The first and second world wars comparison. Causes of the First and Second World Wars
Great Patriotic War |
World War II |
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Deadlines |
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Start of the war |
As part of the Second World War, the Second World War coincides with it in time from June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945 (for the USSR). The Great Patriotic War is part The Second World War as a global military conflict and at the same time represents independent and a military conflict of its own importance, specifically for the territory of the USSR. |
The Second World War for Western states begins earlier than for the USSR (September 1, 1939 - the invasion of German troops into Poland) and ends later (September 2, 1945 - the surrender of Japan). |
Theater of war |
The Second World War includes not only actions in the territories of the USSR itself, but also in the occupied lands of Eastern and Central Europe (Poland, Austria, Czechoslovakia), as well as in the territories of allied countries of Germany and Germany itself. |
WWII events also unfolded on the fields of Western, Northern and Southern Europe (for example, France, Italy, etc.), North Africa (for example, modern Tunisia, Libya), East and Southeast Asia (for example, China, Indonesia) etc. |
End of the war |
On May 8, 1945, an act on unconditional surrender Germany. Germany's allies left the war even earlier (Italy, Finland, Hungary, etc.). This was the end of the Great Patriotic War for the USSR. May 9, 1945 was declared Victory Day of the Soviet Union over Germany. |
At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the USSR committed itself to entering the war with Japan no later than 3 months after the end of the war with Hitler. Accordingly, on August 8, the USSR attacked Japan. The war continued until September 2, 1945, when the act of surrender of Japan was signed. This event ended the Second world war. |
By the way, at the Unified State Examination in history in 2016, many graduates were “caught” for not understanding the difference between WWII and WWII. About this in Methodical recommendations Igor Anatolyevich Artasov writes for teachers. In particular, he gives the following example of a real task from the 2016 exam:
Example 14. Which judgments about this brand are true? Choose two judgments from five proposed.
1) The event to which the stamp is dedicated took place during Great Patriotic War.
2) A contemporary of the event to which the stamp is dedicated was M. V. Frunze
3) This stamp was issued during the period when B. N. Yeltsin was the President of Russia.
4) The event to which the stamp is dedicated took place during World War II.
5) One of the participants in the event to which the stamp is dedicated was F. Roosevelt.
In my opinion, it is very interesting and informative to compare the two world wars. The country was led into the First World War by a man declared a saint by the current government. The second world country was led by a man declared a criminal by the current government. But how did the people of those times treat their rulers? This is what I intend to discuss.
Surrender
One of the popular current myths is the myth that the people did not want to fight for Soviet power and this explains the large number of prisoners Soviet soldiers who found themselves in German captivity. It is alleged that “For the Motherland, for Stalin” people did not want to fight until they saw fascist atrocities and then began to fight “not for Stalin, but for their people, for their family.” There is only one proof that the people “did not want to fight for Stalin” - a large number of Soviet prisoners of war, especially at the initial stage of the war. And to support this statement, it was useful to compare the percentage of Russian military personnel who were captured in the First World War. Suppose that the people did not want to fight “for the Motherland, for Stalin” in 1941, but maybe they wanted to fight “for the Tsar and the Fatherland in 1914”?
In order for the comparison to be correct, the context should be recalled. The tsarist government began preparing for war long before the official German declaration of war. Negotiations went on for a long time. Relatives of Nika and Vili exchanged telegrams. But in the Balkans, Austria took action. On July 17, Tsar Nicholas II signed a decree on general mobilization. Using this decision of the head of state as a pretext, Germany declared war on Russia on July 19. On July 21, war was declared on France, as well as Belgium, which rejected the ultimatum to allow German troops to pass through its territory. Great Britain demanded that Germany maintain the neutrality of Belgium, but, having received a refusal, declared war on Germany on July 22. Thus began the First World War of 1914-1918. Now let’s compare it with what happened in June 1941: there is peace and a non-aggression pact with Germany, the German authorities swear friendship, the Soviet troops are not only not mobilized, but are in the stage of serious reorganization. Therefore, the beginning of wars is different: in 1941, our army desperately fights back and retreats into the interior of the country, in 1914 it begins an invasion of German territory. In 1914, Germany fielded very limited forces against the Russian army, and the main striking power fell on France. In 1941, the USSR fought with Germany essentially one on one! When I have time, I will definitely break down the data by year. Now, due to lack of time, only general figures, which have long been known to everyone, but which I rarely focus on.
