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Second World War 1939-1945

a war prepared by the forces of international imperialist reaction and unleashed by the main aggressive states - fascist Germany, fascist Italy and militaristic Japan. World capitalism, like the first, arose due to the law of uneven development of capitalist countries under imperialism and was the result of a sharp aggravation of inter-imperialist contradictions, the struggle for markets, sources of raw materials, spheres of influence and investment of capital. The war began in conditions when capitalism was no longer a comprehensive system, when the world's first socialist state, the USSR, existed and grew stronger. The split of the world into two systems led to the emergence of the main contradiction of the era - between socialism and capitalism. Inter-imperialist contradictions have ceased to be the only factor in world politics. They developed in parallel and in interaction with the contradictions between the two systems. Warring capitalist groups, fighting each other, simultaneously sought to destroy the USSR. However, V. m.v. began as a clash between two coalitions of major capitalist powers. It was imperialist in origin, its culprits were the imperialists of all countries, the system of modern capitalism. Hitler's Germany, which led the bloc of fascist aggressors, bears special responsibility for its emergence. On the part of the states of the fascist bloc, the war bore an imperialist character throughout its entire duration. On the part of the states that fought against the fascist aggressors and their allies, the nature of the war gradually changed. Under the influence of the national liberation struggle of peoples, the process of transforming the war into a just, anti-fascist war was underway. The entry of the Soviet Union into the war against the states of the fascist bloc that treacherously attacked it completed this process.

Preparation and outbreak of war. The forces that unleashed military warfare prepared strategic and political positions favorable to the aggressors long before it began. In the 30s Two main centers of military danger have emerged in the world: Germany in Europe, Japan in the Far East. The strengthening of German imperialism, under the pretext of eliminating the injustices of the Versailles system, began to demand the redivision of the world in its favor. The establishment of a terrorist fascist dictatorship in Germany in 1933, which fulfilled the demands of the most reactionary and chauvinistic circles of monopoly capital, turned this country into a striking force of imperialism, directed primarily against the USSR. However, the plans of German fascism were not limited to the enslavement of the peoples of the Soviet Union. The fascist program for gaining world domination provided for the transformation of Germany into the center of a gigantic colonial empire, the power and influence of which would extend to all of Europe and the richest regions of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the mass destruction of the population in the conquered countries, especially in the countries of Eastern Europe. The fascist elite planned to begin the implementation of this program from the countries of Central Europe, then spreading it to the entire continent. The defeat and capture of the Soviet Union with the aim, first of all, of destroying the center of the international communist and labor movement, as well as expanding the “living space” of German imperialism, was the most important political task of fascism and at the same time the main prerequisite for the further successful deployment of aggression on a global scale. The imperialists of Italy and Japan also sought to redistribute the world and establish a “new order”. Thus, the plans of the Nazis and their allies posed a serious threat not only to the USSR, but also to Great Britain, France, and the USA. However, the ruling circles of the Western powers, driven by a feeling of class hatred towards the Soviet state, under the guise of “non-interference” and “neutrality”, essentially pursued a policy of complicity with the fascist aggressors, hoping to avert the threat of fascist invasion from their countries, to weaken their imperialist rivals with the forces of the Soviet Union, and then with their help, destroy the USSR. They relied on the mutual exhaustion of the USSR and Nazi Germany in a protracted and destructive war.

The French ruling elite, pushing Hitler's aggression to the East in the pre-war years and fighting against the communist movement within the country, at the same time feared a new German invasion, sought a close military alliance with Great Britain, strengthened the eastern borders by building the “Maginot Line” and deploying armed forces against Germany. The British government sought to strengthen the British colonial empire and sent troops and naval forces to its key areas (Middle East, Singapore, India). Pursuing a policy of aiding the aggressors in Europe, the government of N. Chamberlain, right up to the start of the war and in its first months, hoped for an agreement with Hitler at the expense of the USSR. In the event of aggression against France, it hoped that the French armed forces, repelling the aggression together with the British expeditionary forces and British aviation units, would ensure the security of the British Isles. Before the war, the US ruling circles supported Germany economically and thereby contributed to the reconstruction of German military potential. With the outbreak of the war, they were forced to slightly change their political course and, as fascist aggression expanded, switch to supporting Great Britain and France.

