Another reason was that Russia was a communist country. Hitler had planned to destroy Communism in his book “Mein Kampf” and said it was his number one priority. This dream of Hitler’s would be Germany’s downfall. Hitler hated Communism because it is the exact opposite to what Nazi’s believe. Communism is based on the principal that everybody should be treated equally; however Nazism is based on a dictatorship and the belief that there is a master race and all others are inferior. Hitler instructed the SS to wipe out aspects of communism in the Soviet Union. Hitler blamed Communism for the First World War because it ruined his idea of a perfect Germany. Hitler’s beliefs and values directly clash with those of communism. Stalin also wrote that he’s goal was to turn all of Europe into a communist democracy and this made Hitler’s goal to overtake Russia, ever more strong.
By 1941, Germany had a very firm grasp of power over most of Western Europe, Hitler had much power and success and perhaps it is for this reason, Hitler thought he was ready to attack Russia. The main reasons Hitler ordered the invasion were because his hate towards communism, his promise to the German people for “Seizing Lebensraum” (living space) and the threat of Russia’s power.
3.
Russia was invaded by Germany in 1941 and, looking at many sources, was much unprepared. Source A is a secondary source of information which shows the failures of Operation Barbarossa. It explains that the equipment used by the German army was not fit for conditions in Russia: “Issued with boots that fitted them exactly so they could not wear more than one pair of socks”. Hitler, giving the army this summer friendly uniform, showed his confidence that, using his blitz Krieg tactics, he would conquer Russia long before the winter arrived. By giving the army equipment such as skin tight summer boots, it stopped them from being able to put extra layers of socks on, therefore a very high rate of frostbite was introduced, crippling the German army and stopping any chances of invasion. If Hitler presented his troops with a new winter uniform, it could have meant the victory for Germany.
Source B shows a soviet propaganda poster, written in 1942, which doesn’t support the term of Operation Barbarossa being a failure on the specific term of “bad preparation” as instead it shows that Germany’s failure was due to high Russian moral. The most likely purpose of this poster is to create courage and make the country feel more patriotic so that they would be willing to do anything to support their country, for example the scorched earth policy involved farmers having to set their farm alight if it is about to be over taken by Germans. This shows that maybe there are more reasons behind the failure of Germany than just bad Preparation, but perhaps the determination and high spirit of the Russian people lead to it also. The poster reads, “Let us defend Mother Volga” which is basically a call to the Russian people asking for more defence. By using the name “Mother Volga”, which is a very well known river of which the Russians saw as a life line to their country so would want to defend it, the high Russian spirits would make them very hard to defeat.
Source C is a radio speech urging a scorched earth policy, made by Stalin himself on 3 July 1941. In the source, Stalin manipulates the Russian people by using forceful words like “must” and “will” which may have made the Russian people much more willing to do what he says. A radio speech to the public by Stalin himself shows the urgency on its own. Being told to destroy all valuable property left Germany with no means of comfort or food, unless it is being sent from Germany itself, therefore making their lives as tough as possible. After a long time using the Scorched earth policy, many buildings were burned, this meant the Germans couldn’t shelter anywhere from the cold in the winter, killing hundreds of thousands of men.
Source D shows a speech made by Hitler on 3 October 1941 about the huge success of the German army in Russia and was said to a mass audience in a German sports stadium. In the source, Hitler boasts about the triumphs he’s made in Russia using his blitz Krieg tactics. From this we can see Hitler’s ever growing confidence, the fact that the speech is set in a sports stadium shows Hitler’s belief, ironically was one of the main factors in the failure of operation Barbarossa.
Source E is an extract from a book “Nazi Germany: A new history” about the Russian response to the German invasion and is written by a German living in Nazi Germany. The source talks about the advantages Russia had over Germany and how unprepared the Nazis were. It says how the Russians were given the correct equipment and were far more prepared for a winter battle. Despite its honesty, the source itself is incredibly unreliable, as it was written by a German and after the events took place.
Source F is a quote made in an interview made by an agent for Stalin’s secret police to a magazine in 1991. Firstly, the quote is made be someone who is representing Stalin’s point of view and talk about what the Russian people thought of Stalin, the Soviet Union and how many negative things were heard. This tells us that moral for Russia was going down at this point, despite the government’s use of propaganda, and that they had the knowledge of Stalin’s secret police. At this time, Germans were so close to Moscow that the Russian people were sure to have blamed Stalin if the Germans took control. Germany taking over Moscow would very much have meant a secured success for the operation, as the army could have sheltered much from the fierce Russian weather. The interview was carried out after the fall of Stalin and the cold war, because of this, the source is very reliable as it allows the interviewee (Yevgenia Dubrozhestva) to say his story without being punished. Overall the source tell us that even with poor Russian moral, the German invasion still didn’t make it to Moscow, which supports with the term of Germany’s poor preparation.
In conclusion, I believe that the failure of Operation Barbarossa was partly due to Germany’s poor preparation but also to the Russian people’s high moral. If Hitler issued his troops with the correct winter clothing and equipment and rallied the troops to Russia quicker, then it is a very high probability that Germany would have conquered Russia. However, if it wasn’t for the high moral and resilience given by the Russian people, by using the “scorched earth” policy and holding out against the German forces until winter, Hitler would over taken Russia rapidly.
