great patriotic war

• Operation Barbarossa


  The codename for the German invasion of the USSR, launched on 22 June 1941
• Operation Barbarossa was intended to win a decisive victory in a matter of weeks before the winter
• The invasion was originally planned for 1 June, but was delayed until 22 June following the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia
• Invasion forces


  • Split between three huge army groups, one heading towards Leningrad, one into Ukraine, and one towards Moscow
• Stalin's immediate reaction


  • no direct action to prepare for a German invasion - he did not believe it would happen or because he worried that increasing Soviet defences would provoke attack
  • did nothing - took 2 weeks to publicly speak; Molotov on radio in his place
  • 3rd July speech on patriotism, religion and unity - Soviets to join patriotic war against fascism
• Poor leadership in the early stages of the war


  • Stalin was indecisive (for example, preparations to move the capital from Moscow to Kuybyshev (Samara) were cancelled at the last minute on Stalin's orders)
  • The Soviet army had inexperienced commanders (Stalin had removed the most experienced officers in his military purges of 1937)
  • Stalin refused to allow his southern armies to retreat from Kiev until it was too late. This brought a massive defeat in the south in September 1941
• Stages of Great Patriotic War - 1

  • June 1941-42 = Russia struggled to survive against German offensives, suffering massive losses of people and territory
• Stage 1


  • 3 million German troops invaded the USSR in June 1941
  • swift German advance and huge Soviet losses
  • 15th October 1941 = Soviets attempted peace negotiations but Hitler ignored offer
  • 18th October 1941 = Intelligence reports from Japan allowed Stalin to bring troops back from Siberia to defend Moscow and bad weather conditions meant prevention of Germans capturing Moscow
• Stage 2

  • 2 Feb 1943 = Surrender of German Sixth Army at Stalingrad - major error/disaster for them
  • 12 July = Battle of Prokhorovka - Soviet success due to mass production of T-34 tank
  • 13 July = Kursk offensive called off by Hitler
  • became war of weakening - Hitler lacked resources
• Stage 3


  • 6 Nov 1943 = liberation of Kiev
  • 28 Nov = Tehran summit
  • 4 Jan 1944 = Soviet troops enter Poland
  • 27 Jan = siege of Leningrad ends
  • From August 1943 onwards was a chain of Soviet Eastern European victories but Germans were resilient defenders and it took until April 1945 for the Red Army to reach Berlin
• Approximately 12 million civilians died in the war. Of those alive in the USSR when the war started, one in eight were dead by 1945. 1700 towns and cities and 70,000 villages were also destroyed in the war
• German brutality and repression


  • Thousands of Soviet soldiers held as prisoners of war
  • Captured Soviet commissars executed
  • Vicious retaliation against partisans
  • Massacres and deportations of Jews
  • Soviet workers conscripted to work in German war factories
• Soviet brutality and repression


  • Thousands arrested or executed as 'slackers', 'deserters' and 'defeatists'
  • Mass deportations of ethnic minorities
  • 170,000 military personnel executed for treason
  • Harsh treatment of returned prisoners of war and people from liberated western areas
• Unifying factors for the Soviet people


  • Fear and hatred of the Germans (helped by German repression and cruelty)
  • Deep patriotism in defending the Motherland
  • Underlying faith in Stalin and the defence against fascism
• Rapid Mobilisation

  • 1941 = Red Army 4.8 million soldiers, conscription during war added 29.5 million despite losing millions early in the war
• Improved military resources

  • centrally controlled economy effective to produce necessary resources
  • military vehicles and tactics - T-34 tank was equal to the German Tiger tank and quick manufacture and easy repair
  • withstood the loss of thousands of T-34 tanks in battle - had the capacity to build thousands more in its factories hidden away from German attack in the Urals mountains
• Foreign Aid

  • huge quantities of armaments, industrial goods and foodstuffs from USA - 300,000 trucks through US Lend-Lease scheme
  • USSR downplayed scale of aid but it was effective in winter when suffered from losses
• US Lend-Lease scheme

  1941-45 = US policy in which the USA supplied it's allies with food, oil and military equipment
• Stages of Great Patriotic War - 2

  • 1942-3 = stabilised Soviet war effort, built a powerhouse war economy, halted German advances
• Stages of Great Patriotic War - 3

  • 1943-5 = Soviet armies moved on to the offensive, recapturing occupied areas, finally defeating the Germans
• Example of Soviet loss in June 1941-1942


  665,000 troops were captured at Kiev
• T-34 tank

  • proof of Soviet mobilised economy
  • less sophisticated design and engineering therefore durable and easy maintenance and repair
• Massacre and deportation of Jews


  September 1941 = 34,000 Jews shot and buried in mass graves at Babi Yar
• partisans


  member of armed group secretly formed against occupying force
• Evacuation of Industry

  • Soviet industry relocated from Western areas to Urals to escape German bombs
  • whole factories dismantled and moved via 20,000 trains East
• example of evacuation of industry 


  500 factories moved from Moscow
• Tehran 1943

  • allies agreed to demand surrender from Germany but had ideological difference
  • unable to relieve the pressure on the Red Army - Stalin criticised them for not opening a Second Front in European War