machine guns were sent from the USA to the USSR, from Great Britain (until April 30, 1944) - 3,384 aircraft and 4,292 tanks; 1,188 tanks were delivered from Canada, which had been directly involved in providing assistance to the USSR since the summer of 1943. In general, US military supplies during the war years amounted to 4% of the military production of the USSR. In addition to weapons, the USSR received cars, tractors, motorcycles, ships, locomotives, wagons, food and other goods from the United States under Lend-Lease. The Soviet Union supplied the United States with 300 thousand tons of chrome ore, 32 thousand tons of manganese ore, a significant amount of platinum, gold, and timber.

Some of the American cargo (about 1 million tons) did not reach the Soviet Union, because it was destroyed by the enemy during transportation.

There were about ten routes for delivering goods under Lend-Lease to the USSR. Many of them took place in areas of intense hostilities, which required great courage and heroism from those who provided supplies.

Main routes: across the Pacific Ocean via Far East- 47.1% of all cargo; across the North Atlantic, skirting Scandinavia - to Murmansk and Arkhangelsk - 22.6%; via the South Atlantic, Persian Gulf and Iran - 23.8%; through the ports of the Black Sea 3.9% and through the Arctic 2.6%. Aircraft moved by sea and independently (up to 80%) through Alaska - Chukotka.

Help from the allies came not only through the Lend-Lease program. In the USA, in particular, the “Russia War Relief Committee” was created, which during the war collected and sent goods worth more than one and a half billion dollars to the USSR. In England, a similar committee was headed by Clementine Churchill, the wife of the Prime Minister.

In 1942, an agreement was reached between the USSR, Great Britain and the USA to open a second front in Western Europe. In June 1944, this agreement was implemented - Anglo-American troops landed in Normandy (northwest France), and a second front was opened. This made it possible to withdraw about 560 thousand German troops from the eastern front and contributed to the acceleration of the final defeat of Nazi Germany, which was now forced to fight on two fronts.

The material was prepared based on open sources

§ 12. World War II: USSR and allies

Germany's attack on the USSR and the beginning of a turn in the war

Germany attacked the Soviet Union without declaring war. This happened on June 22, 1941. The Great War began Patriotic War – component World War II. The attack was sudden. Stalin did not believe that Hitler would be able to strike without adequate preparation. But the Barbarossa plan provided for the lightning defeat of the USSR and its liquidation even before the onset of winter. The German army had extensive experience in conducting military operations, while the training of Soviet troops was much worse. The disposition of the Red Army forces was offensive, not defensive. Thousands of Soviet aircraft were concentrated at border airfields and were destroyed during a German air strike. A similar fate befell other military equipment, as well as units of the Red Army that did not expect the strike and were unprepared for defense.

British World War II poster distributed in the USSR

All this provided the aggressor with initial success. Already in June 1941, the German army took Minsk, the entire Soviet Western Front was destroyed. In July, the Nazis occupied Smolensk, and in September they managed to blockade Leningrad. But thanks to courageous resistance Soviet soldiers and officers, the advance of the German army slowed down. Only in October 1941 did she approach Moscow. Hitler's planned "blitzkrieg" failed.

As a result of the evacuation organized in the USSR, a significant part of the plant equipment was transported to the Urals and Kazakhstan. A new industrial base was created there, which already at the beginning of 1942 began to produce thousands of tanks, aircraft, and guns. The Allies provided great assistance to the Soviet Union. In July 1941, a cooperation agreement was concluded between the USSR and Great Britain. In October of the same year, Great Britain and the USA pledged to supply the USSR with weapons and food. Soon this help began to arrive. In total, during the war, the USSR received more than 20 thousand aircraft, thousands of tanks and hundreds of thousands of trucks. During the same period, Soviet enterprises produced significantly more equipment. However, Allied assistance was very timely during the critical months of 1941–1942.

On December 5, 1941, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive near Moscow. In the Battle of Moscow, German troops suffered their first major defeat. Plan Barbarossa was foiled. During the Second World War, a turning point began.

Japan's attack on the United States and the creation Anti-Hitler coalition

The failure of Hitler's offensive near Moscow finally convinced the Japanese leadership that it was dangerous to conduct military operations against the USSR. A different direction was chosen. The Japanese decided to strike at the United States, which was preventing Japan from conquering Asia. On December 7, 1941, a powerful group of the Japanese fleet secretly approached the American fleet base in Hawaii at Pearl Harbor. Hundreds of aircraft from aircraft carriers took to the air and launched torpedo and bomb attacks on the American battleships. All of them were sunk or damaged. At the same time, the American aircraft carriers that were outside the base for the exercises were not damaged. Despite this, the blow was very strong and significantly weakened the American forces.

