Russia 1924-45 Cascade

Russia 1924-1945 [Revision Cascade]

This Cascade will give you points and ideas for writing an answer about any of the topics in the list. And, when it comes to revision, you can use it to test your memory of the points and ideas you might want to raise in the exam.

Click on the yellow arrows to reveal the paragraph points, and again to reveal ideas for developing the point.

I have given you five points for every topic but, in practical terms for the exam, you will probably get away with remembering three or four.

1. Trotsky: roles and achievements
- a. Pravda
  - As editor of Pravda, Trotsky was a great Communist thinker who defined the nature of the Communist state in Russia; he developed a form of Communism called 'Trotskyism'
- b. November Revolution
  - As leader of the Red Guards, Trotsky led the November Revolution
- c. Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
  - As Commissar for Foreign Affairs, it was Trotsky who made the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany
- d. Red Army and Red Terror
  - Trotsky brilliantly organised the Red Army (he personally led the defeat of Yudenich at Petrograd) and the Red Terror which won the Civil War .
- e. NEP
  - Although he ruthlessly defeated the Kronstadt Mutiny in 1921,Trotsky realised that things had to change, and it was Trotsky who devised the NEP

2. Trotsky: background facts
- a. Revolutionary Military Committee
  - As head of the Revolutionary Military Committee, he had organised the November coup
- b. Commissar for Foreign Affairs
  - As Commissar for Foreign Affairs, he had negotiated the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
- c. Commissar for War
  - As Commissar for War, he had formed the Red Army, organised the CHEKA, won the civil war and put down the Kronstadt rebellion
- d. World revolution
  - Trotsky believed in ‘world revolution’, encouraging Communists in other countries to rebel .
- e. 13th Party Conference
  - He was Jewish, had been a Menshevik (and at the 13th Party Conference in 1924, he and his 46 main supporters were marked for ‘political annihilation’)

3. Trotsky: weaknesses and mistakes
- a. Malaria
  - Trotsky had malaria, and had to go to the Black Sea to recover just as Lenin died in 1924; this gave Stalin an advantage
- b. Lenin's Funeral
  - Stalin organised Lenin’s funeral; he told Trotsky the wrong date, so Trotsky missed it – this made Trotsky look bad and Stalin, who was chief mourner, look loyal
- c. Trotsky's personal failings
  - Trotsky was arrogant and dictatorial; he was also Jewish, and had been a Menshevik
- d. 13th Party Conference
  - Trotsky supported Lenin’s Testament, but instead, at the 13th Party Conference in 1924, he and his 46 main supporters were marked for ‘political annihilation’ .
- e. World revolution
  - Trotsky believed in ‘world revolution’, encouraging Communists in other countries to rebel – many Communists believed it would bring disaster

4. Stalin: background facts
- a. Party activist
  - He had been a Bolshevik since 1905 – he had issued the very first edition of Pravda; he had twice been imprisoned in Siberia BUT may have been a tsarist informer
- b. Commissar for Nationalities, 1917
  - In 1917, he was made Commissar for Nationalities (with the task of destroying the national identity of the different races); he was ruthlessness and brutal
- c. ‘'Comrade Card-index’, 1922
  - As General Secretary of the Communist Party, he appointed the top Party officials (the 5000 nomenklatura) who appointed the 20,000 apparatchiki (party officials)
- d. Popularity
  - He was genial, pleasant and liked a laugh – this made him popular .
- e. Socialism in one country
  - Stalin argued for ‘Socialism in one country’ – establishing Russia first, and going for world revolution later

5. Stalin and Lenin's death, 1924
- a. Lenin's illness, 1924
  - Lenin died in 1924; during his final illness, he had been cared for by Stalin
- b. Lenin's Testament
  - Lenin wrote a Testament supporting Trotsky and warning against giving Stalin power
- c. Lenin's funeral
  - Stalin organised Lenin’s funeral; he told Trotsky the wrong date, so Trotsky missed it – this made Trotsky look bad and Stalin, who was chief mourner, look loyal
- d. Lenin's ideas
  - Stalin pretended to be a follower of Lenin’s ideas; he wrote a book on Lenin’s ideas which made him popular .
- e. Lenin Levy
  - Stalin organised the enrolment of hundreds of thousands of new members (the ‘Lenin Levy’); they accepted Stalin as the leader

