The Soviet Union
in World War II,
Part II
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The Anti-Hitler Coalition
1941
July 12, Moscow: Soviet-British agreement on joint actions
in war with Germany
August 14: US and Britain sign the Atlantic Charter, USSR
joins on Sept. 24
Aug. 29 – Oct. 1: Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers
of USSR, USA, Britain
Dec. 7, 1941: Japan attacks the US; Germany declares
war on the US
By the end of the year, the Coalition grows to 26 states
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1942
Start of the American Lend Lease Program
Jan. 1: 26 states sign the Washington Declaration of the
united Nations
May 26: Soviet-British Treaty on Alliance
June 11: Soviet-US Mutual Assistance Agreement
1943
July: The Allied invasion of Italy
Nov. 28 – Dec 1: The first Big Three meeting in Tehran
1944
June: The Allied invasion of France
July The United Nations Financial and Monetary
Conference, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
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July 1942: Massive German offensive in southern Russia
The city of Stalingrad is besieged
The turning point of World War II
August 23: Massive German bombing destroys 80% of the
city’s residential buildings
Fighting in the city: average life expectancy of the Soviet
soldier – 24 hours
Stalingrad before the war
Stalingrad, September 1942
Women volunteers signing Oath of Allegiance
Red Army infantry
counterattack at Stalingrad
Stalingrad
worker
militia
Soviet “Katyusha” rocket attack
Stalingrad: street fighting
Stalingrad: surrender of German Field Marshal von Paulus
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The Battle of Stalingrad claimed over two million
casualties, more than any other battle in human history,
and was also one of the longest: it raged for 199 days.
Killed, wounded or captured at Stalingrad:
 Germans and allies: 850,000
 Soviets: 1,130,000 (incl. 40,000 civilians)
General Georgiy Zhukov
General Aleksandr Vasilevsky
General Konstantin Rokossovsky
General Ivan Konev
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July-August 1943: The Battle of Kursk
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Casualties:
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50 days
2.7 mln. men
8,000 tanks
5,000 aircraft
German – 260,000
Soviet – over 1 mln.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awRhSozctvs
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The Soviet Steamroller, documentary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2RV4
aKB7wo
Vitya Zhaivoronok,
Soviet Army scout,
Yugoslavia, 1945
Ruins of Peterhof, Summer residence of Russian Tsars
German POWs in Russia
German POWs outside Moscow
Diplomacy in the Grand Alliance
 The main issues:
 Helping USSR
 Opening the 2nd front
 Postwar settlement
The Big Three: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at Yalta, Feb.1945
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Major decisions of the Yalta Conference
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1. Unconditional surrender of Germany
2. Division of Germany into 4 occupied zones
3. Demilitarization and denazification of Germany
4. Germany’s reparations, including by forced labour of its
soldiers
5. A new govt in Poland, including non-Communists
6. Changes of Poland’s borders
7. Return of citizens to USSR and Yugoslavia
8. Soviet Union will participate in the creation of the UNO
9. Stalin agreed to attack Japan within 90 days of
Germany’s surrender.
10. Nazi war criminals were to be hunted down and brought
to justice.
11. A "Committee on Dismemberment of Germany" was to
be set up.
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US and British aid to the Soviet ally, 1941-45:
 Food - $1.5 bln. in
 Automobiles – 427,000
 Warplanes – 22,000
 Tanks – 13,000
 Warships – over 500
 Explosives – 350,000 tons
 Other supplies
Total estimated cost of Allied aid to USSR in contemporary
prices –
$100 bln.
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The Battle of Berlin
17 days
3.3 mln. men
Total losses: 0.5 mln.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjD6Lxiu6q4
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Hitler phones Stalin (a satire):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pbIrMtmU9
8&feature=related
Red flag over Berlin, May 1945
Checking out Hitler’s headquarters, May 1945
Berlin, 1945: surrender of German High Command
Ovens in Buchenwald concentration camp
Survivors of a Nazi concentration camp
June 24, 1945: Marshal Zhukov leads Victory Parade in Red Square
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Soviet Victory Parade, Moscow, Red
Square, June 24, 1945
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mnpn5
znFEtc
July 1945: Stalin, Truman and Churchill at Potsdam, Germany
Marshal Zhukov and General Eisenhower
August 1945: Defeat of Japanese forces in Manchuria
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Japanese-American historian T. Hasegawa: Soviet
war on Japan was the decisive factor for Japanese
surrender – not the atom bomb
http://books.google.ca/books?id=iPju1MrqgU4C&pri
ntsec=frontcover&dq=racing+the+enemy&hl=en&sa
=X&ei=BM_GT_73B8fJ6gGV7KTMCw&ved=0CDgQ
6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=racing%20the%20enemy&
f=false
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Allied Victory Parade, Berlin, September 7, 1945
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDQ2gQttPBs&N
R=1
The war took
all nine of her
sons
Nazi war criminals on trial at Nuremberg
Soviet losses in World War II
 Over 27 mln. killed (13.6% of the population)
 Of those who survived, 29 mln. took part in the fighting
(including 0.8 mln. women)
 Battlefield losses – 11.5 mln. (Germany lost 8.6 mln.)
 5.8 mln. POWs (of them 3 mln. died in concentration
camps)
 1,710 cities and 70,000 villages completely or partially
destroyed
 40,000 hospitals, 84,000 schools, 43,000 libraries
destroyed
 Historically unprecedented level of damage suffered by a
country
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gemP
kTw6eJI