HIST 236 Lecture 21: Lecture 21 - The Great Patriotic War
19 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
First patriotic war was the Napoleonic war
-
Prelude to the Great Patriotic War
By the mid-1930s, the Soviet government was convinced war was
coming and wanted to be prepared
-
In August 1939, it signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact
with Nazi Germany
It contained a secret protocol that would divide up Eastern
Europe countries between them
○
-
The Soviet Union attacked Poland 16 days after the Nazis in September
in 1939 and seized territory there
-
The Soviet Union invaded Finland in November 1939
Its poor showing in the "Winter War" may have emboldened
Hitler to attack
○
Got the USSR kicked out of the league of nations
○
-
The Nazi Invasion and Early Stages of the War
Hitler began planning to attack the Soviet Union in 1940; Stalin refused
to believe this, despite accurate intelligence
-
On June 22, 1941, the Wehrmacht invaded the Soviet Union, inflicting
immediate damage and heavy losses
-
It took until the fall/water of 1941/1942 for the Red Army to slow the
German advance
-
Millions of people volunteered for or were conscripted into the Red
Army
They were expected to fight bravely and be prepared to die for
their Fatherland
○
Some deserted or defected and joined the Germans; in response,
Stalin issues order N 227 ("not one step back")
Becomes illegal for you to retreat without an official
sanction (if you retreated, you were shot)
§
○
-
There was a large amount of women in the military who volunteered,
although there were more men
There was a group of women snipers who would fly planed low
in the night in order to snipe people
○
-
As the army keeps moving, people were displaced from their homes
-
Evacuation and Occupation
As the Germans invaded, millions were displaced from their homes
-
The government organized evacuation to Central Asia and Siberia;
millions also fled
Whole factories, along with their workers were moved East
○
-
The Soviet government implemented a "scorched earth" policy, leaving
as little as possible behind for the Germans
-
The Nazis occupied Ukraine, Belarus and parts of the RSFSR, where
they treated local populations brutally, terrorizing, executing and
starving them
-
Kill prisoners on mass because they don’t want to leave people behind
to help the Nazis
-
Life on the Homefront
Soldiers and the war effort received the lion's share of scarce resources
-
Rationing had to be brought back; shortages caused market prices and
illegal trade to skyrocket
-
Harsh wartime labour laws on the books from 1949 were enforced and
millions ended up in prison for minor labour infractions
-
The government mobilized patriotic, national and religious sentiment,
and allowed in an effort to boost morale
-
Market prices go up by about 15x during the war
-
Peasants have what everyone wants - food
Peasants stopped taking money because it became so useless, so
you would have to trade things for food
○
-
Gulag population swells during this period
If you were late 3 times you were sent to the gulag
○
If you quit your job because you didn't like it you were sent to
the gulag because it was illegal
○
-
Turn to nationalism
Problematic because you are living in a communist society where
nationalism should not exist
○
During the war, Russian nationalism is widely promoted
○
People from the past come back during the war and are
celebrated (even people from the Tsarist people)
○
People are allowed to be openly religious again within reason
(religious symbols in film)
○
-
75% of the red army at the beginning of the war is peasants
Trying to make the peasantry support the war because their
children are fighting in it
○
-
The Battle of Stalingrad and the Turning Point
The ride began to turn the Soviet Union's favour by 1943
-
The Red Army encircled Axis forced after five months of victorious
fighting in Stalingrad
-
Thereafter, they pushed the Germans back to Berlin, winning a crucial
battle at Kursk in 1943
-
By 1945, the Red Army was in Germany, and by May 1945, had taken
Berlin
-
May 9, 1945 became "Victory Day"
-
This war was a war of attrition and people were fighting with their
hands for a large part of it
-
Liberate Ukraine and Belarus which are brought back into the Soviet
Union
-
Social Consequences of the War
Probably 18-20 million Soviet citizens died during the war
-
The countryside in particular was ravaged due to fighting occupation
and the scorched earth policy
-
The population was left disproportionately female
Many women struggled to marry and start families after the war
○
-
Millions of children were left fatherless and orphaned
-
Only get paid a breadwinners pension if your father or son died under
specific circumstances during battle
-
Landmines and grenades everywhere in the countryside, many are still
there
-
There is a long demobilization of the army, people go back to the
countryside and see that there is nothing there so they wanted to go to
the cities
-
A lot of women never get married and start families due to the large
gender imbalance