6. The struggle for power: facts
- a. Trotsky supported Lenin’s Testament, 1924
  - Trotsky forced the Politburo to discuss Lenin’s Testament; he wanted Stalin expelled from the Politburo, but Stalin was saved by Kamenev and Zinoviev
- b. Trotsky was defeated, 1925
  - Stalin formed an alliance (the troika) with Kamenev and Zinoviev; they forced Trotsky to resign as Commissar for War and dismissed his 46 supporters
- c. Kamenev and Zinoviev were expelled, 1927
  - Trotsky, Kamenev and Zinoviev formed the ‘United Opposition’, but Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky helped Stalin expelled them and 1500 supporters
- d. Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky denounced, 1929
  - At the 16th Party Conference, Stalin turned against the NEP; when Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky opposed him, he denounced them as ‘deviationists’ .
- e. Trotsky was murdered, 1940
  - Trotsky was exiled in 1929, sentenced to death in a Show Trial in 1936, and was finally murdered in Mexico by a NKVD agent in 1940

7. Why Stalin won: causes
- a. ‘Comrade Card-index’, 1922
  - As General Secretary of the Communist Party, he appointed the top Party officials (the 5000 nomenklatura) who appointed the 20,000 apparatchiki (party officials)
- b. Popularity
  - He was genial, pleasant and liked a laugh – this made him popular
- c. Socialism in one country
  - Stalin argued for ‘Socialism in one country’ – establishing Russia first, and going for world revolution later
- d. Political strategy
  - Stalin formed alliances first with Kamenev and Zinoviev (the troika) then with Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky – and then turned against them .
- e. Stalin was ruthless
  - e.g. as Commissar for Nationalities/telling Trotsky the wrong date for the funeral/exile and murder of Trotsky

8. Stalin's rise to power: milestones
- a. ‘Comrade Card-index’, 1922
  - As General Secretary of the Communist Party, he appointed the top Party officials (the 5000 nomenklatura) who appointed the 20,000 apparatchiki (party officials)
- b. Constitutional Law, 1923
  - Set up the USSR and ensured the ‘Council of People’s Commissars’ (Sovnarkom) – was controlled by the Communist Party’s ruling cabinet (the Politburo)
- c. Vozhd, 1929
  - By his 50th birthday, in December 1929, Stalin had defeated all his rivals and was celebrated as the new vozhd (leader)
- d. Ryutin’s Appeal to all Bolsheviks, 1932
  - Ryutin wrote An Appeal to all Bolsheviks calling for the return of the NEP, the end of collectivisation and ‘the elimination of Stalin’ .
- e. 17th Party Congress, 1934
  - Opposition to Stalin arose – he was sacked as General Secretary, and Kirov (the Leningrad Party leader) was more popular

9. The 1936 Constitution: facts
- a. The Communist Party
  - The Communist Party was 'the leading core of all organisations' – i.e. the Communist Politburo was more powerful than the Sovnarkom (Council of People’s Commissars’)
- b. Stalin the Vozhd
  - Stalin held all power – he was First Secretary of the Communist Party, Chairman of the Politburo and Chairman of the Sovnarkom (the ‘Council of People’s Commissars’)
- c. Freedoms and rights
  - The Constitution gave the vote to everyone over 18, freedom of speech, and the right to work, healthcare, housing and education; “the only fully democratic constitution in the world”
- d. Opposition was banned
  - Since all parties were banned except the Communist Party, none of the promises in the 1936 Constitution affected the Communist control over the government .
- e. Direct voting
  - The new constitution introduced ‘direct voting’ for government members; this reduced the power of the local Communist parties

10. How did Stalin reinforce his dictatorship: ways
- a. Constitution of 1936
  - It guaranteed freedom, but banned opposition parties, reinforced Stalin’s control of government, and reduced the powers of local parties by direct voting
- b. The Great Terror
  - Including the Gulag and NKVD; called the Yezhovshchina after Nikolai Yezhov (nicknamed ‘the Bloody Dwarf’) who organised it
- c. The Purges
  - Stalin’s opponents were purged from the Politburo, the Party and the Red Army
- d. Propaganda
  - Including the ‘cult of personality’ and constant praise for Stalin and Communism .
- e. Censorship
  - All writers were controlled by the government censorship department Glavlit; history was re-written

