Great Patriotic War

The "Great Patriotic War" refers to the immense struggle, sacrifice and victory of the Soviet people against the Nazi German aggressors in the period 1941-1945. This is the name used in the Soviet Union and still today in Russia.

In the Ukraine under capitalist rule, this war is called the "German-Soviet War". In the West, it is commonly known as "the Eastern Front".

Background

Of course, when the United States and Britain assisted Germany's economic recovery, they did so with a view to setting a recovered Germany against the Soviet Union, to utilizing her against the land of socialism. But Germany directed her forces in the first place against the Anglo-French-American bloc. And when Hitler Germany declared war on the Soviet Union, the Anglo-French-American bloc, far from joining with Hitler Germany, was compelled to enter into a coalition with the U.S.S.R. against Hitler Germany.

Consequently, the struggle of the capitalist countries for markets and their desire to crush their competitors proved in practice to be stronger than the contradictions between the capitalist camp and the socialist camp.

- Stalin, Economic Problems (1952)

Soviet preparations and strategy

The Nazi Party was fiercely anticommunist. Fascism was always used by the bourgeois to repress communism and strikes. The Nazis even started with the Freikorps crushing the communist uprising in Germany in 1918, and killing its leader Rosa Luxemburg. Mussolini also repressed strikes immediately after gaining power.

Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy (along with British spies) also backed Trotskyist spies in the USSR. The Nazis tried to back a military coup to turn the USSR into their satellite state, led by Trotsky. The coup leader, General Tukhachevsky, was exposed and executed, and his followers were purged from the military.

Therefore, it was predictable that the Nazis would invade the USSR. The British also backed the Nazis with this expectation.

Some speculate that Stalin foresaw all this 10 years ahead. That is why Stalin had to industrialize. In the 1930s, the Soviets modified the Five Year Plan to mobilize their industry for war.

On the other hand, capitalists were afraid to attack the USSR, because it would mean taking on all the Soviet workers, and risking the collapse of capitalism. With such risk, they would only do it if they were already at war.

Yet the Second World War began not as a war with the U.S.S.R., but as a war between capitalist countries. Why?

1. Because war with the U.S.S.R., as a socialist land, is more dangerous to capitalism than war between capitalist countries. For whereas war between capitalist countries only puts into question the supremacy of some capitalist countries over others, war with the U.S.S.R. must certainly put into question the existence of capitalism itself.
2. Because the capitalists, although they clamor for "propaganda" purposes about the aggressiveness of the Soviet Union, do not themselves believe that it is aggressive, because they are aware of the Soviet Union's peaceful policy and know that it will not itself attack capitalist countries.

- Stalin, Economic Problems (1952)

Therefore, Stalin would ally with one capitalist empire against the other. Fascism was more ruthless in oppressing communists, while liberalism nominally upheld political freedoms. Stalin would use the rhetoric of bourgeois democracy - a war for freedom - to find common ground with workers of capitalist countries. Then the Soviets could talk to proletarians, refute the lies about the USSR, and show them that the only system to truly free them is communism. This is how the Great Patriotic War resulted in huge worldwide victories for communism.

Western bourgeois support for Nazi Germany (1918-1939)

Throughout the 1930s, the Nazis were supported by Western finance capitalists as a weapon against the USSR. The Germans built up their military, breaking the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain favored the Nazis. The British only broke with the Nazis from September 1939 to December 1942. By the latter time, the victory at Stalingrad had sealed the fate of the Nazis, and the British moved to take control of the Nazi spy network, which was converted into the Gehlen Organization and then NATO.

Munich Betrayal

In 1938, Britain approved the Nazi takeover of Czechoslovakia. This is known as the Munich Betrayal in Czechoslovakia, or the Munich Agreement in the West. It was justified to the public as "appeasement" of the Nazis. The British PM Chamberlain hoped that the Nazis would invade the USSR in exchange for this token.

A British bank in Czechoslovakia gave the Nazis billions of pounds of gold.

The USSR offered to defend Czechoslovakia, but Poland and Romania refused to let the Red Army cross through.

