Summary of WWII During the period between the end of First and beginning of the Second World War, there has been a change in the balance of power in the world community: the development of the first socialist state, the contradictions between the world’s metropolises and the colonies, rapid economic recovery of defeated in the WWI and not satisfied with its position in the world, Germany. The result of these changes in the international arena was to change of the nature of the coming conflict. Because of the disagreement between the imperialist powers for the re-division of the world, which, according to V. Lenin was the WWI, the war had to become an arena of fighting of interests between the imperialist states and the Soviet Union. This, in my opinion, the relationship between capitalist States and the Soviet Union before WWII.
The WWI lead to even more terrible and destructive WWII.
Historians usually name two main reasons for the beginning of the Second World War:
1. The coming of fascist regimes to power in several countries. By 1937 finished the formation of the block of the fascist states of Germany – Italy – Japan.
2. The contradictions between the countries of the capitalist world (USA, England, France) and the Soviet Union.
There is still a third reason. In my opinion, it is not just the main but the only one, moreover, it is completely different from previously described.
One of the main reasons in the beginning of the Second World War was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Marx and Engels predicted a world war, but they did not call for the proletariat to prevent it, on the contrary, the coming world war needed. War is the mother of revolutions; WWI is the mother of world revolution. The results, as considered by Engels, would be “universal exhaustion and the creation of conditions for the final victory of the working class” (Cowling & Marx, 1998).
In the autumn of 1914, Lenin adopted a kind of minimum program: if by results of the WWI, the revolution will not happen, it is necessary to capture at least one country, and then use it as a base for further world revolution.
What role did Russia play in the outbreak of WWII in 1939?
By the way, why target of the USSR was Germany? If to remember 1920, more recently, Germany was the largest Empire. In 1920, Germany was disarmed and humiliated, the country was in severe economic crisis. The Treaty of Versailles, signed on June 28, 1919, turned Germany into a third-grade country (Khanna, 1996). Germany lost 67,3 thousands square kilometers of territory in Europe and all the colonies. It was required to pay reparations. The country was ready for the proletarian revolution. According to the leader of the Soviet Union, Germany was the key to power in Europe.
As it is seen, since its appearance, the Soviet Union pushed Europe into chaos and destruction to make the great dream of World socialist revolution come true. Hence, the WWII was necessary for the Bolsheviks.
On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany violating the non-aggression Treaty, without declaring war, invaded the Soviet Union. This is how the Soviet Union became involved in WWII. To strengthen this date was invented the so-called “prewar period” (1939 – 1941). But the Soviet Union entered the war much earlier.
“Prewar period” never existed. In 1939, all the surrounding countries were victims of Soviet aggression. In September 1939, the Soviet Union declared itself neutral and during “prewar period” captured the territory with more than 20 million people (Snyder & Brandon, 2014). But the Red army was not going to stop their “liberation campaign”.
So, June 22 is not a date of entry into the war. The true date must be the moment when the Second World war became inevitable.
There are a few reasons explaining the lack of preparedness of the Soviet Union. One of them is the following: the Soviet Union was actively preparing for the defense, but it didn’t have enough time. It would seem this statement is true, if we remember that already in 1935 – 1936 Germany started creating aviation, the Navy, the country began a general mobilization. But the fact is that the Soviet Union, even before Hitler came to power, has completed the creation of the largest military industry.
The beginning of the preparation of the USSR for a new war was in the late 20’s -early 30-ies. In the first five years were created the largest tractor plants at Stalingrad, Kharkov, Chelyabinsk. In fact, the word “tractor” in the title is not true, because the factories were producing tanks in giant quantities. One of Hitler’s famous sayings is that if he knew that USSR had that much tanks, he would not have started this war (Suvorov, 2008).
After reviewing this, it can be said that there was not one but two sources of war in pre-war Europe, and, even now, it is hard to argue who of them was more aggressive.
The disastrous result of the war against the fascist bloc countries cannot be in doubt. Germany lost more than 7 million people, Japan was subjected to nuclear attack, Italy was in ruins (Kammerer & Kammerer, 2005).
Discussion on the role of the USSR in the Second World war remains open. Was it preparing a strike against Germany? Based on the documents, it is safe to say that prepared.
- Cowling, M. & Marx, K. (1998). The Communist manifesto. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- Kammerer, W. & Kammerer, A. (2005). Narben bleiben. Berlin [u.a.]: Dt. Dienststelle [u.a.].
- Khanna, V. (1996). International relations. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House.
- Snyder, T. & Brandon, R. (2014). Stalin and Europe. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Suvorov, V. (2008). The chief culprit. Stalin’s Grand Design to Start World War II. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press.