11. The Purges: causes
- a. Civil War atrocities
  - Some historians think that the brutality of the Civil War made the Bolsheviks particularly ruthless in power
- b. Kirov’s challenge to Stalin
  - Opposition to Stalin arose at the 17th Party Congress – he was sacked as General Secretary, and Kirov (the Leningrad Party leader) was more popular
- c. Kirov was shot
  - Although, historians suggest Kirov was shot on Stalin’s orders, Stalin used it as an excuse to order mass arrests
- d. Stalin’s bloodlust
  - Stalin had always been ruthless (e.g. as Commissar for Nationalities); some historians believe he was paranoid (he personally approved lists of executions) .
- e. The danger from Germany
  - Stalin argued that the USSR had ten years to prepare for an invasion by Nazi Germany, and that it had to make itself strong at all costs

12. The Purges: facts
- a. Leningrad Party, 1934
  - Kirov’s supporters in the Leningrad Party were arrested
- b. Politburo
  - 7 out of 8 of Stalin’s 1934 Politburo were eliminated
- c. Party Congress, 1935
  - Party activists was purged (including 1108 out of 1966 delegates to the Party Congress)
- d. Red Army, 1937
  - The Red Army commander and 81 out of 103 generals and admirals were purged .
- e. Communist Party
  - About a million Party members were expelled or arrested

13. The Great Terror: facts
- a. Nikolai Yezhov
  - The Terror was led by Nikolai Yezhov (nicknamed ‘the Bloody Dwarf’) and enforced by the secret police (OGPU/NKVD)
- b. Gulag
  - The Gulag was a system of labour camps in Siberia; in 1937, 1 million people were imprisoned in the Gulag; there were 790,000 executions
- c. Kulaks
  - 5 million kulaks were ‘eliminated’
- d. Russification
  - National dress and customs were forbidden, and both the Christian and Muslim religions were persecuted; 5 million Ukrainians starved, 1933–34 .
- e. Show trials
  - Public show trials of disgraced Bolsheviks (e.g. Zinoviev and Kamenev, 1936, and Bukharin, Rykov, 1938) for improbable crimes, which they admitted

14. The Great Terror: consequences
- a. Informers and apparatchiks
  - Informers denounced their neighbours to get a flat; loyal ‘apparatchiks’ (party officials) got the best jobs, flats, etc.
- b. Stalin was undisputed leader
  - Stalin was constantly praised and applauded (he wasn’t there, but the NKVD were)
- c. Everyone wore a ‘smiling mask’
  - An atmosphere of fear and intimidation – children informed on parents; Tomsky committed suicide rather than face a show trial
- d. Russification
  - Russification destroyed national identity and attacked religion .
- e. Weakened the Army
  - Some historians have suggested that Stalin’s Purges of the generals weakened the army – hence Hitler’s spectacular victories when he invaded in 1941

15. The cult of personality: features
- a. Statues, paintings and banners
  - Statues, paintings and banners everywhere bore his face; every home had a picture
- b. Places named after Stalin
  - Towns (e.g. Stalingrad), roads and buildings were named after him
- c. Literature in his honour
  - Poems and books were written in his honour
- d. Stalin was almost worshipped
  - He was regarded as almost divine; it was said (e.g.) that he caused spring to come .
- e. Constant praise and applause
  - He was afforded constant praise and applause

16. Censorship: features
- a. Glavlit
  - The Censorship Department, Glavlit, had 70,000 employees
- b. Union of Soviet Writers
  - All writers had to be members of the Union of Soviet Writers
- c. Attacking Capitalism
  - The media had to attack Western capitalism and religion
- d. ‘Bourgeois pseudo-science’
  - Subjects like genetics and sociology were forbidden as ‘bourgeois pseudo-science’ .
- e. Communist stories
  - Novelists had to write Communist stories with a happy ending

17. Propaganda: facts
- a. Cult of personality
  - The media had to glorify Stalin
- b. Supporting communism
  - The media had to celebrate communism, and encourage hard work (e.g. Stakhanov) and informing on traitors
- c. ‘Socialist realism’ in art
  - All art had to follow the rules of ‘Socialist realism’, celebrating the proletariat
- d. History was re-written
  - History was changed to make Stalin look more important; new pages were written and pasted into textbooks to ‘write out’ disgraced leaders from history .
- e. Children were indoctrinated
  - Children were taught that Stalin was the Great Leader; they were encouraged to love Stalin more than their parents, and to inform on them

