Soviet Crimes During The Second World War

As leaders, Adolf Hitler was more brutal than Stalin. Hitler was very manipulative, thus, having the ability to convince and sway his country to ignore the law and murder millions of people. Hitler as a person was a lot worse than Stalin because he was determined have world domination. Hitler was very scheming, which lead to the Holocaust. He had the power to convince Nazis to murder 6 million out of 9 million jews living in Europe at the time1. Hitler had made the Germans believe that in case of another war, the Germans will not be exterminated, but instead the Jews would. As Albert Speer quoted, “I was present in the Reichstag session of January 30, 1939 when Hitler guaranteed that, in the event of another war, the Jews, not the Germans,

The Zabinski’s era was shaped by the looming threat of war. “Sometime in the winter of 1937-38, Hitler became convinced that he would not live much longer, and that therefore the time had come to translate the prospect of a greater German Reich into action…” (Lukacs 168). Thus, in 1939, Hitler pushed to incorporate Poland into Germany, “…reducing Poland to a satellite or, at most, to a junior ally of Germany—even at the risk of war” (Lukacs 168). Nine days before Germany invaded Poland, Joachim Ribbentrop, Hitler’s minister of foreign affairs, signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a non-aggression pact

Germany and the Soviet Union had signed what is known as “Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact” of 1939 in order to acquire Poland’s land together. Although Hitler and Stalin did not like one another, they decided to put their differences aside for the moment in order to seize the opportunity. Hitler was interested in what was known as the Polish Corridor which had separated Germany from another piece of its property due to the Treaty of Versailles. Stalin was simply interested in expansion of Russia, and had plans to attack Germany once taking over Poland was successful. Germany took part in what was known as the

shortly before World War II broke out in Europe–enemies NaziGermany and the Soviet Union surprised the world by signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, in which the two countries agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10

War crimes are committed in every war, whether it be the mass murder/rape of civilians/noncombatants or the mistreatment of POWs, war crimes show war's worst effects on people’s morals and humanity. After the end of World War 2 there were the Nuremberg trials which tried the members of the nazi party that had committed war crimes throughout the war. However most allied war crimes were not brought to the public and in the soviets case, blamed on the nazi's. This is the result of how “history is written by the victors” and while the nazi war crimes were closely documented, judged and sentenced the allied war crimes were swept under the rug away from the public eye as it wouldn’t of been popular to publicly lock up and persecute the men that had

Prior to the onset of WWII, conditions throughout occupied Poland & Belarus varied greatly. In some areas, especially in eastern Poland, which the Soviet Union invaded in 1939, and subsequently "formally" annexed, the situation was particularly volatile.1

Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union are two controversial regimes. Hitler and Stalin were both Dictators of the countries they ruled. When Hitler and Stalin are compared, we can clearly see that each one of them were cold blooded killers. They are both responsible for an absurd amount of innocent deaths. Hitler is believed to be responsible for killing at least six million Jewish people during the Holocaust; Stalin is responsible for the killings of millions of people (many of them Jews).

Soon after a Soviet diplomat’s son was kidnapped by the Germans the USSR was forced to revoke the armistice. In 1945 Hungarian and German forces were defeated by the invading soviet forces.

But now that Adolf Hitler Germany’s chancellor has Poland, Hitler will break that pact in 1941. This was when Hitler had organized a blitzkrieg on the Soviet Union . That Blitzkrieg was codenamed Operation Barbarossa. On the day June 22, 1941 Adolf Hitler organized and launched operation barbarossa, he had set the soldiers to the Eastern side of Russia. This was one of the largest military operation in history. It concluded more than three million Axis troops, and around three thousand and five hundred tanks. On the first day the Germans had gone nearly fifty miles into Russia. The Soviets weren’t looking so good they had two hundred fifty thousand men that were lost when the Germans encircled and either killed or enslaved the Soviet soldiers near the end of June in Minskin Belarus near Poland. Also around september one hundred eighty thousand were captured at Smolensk and meanwhile five hundred thousand casualties in the Battle of Kiev. The Soviets with the non aggression pact broken they looked for the help of the Allies.

World War 2 reshaped our world geographically, economically, and politically. During this time, Nazi Germany annihilated almost any opposition who challenged them. The German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact was signed on August 23, 1939 shortly before World War 2. In this document, both countries promised to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years. However, during the war, Hitler found Russia a necessity to enhance his world power through the Volga River. For six months Germans and Russians fought scrupulously. Nazi troops fought their way into the heart of Stalingrad yet, with winter arriving, they found themselves cold, starving, and low on ammunition. Attempts at rescue by airdrops failed and the Russians enclosed their enemy. Approximately 91,000 German soldiers were taken prisoner and Russians claimed victory on August 23, 1942.

The pact consists of neutrality between us and Germany. Poland will be a shared territory between we the Soviet Union, and Germany. Adolf Hitler has said, “Germany has concluded a Nonaggression Pact with Poland. We shall adhere to it unconditionally. We recognize Poland as the home of a great and nationally conscious people.”

Stalin had individuals arrested without any reasonable explanation for their arrest, other than they were a threat to the regime and his quest for total control. He had the power to arrest and do away with anyone that disagreed or posed a threat to the regime. This compromised the individual’s rights in that the people could never feel safe because there was no rhyme or reason to the way people were targeted in Russia. Hitler wanted to create a perfect and flawless race. Therefore, he ordered the Nazi soldiers to round up anyone who was Jewish, homosexual, mentally and physically disabled, and even the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The Molotov–Ribbentrop pact, named after the Soviet secretary of state Vyacheslav Molotov and also the German secretary of state Joachim von Ribbentrop, formally the treaty of Non-aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and additionally called the Ribbentrop–Molotov pact or Nazi–Soviet pact, was a non-aggression treaty signed in Moscow within the late hours of twenty three August 1939.

The 60th anniversary of one of the most fateful events in world history went unremarked this week. On Aug. 23, 1939 Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin agreed to what became known as the Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact. With that, Stalin made World War II possible. Assured that he was protected from Soviet counter-aggression in the East, Hitler invaded Poland a week later, Sept. 1.

One of the worst violations of Human Rights throughout history was Stalin’s Purges. Stalin started his purges on December 1, 1934 when he killed Sergei Kirov, who was a Leningrad party leader that opposed many of Stalins ideas. His purges were a result of his own paranoia and need to be in power. The purges were specifically designed to take out any political threats to Stalin or any citizens that proved to be disloyal. His earliest purges were aimed to exterminate members of his cabinet and government, soldiers, clergy, intellectuals, kulaks, who were well-off farmers, entrepreneurs, and other citizens that were making a good amount of money who opposed collectivization, and anyone he accused of disobeying him. Stalin took all rights to speech, religion, and any other outside influence away and took all