Wrecked American battleships at Pearl Harbor

In response to the attack, US President Roosevelt declared war on Japan and its allies Germany and Italy. Now the combined forces of Great Britain, the USSR and the USA acted against the fascists and their satellites. The entry of the United States into the war completed the formation of the Anti-Hitler coalition. Back in August 1941, the United States and Great Britain signed the Atlantic Charter, which confirmed the right of peoples to self-determination through democratic means. The USSR joined the charter. After the United States entered the war, on January 1, 1942, 26 countries signed the Declaration of the United Nations, which was based on the principles of the Atlantic Charter and was directed against Germany, Japan and Italy. This is how the Anti-Hitler Coalition arose.

Meanwhile, Japan, taking advantage of its supremacy at sea, captured the American-owned Philippines, Dutch Indonesia and British possessions in Malaya and Burma. The enemy's advance took the British by surprise. Their key fortress, Singapore, with a strong garrison, was surrounded and capitulated in February 1942. The Japanese Empire captured huge spaces in a swimming pool Pacific Ocean and in East Asia. It threatened India, Australia and the West Coast of the United States. The turning point in the war in the Pacific was only visible in June 1942, when the American fleet in the Midway Atoll area managed to repel an enemy attack and sink several Japanese aircraft carriers.

A turning point in the war

Despite the failure of the Blitzkrieg, Germany continued its offensive on the territory of the USSR. In the summer of 1942, the Germans and their Romanian allies made a breakthrough in the south of the Soviet-German front, which threatened the oil fields in Baku. If Germany had managed to seize the oil fields, the USSR would have been on the verge of collapse. A war without fuel for tanks and aircraft was impossible. The Nazis were unable to reach their goal through the Caucasus, but their powerful group tried to cut off the oil supply routes along the Volga. In August 1942, the enormous battle of Stalingrad began, in which more than half a million people took part.

The greatest battles on the Eastern Front, where the main forces of Germany were concentrated, allowed the British to achieve success in Africa. In October 1942, superior British forces under the command of General Bernard Montgomery defeated the 100,000-strong German-Italian corps of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. In 1942, the Allied navy and air force managed to win the intense Battle of the Atlantic. The German submarine fleet suffered heavy losses, and since 1943 the security of sea convoys sailing to Britain and the USSR has increased significantly.

British bomber in the skies of Egypt

In November 1942 Soviet troops under the overall command of Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, they broke through the German-Romanian front near Stalingrad and surrounded the three hundred thousand-strong 6th Army of Field Marshal Paulus. In January 1943, she capitulated. A radical change began during the Second World War. Now the initiative and superiority in forces were on the side of the Anti-Hitler coalition.

Military operations in Europe (06/22/1941 – 11/19/1942)

Using the map, tell how the attack on the USSR was connected with general program implementation of Hitler's aggressive plans. Show the direction of the main attacks of Germany and its allies in 1941–1942.

In May 1943, the American-British army forced Rommel's corps in Tunisia to capitulate. In July, the Allies landed in Sicily, which led to the collapse of the fascist regime in Italy. Mussolini was arrested by order of the king. In September 1943, Italy capitulated and the Allies were approaching Rome. German troops came out to meet them. The German landing force under the command of Otto Skorzeny freed Mussolini, who, under the cover of Germany, created his own republic in northern Italy.

In July 1943, Germany's attempt to launch a counteroffensive on the Eastern Front on the Kursk Bulge ended in failure. The turning point in the war has become irreversible.

Military operations in the Pacific Ocean in 1941–1943.

Show on the map why a turn in the Pacific War was inevitable sooner or later.

Life during the war

War always leads to a deterioration in people's lives. The Second World War in this regard surpassed all previous wars. This was due to the misanthropic policies of the fascists. They deliberately destroyed millions of people, clearing the necessary “living space” for themselves. In accordance with the “Plan Ost” developed by the Nazis, millions of Slavs and representatives of other “second-class peoples” were to be destroyed or die of starvation, and the rest were to become servants of the Germans. SS Chief Himmler believed that people from conquered countries should either become slaves or die. But the work of millions of prisoners of war and civilians in German concentration camps also meant a slow death. Of the 18 million prisoners in concentration camps, 12 million died.

Concentration camp prisoner

Monstrous experiments were carried out on children in camp laboratories. Millions of Jews were driven into isolated quarters - ghettos, where they either starved or were exterminated. In 1944, Hitler began to systematically exterminate Jews in the gas chambers of death camps - Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald, etc. This extermination was called the “Holocaust”.

The situation of the inhabitants of the countries occupied by the Nazis was difficult. They had to work tirelessly for the German economy and endure humiliation.

Residents of the Jewish ghetto

The revival, in fact, of slave relations provided the majority of Germans in Germany with a good standard of living. At the height of the war, average Germans who remained at home lived little worse than before the war. The predatory policies of the Nazis and the slave labor of young men and women from occupied countries forcibly deported to Germany brought unprecedented income, and the German economy flourished. And only after a radical turning point in the war, when the Wehrmacht suffered a crushing defeat in major operations on the Eastern Front, did life become more difficult for the Germans. The shortage of goods has worsened and the food supply has worsened. The bombing of German cities and villages by the Allies became more frequent.