In the First World War, Saint Nicholas Romanov killed more Russian soldiers than any other warring country. The total irretrievable military losses of Russia amounted to 2254.4 thousand people. This figure includes missing persons, those who died from wounds and illnesses, etc. And 3343.9 thousand people were captured. There are other estimates, but they all give a clear picture: the number of dead is several times less than the number of prisoners. And this despite the fact that the war was of little maneuverability, and on the Western Front it was completely positional. For comparison: the number of French captured is estimated at 504 thousand people, and the Germans who fought on two fronts were captured up to 1000 thousand people. And even Austria, the weakest link of the Triple Alliance, lost 1,800 thousand people as prisoners.
Only in Russia, which was ruled by a holy man, the number of prisoners was many times (!) greater than the total demographic losses. Why none of the critics Soviet history doesn't focus on these numbers? I think they don’t emphasize it because it’s a very unfavorable comparison. During the entire Great Patriotic War, in all the numerous “cauldrons,” the Red Army lost 4,455,620 people captured and missing in action. In total, the USSR Armed Forces lost 11,285,057 people. That is, prisoners accounted for a little more than a third of the irretrievable losses.
For every St. Nicholas soldier killed, at least one and a half surrendered. For every killed fighter of the “criminal Stalin,” there are only 0.4 prisoners. Judge for yourself who the people wanted and who they did not want to protect.
Everything for the front, everything for victory!
In the First and Second World Wars, almost all countries had two clear trends in their economies: the number of men employed in production decreased, and the number of women and children increased. Almost always this led to the same result - labor productivity fell. In some countries the situation was made even worse by poor supplies. Unfed workers worked with poor results. But even if supplies were good (as in the United States in both wars) and the Germans in World War II until 1944, productivity still fell. And because women and teenagers have less physical strength, and because skills are lower, and for many other reasons. This is an objective fact, and during the First World War, the trend manifested itself especially hard at metalworking industry enterprises, where the most qualified workers were required, as well as at Donbass coal enterprises, which lost up to 40% of miners.
The percentage of male workers fell from 61.3% in 1913 to 56.6% in 1917, while the percentage of female workers increased from 38.7 to 43.4 during this time. In certain industries, these data were above average.
At the same time, for obvious reasons, in Russian industry, as well as in the industry of those who fought in the West European countries, labor productivity fell sharply. Output per worker decreased due to wear and tear of machines and lack of materials, lower qualifications of workers and a decrease in real wages. By the time of the February revolution, the number of workers had increased by 73%, and labor productivity had fallen by 35.6%, that is, by more than one third. Dear reader, remember this figure – a drop of 35.6%!!!
Now let's see what happened in the industry of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War. As is known, the scale of the use of female labor and adolescent labor during the Second World War in the USSR was much higher than in the First World War. Consumption has decreased several times. In the winter of 1943-1944, after a lean summer, death from dystrophy became common. And at the same time, labor productivity jumped sharply. It's incredible, but it's a fact! Western researchers of military economics often call this the “Russian miracle.” However, they cannot recognize the true reasons for this “miracle” for ideological reasons. Therefore, we are forced to come up with our own versions. For example, pearls such as “the totalitarian coercion machine forced it,” etc. are very often used. I will not dwell in detail on these absurd statements. I will only note that forced labor has never been effective anywhere. Under duress, everyone always worked poorly. Both American blacks are slaves and Ostarbeiters in the Third Reich. This is an axiom! So why was labor productivity so high in the USSR in those years? A half-starved woman at a metallurgical plant can work better than a well-fed man in only one case - if she has very high motivation. Extremely high motivation. On the brink of survival. Western historians and domestic anti-Soviet historians do not want, cannot, are not able to admit this...
