The Fuhrer and the Vozhd- The Nazi-Soviet Pact

Hitler becomes Chancellor in 1933

Anti-Comintern Pact 1936-7 between Germany, Japan and Italy

Stalin's responce:

Reforming the Military

International Espionage

Economic Preparation

1935- Military discipline in the Red Army tightened

Stalin reintroduced Tsarist system of strict discipline and clear divisions between officers and men

1937-8-Red Army extensively purged- loss of military skill and experience

Advantages- Large network of Spies: communist sympathisers at all level of government in UK, France and Germany, willingly providing secret information

Disadvantages- much of the information was never analysed due to Stalin's refusal to trust intelligence service, also for most of the 1930's, Russia intelligence resources focused on the hunt for Trotsky

Rearmament essential part of the 3rd FYP

Problems: -Purges led to chaos in government departments
-administration worked on drafts of plans
-little detail on how to achieve
-no agreed budget for military spending
-17 departments argued with Gosplan over money allocated to war production

estimated defence spending (roubles)
FYP= 366 million  SYP= 2080 million  TYP= 4200 million

Successes: -1939, 6 aircraft factories, 24 explosives factories
-total number of tanks produced 1942 twice that of 1938
-Russian war preparation compared favourably with Germans

Mein Kampt 1925- talks badly about Communists

Spanish Civil War 1936-9- Hitler fought against Communism

1. No viable alternative- Britian and France not interested, japan was a threat

2. Robert Service agrued Stalin was 'buying time' the Red Army was not ready until 1943

3. Follow Lenin- 1920 urged German Communist to form alliance with German facists overthrowing government

4. Stalin admired Hitler- Strong, decisive leader

5. Wanted to recapture European territory; belonged to Tsar. One month after signing Stalin overthrown govermments of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. 1940 Red Army attacks Finland

Hitler's military success- Conquered Poland in less than a month
-By mid- 1940 overrun France and Holland, forced British troops out of Europe

Failure of the Red Army- Finland

After Purges, needed time to rebuild military- believed pact could keep Russia safe until May 1942