Spanish Civil War

In the mid-1930s, the British Empire and the USA supported the Nazi-allied fascist General Franco taking over Spain, which had democratically elected a left-wing government.

The Soviets and Spanish Communists supported the Spanish Republican forces. Their war effort was sabotaged by a Fifth Column of Trotskyists and anarchists, who fought the Communists and persecuted churches, making the left so unpopular that the Francoists were able to sweep in after each brief anarchist rule.

Nazis conflict with Britain (1939-1943)

The Nazis, representing the German national bourgeois, finally broke with the British Empire as they wanted more colonies for themselves, especially Poland.

The Soviet Union exploited this conflict between capitalist powers. Nazi Germany was ideologically fiercely anti-communist, and would eventually invade the USSR to distract its people from their real problems. But while the Nazis fought Britain, they could not risk war with the USSR, so they signed a Non-Aggression Treaty with the USSR.

The USSR signed the pact because Britain refused to work with it, Britain may even invade, and it wanted more time to industrialize and prepare.

Background: Poland 1917-1939

With the destruction of the Russian Empire by the Bolsheviks in 1917, Lenin proclaimed the right of self-determination for all nations of the former empire.

The Polish national bourgeois used this opportunity to create the Second Polish Republic. It was backed by the Western capitalist powers in the civil war between bourgeois and workers. Communists were brutally repressed, sent to prisons worse than the Gulag.

During peace negotiations between Poland and the Bolsheviks, the British Lord Curzon drew a line to use as the border. To its west were Polish people, to its east were Belarusians and Ukrainians. However, due to Trotsky delaying the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, Poland was able to cross the Curzon Line and seize parts of Belarus and the Ukraine. Throughout the next 20 years, Poland sought to Polonize these areas, forcing the use of the Polish language.

In 1926, Poland became a military dictatorship under Josef Pilsudski. He claimed a centrist line, but in reality kept Poland in poor conditions, with many peasants effectively enslaved, while British capitalists made good profits there. He continued the silencing of communists. Rather than openly put his opponents on trial, he used his political movement Sanacja to make them disappear.

In 1935, Pilsudski died and the fascist party Endecja (meaning "National Democracy") took over. Endecja distracted its people from their horrible conditions by directing attacks on Jews and Belarusian and Ukrainian minorities.

The Second Polish Republic was effectively subservient to Britain, which became upset when Nazi Germany began to threaten to occupy it.

Poland also signed a Non-Aggression Treaty with Nazi Germany in 1935.

Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact

In 1939, the Soviets signed a Non-Aggression Pact with Nazi Germany. This enraged the Western capitalist press, accusing the Soviets of allying with Nazi Germany.

The pact contained a secret provision about spheres of influence. Romania was in the Nazi sphere of influence, while the Baltics were in the Soviet sphere of influence. "In the event of a territorial reorganization of the Polish state", Poland would be divided on the Curzon Line.

The secret provision did not require any invasion or destruction of the Polish Republic.

Nazi invasion of Poland (September 1939)

The Nazis invaded and destroyed the Second Polish Republic. The Polish leaders put up no serious resistance, fleeing to Romania - thereby saying "it's over".

Britain declared war on Nazi Germany. Poland and Britain repeatedly refused Soviet troops on Polish territory.

After the Polish state was effectively destroyed, two weeks after the Nazi invasion, the USSR sent troops to claim its side of the Curzon Line, per the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Nazi troops had already crossed the line, seeking expansion, and had to be escorted out under the barrel of a gun. (This has been falsely reported as a "joint Soviet-Nazi military parade.")

The USSR sending its troops to push back the Nazis is called the "Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland" in Western revisionism.

Under international law, the USSR never invaded Poland.

The territory taken by the USSR was ethnically majority Belarusian and Ukrainian, and therefore split between the Belarusian SSR and Ukrainian SSR. The Russian SFSR played no role.

Katyn Massacre

In the occupation of Poland, the Nazis murdered up to 22,000 Polish officers and dumped their bodies in mass graves. They tried to blame this on the Soviets, a lie which has been maintained by Western capitalists.

In 1990, Boris Yeltsin fabricated a letter, allegedly from Stalin to Beria ordering the Katyn Massacre. It has been debunked. Using this letter, Western bourgeois sources claim "the Soviets admitted their crime", even though Boris Yeltsin was no communist.

