So Why Was the Soviet Union Attacked in 1941? Essay

While modernizing the USSR, he portrayed western countries as enemies just waiting to invade the Soviet Union. He stuck to his “socialism in one country” theory that the focus should remain on improving the Soviet Union’s strength. [Socialist Alternative] To preserve Soviet security, Stalin signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939 with Hitler. The Soviets sided with Britain and France before the signage of the pact, but Stalin didn’t think that they could resist Germany. This treaty was a promise that the two countries wouldn’t go to war with each other and if Germany invaded Poland, the two would split it equally. When the war between the Allied powers and Germany broke out, Stalin played both sides. The non-aggression pact allowed for the Germans to invade other countries, so it was inevitable that they would soon invade the Soviet Union. On December 18, 1940, “Operation Barbarossa” took place as German forces broke the pact and stormed the Soviet Union. Since the pact was broken, Stalin realigned himself with the Allied Forces and was determined to take Germany down. Stalin created a Department of Defense led by him and used propaganda and the Orthodox Church to gain support and boost nationalism. After taking down Germany in WWII, the United States and Soviet Union sought to influence their political ideologies to other nations. After WWII, United States Secretary of State George Marshall presented the Marshall

The main goal of Adolf hitler was to create more living space for the German people so they dominated the world because he wanted to create a racist world in which one dominant

Hitler was not to hold back. He wanted to eliminate the gap between Germany and Russia. With the annihilation of Poland the German and Russian borders met. Hitler killed two birds with one stone with this action. He destroyed another slavic nation and brought Russia's and Germany's borders together. Hitler could easily attack Russia now without having to move through Poland.

A third promise of Hitlers was that he would provide more living space. Hitler believed that Germany required more living space, or "Lebensraum", in order to survive. Instead of adding colonies to make Germany bigger, Hitler wanted to enlarge Germany within Europe. Hitler stated that the Soviet Union was run by the Jews, thus Germany had a right to take Russian land. With more living space, it was believed that this would make Germany stronger: stronger military, and built high hopes that Germany would become economically self-sufficient with the newfound wealth of food and raw material sources.

<br>As the war progressed, Hitler became more risky in his decision making, and made the crucial error of invading Russia in June 1941. This opened Germany up to communist attack by breaking the Soviet-German non-agression pact of August 1939, and also a two front war, and Hitler was forced to divert forces to Russia, which could have been spent on defeating Britain. Hitler's aim of invading Russia had been postponed due to the distractions in both North Africa, and also south eastern Europe. Hitler felt an urgency to begin the move to the east, even though the British remained undefeated in the west. The invasion of Russia was the largest military campaign of the war.

Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party used nationalism to great effect in Germany that spured the Second World World. After WWI, many Germans blamed the new government for accepting the unfair treaty as conditions became miserable. People who could not find jobs began to drift into the Communist and National Socialist parties established by Hitler. They decided that it was the necessary solution. In 1933, Hitler came to power as dictator of Germany and preached a racist brand of fascism. He promised to end the humiliating conditions caused by the German defeat in WWI. He knew how to win people's obedience and trust, through their fears and insecurities. He almost immediately got Germany back into the factories and began secretly building up army and weapons. His real motives were to expand German territory and dominate Europe and the whole world that became the prelude to another war.

During the time period of 1945 to 1990, the U.S. had almost double the amount of warheads than the USSR (Document 9). Another reason why the West started the war was because the United States was bribing other countries to expand its military sphere of influence, “... the war broke out as the inevitable result of capitalist with raw material and markets usually attempting to change the situation and to redistribute spheres of influence in its own favor by employing armed force,” says Joseph Stalin in his response to the Iron Curtain speech (Document 7). Joseph Stalin’s response to the Iron Curtain speech (Document 3) suggest that the West allowed Germany to invade Russia. “The Germans made their invasion of the USSR through Finland, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungaria. The Germans were able to make their invasion because, at the time, governments hostile o the Soviet Union existed in these

Hitler was obsessed with the racial superiority he believed the German peoples had over all other inferior peoples. He wanted to rule the world, but in order to carry out his solution, he needed to convince the German people to listen to him. Perhaps Hitler would never have been able to do what he did had World War I never occurred. As Resnick said in his book, The Holocaust; After World War I, Germany was trying to rebuild and recover&#8230;Both the Treaty of Versailles and the Great Depression severely afflicted Germany. "In many respects, these terrible conditions made Hitler's rise to power possible." (Resnick p. 15) People in desperate situations will listen to anyone offering a way out. Hitler offered not only a way out of Germany's turmoil, but also someone to blame for it; he pointed at the Jews.

Living space then, was a necessary objective in Hitler 's eyes, but in order to achieve this space he needed to develop Germany 's army first. So he did. Between 1933 and 1939 the Treaty of Versailles was secretly avoided to massively increase the size of the German army, from 100,000 to 300,00017. The Luftwaffe, German air force, also rapidly increased and by 1940 it was the strongest among all the European powers. The German war machine was impressive, in just six years it went from being the weakest army to one of the strongest18. However, this created a vicious circle in terms of foreign policy for Germany: Hitler wanted living space, so he built up the army. However, in order to pay for this rapid rearmament, he had to conquer territories. Thus, Hitler made war profitable and a key part of the foreign policy of Germany19.

Each difficult time led to him believing that he was standing up for the right thing. While Germany was left in a terrible depression from World War 1, their trade had been severely limited. Germany could not import or export goods. All their resources had been given to the War effort. This left Germany in a terrible way, dropping themselves from the rank of the second greatest economy. Germany began printing money at a large rate, leading to hyperinflation. Money, in turn, was worth little to nothing. Unemployment also reached record high levels. Approximately 6 million people were left unemployed. Hitler began to think like many of the racist organizations at the time, believing that the Jews were the sole reason for World War 1 and Germany’s economic

From the time of ‘Mein Kampf’ Hitler had outwardly expressed his desire to move toward Russia in his quest for ‘Lebensraum,’ however in 1939, it was beneficial for him

Hitler cultivated his own army to destroy selective demographics, he wanted to create a world where his concept of ideal was the only one that existed. As a dictator he was able to constitute laws, anyone who chose to disobey these laws would be executed. The laws that are put into place can define success through evil acts. The Holocaust is a direct example; Hitler knew he would be able to brainwash human beings to obey his commands contributing to the success of his dehumanizing scheme.

According to Kagan, “Hitler’s long-range plans included germinating in lands inhabited by people racially akin to the Germans.” (Kagan, 2001) He wanted to turn these lands in colonies/empires. He also intended to recapture territory that was lost to Poland in World War One.

Rearmament was a popular move in Germany. It boosted Nazi support. Hitler also knew that Britain had some sympathy for Germany on this issue, as Britain believed that the limits put on Germany’s armed forces by the Treaty of Versailles were too strict. It was clear that the permitted forces were not enough to defend Germany from attack. Also, Britain thought that Germany would be a good buffer against Communism.

First of all, the situation that Germany was facing during the Depression was not easy. For the Germans and for Hitler himself, this situation was one of the worst conditions to live. When Hitler’s ideas appeared in Germany, the people did not think twice but to accept his ideals. Hitler’s aim was to rebuild a new Germany with the discipline that he believed. For this to happen new people would need to appear and for Hitler those new people would be the Germany future, the children.