Stalin had centralised the economy before the war via the five year plans and had focussed heavily on industry, meaning that the soviet systems were already ideally suited for war. The five year plans introduced after 1929 were designed to strengthen the Russian economy and the third five year plan introduced in 1938 running only for three years prepared Russia for war. As war approached, more resources were put into developing armaments, tanks and weapons, as well as constructing additional military factories east of the . Stalin clearly took responsibility for all Soviet actions during the war but it was not just Stalin organising the wartime economy and productivity, but other help was provided such as the lend-lease scheme from America and Stalin’s State defence committee (GKO) which primarily was created to direct the evacuation process. Throughout the war the Russian military forces never suffered much with supply problems as factory production levels were high, churning out what the armies needed, unlike the German army which often endured shortages. The help from the USA and Britain assisted the victory, helping Russia obtain many required supplies. Due to American help in the 1930s the soviet union had been able to advance technologically which helped immensely when war broke out as they had learnt many techniques such as mass production from the US that the Germans did not have, so I believe this factor must have had a large significance in the eventual victory as Russia advanced and had the power it needed through the help of the Americans to defeat Germany. However some Soviet historians claim that western interpretations greatly exaggerate the impact of western support and state that the Red army and their abilities had the prime importance when it came down to the defeat of Germany.
Stalin’s organisation before the war however has been criticised and his desperation to avoid war leading to an alliance with Hitler in 1939 meant that he avoided all the obvious signs that the German forces would invade the Soviet Union, ‘It is one of the inexplicable things about him that he remained blind to the fact that Hitler’s clear intention was to invade and occupy Russia.’. The purging of many generals and commanders from 1937-41, who had wanted to prepare for war had a great effect on the war, cutting many successful military leaders ‘the soviet armies had been decimated by the pre-war purges in their ranks, and they crumbled under the face of the Nazi onslaught’. Also it has been argued that Stalin even had a mental breakdown in the first few weeks of the war but a lot of evidence points away from this now, because even though Stalin retreated making Molotov (one of Stalin’s powerful colleagues) make the radio broadcast announcing the German invasion it is believed Stalin was still very active in this period.
Some historians such as Kravchenko believed that Stalin and his regime had no part to play in the victory over Germany, he believed ‘the whole organization…was caught in the mighty surge of patriotism that came up from the profoundest depths of Russian history… it had nothing to do with Karl Marx and Stalin.’ It was the huge number of people in Russia and their will to survive that was a major factor leading to the German defeat, they were able to endure such disasters like the Siege of Leningrad – when on the 8th September German forces surrounded the city and for 900 days Leningrad remained cut off with only hazardous supply routes. ‘The seemingly unlimited capacity of the Russian people to endure the worst possible disaster and still struggle on’ (Richard Oxley – ‘Russia’s War). This surge of patriotism and will to fight for Russia although may have been down to the leadership from Stalin and the communist regime could also have just been this motivation to fight and win for the people of Russia. After the amount of suffering they had endured surely they would be powered forward by this determination to fight for relatives, friends and loved ones who had died.
A factor which contributed significantly was certainly the use of propaganda. A link with the patriotic feeling of the Russian people was the use of propaganda in stirring up a huge sense of fighting for a great cause. The use of every type of propaganda; film, posters and even the church was brought in to help. ‘Our cause is right, the enemy will be smashed, victory will be ours!’ the use of slogans like this on poster you can fully know the effect it has on the people but it shows the leaders of the USSR were willing to make an effort with propaganda in order to bring people together, which certainly happened in many places such as Stalingrad when all civilians were part of a total war, everyone being effected by the attacking Germans would take this propaganda seriously and it must have had a significant impact on the way people thought and consequently acted.
Another major factor and arguably one of the most significant factors in the USSR’s victory was the weaknesses of the German army. Hitler although very strong willed was not as prepared for the invasion of Russia as he had projected in the propaganda in Germany. He was stubborn and wouldn’t listen to warnings from his generals, impulsively attacking Russia without success over Britain and America first. Although is initial plans were to conquer Russia in order to face Britain and America with new supplies he had not thought through his tactics and relied heavily on Blitzkrieg without a back up plan of action. The weather also posed a massive problem for the German army, not being fully prepared for the temperatures and terrain of the Soviet Union. Another failure of the German army was their treatment of those living in the countries they invaded, ‘many non-Russians had welcomed the Germans; ‘the Germans squandered this goodwill by their brutality’ (McCauley). The use of Einsatzgruppen (execution squads) used by the Nazi’s to liquidate anybody who was outside their racial ideology was a mistake because many who had previously welcomed the Germans into their countries suddenly had them turn against them, killing millions and therefore the German armies did not have the full support of the places they had conquered, new recruits from new countries were hard to find. As one historian Service said ‘If it had not been for Hitler’s fanatical racism, the USSR would not have won the struggle on the Eastern Front.’ The Nazi atrocities and behaviour in occupied countries certainly did have a significant impact on the German defeat – as it lost them many fighters that could of helped against the mass of Russians they were fighting against.
I believe as Richard Overy does, that ‘the war effort was not the product of one man, nor could it be made to bend entirely to Stalin’s will’, such a mass amount of factors effected the soviet victory and the German’s defeat and it was a combination of all of these which brought Russia to success. The most significant therefore is rather difficult to pin-point and whether it was Stalin’s wartime leadership or just pure luck on the Russians side collectively tying up all these factors led to the USSR winning the war and the Nazi invasion in 1945, bringing Russia into the centre of European discussion and becoming one of the two world’s greatest superpowers. A large number of historians have argued of the significance of the factors leading to the victory and many have conflicting views but for me Stalin’s leadership wasn’t the most significant, certainly it played a part but I think the most significant was the weakness of the German army and this link with how unprepared they were for the weather conditions and terrain of the soviet union, these combining factors meant that Russia and its help from the Serbs who had equipment and skills for winter fighting could make great advancements leading to the retreat of German soldiers from outside Leningrad and the eventual victory in 1945.
