Russia WW2

Preparing for War

Since the 1920's the Soviet Union believed that Germany were preparing for war.
Concern intensified when Hitler was appointed Chancellor.
An agreement between Nazi Germany, Facist Italy and Imperial Japan (Who were against communist Russia).
This meant Russia, reformed the military, recruited spies and started to divert economic resources towards rearement.
However due to Stalins Paranoia theses measures couldn't take full effect.

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In 1935, preparation for war meant discipline in the Red Army was tightened.
Under Trotsky titles such as Officer were abolished, and commanders and regular soldiers were encouraged to treat each other equally.
However Stalin reintroduced the Tsarist system of clear divisions between officers and soldiers.
Furthermore between 1937-1938 the Red Army was extensively purged (To ensure all members were loyal).
This mean a great deal of skill and leadership was lost.

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Russia had a massive advantage over it's rival due to it's large network of spies.
Communist sympathisers at all levels of governement provided secret information willingly to the Soviet government.
However Stalins Paranoia meant he didn't trust the intelligence.
This meant most assignements involved trying to find Trotsky.

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In theory Rearmament was essential in the Third Five-Year Plan.
However due to the purges in government chaos was caused this meant the plan was never finished.
In Fact the plan was never published and governement officials had to use drafts with little detail about rearmament.
Their was no agreed military budget and 17 government officials argued with Gosplan over the amount of money to be allocated.
In spite of the Choas, soviet industry achieved remarkable feats.
In 1939, 6 new aircraft factories were built.

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Russia's war preparation compared favourably to Germany's.
Germany spent more for war between 1935 and 1940, however on the eve of war Russia was able to take over.
This was down to Russia's more powerful economy.
24 new factories were built, dedicated to the production of explosives.
Tanks production doubled in 1942 compared to 1938.

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Military spending wasn't Stalins only defence, he was willing to negotiate with Germany (His Sworn Enemy) to protect Russia.
The allience between Hitler and Stalin seemed unthinkable (Hitler hatted communism).
As well as this Russians called the Nazism as the worst regime of their age.
Furthermore, during the Spanish Civil war Germany and Russia fought each other.

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The Pact was agreed in under three hours on 24 August 1939.
The Pact had two parts the public side and the secret side.
Public Side: They must respect each others territories, settle any disputes with negotiation and increase trade.
Privately: They divided Eastern Euroupe into two spheres of interest, Germany recieved Western Poland and Czechoslovakia, whilst Russia got Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
Stalin shook with excitement over the agreement.
A week later Germany captured Poland, and Stalin telegraphed Hitler to congradulate him.

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