Sovietization of the Baltics (Summer 1940)

With Germany on the border, the USSR achieved a military deal with the Baltic states. The USSR had no intention of annexation or Sovietization of the Baltic states, but once they tried to sign a secret deal with Nazi Germany threatening the USSR, it supported their people's uprisings.

The Baltic workers rose up against their dictatorships with a general strike. They set up People's Democracies, only allowing the Popular Front to run. The Popular Front included communist and independent candidates, chosen in primaries by meetings of the common people. Bourgeois politicians refused to participate, claiming the Popular Front was a Soviet puppet. The Popular Front candidates won with overwhelming popularity, and then voted to join the USSR.

Course of the War

Stalin expected Germany to invade. However, he publicly claimed that the Nazis would not invade, and would honor the Non-Aggression Pact. By appearing to trust Nazi Germany, he emphasized their aggressive nature in the eyes of the public of both sides.

The Red Army initially retreated, but slowly wore down the Germans. The Nazis found out they had severely underestimated Soviet industry.

Workers took up arms directly from factories to fight the Nazis. The Nazis saw that the most politically advanced communists were their greatest threat, and executed them. They took in traitorous "communists" as spies, so the Soviet Union looked with suspicion on those "prisoners" of war.

Nazi atrocities

The Nazis wiped out entire villages and raped countless women and children. Communism was so deeply rooted among the Soviet people that they would not accept Nazi rule, and so the Nazis chose to murder civilians. In their place, they sent German settlers, who would be sent back after the war ended.

The Nazis planned several famines on Soviet territory, to clear the way for German settlers. They also starved out Leningrad while besieging it. Millions of civilians died in these famines.

In total, the Nazis murdered 10-12 million civilians, especially communists, Jews, Poles, and other antifascists. Many were dumped in mass graves in forests. Some were taken to concentration camps. This is known as the Holocaust.

They also killed over 20 million Soviet soldiers.

Nazi collaborators

In the Ukraine, the Nazis worked with Stepan Bandera and his the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which committed atrocities against civilians and targeted Jews and Poles.

In Poland, the Home Army sometimes fought with the Soviets against the Nazis, but more often with the Nazis against the Soviets. After the war, it committed terrorist attacks against the Polish People's Republic, and was very unpopular.

In the Baltics, the Forest Brothers collaborated with the Nazis.

Central Asia and deportations

Several small Central Asian nations rose up against the USSR during WWII, committing mass collaboration with Nazi Germany. As punishment, they were deported away from the border in 1943-44. Namely, the Chechen, Ingush, Karachai, Kalmyks, Kabarda-Balkars, and Crimean Tatars.

Why? All of them were Muslims, and probably under the influence of reactionary Muslim mullahs who maintained sharia courts and sought to exploit their Muslim followers. (Unlike the Orthodox Church, Stalin hadn't reconciled Islam to communism.) These reactionary forces had remained so strong because the development of productive forces was retarded by the mountainous geography of the Caucasus. Nazi intelligence also gave credit to Britain for supporting reactionary jihadists in Central Asia via Afghanistan.

As a punishment for mass Nazi collaboration, and for border security, most people in these nationalities were deported to Siberia, away from the border, and placed under NKVD surveillance. Some exceptions were given to Red Army heroes. The importance of the Caucasus to Soviet security would be vindicated after WWII by the US Pentagon's Operation Pincher, which planned to take the Caucasus via Turkey and Iran.

Some more nations also deported for border security because of their foreign ethnic ties. These were not punishments, but preventative security measures. Meskhetian Turks, who were sympathetic to Turkey, were deported in 1947 as the US was making Cold War threats involving Turkey. All Germans, including the Volga German nation, were deported in 1941 as the war started, not as punishment but to prevent their collaboration. Koreans were also deported away from the border with Korea in 1937.

The decision to deport in 1943 was initiated by Stalin, but Khrushchev apparently made no protest. In 1956, Khrushchev blamed Stalin and lied that there were "no military considerations" in the deportations.