The miracle of Soviet industry during the Great Patriotic War was an extremely low level of consumption with extremely high labor results!
The national average of labor productivity in the USSR increased between 1940 and 1945. by 14%. This is the same figure with which to compare. Remember how much labor productivity fell in Russia during the First World War. Let me remind you – by 35.6%. During the Second World War, the same people, in even more difficult conditions, sometimes on the verge of physical survival, did not reduce, but increased their labor productivity!!!
By the way, in the Urals, labor productivity was sometimes twice as high as the average for the Soviet Union. The country at that time was led by Joseph Stalin, whom the current authorities consider a criminal.
Officers
Now let's touch lightly on a topic that is not always useful to touch upon. As the case with Vdovin and Barsenkov showed, counting nationalities is fraught with health risks. And, nevertheless, a little arithmetic. Various followers of Vlasov like to repeat that the Bolsheviks destroyed the entire flower of Russian society, the Russian officers were exterminated, or were forced to emigrate. Was the officer corps Russian in 1914 and what was it like in 1941?
In modern school textbook(History of the Fatherland XX century. N.V. Zagladin, S.T. Minakova, S.I. Kozlenko, Yu.A. Petrov. M., 2004) a diagram of the percentage of peoples inhabiting Russian Empire. In particular, Jews in the empire were 4.2%, Poles 6.3%, Finns 2.1, etc. Russians (according to the terminology of that time, this included Little Russians 17.8% and Belarusians 4.7%) made up 68.2%. In total, 146 peoples and nationalities lived in the country. The Germans among them were very few people - 1.4%. There were also not many Germans among the lower ranks of the Russian army. So, according to the statistical collection for 1913, 979,557 people served in the Russian lower ranks in the army of the empire. And there are 18,874 Germans. Those. the percentage of German soldiers in the Russian army with some “reserve”, but still quite consistent with their total number in the country. However, among the officers the number of Germans was much greater. For example, according to Zayonchkovsky before Russian-Japanese war the share of generals of German origin in the general ranks of the Russian Army was 21.6%. On April 15, 1914, among 169 “full generals” there were 48 Germans (28.4%), among 371 lieutenant generals there were 73 Germans (19.7%), among 1034 major generals there were 196 Germans (19%).
Now regarding the staff officers. The latest chronological list of lieutenant colonels was compiled in 1913, colonels - in 1914. However, for accurate comparison, we will accept the data of 1913. Of the 3,806 colonels, there were 510 Germans (13.4%). Of the 5,154 lieutenant colonels - 528 (10.2%). Of the 985 corps officers General Staff 169 people (17.1%) were Germans. Among the 67 chiefs of infantry, grenadiers and rifle divisions there were 13 Germans; in cavalry - 6 out of 16. Among regiment commanders: in infantry and rifle units - 39 out of 326; in the cavalry 12 out of 57. In the Russian Imperial Guard, among the 3 commanders of infantry divisions there was 1 German; in cavalry - 1; in artillery - 3 out of 4 brigade commanders. Among the regiment commanders are 6 out of 16 infantry; 3 of 12 cavalry; 6 out of 29 battery commanders. Of the 230 guard captains - potential colonels - there were 50 Germans (21.7%). As for the Imperial Retinue, among the 53 adjutant generals there were 13 Germans (24.5%). Of the 68 persons in the Retinue of Major Generals and Rear Admirals, 16 people (23.5%) were Germans. Of the 56 wing adjutants, 8 (17%) were Germans. In total, out of 177 people in His Majesty’s Retinue, 37 (20.9%) were Germans. Of the highest positions - corps commanders and chiefs of staff, commanders of troops of military districts - the Germans occupied a third. In addition, the atamans of the Cossack troops were the Germans: Tersky Cossack army– Lieutenant General Fleisher; Siberian Cossack Army - cavalry general Schmidt; Zabaikalsky - Infantry General Evert; Semirechensky - Lieutenant General Folbaum. In the navy the ratio was even greater. In the navy the ratio was even greater.
