nazi germany - invasion of the soviet union
- Created by: Abi Crew
- Created on: 09-06-22 23:09
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- the invasion of the Soviet Union
- Nazi-Soviet Pact 1939
- followed the failure of the West to make the USSR an ally
- represented a major ideological and diplomatic turn around
- failures
- early promises of success not fulfilled because Germans overextended lines of communication and had inadequate reserves
- German army was not prepared for the Soviet campaign, and the defeat at Stalingrad was a major turning point
- Non-Aggression Pact
- prevented both powers from supporting any country at war with the signatories
- secret clauses referred to 'mutual spheres of influence' in eastern Europe
- divided Poland between Germany and the USSR as well as allocated territories to each other
- despite the pact, Hitler has always intended to invade the Soviet Union
- would be easier now that they had a common frontier in Poland
- preparation
- negative outcome of Battle of Britain and the abandonment of Operation Sealion strengthened Hitler's resolve to attack USSR
- Nov 1940 - military prep for Operation Barbarossa began
- invasion was supposed to be a Blitzkrieg, began in June 1940
- social darwinism
- invasion was racist at core
- Hitler - Russia was an ideological enemy, a monstrous regime ran by unfit Jewish communists
- Nazis considered Slavic people to be racially inferior
- benefits
- war for the plunder of Slav labour, oil reserves from Caucasus and Ukrainian grain supply
- pre-emptive strike against an enemy that had unrealised military potential
- timing
- based upon the misleading premise that the USSR had limited resources and military capacity
- initial apparent successes, including the Leningrad siege and the taking of 3 million POWs
- Nazi-Soviet Pact 1939
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