The Soviet Union, in an environment of increasing military danger, pursued a policy aimed at curbing the aggressor and creating a reliable system for ensuring peace. On May 2, 1935, a Franco-Soviet treaty on mutual assistance was signed in Paris. On May 16, 1935, the Soviet Union concluded a mutual assistance agreement with Czechoslovakia. The Soviet government fought to create a collective security system that could be an effective means of preventing war and ensuring peace. At the same time, the Soviet state carried out a set of measures aimed at strengthening the country’s defense and developing its military-economic potential.

In the 30s Hitler's government launched diplomatic, strategic and economic preparations for world war. In October 1933, Germany left the Geneva Disarmament Conference of 1932-35 (See Geneva Disarmament Conference of 1932-35) and announced its withdrawal from the League of Nations. On March 16, 1935, Hitler violated the military articles of the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919 (See Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919) and introduced universal conscription in the country. In March 1936, German troops occupied the demilitarized Rhineland. In November 1936, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, which Italy joined in 1937. The activation of the aggressive forces of imperialism led to a number of international political crises and local wars. As a result of the aggressive wars of Japan against China (began in 1931), Italy against Ethiopia (1935-36), and the German-Italian intervention in Spain (1936-39), fascist states strengthened their positions in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Using the policy of “non-intervention” pursued by Great Britain and France, Nazi Germany captured Austria in March 1938 and began preparing an attack on Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia had a well-trained army, based on a powerful system of border fortifications; Treaties with France (1924) and the USSR (1935) provided for military assistance from these powers to Czechoslovakia. The Soviet Union has repeatedly stated its readiness to fulfill its obligations and provide military assistance to Czechoslovakia, even if France does not. However, the government of E. Benes did not accept help from the USSR. As a result of the Munich Agreement of 1938 (See Munich Agreement of 1938), the ruling circles of Great Britain and France, supported by the United States, betrayed Czechoslovakia and agreed to Germany’s seizure of the Sudetenland, hoping in this way to open the “path to the East” for Nazi Germany. The fascist leadership had a free hand for aggression.

At the end of 1938, the ruling circles of Nazi Germany began a diplomatic offensive against Poland, creating the so-called Danzig crisis, the meaning of which was to carry out aggression against Poland under the guise of demands for the elimination of the “injustices of Versailles” against the free city of Danzig. In March 1939, Germany completely occupied Czechoslovakia, created a fascist puppet “state” - Slovakia, seized the Memel region from Lithuania and imposed an enslaving “economic” agreement on Romania. Italy occupied Albania in April 1939. In response to the expansion of fascist aggression, the governments of Great Britain and France, in order to protect their economic and political interests in Europe, provided “guarantees of independence” to Poland, Romania, Greece and Turkey. France also pledged military assistance to Poland in the event of an attack by Germany. In April - May 1939, Germany denounced the Anglo-German naval agreement of 1935, broke the non-aggression agreement concluded in 1934 with Poland and concluded the so-called Pact of Steel with Italy, according to which the Italian government pledged to help Germany if it went to war with the Western powers.

In such a situation, the British and French governments, under the influence of public opinion, out of fear of the further strengthening of Germany and in order to put pressure on it, entered into negotiations with the USSR, which took place in Moscow in the summer of 1939 (see Moscow negotiations 1939). However, the Western powers did not agree to conclude the agreement proposed by the USSR on a joint struggle against the aggressor. By inviting the Soviet Union to make unilateral commitments to help any European neighbor in the event of an attack on it, the Western powers wanted to drag the USSR into a one-on-one war against Germany. The negotiations, which lasted until mid-August 1939, did not produce results due to sabotage by Paris and London of Soviet constructive proposals. Leading the Moscow negotiations to a breakdown, the British government at the same time entered into secret contacts with the Nazis through their ambassador in London G. Dirksen, trying to achieve an agreement on the redistribution of the world at the expense of the USSR. The position of the Western powers predetermined the breakdown of the Moscow negotiations and presented the Soviet Union with an alternative: to find itself isolated in the face of a direct threat of attack by Nazi Germany or, having exhausted the possibilities of concluding an alliance with Great Britain and France, to sign the non-aggression pact proposed by Germany and thereby push back the threat of war. The situation made the second choice inevitable. The Soviet-German treaty concluded on August 23, 1939 contributed to the fact that, contrary to the calculations of Western politicians, the world war began with a clash within the capitalist world.