For example, according to the statistical reference book, in 1913, 9,654 Russian recruits and only 16 Germans were drafted into the lower ranks of the navy. Let me remind you that in 1914 Baltic Fleet commanded by N.O. von Essen, and Black Sea Fleet A.A. Eberhard. The most obvious would be to list the commanders of the fronts, but the Caucasian Front arose at the very end of the war, and the Northwestern Front was abolished in 1915. In addition, the largest number of front commanders occurred in 1917. Therefore, for clarity, we will list not the commanders of the fronts, but the commanders of the armies at the beginning of the war.
- 1st Army - P.K. Rennenkampf;
- 2nd Army - A.V. Samsonov (after whose death S.M. Sheideman was appointed).
- 3rd Army - N.V. Ruzsky;
- 4th Army - Baron A.E. Salza
- 5th Army - P.A. Plehve
- 6th Army - K.P. Fan der – Fleet
- 7th Army - V.N. Nikitin;
- 8th Army - A.A. Brusilov:
- 9th Army - P.A. Lechitsky;
- 10th Army - V.E. Flug (who was replaced by F.W. Sievers).
- 11th Army - A.N. Selivanov
- 13th Army - P.A. Plehve (I honestly admit - I didn’t understand how the omnipresent Plehve managed to command both the 5th and 13th armies at the same time???).
- Caucasian Army - Count I.I. Vorontsov – Dashkov
The so-called ones have not yet been counted here. “field departments” were not transformed into the army by the beginning of the war.
It seems to me that no more convincing data is needed. Oddly enough, it was precisely in such a “Germanized” environment during the First World War that the notorious fear of germs suddenly arose. The Germans fighting for Russia are very afraid of the Germans fighting for Germany! “Where do we go, before them!” - Germans sigh about Germans.
It should be said that the “Germans,” by which all German-speaking mercenaries were called, served in Russia since ancient times. Quite a lot of them came to serve in Russia under Alexei Mikhailovich. There is even a description of how they were used. Foreigners who have been to Russia have repeatedly noted that the Russian Tsar keeps many Tatars and Germans in his service. When he has a war with the Tatars, he sends the Germans there, and when there is a war with the Germans, he sends the Tatars there. It is also known that Peter I, who really did not like everything Russian, initially appointed foreigners to all the highest military posts, but after they unanimously went over to Charles XII near Narva, Peter became more careful and in the future his best commanders were Sheremetev and Menshikov. During civil war German generals fought on the side of the whites. In most cases, she didn't just fight. And she headed. In the south it is Baron Wrangel, in the north it is Miller. The white detachments were commanded by General N. E. Bredov, Baron R. F. Ungern von Sternberg, General M. S. Laterner, Baron A. Budberg, Colonel I. von Wach, etc.
It is this lost German-fearing “Russian officer corps” that the current Vlasovites mourn.
After the civil war, the national composition changed again. Again a dominance arose in the command staff, but now it was Jewish. However, the first clashes with any serious enemy, the Poles, ended in disaster for the Red Army. A command staff formed according to ethnic principles, when they are promoted not because they are capable, but because “one of their own” turned out to be completely unsuitable for war. It is not surprising that Stalin I.V. started making replacements. And when the threat of a military coup arose, he resorted to radical methods. As a result, by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the USSR had a young, inexperienced, but absolutely not German-fearing generals, where military leaders were sometimes “not their own”, but almost always talented. During the Great Patriotic War the fronts were commanded by:
- Apanasenko I.R. Russian
- Artemyev P.A. Russian
- Bagramyan I.Kh Armenian
- Bogdanov I.A no data
- Budyonny S.M. Russian
- Vasilevsky A.M. Russian
- Vatutin N.F. Russian
- Voroshilov K.E. Russian
- Govorov L.A. Russian
- Gordov V.A. Russian
- Eremenko A.I. Ukrainian
- Efremov M.G. Russian
- Zhukov G.K. Russian
- Zakharov G.F. Russian
- Kirponos M.P. Ukrainian
- Kovalev M.P. Russian
- Kozlov D.T. Russian
- Konev I.S. Russian
- Kostenko F. I am Ukrainian
- Kuznetsov F.I. Russian
- Kurochkin P.A. Russian
- Malinovsky R.Ya. Ukrainian (he considered himself as such and entered himself as such in the questionnaires, but the opposite has not been proven).
