Stalin the last
years
or, How We Really Miss You
The great
patriotic war
• 22 June 1941: Operation Barbarossa, the German
invasion of the USSR
• Soviet reports on German build-up
• Stalin reluctant to acknowledge this was a genuine
threat of invasion
• British counter-intelligence distorted information on
German maneuvers
• British hoping to precipitate Soviet response to what
appeared to be provocative German actions
• Hitler would not risk 2-front war
The great
patriotic war
• Stalin rejects espionage reports of imminent German
invasion and reports from contacts in German
Luftwaffe that invasion was planned
• German disinformation
• continued to offer military and economic assistance
to Germans up to the eve of the invasion
The great
patriotic war
• Stalin: Rational or Delusional?
• Ian Kershaw:
• Stalin had limited options
• Soviet military not strong enough for pre-emptive
strike on Germany
• only hope was line of least resistance in attempt to
avert German aggression
The great
patriotic war
• Stalin: Rational or Delusional?
• victim of his own propaganda
• had portrayed Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact as
result of masterly diplomacy
• could not admit he had failed & taken advantage of by
Hitler
The great
patriotic war
• Stalin: Rational or Delusional?
• for 2 days Stalin stayed in his dacha given no orders
or instructions
• no one could act to direct resistance to Germans
• Soviet forces reeled from surprise and power of
German offensive
The great
patriotic war
• Stalin: Rational or Delusional?
• Biggest Mistake:
• not misreading German intentions
• decimating Red Army high command in his Purges,
1938-1939
The great
patriotic war
• Operation Barbarossa
• Germans
•
•
•
•
3,000,000 troops
500,000 motorized vehicles
4,000 tanks
3,000 aircraft
• Soviets
•
•
•
•
matched German troop numbers
4X the tanks
3X the aircraft
almost collapsed while forces organized and moved
The great
patriotic war
• Why did Operation Barbarossa Fail?
1. Stalin Recovered his Nerve by 3 July 1941
2. Barbarossa launched late—June instead of May
3. General Winter
4. Nazi Racism
The great
patriotic war
• Why did Operation Barbarossa Fail?
•
Stalin Recovered his Nerve by 3 July 1941
o 3 July 194: radio appeal to defend Mother Russia—
appeal to nationalism
o adopted scorched earth policy
o remained in Moscow in October 1941 when it
looked like it would fall to Germans
The great
patriotic war
• Why did Operation Barbarossa Fail?
•
Barbarossa launched late—June instead of May
o Barbarossa was delayed by 6 weeks
o primarily need to divert German forces to help
Mussolini in Greece
The great
patriotic war
• Why did Operation Barbarossa Fail?
•
General Winter
o Autumnal rains brought thick mud
o December 1941 counter attack
by Marshall Zhukov
o Germans not prepared for winter
warfare—clothing, supplies,
lubricants, food
The great
patriotic war
• Why did Operation Barbarossa Fail?
•
Nazi Racism
o many Soviets at first welcomed Nazis as liberators
o many were seen as ethnic untermenschen—especially
Ukraine
o met with German ferocity, superiority & barbarism
The great
patriotic war
• Character of the War
• war of attrition—w/Soviet forces drawing Germns
deeper & deeper into Russia before counter-attacking
• Casualties: height of war, 1941-1942, averaged
15,000 killed/day
• 5,500,000 became POWs—4,000,000 shot or died in
captivity
• brutal treatment form own leaders
The great
patriotic war
• Character of the War
• “1. Commanders and workers who during battle
desert or surrender to the enemy are to be considered
malicious deserters. Their families are to be arrested
as the relatives of deserters who have broken their
oaths of service and betrayed their motherland. All
commanders and commissars are to shoot deserters
on the spot.”
• “2. Units and sub-units that are surrounded by the
enemy are to fight selflessly to the last man.”
The great
patriotic war
• Character of the War—The Battle of Stalingrad
• became symbol of Russian resistance
• Stalin demanded city be defended to the death
• Hitler: “’The Führer orders that on entry to the city
the entire male population be done away with.’”
• on entry Germans met such fierce fighting that the
besiegers became the besieged—”fight to last soldier
and the last bullet.”