18. Stalin's economic changes: causes
- a. The New Economic Policy was failing
  - By 1929, the New Economic Policy had only increased production to the 1913 level; the NEP was not improving things quickly enough
- b. ‘Scissor Crisis’
  - Prices of agricultural produce were falling, but the price of industrial goods was rising; this was impoverishing the countryside
- c. Agriculture was backward
  - Not enough food was being produced for the towns (there was a shortfall of 20 million tonnes of grain); Russia needed cash crops to export
- d. NEPmen and kulaks
  - The rich NEPmen and kulaks – capitalists selling at a profit – were hateful to Communists .
- e. The danger from Germany
  - Stalin argued that the USSR had ten years to prepare for an invasion by Nazi Germany, but was 50–100 years behind the West

19. Collectivisation: aims
- a. Kolkhoz
  - All the farms in the village were joined together into one collective (kolkhoz)
- b. Government targets
  - Farming was run by government officials to meet government targets
- c. Production for the towns
  - 90% of production was taken by the government
- d. Motor Tractor Stations
  - Every kolkhoz was supposed to have a Motor Tractor Station (= modernisation) .
- e. Eliminate the kulaks
  - Collectivisation gave Stalin an excuse to eliminate the hateful kulaks

20. Collectivisation: the process
- a. Failed first attempt, 1929
  - Stalin ordered that peasants’ farms had to be united into collectives (kolkhoz); there was opposition and he was forced to stop
- b. Kolkhoz restarted, 1931
  - Stalin restarted collectivisation and seized grain by force
- c. Peasant resistance, 1932
  - More resistance; the peasants killed their animals and burned their crops
- d. War on the Kulaks, 1933
  - Stalin blamed the kulaks and declared war on them; 5 million were sent to the Gulag .
- e. 250,000 kolkhoz, 1939
  - 90% of peasants lived on one of 250,000 kolkhoz or 4000 state farms

21. Collectivisation: the results
- a. 250,000 kolkhoz
  - By 1939, 90% of peasants lived on one of 250,000 kolkhoz or 4000 state farms
- b. Increased grain production
  - In 1937, 97 million tonnes of grain were produced (compared with 73 million in 1928) plus cash crops for export
- c. Peasants migrated to the towns
  - 17 million peasants left the countryside to work in the towns, 1928–1937
- d. Reduced livestock
  - The number of animals fell, 1928–1937 (cattle from 70 million to 50 million; sheep from 150 million to 66 million) .
- e. Famine in the Ukraine
  - Agricultural production fell; there was a famine in the Ukraine 1933–34 (5 million people died)

22. Industrialisation: the Five-Year Plans
- a. GOSPLAN
  - GOSPLAN (the state planning agency) drew up plans; targets were set for every industry, region, mine and factory, foreman and worker.
- b. Three 5-Year Plans, 1928–37
  - The First (1928) and Second (1933) Plans concentrated on heavy industry; the consumer goods promised by the Third (1937) never happened because of the war
- c. Young ‘pioneers’
  - Young ‘pioneers’ with Communist zeal started the projects
- d. Foreign experts
  - Foreign experts and engineers were called in .
- e. Slave labour
  - For projects such as dams or canals, slave labour from the Gulag was used

23. Industrialisation: results
- a. Heavy industry, 1928 & 1933
  - The First (1928) and Second (1933) 5-Year Plans concentrated on heavy industry
- b. Third 5-Year Plan, 1937
  - The Third 5-Year Plan (1937) promised consumer goods and better housing; it never happened – because of the war, later targets were changed to armaments
- c. Increased production, 1928–1937
  - Increased production 1928–1937 (e.g. coal production increased four-fold, electricity seven-fold); by 1940, the USSR was the world’s second-biggest economy
- d. Magnitogorsk
  - Towns grew, including new industrial centres such as Magnitogorsk .
- e. Dnieper Dam and Belomor Canal
  - Achievements such as the Moscow underground, Dnieper Dam and the Belomor Canal

24. Industrialisation: working conditions
- a. Terrible cost in human lives
  - Appalling conditions and a terrible cost in human lives (especially the kulaks) – e.g. some 100,000 people died building the Belomor Canal
- b. Atmosphere of terror
  - Atmosphere of terror – workers were bombarded with propaganda, posters, slogans and radio broadcasts lazy workers were punished, even shot
- c. Stakhanovites
  - Pressure to work harder; medals were awarded for ‘Stakhanovites’
- d. Wages and conditions worsened
  - Wages and conditions worsened .
- e. Increase of alcoholism and crime
  - There was an increase of alcoholism and crime as workers tried to escape the pressure