On the eve of V. m.v. German fascism, through the accelerated development of the military economy, created a powerful military potential. In 1933-39, expenditures on armaments increased more than 12 times and reached 37 billion marks. Germany smelted 22.5 million in 1939. T steel, 17.5 million T pig iron, mined 251.6 million. T coal, produced 66.0 billion. kW · h electricity. However, for a number of types of strategic raw materials, Germany depended on imports (iron ore, rubber, manganese ore, copper, oil and petroleum products, chrome ore). The number of armed forces of Nazi Germany by September 1, 1939 reached 4.6 million people. There were 26 thousand guns and mortars, 3.2 thousand tanks, 4.4 thousand combat aircraft, 115 warships (including 57 submarines) in service.

The strategy of the German High Command was based on the doctrine of “total war.” Its main content was the concept of “lightning war”, according to which victory should be won in the shortest possible time, until the enemy fully deploys his armed forces and military-economic potential. The strategic plan of the fascist German command was to, using limited forces in the west as cover, attack Poland and quickly defeat its armed forces. 61 divisions and 2 brigades were deployed against Poland (including 7 tank and about 9 motorized), of which 7 infantry and 1 tank divisions arrived after the start of the war, a total of 1.8 million people, over 11 thousand guns and mortars, 2.8 thousand tanks, about 2 thousand aircraft; against France - 35 infantry divisions (after September 3, 9 more divisions arrived), 1.5 thousand aircraft.

The Polish command, counting on military assistance guaranteed by Great Britain and France, intended to conduct defense in the border zone and go on the offensive after the French army and British aviation actively distracted German forces from the Polish front. By September 1, Poland had managed to mobilize and concentrate troops only 70%: 24 infantry divisions, 3 mountain brigades, 1 armored brigade, 8 cavalry brigades and 56 national defense battalions were deployed. The Polish armed forces had over 4 thousand guns and mortars, 785 light tanks and tankettes and about 400 aircraft.

The French plan for waging war against Germany, in accordance with the political course pursued by France and the military doctrine of the French command, provided for defense on the Maginot Line and the entry of troops into Belgium and the Netherlands to continue the defensive front to the north in order to protect the ports and industrial areas of France and Belgium. After mobilization, the armed forces of France numbered 110 divisions (15 of them in the colonies), a total of 2.67 million people, about 2.7 thousand tanks (in the metropolis - 2.4 thousand), over 26 thousand guns and mortars, 2330 aircraft (in the metropolis - 1735), 176 warships (including 77 submarines).

Great Britain had a strong Navy and Air Force - 320 warships of the main classes (including 69 submarines), about 2 thousand aircraft. Its ground forces consisted of 9 personnel and 17 territorial divisions; they had 5.6 thousand guns and mortars, 547 tanks. The strength of the British army was 1.27 million people. In the event of war with Germany, the British command planned to concentrate its main efforts at sea and send 10 divisions to France. The British and French commands did not intend to provide serious assistance to Poland.

1st period of the war (September 1, 1939 - June 21, 1941)- the period of military successes of Nazi Germany. On September 1, 1939, Germany attacked Poland (see Polish campaign of 1939). On September 3, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. Having an overwhelming superiority of forces over the Polish army and concentrating a mass of tanks and aircraft on the main sectors of the front, the Nazi command was able to achieve major operational results from the beginning of the war. The incomplete deployment of forces, the lack of assistance from the allies, the weakness of the centralized leadership and its subsequent collapse put the Polish army before a disaster.

The courageous resistance of Polish troops near Mokra, Mlawa, on Bzura, the defense of Modlin, Westerplatte and the heroic 20-day defense of Warsaw (September 8-28) wrote bright pages in the history of the German-Polish war, but could not prevent the defeat of Poland. Hitler's troops surrounded a number of Polish army groups west of the Vistula, transferred military operations to the eastern regions of the country and completed its occupation in early October.

On September 17, by order of the Soviet government, Red Army troops crossed the border of the collapsed Polish state and began a liberation campaign into Western Belarus and Western Ukraine in order to protect the lives and property of the Ukrainian and Belarusian population, who were seeking reunification with the Soviet republics. The campaign to the West was also necessary to stop the spread of Hitler's aggression to the east. The Soviet government, confident in the inevitability of German aggression against the USSR in the near future, sought to delay the starting point of the future deployment of troops of a potential enemy, which was in the interests of not only the Soviet Union, but also all peoples threatened by fascist aggression. After the Red Army liberated the Western Belarusian and Western Ukrainian lands, Western Ukraine (November 1, 1939) and Western Belarus (November 2, 1939) were reunited with the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR, respectively.