Soviets turn the tide

The Battle of Stalingrad from late 1942 to early 1943 was the turning point in the war.

The Battle of Kursk in summer 1943 was the nail in the coffin for Nazi Germany. The Nazis attempted a counter-attack at Kursk, which failed.

After Kursk, the US Joint Chief of Staffs secretly admitted that the USSR "occupies a dominant position and is the decisive factor in the defeat of the Axis in Europe."

The Impact of Lend-Lease: Helpful, But In No Way Decisive

Stalingrad was the decisive point of the Great Patriotic War. 85% of Lend-Lease supplies arrived when the victory of Stalingrad was already secured.

Lend-Lease aid was slow to arrive.  During the most crucial period of the war on the Eastern Front it remained little more than a trickle.  Only following the Battle of Stalingrad (August 19, 1942-February 2, 1943), when the Soviet Union’s eventual victory seemed assured, did American aid began to arrive on a significant scale – 85% of the supplies arrived after the beginning of 1943.  Although the vast majority of the Red Army’s best aircraft, tanks, guns and ammunition continued to be manufactured in the Soviet Union, its mobility and communications, in particular, came to rely on Lend-Lease.

American military historian David Glantz says that without Lend-Lease, the USSR still would have won, it just would've taken more time, lives and materials.

Lend-Lease aid did not arrive in sufficient quantities to make the difference between defeat and victory in 1941–1942; that achievement must be attributed solely to the Soviet people and to the iron nerve of Stalin, Zhukov, Shaposhnikov, Vasilevsky, and their subordinates. As the war continued, however, the United States and Great Britain provided many of the implements of war and strategic raw materials necessary for Soviet victory. Without Lend-Lease food, clothing, and raw materials (especially metals), the Soviet economy would have been even more heavily burdened by the war effort. Perhaps most directly, without Lend-Lease trucks, rail engines, and railroad cars, every Soviet offensive would have stalled at an earlier stage, outrunning its logistical tail in a matter of days. In turn, this would have allowed the German commanders to escape at least some encirclements, while forcing the Red Army to prepare and conduct many more deliberate penetration attacks in order to advance the same distance. Left to their own devices, Stalin and his commanders might have taken 12 to 18 months longer to finish off the Wehrmacht; the ultimate result would probably have been the same, except that Soviet soldiers could have waded at France's Atlantic beaches.

Stalin likewise told FDR that without Lend-Lease, Soviet victory would have been delayed.

Nazis defect to CIA

In December 1942, with the Soviets winning at Stalingrad, Hitler ordered the Nazis to begin peace negotiations with the Western Allies, seeking to shut down the Western Front and unite with the West against the Soviets.

British agent Dick Ellis had set up the OSS (precursor of the CIA) within FDR's Cabinet, and its director was Allen Dulles, who represented US banks and often dealt with fascist Germany and Italy. Dulles was willing to make a deal with the Nazis, but FDR shut it down. Behind FDR's back, several Nazis reached out to Dulles. FDR died in April 1945, and his successor President Truman had no problem with the CIA using Nazis.

In May 1945, with the Soviets on the doorstep, Hitler gave his last speech, saying that Germany must remain "defensive" in the West, and "a powerful counter-offensive" would begin in the East. Around this time, Nazi troops were ordered not to shoot at Americans or Englishmen.

Reinhart Gehlen, a leader of the Gestapo on the Eastern Front, also called "Hitler's Super Spy", fled to Bavaria to "surrender" to the US. They appointed him leader of the Gehlen Organization, which received at least $48,000,000 from the US government. Gehlen had about 5,000 contacts, mainly in Eastern Europe (behind the "Iron Curtain"). (Aptheker, p. 108)

Gehlen told his CIA handler that 28% of his organization were Nazi Party members. (In reality, it could have been more.)

The Gehlen Organization worked extensively with the underground Nazi group "Schnez Army", consisting of up to 40,000 veterans of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS. They had an agreement to share intelligence.

The Waffen-SS, SD, and Reich Main Security Office were transformed into the Nazi underground HIAG (Hilfegemeinschaft auf Gegenseitigkeit), numbering about 120,000 Waffen-SS veterans. The CIA worked with HIAG, protecting its chief's identity.