At an American parachute factory

The life of the average American was relatively prosperous. But the intensity of his work increased, and he had to forget about the struggle for higher wages. Simple paramilitary clothing came into fashion. However, in general, the pre-war way of life was preserved. After all, even before the war, Americans lived poorly because of the depression. The situation was somewhat more complicated for the British, who had to suffer the consequences of a naval blockade and massive bombing. But since 1943, as the Allies succeeded, their standard of living began to approach that of the United States.

Life was much more difficult in most European countries. Soviet people worked to the limit of human capabilities, but the state could provide them only with the most necessary things. Most of the food went to the needs of the army. Home front workers received tiny rations on ration cards. The situation of the residents was especially difficult besieged Leningrad. Here, a person was given a daily ration of 150–200 grams of bad bread. Hundreds of thousands of Leningraders died from hunger and cold. But despite these inhuman conditions, soviet people continued to help the front. The military industry in the USSR already in 1942 was ahead of the German industry in terms of the quantity of military equipment produced, which ensured a radical change in the Great Patriotic War.

Resistance movement and collaboration

The peoples of the countries occupied by the Nazis put up stubborn resistance. Members of underground organizations broke equipment in factories, organized prisoner escapes, hid Jews, and committed sabotage and terrorist acts. In 1942, Czech patriots killed the head of the German security service, Heydrich, in Prague.

In the rear of the Nazis it turned around guerrilla warfare. It took on a particularly impressive scale in the USSR and Yugoslavia. Yugoslav partisans, led by communist Josip Broz Tito, liberated vast areas from the Nazis, where they created their own authorities. Serbian “Chetnik” nationalists also fought against the fascists in Yugoslavia. However, the Yugoslav partisans and Serbian Chetniks had to fight not only the Nazi occupiers. They were also opposed on the territory of Yugoslavia by well-armed detachments of Croatian nationalists - the Ustasha. Even before the outbreak of World War II, the Croatian Ustasha proclaimed the slogan of a “free and independent Croatia.” Hitler skillfully took advantage of these sentiments. After the occupation of Yugoslavia, the formally independent state of Croatia was created, which also became a Hitler satellite.

Anti-fascist partisan movement originated in Greece, Bulgaria, France and other countries. After the Allied landings in Italy and the invasion of the country by German troops in German-occupied territory, the Italians also began to wage anti-fascist partisan warfare.

A detachment of French partisans. 1943

The resistance also acted against the Japanese occupation. Peasants of Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Burma and China, with the support of special Allied sabotage groups, attacked small Japanese detachments, railway lines, and warehouses.

Even in Germany there was a resistance movement. It was very small and united people who were ready to fight Nazism, collaborating with states fighting against Germany. These people provided important information to the Allies. Other opponents of the regime were preparing an assassination attempt on Hitler. Through their actions, members of the Resistance movement brought victory over fascism closer.

Hitler did not include all the territories he conquered into the Third Reich. In some of them he created puppet states controlled by local collaborators: in Slovakia, Croatia, the south of France, etc. The first collaborationist ruler was the Norwegian fascist Vidkun Quisling. Therefore, the leaders of pro-German regimes were called “Quislings.” For propaganda purposes, the Nazis created special military formations from representatives of the conquered peoples. But they were unreliable. Thus, Hitler did not dare to send the “Russian Army” consisting of prisoners to the front. liberation army"(ROA) under the command of General Vlasov, because he believed that the Vlasovites could turn their weapons against the Germans.

Let's sum it up

In 1941, Germany attacked the USSR. The Great Patriotic War began Soviet people. At the end of 1941, the Nazi offensive was stopped near Moscow. Japan attacked the USA and Great Britain, and managed to capture most of the Pacific Ocean and large areas in Asia. The entry of the United States into the war completed the formation of the Anti-Hitler coalition. In 1942–1943 a radical change occurred in the war.

Collaborators – employees of the occupiers from the local population. 1941, June 22- German attack on the USSR.

1942–1943 - a radical turning point in the Second World War.

1. Why did the USSR suffer failures at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War? *2. What do the reasons for the initial defeats of the USSR and the USA have in common? 3. Why did the turning point begin during World War II?

4. In which countries that fought in World War II were people freed the most?

1. Goebbels wrote in 1943: “The Fuhrer believes that it is easier to deal with the British than with the Soviets. At some point, the Fuhrer believes, the British will come to their senses.” What explains Hitler's opinion about the possibility of ending the war?

2. Hitler believed that “the reproduction of the Slavs is undesirable. Education is dangerous. It is enough if they can count to 100. Every educated person is future enemy. As regards food, they should receive nothing more than is absolutely necessary for the maintenance of life. We are gentlemen. We are above everything." What specific activities of the Nazi regime in Eastern Europe followed from these premises?

*3. Make a chain of cause and effect from the defeat of Germany near Moscow to the defeat of Japan at Midway.

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