The great
patriotic war
• Character of the War—The Battle of Stalingrad
• Germans deprived of supplies and reinforcements
• surrendered on 31 January 1943
• 200,000 German KIA
• 91,000 POWs—only 6,000 survive captivity
• Hitler’s Sixth Army completely destroyed
• broke myth of German invincibility
The great
patriotic war
• Character of the War—The Battle of Stalingrad
• USSR encircled German forces
• more than 1,000,000 Soviet KIA
• life expectancy of Soviet soldier on the front—24
hours
The great
patriotic war
• Character of the War—The Battle of Kursk
• 5 July 1943 Germans launched Operation Citadel in
effort to take advantage of Soviet defensive positions
• Germans: 700,000 troops; 2,400 tanks, 1,800 aircraft
• USSR: 1,300,000 troops, 3,400 tanks, 2,100 aircraft
• final German strategic offensive in the East
The great
patriotic war
• Character of the War—The Battle of Kursk
• largest series of armored battle in history
• largest single-day aerial battle of the war
• 12 days of battle before Germans broke off the
fighting
• from here on Soviets would have initiative during
war
The great
patriotic war
• Impact of War on Soviet People
• 1/2 Soviet population under German occupation
• 1/3 Soviet industry in German hands
• Iron & Steel Production declined 60%
• Rail system reduced by 40%
• livestock reduced by 60%
• grain stock reduced 40%
The great
patriotic war
• Wartime Reorganization
• Much of Soviet industry disassembled and relocated
in eastern parts of country
• July-December 1941: 2593 industrial enterprises
moved using 1.5 million rail cars
The great
patriotic war
• Wartime Reorganization
• all adults not in essential war work conscripted
• 1944: over 2,000,000 women in Red Army, including
some all-women units
• women, children & elderly forced into industrial
labor—arms production top priority—over 50%
national income
• aided by Lend-Lease from USA
The great
patriotic war
• Stalin in the War
• blamed military failures on internal sabotage
• persecuted those deemed responsible
• many Soviet troops had deserted
• many Soviets had fought for Germans
• forms basis to justify new purges of the army at the
end of the war
The great
patriotic war
• Stalin in the Post-War
• more paranoid at end of the war
• Stalin demanded repatriation of released Allied
POWs to their countries of origin—many Soviets
citizens had fought w/Nazi—Allies resisted, but
eventually agreed
• mass execution of returned POWs
• blame extended from individual to communities, i.e.
virtual elimination of Cossacks
• Soviet soldiers captured by Germans were considered
to have collaborated—executed or into camps
The great
patriotic war
• Stalin in the Post-War
• Stalin as War Hero
• portrayal ordered by Stalin—propaganda
The great
patriotic war
• Religion in the War & After
• Stalin emphasized patriotism & nationalism during
WW II, not politics
• eased persecution of churches—Russians still had
deep religious instinct
• Church leaders responded by turning religious
services into patriotic gatherings—passionate
defiance of Germans & rally behind the great leader,
Stalin
The great
patriotic war
• Economy in the War & After
• Scorched Earth Policy = survival
• shift to total war economy
• “We must strengthen the Red Army’s rear,
subordinating all our work to this end. All our
industries must be made to work with greater
intensity, to produce more rifles, machine-guns,
cartridges, shells, planes…”—Stalin, extract from his
‘Mother Russia’ speech, 3 July 1941
The great
patriotic war
• Economy in the War & After
• severe industrial & economic losses (see previous
slides)
• Soviet expansion had centered on area west of Ural
Mountains—most vulnerable to German attack
• 1942: 50% of national income devoted to military
tasks
• vast relocation of Soviet industries to the East
Wartime
Production
WARTIME
PRODUCT
1940 = 100
1941
1942
1943
1944
Nat’l Income
92
66
74
88
Total
Industry
98
77
90
104
Armaments
140
186
224
251
Fuel
94
53
59
75
Agricultural
42
38
37
54
The great
patriotic war
• Economy in the War & After
• Fourth Five-Year Plan (1946-1950)
•
•
•
•
restore production to pre-war levels
achieved in 3 years
mostly in heavy industry
unable increase agricultural production
• economy remained unbalance
• little effort to adapt to new, progressive industrial
techniques
• projects that gave sense of pride, not efficiency—
bridges, dams
• Stalin’s Grand Projects of Communism--propaganda
The great
patriotic war
• Economy in the War & After