Gehlen and the CIA also used the Association of German Youth (Bund Deutsche Jugend) to indoctrinate youth for Nazism and "against any kind of planned economy". (Aptheker, p. 109)

The picture in Germany immediately after the war would be somewhat as follows: at the top a few “decent, neutral” statesmen who, at first sight, seem to have no connection with the Nazis. Behind and around them a great number of men who seem willing, even eager, to collaborate with the [Allied Military Government] and the occupying authorities in order to retain their positions. Behind them innumerable front organizations and Nazi cells biding their time, waiting, lying low. And finally, at least during the first period of occupation, the relatively small group or groups of those who wage active resistance, the guerrillas and partisans. - Curt Riess, The Nazis Go Underground, pp. 184-185

Nazi Adolf Heusinger was appointed leader of NATO. Nazi Klaus Barbie became a secret CIA agent.

In 1956, the Gehlen Organization was transformed into the West German secret police, the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), remaining under Reinhart Gehlen's leadership until 1968.

The Schnez Army joined the Christian Democrats and Kautskyites of West Germany.

Gehlen's agents were involved in the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, according to the NY World Telegram and Sun. (Aptheker, p. 110)

Aftermath

Drought of 1946-7

The Nazis' planned famines had wiped out Soviet grain reserves. The USA expected the USSR to starve during the war, but it held out. Only after the war, a drought hit and there was a famine in 1946-1947. Stalin stopped exporting grain and sent it to feed the people.

"Rape of Berlin"

The Germans had committed countless rapes, looting, and other atrocities. When the Red Army reached Berlin, many soldiers wanted to turn the tables, but the Soviet leadership held their soldiers to a higher standard than the Germans.

The Soviet High Command gave many commands against rape and destruction.

Strict orders have been issued that the German civilian population is to be left alone, nothing is to be stolen, and German women are not to be molested. - Major Kostikov

The Soviet command even banned troops from drinking alcohol and fraternizing with Germans (visiting German homes, movies, bars, cafes, or riding in their trains or buses).

According to the CIA, at least 10-15% of Soviet Armed Forces were spending time in prison for rape.

Rise of Communism

After the Soviets swept Eastern Europe, they introduced Eastern European workers to communism. The Soviets set up People's Democracies, banning fascists from participating in government. Communists became popular and won these elections, and set up dictatorships of the proletariat, which lasted until 1989.

Communists also swept China, liberating 500 million people. Communists now led almost a third of humanity.

Effect on capitalist countries

Communists became extremely popular even in the capitalist world, which thanked them for defeating the Nazis. Even so, the Western bourgeois wanted World War III. Churchill demanded to invade the USSR, but his advisors told him it was impossible.

The British Empire was forced to reorganize. During the war, it had infiltrated the FDR administration, especially the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which was set up by British agent Dick Ellis. The OSS was reorganized into the CIA, creating the American deep state.

Many colonies of the British Empire, such as India and Ghana, were made nominally independent after WWII to prevent nationalist revolutions (which would have been supported by communism). The colonies were effectively transferred to the control of the CIA.

Commemoration

The Great Patriotic War is remembered on May 5, Victory Day, across much of Europe and the former USSR.

The Western ruling class downplays the role of the USSR in fighting the Nazis, revising history so that most Americans, British and French think that the USSR played a lesser role.

Eastern Europe

Since 1989, most capitalist states in Eastern Europe have revised history to claim that the victory of the USSR was not a good thing. They hate communism so much that they rehabilitate Nazism and fascism by comparison.

The Forest Brothers, Nazi collaborators, have been rehabilitated in the Baltics.

In 2023, the Canadian Parliament invited and applauded Yaroslav Hunka, a veteran Ukrainian soldier of the Galician unit of the Nazi Waffen-SS. He claimed his historical legacy was alive in Ukraine, as it was fighting Russia. After communists drew people's attention to this on social media, causing public outcry, Trudeau was forced to apologize.

The Ukraine has monuments to Stepan Bandera.

In the Russo-Ukrainian War, the Ukraine attempted a counter-attack at Kursk, which failed like the Nazis'.