The Great Patriotic War and Its Aftermath

(Begin by reading Chapters 6 and 7 "The Great Patriotic War" and "The Nadir 1945-1953" pp. 132-184 in the
Kenez text.)
During the 1930’s, Stalin’s preoccupation with industrialization, cementing political power, and spreading world
Communism via the Comintern, (Soviet organization to promote communism abroad), made what was
happening in Europe seem distant and maybe even helpful in promoting the political chaos and war that would
be fertile ground for a European communist revolution. By 1938-1939, however, Hitler’s growing expansionism
into Austria, quest for reunification of the German “Race”, and ideological quest for lebensraum (more “living
space for Germans in the east) threatened Stalin. Certain that Britain and France would not willingly ally with
the Soviet Union, Stalin signed a Non-Aggression Pact with Hitler August 23, 1939. The pact guaranteed
peace between the two countries and guaranteed that neither government would aid or ally with an enemy of
the other. This would have been a solely defensive treaty were it not for the Secret Protocol which defined the
“spheres of Influence” of each party. The agreement pushed the German border east into Poland and the
Soviet border west into Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. (The agreement was only made public
during the Nuremburg Trials after the war). September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland secure that the
Soviet Union would not attack and present Hitler with a two-front war. In exchange the Soviet Union marched
into eastern Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. The Soviet Union,by supporting Hitler, therefore,
gained territory and time to prepare for the inevitable German invasion of the Soviet Union and East Europe.
Stalin immediately began moving industry and factories east to the Urals to protect Russia and this is where
our chapter story begins. How a barely industrialized and politically turbulent country like the Soviet Union
became a winner of World War II and as a result, a world power, has fascinated historians. The Soviet effort
and unimaginable loss of lives (27,000,000 civilians and military, 20,000,000 by Soviet measure), was
sustained in the name of the Great Patriotic War—a war for the land, pride and soul of Russia rather than for
communism. Instantly Stalin became “Father of the Peoples” reminiscent of the way the peasants considered
the tsars of Russia.

1. How does Kenez explain the Soviet victory against the Germans? Discuss the many elements that the
   author proposes to explain Soviet victory.
2. What role did the Russian people play in Soviet victory? Examine factors like the partisan movement,
   patriotism, Russian attitudes toward non-Russians, attitudes of youth, reopening of churches, post-war
   promises of collective farm abolishment, and so on that led to the enormous fortitude of Russians in resisting
   the Germans.
3. Describe and assess, from the Russian point of view, the nature of the Soviet wartime alliance with Britain
   and the United States 1941-1945. Give concrete examples.
4. According to Kenez, Soviet insecurity drove the diplomatic actions of Stalin from 1945-1953. How does the
   author describe the nature of the insecurity, and how did that perception drive Stalin’s actions in several places,
   and actions with respect to the U.S. and China? Was the Cold War an ideological or a national war in Stalin’s
   mind?
5. The first time I visited Russia, men were rarely to be seen, and if they were, they were on crutches. Every
   factory I visited was full of factory equipment from western countries dismantled and shipped in total to the
   Soviet Union after the war. Years after the war ended, the Soviet Union, in my eyes, was still a crippled country
   unlike France and Germany under postwar reconstruction.
   On page 177, Kenez says “They needed the cold war.” How does Kenez support that view in terms of Stalin’s
   approach to reconstruction, politics and culture? In a sense, did the deprivations during World War II continue
   in Russia after the war but with a different enemy justifying deprivations and dictatorship on the part of the
   Russian people?

Sample Solution