25. Industrialisation: social consequences
- a. Education and 87% literacy
  - Free universities and training schemes – all children received free state education; literacy had increased to 87% by 1939
- b. Free health care
  - Free health care – by 1940, the USSR had more doctors per person than Britain
- c. Poor industrial housing
  - Industrial housing was overcrowded and rundown
- d. Famine
  - There were food shortages as agricultural production fell; there was a famine in the Ukraine 1933–34 (5 million people died) .
- e. Shortages of consumer goods
  - There were great shortages of consumer goods, especially in the mid-1930s

26. Industrialisation: political consequences
- a. Cult of Stalin
  - The successes were celebrated in Soviet propaganda to reinforce the cult of Stalin
- b. International prestige
  - By 1940, the USSR was the world’s second-biggest economy and there was NO unemployment – this compared favourably to the Depression in the West
- c. Inequality and privilege
  - Higher wages for teachers, engineers, skilled workers, managers and apparatchiks; all pretence of Communist equality was abandoned
- d. The Great Terror
  - Slave labour from the Gulag was used for projects such as dams or canals; it was part of the Great Terror .
- e. War on the Kulaks
  - Stalin declared war on the kulaks; 5 million were sent to the Gulag and used on the construction project

27. Life in Stalin's Russia: working conditions
- a. Terrible cost in human lives
  - Appalling conditions and a terrible cost in human lives (especially the kulaks) – e.g. some 100,000 people died building the Belomor Canal
- b. Atmosphere of terror
  - Atmosphere of terror – workers were bombarded with propaganda, posters, slogans and radio broadcasts lazy workers were punished, even shot
- c. Stakhanovites
  - Pressure to work harder; medals were awarded for ‘Stakhanovites’
- d. Wages and conditions worsened
  - Wages and conditions worsened .
- e. Increase of alcoholism and crime
  - There was an increase of alcoholism and crime and workers tried to escape the pressure

28. Life in Stalin's Russia: living conditions
- a. Education and 87% literacy
  - Free universities and training schemes – all children received free state education; literacy had increased to 87% by 1939
- b. Free health care
  - Free health care – by 1940, the USSR had more doctors per person than Britain
- c. Poor industrial housing
  - Industrial housing was overcrowded and rundown
- d. Famine
  - There were food shortages as agricultural production fell; there was a famine in the Ukraine 1933-34 (5 million people died) .
- e. Shortages of consumer goods
  - There were great shortages of consumer goods, especially in the mid-1930s

29. Women in Stalin’s Russia
- a. Creches were provided
  - Creches were provided so that women could go to work
- b. Universities and doctors
  - Treated as equal to men – sent to universities/became doctors
- c. 40% of industrial workforce
  - By 1937, 40% of industrial workers and 72% of health workers were women
- d. Divorce and abortion prevented
  - Divorce was made more difficult and abortion abolished .
- e. Child-bearing encouraged
  - Medals were awarded to women who had more than ten children

30. Education
- a. Love of Stalin
  - Children were taught that Stalin was the Great Leader; they were encouraged to love Stalin more than their parents, and to inform on them
- b. History was changed
  - History was changed so that Stalin looked more important than he had been, and so that his opponents 'disappeared'
- c. Maths, Science and Technology
  - Discipline was strict, with an emphasis on Maths, Science and Technology
- d. ‘'Bourgeois pseudo-science’
  - Subjects like genetics and sociology were forbidden as ‘bourgeois pseudo-science’ .
- e. Communist youth organisations
  - Children had to join Communist youth organisations such as the Octobrists (8-10 year-olds), Pioneers (10-16) and Komsomol (19-23)

31. Different groups in Stalin's Russia
- a. The elite prospered
  - e.g. higher wages and perks such as better housing, holidays and special shops, for teachers, engineers, skilled workers and apparatchiks
- b. Peasants suffered
  - e.g. they had none of the benefits of the industrial workers (e.g. electricity), and collectivisation caused famines
- c. The kulaks were 'liquidated'
  - Stalin blamed the kulaks for the resistance to collectivisation and declared war on them; 5 million were sent to the Gulag
- d. Nationalities were destroyed
  - e.g. Russian became the language of government, national dress and customs were forbidden; 5 million Ukrainians were allowed to starve, 1933–1934 .
- e. Religion was persecuted
  - e.g. churches were destroyed and priests sent to the Gulag

