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| Hitler and Stalin signed a non-aggression pact in 1939, which was soon broken by Hitler, who attacked Russia two years later in June of 1941. http://www.rarenewspapers.com/view/588823 |
A time of terror
"Meanwhile, Stalin was creating a public image of himself as a great hero. Cities, towns, villages, and even the tallest mountain in Russia were named after him, and he was mentioned in the national anthem. Yet he was more and more fearful of enemies and suspicious of everyone around him. In the mid-1930s he began a series of purges (a practice of getting rid of people by killing them or sending them to prison). It is estimated that from seventeen to twenty-five million people were sent to the gulags during Stalin's reign; about a million were executed, while about seven million died in the gulags.
One purge that Stalin would later have a reason to regret was that of the Soviet armed forces, when most of the country's marshals, generals, and admirals were killed. These officers would be sorely missed in only a few years, when Russia entered World War II."
In the 1930's, Stalin was not expecting Russia to be in a world war in just a few years. He had executed millions of people, including his army generals, marshals, and admirals. When Hitler broke the non-aggression pact they had made, Stalin was in shock, and sent everybody he had to go defeat Hitler and the Nazis. The soviet union was now allies with the United States.
Surprised by German invasion
"During the 1930s, Adolf Hitler had cemented his place as dictator (a ruler with absolute power) of Germany and was leading his army in conquests of various nearby countries such as Czechoslovakia and Poland. The Soviet Union was also interested in expanding its territories. In August 1939 Stalin signed an agreement with Hitler in which Russia and Germany divided the countries of Eastern Europe between them and promised not to attack each other. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia were forced to join the Soviet Union and, after a short war of resistance, so was Finland.
Although he had been warned by some of his advisors that Hitler would not honor his agreement with the Soviet Union, Stalin was shocked when, in June 1941, the German army invaded Russia. For about two weeks he seemed stunned and unable to do anything; he said, "Everything which Lenin created we have lost forever!" But then Stalin recovered, taking personal command of the Soviet armed forces."
BATTLE OF STALINGRAD"The Battle of Stalingrad (July 17, 1942-Feb. 2, 1943), was the successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in the U.S.S.R. during World War II. Russians consider it to be the greatest battle of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the Allies. The Battle ofStalingrad was one of the bloodiest battles in history, with combined military and civilian casualties of nearly 2 million."
The battle of Stalingrad was the
final push for the Germans, before
the war turned on them. After this battle,
the war started moving towards
Germany, and Russia were
now the ones attacking as
apposed to defending. The
morale of the U.S.S.R. was
extremely high, in spite of the
huge loss of soldiers in the Battle of Stalingrad
final push for the Germans, before
the war turned on them. After this battle,
the war started moving towards
Germany, and Russia were
now the ones attacking as
apposed to defending. The
morale of the U.S.S.R. was
extremely high, in spite of the
huge loss of soldiers in the Battle of Stalingrad
The Soviet's Final Push: The Battle of Berlin
Nazis to surrender. The battle lasted from April 16th 1945 to May
2nd 1945. Adolf Hitler had killed himself on April 30th, and the Nazis
surrendered just 3 days after his death.
Germany 1945
On 2 May 1945, after one of the most intense battles in human
history, the guns at last stopped firing amongst the ruins of
Berlin. According to Soviet veterans, the silence that followed
the fighting was literally deafening. Less than four years after
his attack on the Soviet Union, Hitler's self-proclaimed thousand-year
Reich had ceased to exist. The German Führer himself was dead.
Nate Emrick
Interesting information, I was specially interested in the Battle of Stalingrad, which seemed to be your main focus due to the amount of information presented.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great overview of the war from the Soviet Union's perspective. I find it really interesting that Stalin was fighting against Hitler, because I feel like they are very similar in some ways. Hitler wasn't Communist but the way he ran his country with an iron fist, used propaganda really effectively, had concentration camps and even a similar secret police (the gustapo) reminds me a lot of Stalin. I think it is important to remember that Stalin was actually one of our greatest allies in WWII. They won critical battles for us (such as the Battle of Stalingrad) and did a lot of the fighting on the ground that was crucial to winning the war. FDR said that he would hold hands with the devil to defeat the Nazis. He ended up doing just that with Stalin, and the alliance ended up paying off in a big way - winning the war.
ReplyDeleteYou made it clear in this blog that although Stalin was a man who was outrageously powerful he was just as paranoid. This furthers the explanation of why he felt the need to kill anyone who he thought opposed him. On to WWII it is clear that Hitler betrayed Stalin. Despite all his shortcomings, it was a blessing that Stalin one this battle because if the soviets had lost it seems as though it would have been very likely that Hitler would have taken over all of Europe.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this post I now understand the positive affect Stalin had and how without Stalin most if not all of the world could be communist. This blog also explained how Stalin was very paranoid which was the root cause for his purges, he killed anyone and everyone that he had suspicions of. At one point Hitler and Stalin were allies and had an agreement but during WWII Hitler turned against Stalin. Luckily for us Stalin, being one of our biggest allies in WWII, won the Battle of Stalingrad and other critical battles. Consequently, if Stalin had not won these battles Hitler would have gained rule over almost all of Europe.
ReplyDeleteYour topic was very interesting and I was intrigued by how Stalin's purges of military personnel came back to hurt him when Hitler broke his non-aggression pact with Russia. It was also interesting how the Soviets became allies with the US even though they were not friendly countries, they just joined together against a common enemy. It was cool to learn how important the battle of Stalingrad was as a turning point for the war. I found this especially interesting as I just watched The Imitation Game which is a movie about the man who broke the Germans secret code during WWII. In the movie they talked about how the military intelligence gained from breaking the code was instrumental in the Russians success at Stalingrad. The video you used was a great choice as it was very exciting and showed the horrors of the battle.
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job of hitting many aspects along the course of world war II from Stalin's point of view. You add a great section about Stalin vs. Hitler. I really felt like you pulled me into the time period before I even started reading with the use of the newspaper photo. It was great information that covered a very broad topic.
ReplyDeleteThe first paragraph does a nice job describing how paranoid and insecure Stalin was about his power in Russia. It shows he used persuasive propaganda about himself and that he didn't trust any figure around him, which is why he sent so many innocent people to gulags to ultimately be executed or die a harsh death in the fatal conditions. I like how the blog post also stated how Stalin ended up hurting himself in the long run. Before he knew that Russia was going to be involved in a world war, he executed so many people due to his paranoia that most of his army for the war was gone. The rest of post was very descriptive and informative about the series of battles that went on during the World War, especially with Germany. Even though Stalin went through rough times in the beginning he ultimately was able to create an army so powerful that the Nazis surrendered and Hitler killed himself. Hitler and Stalin were both very similar rulers so I'm surprised that they didn't remain allies, they both had some sorts of detention camps similar to the ones that Ivan was in.
ReplyDelete