- Maslennikov I.I. Russian
- Meretskov K.A. Russian
- Pavlov D.G. Russian
- Petrov I.E. Russian
- Popov M.M. Russian
- Purkaev M.A. Mordvin
- Reiter M.A. Latvian
- Rokossovsky K.K. Pole
- Ryabyshev D.I. Russian
- Sobennikov P, P. Russian
- Sokolovsky V.D. Russian
- Timoshenko S.K. Russian
- Tolbukhin F.I. Russian
- Tyulenev I.V. Russian
- Fedyuninsky I.I. Russian
- Frolov V.A. Russian
- Khozin M.S. Russian
- Cherevichenko Ya.T. Ukrainian
- Chernyakhovsky I.D. Ukrainian (well, he wrote so himself!)
- Chibisov N.E. Russian
In my opinion, one of the most important reasons for the unsuccessful First World War for Russia can be established using these lists. However, one of the most important reasons for the victory in the Great Patriotic War– is also obvious. Obviously, there is no need to mourn the Russian elite so hysterically. During the First World War and until 1941, the Russian military elite was something very small, limited, and suppressed.
The real Russian military elite appeared only in the years preceding the Great Patriotic War.
Conclusion: The First World War lasted more than 4 years (from August 1, 1914 to November 11, 1918). 38 states took part in it, over 74 million people fought on its fields, of whom 10 million were killed and 20 million were maimed. The First World War in its scale, human losses and socio-political consequences had no equal in all previous history. It had a huge impact on the economy, politics, ideology, on the entire system international relations. The war led to the collapse of the most powerful European states and the emergence of a new geopolitical situation in the world.
Political results:
· February and October Revolution in Russia and the November Revolution in Germany; liquidation of four empires: German, Russian, Ottoman Empires and Austria-Hungary, the latter two being divided;
· Germany is reduced territorially and weakened economically.
Territorial changes:
· Accession to England of Tanzania and South-West Africa, Iraq and Palestine, parts of Togo and Cameroon;
· accession of Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda to Belgium;
· annexation by France of Alsace-Lorraine, Syria, part of Togo and Cameroon;
· French occupation of the Saarland;
· Italy's annexation of South Tyrol and Istria;
· the independence of the Belarusian People's Republic, the Ukrainian People's Republic, Hungary, Danzig, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Finland and Yugoslavia was proclaimed;
· Weimar and Austrian republics founded;
· The Rhineland and the Black Sea straits were demilitarized.
Military results:
· Tanks, chemical weapons, gas masks, anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns were used for the first time;
· aircraft, machine guns, mortars, submarines, and torpedo boats have become widespread;
· the firepower of the troops increased sharply;
· new types of artillery appeared: anti-aircraft, anti-tank, infantry escort;
· aviation became an independent branch of the military, which began to be divided into reconnaissance, fighter and bomber;
· arose tank troops, chemical troops, air defense troops, naval aviation;
· the role of engineering troops has increased and the role of cavalry has decreased;
· “trench tactics” of warfare appeared with the aim of exhausting the enemy and depleting his economy, which works for military orders.
Economic results:
· gain government regulation and economic planning, the formation of military-industrial complexes;
· accelerating the development of national economic infrastructures (energy systems, paved road networks, etc.);
· growth in the share of production of defense products and dual-use products
· 33 states with a population of over 1.5 billion people were involved in the war.
· As a result of hostilities, over 10 million people were killed and twice as many were injured. Thousands of cities and villages were turned into ruins, roads and bridges were destroyed, millions of people lost their homes and property...
The result of Russia.