-
1944 new family policy; bring back the category of illegitimacy
Encouragement to get out and impregnate as many people as
possible
○
Child support comes from the state if you are a single mother,
not the father in order to boost the birth rate
○
Easier to put child in a state home and you are charged tax if you
do not have children
○
-
Veterans
Veterans were often left disappointed, after being treated as the most
valuable members of Russian soviet during the war, especially those
left disabled
Mark Edele: veterans formed an entitlement community after
the war, but the Soviet state refused to allow them to officially
organize until the Brezhnev years
○
Wanted people to start working as quickly as possible
○
-
Racially inequitable
-
Some people are given priority access to jobs and get into university in
larger numbers
Not the same thing, they want people to go back to the places
that they were before the war
○
People don't want to go back to the collective farm after the war
○
-
No category for being wounded according to the war, wounded the
same as the 1930s onward
If your hands were blown off, you were categorized as a second
category invalid
○
There were 3 groups of invalids
○
Most of the people who are injured during wartime service are
put into the third group because the government wants them to
work
○
Factory managers don't want to take them because the quotas
are still in place and it would be harder to attain goals due to
hiring people who are injured
○
-
The Great Patriotic War and Russian National Identity
Officially, victory in the war was an all-union phenomenon and the
state resisted attempts to recognize ethnically-specific experiences,
especially that of the Jews
In late May 1946, however, Stalin toasted the Russian people as
the most outstanding national of all the nations forming the
Soviet Union and who played a leading role in winning the war
○
-
The Great Patriotic War is celebrated by Putin in an effort to promote a
sense of Russian national unity
Elizabeth Wood: WWII underlines the unity and coherence of the
nation, gives it legitimacy and status as a world power. It
functions precisely as a myth is supposed to function, creating a
moment that is simultaneously timeless and rooted in time, that
involves suffering and redemption, trauma and recovery from
the trauma, created of community, and a narrative way to
understand Russia's ongoing challenge.
○
Putin points to WWII as an important thing to Russian society
○
"we wont forget, we won't forgive"
○
-
Lecture 21 -The Great Patriotic War
Monday, March 19, 2018
9:36 AM
First patriotic war was the Napoleonic war
-
Prelude to the Great Patriotic War
By the mid-1930s, the Soviet government was convinced war was
coming and wanted to be prepared
-
In August 1939, it signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact
with Nazi Germany
It contained a secret protocol that would divide up Eastern
Europe countries between them
○
-
The Soviet Union attacked Poland 16 days after the Nazis in September
in 1939 and seized territory there
-
The Soviet Union invaded Finland in November 1939
Its poor showing in the "Winter War" may have emboldened
Hitler to attack
○
Got the USSR kicked out of the league of nations
○
-
The Nazi Invasion and Early Stages of the War
Hitler began planning to attack the Soviet Union in 1940; Stalin refused
to believe this, despite accurate intelligence
-
On June 22, 1941, the Wehrmacht invaded the Soviet Union, inflicting
immediate damage and heavy losses
-
It took until the fall/water of 1941/1942 for the Red Army to slow the
German advance
-
Millions of people volunteered for or were conscripted into the Red
Army
They were expected to fight bravely and be prepared to die for
their Fatherland
○
Some deserted or defected and joined the Germans; in response,
Stalin issues order N 227 ("not one step back")
Becomes illegal for you to retreat without an official
sanction (if you retreated, you were shot)
§
○
-
There was a large amount of women in the military who volunteered,
although there were more men
There was a group of women snipers who would fly planed low
in the night in order to snipe people
○
-
As the army keeps moving, people were displaced from their homes
-
Evacuation and Occupation
As the Germans invaded, millions were displaced from their homes
-
The government organized evacuation to Central Asia and Siberia;
millions also fled
Whole factories, along with their workers were moved East
○
-
The Soviet government implemented a "scorched earth" policy, leaving
as little as possible behind for the Germans
-
The Nazis occupied Ukraine, Belarus and parts of the RSFSR, where
they treated local populations brutally, terrorizing, executing and
starving them
-
Kill prisoners on mass because they don’t want to leave people behind
to help the Nazis
-
Life on the Homefront
Soldiers and the war effort received the lion's share of scarce resources
-
Rationing had to be brought back; shortages caused market prices and
illegal trade to skyrocket
-
Harsh wartime labour laws on the books from 1949 were enforced and
