Defeat of Germany

    Cards (5)

    • Defeat of Germans:
      • Fought to bitter end - allies insisted on unconditional surrender
      • Stalin wanted a buffer zone against future threats to USSR - wanted Red Army to gain control of as much of Central Europe as possible
      • April 1945 - soviet reaches Berlin
      • Germany surrendered unconditionally 9th May 1945
    • Reasons for defeat of germans:
      • German weaknesses - strategy based on rapid victory - two-front war - lacked self-sufficiency and Hitler made mistakes
      • Soviet strengths - geographical size, population, natural resources, military leadership, propaganda and patriotism
      • Allies - bombing campaigns by British and Americans from 1943, secret intelligence, military and economic aid
    • Results of victory:
      • USSR became a superpower
      • Communism
      • Stalin USSRs
      • Territorial expansion
      • 20 million soviet citizens killed
      • Cold War tensions
    • Post-war reconstruction - industry:
      • fourth five year plan began in march 1946
      • reconstruction of Ukraine
      • in 1945, mining, electricity and steel production was around half of 1940 levels
      • workforce exhausted
      • end of foreign aid added to pressures on industry
      • many of plans targets were met - more coal was being produced in 1950 compared to 1940
      • by 1950 Ukraine’s industrial output was higher than before the war
      • improved production of consumer goods
    • Post-war reconstruction agriculture:
      • large numbers of farms had been destroyed in the war - 98,000 collective farms
      • farming machinery had been destroyed
      • food production in 1945 was 60% of 1940 levels
      • famine in 1946-47 - killed 1.5 million
      • payments for farm products were kept low
      • taxes were increased
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