Rise of Hitler Germany – Hitler revitalizes Germany and begins to reassert control over his territory and the surrounding countries. One of the prominent themes is protections of German ethnic minorities in other countries.

1936 – Reoccupies the Rhineland

1938 -- Annexes Austria

1938 – Sudetenland (Munich Conference)

1939 (Mar) -- Czechoslovakia

Hitler is interested in pushing East. Why? Lebensraum – "living space." He is looking for more room to grow his master race. The people in Eastern Europe are viewed as untermenschen (subhumans) and as a result can be expelled.

In 1939, Hitler begins making noise over the Danzig Corridor and ethnic Germans in Poland. Britain and France declare that they are willing to go to war over the integrity of Poland. What will the Soviets do?

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (1939) – Secret agreement between USSR and Germany to divide Poland and the Baltic Countries.

Stalin, witnessing Britain and France selling out its allies (like Czechoslovakia), believes that they will not declare war against Germany to protect Poland. As a result, he believes Hitler will win and cuts a deal accordingly.

Germany will take the western half of Poland and exercise influence over Lithuania. The Soviet Union gets the eastern half of Poland, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland.

The Soviets attack into Finland in the winter of 39-40 and are repulsed. Poor performance by the Red Army shows how the Great Purges have hurt the military.

Invasion of Poland and the Baltic States – Russia reoccupies most of the territory that was lost in the Brest-Litovsk treaty.

Katyn Forest Massacre – Soviets capture 230,000 Polish military personnel when they take their half of Poland. In the Spring of 1940, 15,000 personnel (mostly the officer corps) disappeared.

In 1943, the Nazi’s publicly contend that the Soviets executed their prisoners. Stalin hotly denies this, but the Polish Exile Government in London believes the story (historic Russo-Polish animosity). Stalin breaks with the London Poles and establishes the Lublin Polish government in 1944 – this will be the government which will control Poland after the war.

What we have since found out was that the Germans were not lying. Stalin had ordered the executions. "If he couldn’t own them, he couldn’t trust them."

Operation Barbarosa, 1941 – With his campaign against England stalled, Hitler turns east believing that the USSR will fall quickly, just like France in 1940.

The purges of the Red Army in the 1930’s severley hurt Soviet Command and Control in the initial campaign. As a result, Stalin makes many of the initial military decisions himself.

ex. Battle of Kiev – Stalin refuses to order an evacuation and 500,000 troops are captured or killed. And Stalin blames the prisoners! Many POWs are sent to the Gulag after the war. They go from Nazi prison camps to Soviet prison camps.

Many of the returning soldiers were also sent to labor camps because it was feared that they would revolt after having seen the West.

Still, Stalin does make some concessions in order to improve morale.

ex. July 1941. Stalin appeals to Russian patriotism and religion in defense of the

Another one of Stalin’s first moves after the German attack was to begin moving industrial resources (machinery and personnel) east of the Urals. This is a strategic move which is critical in preserving the USSR’s ability to stay in the war

The Germans achieve some brilliant tactical victories while advancing on a broad front all the way to the outskirts of Moscow.

ex. over 2000 Soviet aircraft are destroyed in the first 2 days, whole armies are lost.

However, while they continually defeat the Soviets in battle, they cannot achieve a strategic victory by knocking the Soviets out of the war. Again, it is a case of trading space for time.

After many years of Stalinist repression, some in the Ukraine and Belarus were willing to accept the Nazi’s as liberators instead of conquerors. However, German treatment of the untermenschen soon put that sentiment to rest.

Einsatzgruppen – special rear-guard units which were instrumental in rounding up and executing undesirables in Nazi-occupied territories (e.g., Jews, partisans)

As a result, partisan resistance begins to harass German supply routes and rear guard forces (guerrilla warfare)

Battle for Moscow – Nov 1941. German forces are on the outskirts of Moscow (as close as 25 miles). Artillery is able to hit the outer suburbs. Stalin holds a military parade in Red Square and the tanks drive straight to the front.

However, the German effort falters for 2 reasons. 1) German supply lines are too long

ex. Stalin’s scorched earth policy, Soviet rail gauge is too wide.

2) Also, the troops are not equipped with cold weather gear. Without adequate protections, the modern weapons of war will not function in sub-zero weather.

ex. fuel lines and breeches freeze.

"General Winter" – Russian winters are so cold that it turned into a strategic advantage for the Russians.

Germans are forced to pull back 100 miles across the board and wait until Spring to resume the advance.

Seige of Leningrad – Leningrad (St. Petersburg, Petrograd) is surrounded and put under seige by the Germans in 1941. The seige will last over 2 and ½ years and many people will die of starvation in the city, but the city does not fall.