32. Stalin's successes: facts
- a. Second-biggest economy
  - By 1940, the USSR was the world’s second-biggest economy and there was NO unemployment – this compared favourably to the Depression in the West
- b. Increased grain production
  - In 1937, 97 million tonnes of grain were produced (compared with 73 million in 1928) plus cash crops for export
- c. Magnitogorsk
  - Towns grew, including new industrial centres such as Magnitogorsk
- d. Dnieper Dam and Belomor Canal
  - Achievements such as the Moscow underground, Dnieper Dam and the Belomor Canal .
- e. Some social successes
  - e.g. the role of women, free education, improved literacy, free health care (by 1940, the USSR had more doctors per person than Britain)

33. How powerful was Stalin by 1941?
- a. Vozhd
  - Stalin was First Secretary of the Communist Party, Chairman of the Politburo and Chairman of the Sovnarkom.
- b. Constitutional Law (1923)
  - Ensured the ‘Council of People’s Commissars’ (Sovnarkom) – was controlled by the Communist Party’s ruling cabinet (the Politburo)
- c. Constitution of 1936
  - It guaranteed freedom, but banned opposition parties, reinforced Stalin’s control of government, and reduced the powers of local parties by direct voting
- d. The Great Terror
  - Including the Gulag and NKVD; called the Yezhovshchina after Nikolai Yezhov who organised it; Stalin’s opponents were purged from the Politburo, the Party and the Red Army .
- e. The cult of Stalin
  - Including the cult of personality, manipulation of education, censorship and propaganda

34. Soviet foreign policy before 1941
- a. World Revolution
  - Initially, the Bolsheviks tried to provoke world revolution; there were communist uprisings in Germany, Italy, Hungary and the Baltic States 1919-24
- b. Socialism in One Country
  - Defeat of the 1919-24 uprisings, and defeat in the war with Poland, convinced Stalin that the USSR was not strong enough
- c. Maxim Litvinov
  - From 1930, Maxim Litvinov, Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs, negotiated non-aggression pacts with Poland, the Baltic States, France and China.
- d. The USSR joined the League of Nations, 1934
  - Stalin hoped it would restrain Hitler’s aggressive foreign policy; he believed that war with the Nazis was inevitable .
- e. Nazi-Soviet Pact, 1939
  - When it was clear that the League was powerless, and that Britain and France were just going to appease Hitler, Stalin made the Nazi-Soviet Pact

35. Great Patriotic War: Events
- a. Operation Barbarossa, 1941
  - The Nazis launch Operation Barbarossa – the invasion of the USSR – taking Stalin by surprise. By December the Nazis had conquered huge areas of Russia, but had failed to take Leningrad and Moscow..
- b. Battle Stalingrad, 1942-43
  - The Nazi Sixth Army was stopped at the battle Stalingrad and eliminated
- c. Battle of Kursk, July-Aug 1943
  - Nazis defeated at the Battle of Kursk – the largest tank battle in history
- d. Nazis driven out of Russia, 1944
  - The Nazis were driven out of Russia .
- e. Capture of Berlin, 2 May 1945
  - The Soviets captured Berlin

36. Why the USSR won
- a. Propaganda
  - The Sovinformburo appealed to the nationalism, communism AND religion of the Soviet peoples
- b. Economy
  - The entire economy: was devoted to supplying the army. 1,500 factories were moved to the Urals and central Asia. Labour was mobilised: military discipline/ holidays abolished
- c. Natural factors
  - Russia’s huge size and ‘General Winter’, along with the Soviets’ ‘scorched earth’ tactics.
- d. Red Army
  - Draconian discipline, amazing heroism. 800,000 women recruited PLUS helped by huge amounts of foreign aid .
- e. Stalin’s leadership?
  - ALL decisions had to go through Stalin and he insisted on ‘Not A Step Back’ (Order No. 227), whatever the cost. Millions of Soviet soldiers died as a result, notably in the final attack on Berlin.

37. Great Patriotic War: Results
- a. Death
  - 26 million Soviet citizens died from overwork and malnutrition, enemy action, or fighting in the Red Army.
- b. Destruction
  - Industry and agriculture ruined. 70,000 villages, 100,000 kolkhozy and 40,000 miles of railway track destroyed. Nearly 5 million houses destroyed; 25 million home
- c. Cold War
  - After 1945, Soviet forces stayed in the countries of eastern Europe as a ‘cordon sanitaire’ protecting the Soviet Union … this was the cause of the Cold War.
- d. Orthodox Church
  - Its support for the war effort led to its being given greater toleration .
- e. Remembrance
  - Victory Day is still one of the most important public holidays for Russian citizens.