At the end of September - beginning of October 1939, Soviet-Estonian, Soviet-Latvian and Soviet-Lithuanian mutual assistance agreements were signed, which prevented the seizure of the Baltic countries by Nazi Germany and their transformation into a military springboard against the USSR. In August 1940, after the overthrow of the bourgeois governments of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, these countries, in accordance with the wishes of their peoples, were accepted into the USSR.

As a result of the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-40 (See Soviet-Finnish War of 1939), according to the agreement of March 12, 1940, the USSR border on the Karelian Isthmus, in the area of ​​Leningrad and the Murmansk Railway, was somewhat pushed to the north-west. On June 26, 1940, the Soviet government proposed that Romania return Bessarabia, captured by Romania in 1918, to the USSR and transfer the northern part of Bukovina, inhabited by Ukrainians, to the USSR. On June 28, the Romanian government agreed to the return of Bessarabia and the transfer of Northern Bukovina.

The governments of Great Britain and France after the outbreak of the war until May 1940 continued, only in a slightly modified form, the pre-war foreign policy course, which was based on calculations for reconciliation with fascist Germany on the basis of anti-communism and the direction of its aggression against the USSR. Despite the declaration of war, the French armed forces and the British Expeditionary Forces (which began arriving in France in mid-September) remained inactive for 9 months. During this period, called the "Phantom War", Hitler's army prepared for an offensive against the countries Western Europe. Since the end of September 1939, active military operations were carried out only on sea communications. To blockade Great Britain, the Nazi command used naval forces, especially submarines and large ships (raiders). From September to December 1939, Great Britain lost 114 ships from attacks by German submarines, and in 1940 - 471 ships, while the Germans lost only 9 submarines in 1939. Attacks on Great Britain's sea communications led to the loss of 1/3 of the tonnage of the British merchant fleet by the summer of 1941 and created a serious threat to the country's economy.

In April–May 1940, German armed forces captured Norway and Denmark (see Norwegian Operation of 1940) with the aim of strengthening German positions in the Atlantic and Northern Europe, seizing iron ore wealth, bringing the bases of the German fleet closer to Great Britain, and providing a springboard in the north for an attack on the USSR. . On April 9, 1940, amphibious assault forces landed simultaneously and captured the key ports of Norway along its entire 1800-long coastline. km, and airborne assaults occupied the main airfields. The courageous resistance of the Norwegian army (which was late in deployment) and the patriots delayed the onslaught of the Nazis. Attempts by the Anglo-French troops to dislodge the Germans from the points they occupied led to a series of battles in the areas of Narvik, Namsus, Molle (Molde), and others. British troops recaptured Narvik from the Germans. But they failed to wrest the strategic initiative from the Nazis. At the beginning of June they were evacuated from Narvik. The occupation of Norway was made easier for the Nazis by the actions of the Norwegian “fifth column” led by V. Quisling. The country turned into Hitler's base in northern Europe. But significant losses of the Nazi fleet during the Norwegian operation weakened its capabilities in the further struggle for the Atlantic.

At dawn on May 10, 1940, after careful preparation, Nazi troops (135 divisions, including 10 tank and 6 motorized, and 1 brigade, 2,580 tanks, 3,834 aircraft) invaded Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and then through their territories and into France (see French campaign 1940). The Germans delivered the main blow with a mass of mobile formations and aircraft through the Ardennes Mountains, bypassing the Maginot Line from the north, through northern France to the English Channel coast. The French command, adhering to a defensive doctrine, stationed large forces on the Maginot Line and did not create a strategic reserve in the depths. After the start of the German offensive, it brought the main group of troops, including the British Expeditionary Army, into Belgium, exposing these forces to attack from the rear. These serious mistakes of the French command, aggravated by poor interaction between the Allied armies, allowed Hitler's troops after crossing the river. Meuse and battles in central Belgium to carry out a breakthrough through northern France, cut the front of the Anglo-French troops, go to the rear of the Anglo-French group operating in Belgium, and break through to the English Channel. On May 14, the Netherlands capitulated. The Belgian, British and part of the French armies were surrounded in Flanders. Belgium capitulated on May 28. The British and part of the French troops, surrounded in the Dunkirk area, managed, having lost all their military equipment, to evacuate to Great Britain (see Dunkirk operation 1940).

