A war between imperialist nations would weaken both sides while Soviet Union would concentrate on building its industries and armaments. Stalin relished the idea of Germany embarking on a war of revenge against France and Britain. In a danse macabre France and Britain relished the thought of Nazi Germany and Communist Russia engaged in a war to the finish. Stalin made terms unacceptable to Poland. Uneasy about the growing amity between Stalin and Hitler, Britain and France invited Soviet Union to form a defensive pact to protect Poland from Germany. Stalin responded with a pro-German gesture by appointing the pro-German Molotov in place of Litvinov in May 1939. Litvinov advised Stalin against collaboration with Germany. Hitler’s Panzer Division rolled into in offensive Czechoslovakia on the pretext of protecting Sudetan Germans. He advocated signing of a defensive treaty with France and Czechoslovakia. Maxim Litvinov, Commissar for Foreign Affairs, disagreed. It seemed as if cooperation between Germany and Soviet Union would be mutually beneficial. Germany survived economically by exporting manufactured goods and industrial equipment to Soviet Union in exchange for Soviet raw materials. Transiting from an agrarian to an industrial economy, Soviet Union began building the capital goods industry. But by 1937, Stalin had torn to shreds the ideals of Marxism and Hitler had displayed his contempt for European liberalism. There was that small matter of burning the Reichstag when communists were blamed. Until 1936 Stalin had no conflict of interest with Hitler’s policy. The Spanish Civil War was a rehearsal for the battle between Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. When the Spanish Civil War began in 1936, Soviet Union sent arms and men to fight for the Republicans, while Hitler and Italy supported their fellow Fascists. The League of Nations looked on at the violation of international law and its own Charter. Hitler began repudiating terms of the Versailles Treaty and began building a formidable military machine. They had been united in the previous century by mutual admiration for their great literary and musical traditions.Įmergence of the Nationalist Socialist party under Adolf Hitler in 1933 changed the temper of Germany and promised her resurgence. Both peoples were struggling against poverty. By contrast the Social Democratic Party in Germany looked to the fledgling Soviet Union for support Germans felt no antipathy towards Russians. The terms of the Versailles Treaty guaranteed a German guerre de revanche against Britain and France. Her industrial belt in the Ruhr was shattered. The Great Depression and a runaway inflation added to her woes. The terms of theVersailles Treaty were economically ruinous for Germany. And Soviet Union was not a signatory to the Treaty of Versailles which had imposed punitive reparations on Germany. Germany was not part of the Army of Intervention that tried to defeat the new Soviet state. Yet there was no animosity between Russia and Germany in 1918. Stalin was Georgian, Hitler was Austrian. Both were of humble birth and were of nationalities different from the countries they ruled. This battle was between two men who held absolute power over their nations. The mortal combat between two mighty dictators-Stalin and Hitler-was a phenomenon the world had seldom seen. Though Germany’s historic destiny, drangnachosten (drive to the East) had already suffered several defeats over the centuries, Hitler was determined to conquer Slav lands, enslave its people and re-populate Russia with Teutonic people. The reason for this bizarre program sprang from the belief that men of the Slav race were Untermenschen-or inferior men. As early as 1925, Hitler expressed a desire to conquer the newly established Soviet Union because the superior Aryan-German race needed Lebenstraum or living space. The ideological origins of the invasion can be found in Hitler’s autobiography, Mein Kampf or My Struggle. Hitler’s knowledge of the Crusades was shaky he did not know that it was a failure and Barbarossa was drowned in a river in Anatolia. The operation was named after the 12th century German Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, who led the Third Crusade against the great Saladin to conquer Jerusalem. Operation Barbarossa or Unternehmen Barbarossa was code name for Nazi Germany’s invasion of Soviet Union. Germany’s invasion of Russia, launched in June 1941, was a turning point in World War II.
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