Defeat of Germany

• 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