Russia's role in World War II

The Second World War It's one of the major war conflicts of the history of humanity, being for this reason that all the great powers of the time participated in it, one of them being Russia. Russia, known at that time as USSR, had a key role during the war, and to understand the importance of it in this lesson from a Professor we must talk about the Russia's role in WWII.

Shortly before World War II, the USSR was in a difficult situation. Not many years had passed since the Russian Revolution that had ended the traditional system of the nation and, therefore, the nation was still in a Transformation proccess.

In this sense, although the USSR was at war with small nations, due to the intention of spread socialism to countries with whom he was related, he was not prepared for a great global war.

The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact

For all this August 23, 1939, a few days before the start of the Second World War, Stalin signed a pact with Hitler's Germany, known as the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact.

The agreement promised by both parties the

do not attack for a few years, serving so that both nations could take the regions they wanted, but provided there was no clash of interests, being much easier for both powers.

On the part of the USSR, it was thought that Germany was a very strong rival and over which there were no conquering interests, while that on the part of Germany it was considered that confronting France and the USSR at the same time would make the German country surrounded. The pact agreed on the territories that each nation could take, dividing part of Europe between the USSR and Germany.

Even with this, Russians and Germans were never alliesSince the USSR refused to enter the Second World War, and Hitler who hated the communists did not want to join them.

The breaking of the pact

September 1, 1939 Germany attacked Poland starting the Second World War, and shortly after the USSR began the invasion and conquest of numerous areas of Eastern Europe, always respecting the points of the agreement signed between both powers.

When the war was more advanced and Hitler thought that victory was a matter of time after France was conquered, the Nazi leader ordered to attack the USSR, since in that situation he considered that they could defeat the Russian giant, the reason for his attack being Hitler's hatred towards the Slavs and the communists. On June 22, 1941, Germany entered Russian soil, initiating the so-called Operation Barbarossa and causing the Russian entry into the war.

After the German invasion of the USSR, the Russian nation approached positions with the great Allied powers, signing numerous collaboration agreements with United Kingdom, United States and other small allied countries. You could say that right now the USSR enters the Second World War, although it would take some time to officially join.

Hitler's idea was to conquer the USSR quickly, as he had done with France, but the blitzkrieg did not work, since the USSR troops were better prepared than the French and the land area was much greater.

The financial aid from the United States served the USSR to buy supplies and weapons, detaining the Germans until the arrival of the harsh Russian winter, when the Nazis had to stop the advance due to the impossibility of maintaining it.

For years the Russians were able to stop the German attacks, stopping in battles like that of Stalingrad and Kursk, and even recovering land with victories like Vistula-Oder. All this made the USSR the nation with the highest number of victories in World War II, and the one that caused the most deaths on the German side.

After these victories, the USSR began a huge counteroffensive against the Germans, reaching the Baltic areas and causing the Germans to find themselves surrounded by the Russians and the rest of the Allies. At the end of 1943, the Allies met in Tehran and agreed on the moves to end the war and the future of Europe after it.

On May 2, 1945, Berlin was taken by the Allies, being the USSR the first power to enter the city and thereby demonstrating that they were one of the most important powers in the war.

To conclude this summary of Russia in World War II, we must talk about how the end of the conflict was for the USSR and what were the consequences that it brought for the country.

Although the USSR won the war, not all were benefits for the European nation, since the war brought serious consequences on demography and economy, being the nation with the highest death toll during the war. This was even more serious because it was one of the few allied powers that did not receive money from the United States, so its recovery had to be its own.

There are many elements to take into account about the USSR after the war, affecting all areas of the nation. The main consequences that brought the war to the Soviet country were the following:

• The USSR was the first nation to enter Berlin, so we could say that it was the one that ended the war. Even so, they tend to forget their vital participation and focus the message of victory in the United States or the United Kingdom.
• The USSR, like the United States did with the West, helped save the nations economy Eastern Europe and China. For this reason they formed a common block characterized by socialism.
• Russia became the great world power together with the United States, causing an ideological confrontation between the two powers that would initiate the Cold War and therefore the struggle between capitalism and communism.
• Fearing that something similar would happen again, the USSR initiated a huge financing of armaments, especially focused on the creation of nuclear weapons.
• For your victory, the USSR took numerous territories, Among which we find Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and parts of Poland, Finland and Romania.
• The USSR together with the rest of the Allies they divided Germany, causing part of it to have socialist influence and causing the division of the German nation for years.