• Fifth Five-Year Plan (1951-1955)
• maintained emphasis on heavy industry
• iron, steel, oil, electricity all doubled
• no increase in standard of living
• no success in agriculture
• economy remained unbalance
•
•
•
•
•
•
agriculture under capitalized
heavy subsidies
shortages
black market
accommodations scarce
wages not above subsistence
The later purges
1941-1953
• The Leningrad Affair
• dispensed with Central Committee & Politburo—
removes even semblance of restriction on his
authority
• accusation that prominent members of Communist
Party of treason—many heroes of siege of Leningrad
• from Leningrad Party Cell could form a competitive
anti-Soviet organization
The later purges
1941-1953
• The Leningrad Affair
• Pyotr Popkov, Aleksei Kuznetsov, Nikolai
Voznesensky organized trade fair to boost post-war
economy & support survivors of siege
• accused of trying to use Moscow budget allocations
to benefit business ventures—embezzlement
The later purges
1941-1953
• The Leningrad Affair
• three men above & two others sentenced to death on
false charges
• 2,000 public officials dismissed; 200 along w/family
repressed
• entire leadership of Leningrad govt. & political
leaders replaced w/ men loyal to Stalin
The later purges
1941-1953
• The Doctors’ Plot, 1952-1953
• biggest anti-Semitic persecution of Stalin’s rule
• influences:
•
•
•
•
Israel ties to West
worry about Jewish nationalism
increasing suspicions of physicians
daughter’s affair w/Jewish man
The later purges
1941-1953
• The Doctors’ Plot, 1952-1953
• 1952: aging & ailing leaders of Soviet dying
• “They die one after another… die so quickly! We
must change the old doctors for new ones.”—Stalin,
1952.
• Jewish-dominated medical profession had planned to
murder Stalin and other Soviet leaders
• preparations for massive pogrom
The later purges
1941-1953
• The Doctors’ Plot, 1952-1953
• those interrogated coerced to produce evidence
proving Stalin’s personal physician plotted to
assassinate him & other leaders
• “Every Jewish nationalist is the agent of the
American intelligence service. Jewish nationalists
think that their nation was saved by the USA (there
you can become rich, bourgeois, etc.). They think
they’re indebted to the Americans. Among the
doctors, there are many Jewish nationalists.”—
Stalin, 1 December 1952
• massive purge only halted by Stalin’s death
The later purges
1941-1953
• Summary of Stalin’s Purges
• 1940: occupation of Baltic states—2 million deported
• 1941: deportation of various national groups to
Siberia (Germans, Ukrainians, Chechens, etc.),
about 1/3 died
• 1944-1946: screening of returned POWs & those who
lived under German occupation—10 million to labor
camps; 5 to 6 million died in captivity
• 1947-1953: various purges resulted in 1 million
deaths
The later purges
1941-1953
• Summary of Stalin’s Purges—Motivations
• desire to impose absolute authority—bring all aspect
of state & Party control under his reigns
• achieved—purges continued
• targeted & destroyed people not for what they did,
but for what they could do
The later purges
1941-1953
• Summary of Stalin’s Purges—Motivations
• “As he’d got older, my father had begun feeling
lonely. He was so isolated from everyone that he
seemed to be living in a vacuum. He hadn’t a soul he
could talk to. It was the system of which he himself
was the prisoner and in which he was stifling from
emptiness and lack of human companionship.”—
Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin’s daughter
• indicates a deeply disturbed & distrustful mind
The later purges
1941-1953
• Summary of Stalin’s Purges—Overview
• Robert Service, biographer of Stalin: “’Nowadays
virtually all writers accept that he initiated the Great
Terror.’”
• Service & others recognize complicity of those who
carried out the purges
• opportunity to settle old scores
• advancement due to new vacancies
• popular support from those who did not want USSR
slip back into weakness
The later purges
1941-1953
• Summary of Stalin’s Purges—Overview
• Richard Overy: “’the law of violent proletariat
revolution is an inevitable law of the revolutionary
movement’ linked to Lenin’s declaration that the
task of Bolshevism was ‘the ruthless destruction of
the enemy.
• purges were natural progression
• concept of individual rights or civil rights severely
undeveloped in Tsarist Russia nor addressed by
Lenin & the revolutionary movement
• Lenin had re-emphasized the necessity of obedience to
central authority