In August 1914, Russia achieved success, but then the inconsistency of the armies, supply problems, betrayal and espionage led to defeats. By the end of 1915, Russia had lost the Baltic states, Poland, part of Ukraine and Belarus. In 1916, under the leadership of General Brusilov, a breakthrough was carried out on Southwestern Front. More than 400 thousand enemies were killed, wounded and captured. Germany sent forces to help Austria-Hungary and saved it from disaster. On March 1, 1917, a general offensive of the Russian army was being prepared along the entire front line. But a week before this, the enemies staged a revolution in Petrograd.
The offensive failed. February Revolution destroyed all the army's victorious plans. Mass desertion began, soldiers did not obey orders, intelligence data was declassified. As a result, all offensives of the Russian army failed. There were many killed and captured.
After October 1917, the Bolsheviks came to power. In March 1918, they concluded the “Brest-Litovsk Peace” with Germany, gave the western lands to Russia and stopped participating in the war. Russia lost the most: more than 6 million killed, wounded, and maimed. The main industrial areas were destroyed.
The victory over the fascist bloc was achieved through the joint efforts of the states of the anti-Hitler coalition and all freedom-loving peoples. However, the objective course and results of the war irrefutably indicate that its hardships did not fall on the participants of the anti-Hitler coalition to the same extent. Contribution individual countries victory was determined by the following objective circumstances:
- the nature of the state and social order;
- economic system;
- mobilization capabilities;
- geographical location;
- the level of development of military affairs, as well as subjective factors:
- government policies;
- activities of political parties;
- the degree of participation and activity of the masses in the war.
Along with the main participants in the anti-Hitler coalition, the peoples and armies of other states made a great contribution to the victory over the enemy. For a long time, the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia waged a courageous struggle; soldiers from Poland and Czechoslovakia fought bravely, and participants in popular uprisings in Slovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria. The Albanian people and Hungarian patriots fought for liberation. All participants in the anti-fascist underground and the Resistance movement showed themselves actively. However main role in defeat fascist Germany, militaristic Japan and their allies were played by the USSR, the Soviet people and their Armed Forces. Attempts by falsifiers of history to belittle the contribution of the USSR to the defeat of German fascism and Japanese militarism and to cast doubt on its power have no basis.
The historical truth is that it was the USSR’s contribution to achieving victory that turned out to be decisive. It was the Soviet people who blocked the path of German fascism to world domination, bore the brunt of World War II on their shoulders and made a decisive contribution to achieving victory. This conclusion is based on the following objective facts.
Firstly, the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR led to a radical change in the entire military-political situation, the balance of forces, as well as the prospects for the course and outcome of the Second World War. Soviet Union entered into an armed struggle with a whole bloc of states led by such a highly industrialized state as Germany. By June 1941, the Wehrmacht had already captured many European countries one after another. Essentially, there was no force in Europe that could stop the aggressor. The Soviet Union became such a force.
Politically, the entry of the USSR into the Second World War meant that its main content was the confrontation between the socialist state and the democratic forces of other countries with German fascism. The Soviet Union became the basis for the unification of all forces fighting fascism, the formation of an anti-Hitler coalition.
militarily, the entry of the USSR into World War II meant that the Red Army, the largest of all the armies that opposed the invaders, joined the fight against the aggressor, and the center of military operations moved to the Soviet-German front. From June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945, it was decisive in the Second World War in terms of the number of forces involved, the duration and intensity of the struggle, its spatial scope and final results. It was on this front that the vast majority of the armed forces were concentrated throughout the war Nazi Germany and its accomplices - Finland, Romania, Italy and Hungary - most of it was used here. military equipment enemy.
Secondly, the main battles of World War II took place on the Soviet-German front. Here the main results in the armed struggle were achieved. What no army in the West could do, the Red Army accomplished. Despite the initial successes, the Nazi troops were never able to achieve their goals. Victory Soviet troops near Moscow, she dispelled the myth of the invincibility of the Wehrmacht, finally buried the plan for a “lightning war”, and marked the beginning of a radical turn in the war.
