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Russian Involvement in WWII
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Stalin’s communist Russia signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler in order to keep Germany away from Russia.
-Hitler told Stalin he was planning on attacking Poland, and needed to know whether Russia would support it, or fight against it. Stalin told Hitler he would support it, because he knew that if Hitler invaded Poland, Britain and France would declare war against Hitler. http://goo.gl/6RRl4 -
Britain and France join the war.
-While Britain and France were fighting against Germany, Stalin’s Russia moved to a maximum war effort, where they enormously expanded their military force and military production. http://goo.gl/qXNS0 -
Russia became mainly involved.
Germany and its axis allies attacked Russia’s western border and along the Finnish border.
Adolf Hitler wanted to conquer the Soviet Territories. This attack was codenamed “Operation Barbarossa.” It was Germany’s largest action. Hitler hated communism and on top of that, all the Jews living in Russia. http://goo.gl/hnVB9 -
Joseph Stalin made a broadcast breaking the horrible news to everyone.
-Hitler was out to take over Russia and make the Russians his slave.
-He declared a “Scorched Earth Policy” which is a military strategy that involves taking extreme action, such as burning and destroying anything that may be of use to the invading enemy. http://goo.gl/1jhHM -
Hitler begins the Siege of Leningrad
-The Germans surrounded the city, and Hitler and his troops attacked the city with artillery.
-They did this because they wanted Russia to surrender.
-Thousands of people died from hunger, cold, and other shortages. http://goo.gl/92gID -
German forces take over Kiev (the capital and largest city of Ukraine).
-It is the largest encirclement of troops in military history.
-The Southwestern Front (a name given to this military by the Imperial Russian Army) were surrounded.
-Stalin did not allow the Soviet forces to retreat. The Soviet forces were poorly trained and badly prepared. http://goo.gl/7OdHA -
Thousands of Russian civilians (people who were not in the armed forces) began digging more than 5,000 miles of trenches around Moscow.
-Moscow was one of the most primary military and political goals the Axis forces had for their invasion of the Soviet Union.
-When the Germans approached Moscow, they found row after row of trenches and ditches strengthened by barbed wire. http://goo.gl/htAal -
Hitler orders all the USSR force to change from offensive defensive operations.
-The Germans were overwhelmed by Russia’s strong defense, freezing temperatures and became down.
-In three weeks they had already lost 85,000 men. During the first week of December the Russians began to push back the Germans for several miles, and managed to take some of their land. http://goo.gl/E9cAX -
German troops crossed the Don River.
Hitler’s decision to invade the USSR drained Germany of its resources, hurt their enthusiasm and made the military change course from western Europe.
-Germany continued out the invasion killing 20 million people in Russia -that includes soldiers fighting, Jews who were singled out and murdered in the towns, local government.
http://goo.gl/u0keO -
Hitler and his troops reached the Volga River, and Luftwaffe bombed Stalingrad.
-The Germans began preparing to attack the city.
-Hundreds of German bombers attacked Stalingrad, and about 40,000 citizens died. One the most deadliest battles in history, and lasted for 6 months.
http://goo.gl/O0lyM
http://goo.gl/oCdEc -
Germany’s sixth army surrendered to the Soviets.
-They actually didn’t want to surrender to the Russians because they were scared of what Russia would do. They wanted to surrender to America and Britain.
-In the end, Russia survived and slowly recovered from it’s many losses, increased their strength, and pushed the Germans all the way back to Berlin. http://goo.gl/kVNQK