Stalingrad – In the Spring 1942 offensive, Germany pushes its southern prong deep into the Caucuses. Hitler is driving for the oil fields.

A pitched battle occurs at the industrial city of Stalingrad on the Volga river. Fighting is house-to-house. However, with the on-set of Winter, Hitler refuses to let the German army pull back to more defensibly positions (similar to Stalin’s position on Kiev in 1941 – and the same results). The German 6^th Army is surrounded and surrenders in January 1943.

This is the turning point in the eastern campaign (i.e., the Gettysburg of the Eastern Front). Germany loses the initiative and begins a long defensive campaign which will ultimately end in Berlin.

Liberation of Eastern Europe – By the end of 1943, the Red Army has recovered all of its lost territory and is beginning to liberate the states of Eastern Europe.

How do the East European states view the Soviets? (Barbarians)

The Red Army was not viewed as much of a liberating army. Russian soldiers "liberated" whatever they wanted (property, a woman’s virtue, etc.). This looting was particularly bad in Germany (revenge for Nazi attrocities on their soil), but it was done across Europe.

Stalin is also attempting to make Eastern Europe more compliant in the post-war phase. As a result, he is attempting to find ways to weed-out potentially troublesome elements.

ex. Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, August 1944. With the Red Army approaching, the Polish Home Army rises up against the Germans in the hope of being able to liberate the capital before the Red Army arrives (make Poland a non-communist, non-Soviet dominated country). 35,000 partisans rise up against the German forces in Warsaw and immediately call for Soviet assistance. However, the Soviet army advances to the Vistula river and stops. Watching from the other side of the river, the partisans are exterminated in 2 months of bloody fighting. (continuation of the Katyn forest massacre)

Stalin did not liberate all of Eastern Europe.

ex. Yugoslavia – Yugoslav partisans (Tito) are able to expel the Germans before the Red Army arrives. As a result, Yugoslavia, while communist, is not beholden to Stalin in the same fashion as the rest of the region.

Battle for Berlin – Allies agree that the Soviets should take Berlin. As the Red Army approaches German soil, many are fearful. Why? (retribution)

ex. Many people have cyanide capsules. In particular women because they are nearly always raped ("from 8 to 80").

As the Soviets approach, most of the Nazi leadership either commit suicide or flee to the West in the hope of being captured by the western allies first.

Berlin is levelled to the ground in the ensuing battle, but the Soviets loss more than 100,000 killed taking the city.

The Yalta Conference – (February 1945) Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin meet for the last time in a resort town in Soviet Crimea.

1) United Nations is set up – Roosevelt saw Soviet agreement to join the UN as the main goal of this conference. He even agreed to admitting Belarus and the Ukraine as separate members to the General Assembly (in addition to the USSR)!

2) The Soviet Border is Established on the Curzon Line – As per the 1920 commission recommendation, Poland is moved 100 miles to the west.

3) Poland gets German territory to the Oder-Neisse river – compensation for territory lost on the eastern part of the pre-1939 country.

Polish citizens who are evicted from the East take the land from the Germans who are evicted in the West.

East Prussia – Former German territory is split between Poland and USSR (part of the Russian Republic) – Kaliningrad is a significant port in the Baltic Sea.

4) Germany is to be Divided and Disarmed – Victors will divide Germany and its capital into 4 occupation zones. Germany will also have no military and will pay heavy reparations (East and West will have different visions of this).

5) The Nations of Eastern Europe were to be democratic and friendly to the Soviet Union – Vague statement. What do you mean by "democracy" – Stalin meant People’s Democracy.

Stalin’s view of liberating Eastern Europe was "to the conqueror, the spoils."

ex. He did not object to the Western governments set up in the Benelux countries.

Why friendly to the Soviet Union? Eastern Europe had been a historically natural invasion route to Russia. Friendly states in Eastern Europe would provide a "buffer." Spreading communism was nice, but maintaining Soviet geopolitical security (and communist regimes were the surest allies, according to Stalin – he can maintain control) is the primary concern.

6) USSR will Attack the Soviet Union – 3 months after Germany surrenders, the Soviet Union will break its non-aggression pact with Japan (why did Stalin sign such an agreement with Japan in 1941?). Russia will regain its territory lost to Japan during the Russo-Japanese War of 1905.

By the time this occurs, the need has essentially dissipated. Japan will surrender at any moment.

Yalta sets the blueprint for post-war Europe.

USSR USA

Killed 20 million ½ million

Territory Occupied none

World War II is a seminal event in Eastern European history. It establishes the Soviet Union as one of the most powerful nations on earth, and sets the political landscape for Europe for the next 50 years.