During the first three years of the war (before the opening of the second front), the Red Army essentially fought alone in Europe against the main forces of Nazi Germany and its satellites. During this period, more than 70% of the total active forces of Nazi Germany were on the Soviet-German front. After the opening of the second front in Europe, the main forces of the Wehrmacht continued to operate against the Red Army. In the period from June 1941 to June 1944, from 190 to 270 enemy divisions operated simultaneously on the Soviet-German front, including from 135 to 201 divisions of Nazi Germany, and against British and American troops in North Africa - from 9 to 20, in Italy - from 7 to 26 divisions. And even after the opening of the second front, the Nazi command was forced to keep about 60% of its most combat-ready troops on the Soviet-German front and only about 40% on other fronts and in reserve.
Thirdly, the Soviet-German front not only diverted the main forces German army, but also differed sharply from other fronts in the scope and intensity of the armed struggle. The Red Army fought for 1,418 days on a front stretching from 3,000 km to 6,200 km, while on the 300-kilometer Italian front fighting were conducted for 663 days, and western front, not exceeding 800 km, existed for 338 days.
Fourth, on the Soviet-German front, the main forces of the fascist bloc were defeated and captured - 607 divisions, while in North Africa, Italy and Western Europe, the allied forces defeated and captured only 176. Of the 13.6 million people, 10 million Germany lost on the Soviet-German front. Losses in weapons and equipment were also enormous: up to 75% of the total losses of tanks and assault guns, over 75% of aviation, 74% of total losses of artillery pieces.
During the war, 51 strategic, 250 front-line and more than 1,000 army operations were carried out, most of which were offensive.
The defeat of the main forces of the aggressors in Europe had a decisive influence on the elimination of the last source of war in Far East. It was the Red Army that inflicted a decisive defeat on the main striking force ground forces Japan - the Kwantung Army, which was one of the determining factors in the surrender of Japan and the end of World War II.
The Red Army eliminated the inequality in war conditions that had arisen as a result of the surprise attack. It convincingly proved the falsehood of the assumptions of the military-political leadership of Nazi Germany that the Soviet Union was militarily weak and incapable of conducting modern war what's before German tanks and aviation, the Red Army will not be able to withstand that the Soviet rear is fragile and that the USSR will be isolated in the international arena. But the Red Army showed itself to be first-class. Assessing its actions and their impact on the course of World War II, US President F. Roosevelt wrote on May 6, 1942: “From the point of view of grand strategy, it is difficult to escape the obvious fact that Russian armies destroy more enemy soldiers and weapons than all others.” 25 states of the United Nations combined."
It should also be emphasized that a radical turning point during the Second World War occurred on the Soviet-German front. A correct understanding of this phenomenon has not only historical, but also socio-political significance. Irrefutable historical facts indicate that the Soviet people and their army are in Battle of Stalingrad, in the battles of Kursk and the Dnieper, with their own forces they managed to achieve a radical change and consolidate it in the confrontation with Nazi Germany. It was the Red Army that seized the strategic initiative in these battles and held it until the end of the entire Second World War. They're talking about it objective assessments her actions, devoid of diplomatic considerations, given in the message of W. Churchill to I.V. To Stalin on September 27, 1944: “... it was the Russian army that gutted the German military machine and is currently holding back incomparably most of enemy forces."
Fifthly, the decisive role of the USSR in the defeat of Nazi Germany is confirmed by the fact that our country played exclusively important role in the liberation of the peoples of other countries from the fascist yoke. The crushing blows to the fascist invaders created favorable conditions for intensifying the struggle of the masses of the enslaved states for their national liberation.
It was the Soviet Union that provided great assistance to the peoples of Central and South-Eastern Europe. About 7 million Soviet soldiers directly participated in the liberation of eleven European countries with a total area of 1 million square meters. km with a population of 113 million people. In the liberation of Northeast China (Manchuria) and North Korea More than 1.5 million Soviet soldiers took part.
So the crush military power The fascist bloc is a convincing indicator of the decisive contribution of the USSR to victory. This led to the collapse of the whole political system Hitler's Germany and its allies, which stood in the way of the destruction of world civilization.