millions ended up in prison for minor labour infractions
-
The government mobilized patriotic, national and religious sentiment,
and allowed in an effort to boost morale
-
Market prices go up by about 15x during the war
-
Peasants have what everyone wants - food
Peasants stopped taking money because it became so useless, so
you would have to trade things for food
○
-
Gulag population swells during this period
If you were late 3 times you were sent to the gulag
○
If you quit your job because you didn't like it you were sent to
the gulag because it was illegal
○
-
Turn to nationalism
Problematic because you are living in a communist society where
nationalism should not exist
○
During the war, Russian nationalism is widely promoted
○
People from the past come back during the war and are
celebrated (even people from the Tsarist people)
○
People are allowed to be openly religious again within reason
(religious symbols in film)
○
-
75% of the red army at the beginning of the war is peasants
Trying to make the peasantry support the war because their
children are fighting in it
○
-
The Battle of Stalingrad and the Turning Point
The ride began to turn the Soviet Union's favour by 1943
-
The Red Army encircled Axis forced after five months of victorious
fighting in Stalingrad
-
Thereafter, they pushed the Germans back to Berlin, winning a crucial
battle at Kursk in 1943
-
By 1945, the Red Army was in Germany, and by May 1945, had taken
Berlin
-
May 9, 1945 became "Victory Day"
-
This war was a war of attrition and people were fighting with their
hands for a large part of it
-
Liberate Ukraine and Belarus which are brought back into the Soviet
Union
-
Social Consequences of the War
Probably 18-20 million Soviet citizens died during the war
-
The countryside in particular was ravaged due to fighting occupation
and the scorched earth policy
-
The population was left disproportionately female
Many women struggled to marry and start families after the war
○
-
Millions of children were left fatherless and orphaned
-
Only get paid a breadwinners pension if your father or son died under
specific circumstances during battle
-
Landmines and grenades everywhere in the countryside, many are still
there
-
There is a long demobilization of the army, people go back to the
countryside and see that there is nothing there so they wanted to go to
the cities
-
A lot of women never get married and start families due to the large
gender imbalance
-
1944 new family policy; bring back the category of illegitimacy
Encouragement to get out and impregnate as many people as
possible
○
Child support comes from the state if you are a single mother,
not the father in order to boost the birth rate
○
Easier to put child in a state home and you are charged tax if you
do not have children
○
-
Veterans
Veterans were often left disappointed, after being treated as the most
valuable members of Russian soviet during the war, especially those
left disabled
Mark Edele: veterans formed an entitlement community after
the war, but the Soviet state refused to allow them to officially
organize until the Brezhnev years
○
Wanted people to start working as quickly as possible
○
-
Racially inequitable
-
Some people are given priority access to jobs and get into university in
larger numbers
Not the same thing, they want people to go back to the places
that they were before the war
○
People don't want to go back to the collective farm after the war
○
-
No category for being wounded according to the war, wounded the
same as the 1930s onward
If your hands were blown off, you were categorized as a second
category invalid
○
There were 3 groups of invalids
○
Most of the people who are injured during wartime service are
put into the third group because the government wants them to
work
○
Factory managers don't want to take them because the quotas
are still in place and it would be harder to attain goals due to
hiring people who are injured
○
-
The Great Patriotic War and Russian National Identity
Officially, victory in the war was an all-union phenomenon and the
state resisted attempts to recognize ethnically-specific experiences,
especially that of the Jews
In late May 1946, however, Stalin toasted the Russian people as
the most outstanding national of all the nations forming the
Soviet Union and who played a leading role in winning the war
○
-
The Great Patriotic War is celebrated by Putin in an effort to promote a
sense of Russian national unity
Elizabeth Wood: WWII underlines the unity and coherence of the
nation, gives it legitimacy and status as a world power. It
functions precisely as a myth is supposed to function, creating a
moment that is simultaneously timeless and rooted in time, that
involves suffering and redemption, trauma and recovery from
the trauma, created of community, and a narrative way to
understand Russia's ongoing challenge.
○
Putin points to WWII as an important thing to Russian society
○
"we wont forget, we won't forgive"
○
-
Lecture 21 -The Great Patriotic War
Monday, March 19, 2018 9:36 AM