At the 2nd stage of the summer campaign of 1940, Hitler’s army, with much superior forces, broke through the front hastily created by the French along the river. Somme and En. The danger looming over France required the unity of the people's forces. French communists called for nationwide resistance and organization of the defense of Paris. The capitulators and traitors (P. Reynaud, C. Pétain, P. Laval, etc.) who determined the policy of France, the high command led by M. Weygand rejected this the only way saving the country, as they feared revolutionary uprisings of the proletariat and the strengthening of the Communist Party. They decided to surrender Paris without a fight and capitulate to Hitler. Having not exhausted the possibilities of resistance, the French armed forces laid down their arms. The Compiègne Armistice of 1940 (signed on June 22) became a milestone in the policy of national treason pursued by the Pétain government, which expressed the interests of part of the French bourgeoisie, oriented toward Nazi Germany. This truce was aimed at strangling the national liberation struggle of the French people. Under its terms, an occupation regime was established in the northern and central parts of France. France's industrial, raw materials and food resources came under German control. In the unoccupied southern part of the country, the anti-national pro-fascist Vichy government led by Pétain came to power, becoming Hitler's puppet. But at the end of June 1940, the Committee of Free (from July 1942 - Fighting) France, headed by General Charles de Gaulle, was formed in London to lead the struggle for the liberation of France from the Nazi invaders and their henchmen.

On June 10, 1940, Italy entered the war against Great Britain and France, striving to establish dominance in the Mediterranean basin. Italian troops captured British Somalia, part of Kenya and Sudan in August, and in mid-September invaded Egypt from Libya to make their way to Suez (see North African campaigns 1940-43). However, they were soon stopped, and in December 1940 they were driven back by the British. An attempt by the Italians to develop an offensive from Albania to Greece, launched in October 1940, was decisively repulsed by the Greek army, which inflicted a number of strong retaliatory blows on the Italian troops (see Italo-Greek War 1940-41 (See Italo-Greek War 1940-1941)). In January - May 1941, British troops expelled the Italians from British Somalia, Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Italian Somalia, and Eritrea. Mussolini was forced in January 1941 to ask Hitler for help. In the spring, German troops were sent to North Africa, forming the so-called Afrika Korps, led by General E. Rommel. Having gone on the offensive on March 31, Italian-German troops reached the Libyan-Egyptian border in the 2nd half of April.

After the defeat of France, the threat looming over Great Britain contributed to the isolation of the Munich elements and the rallying of the forces of the English people. The government of W. Churchill, which replaced the government of N. Chamberlain on May 10, 1940, began organizing an effective defense. The British government attached particular importance to US support. In July 1940, secret negotiations began between the air and naval headquarters of the United States and Great Britain, which ended with the signing on September 2 of an agreement on the transfer of 50 obsolete American destroyers to the latter in exchange for British military bases in the Western Hemisphere (they were provided to the United States for a period of 99 years). Destroyers were needed to fight the Atlantic communications.

On July 16, 1940, Hitler issued a directive for the invasion of Great Britain (Operation Sea Lion). From August 1940, the Nazis began massive bombing of Great Britain in order to undermine its military and economic potential, demoralize the population, prepare for an invasion and ultimately force it to surrender (see Battle of Britain 1940-41). German aviation caused significant damage to many British cities, enterprises, and ports, but did not break the resistance of the British Air Force, was unable to establish air supremacy over the English Channel, and suffered heavy losses. As a result of the air raids, which continued until May 1941, Hitler's leadership was unable to force Great Britain to capitulate, destroy its industry, and undermine the morale of the population. The German command was unable to provide the required number of landing equipment in a timely manner. The naval forces were insufficient.

However main reason Hitler’s refusal to invade Great Britain was the decision he made back in the summer of 1940 to commit aggression against the Soviet Union. Having begun direct preparations for an attack on the USSR, the Nazi leadership was forced to transfer forces from the West to the East, directing enormous resources to the development of ground forces, and not the fleet necessary to fight against Great Britain. In the autumn, the ongoing preparations for war against the USSR removed the direct threat of a German invasion of Great Britain. Closely connected with plans to prepare an attack on the USSR was the strengthening of the aggressive alliance of Germany, Italy and Japan, which found expression in the signing of the Berlin Pact of 1940 on September 27 (See Berlin Pact of 1940).

Preparing an attack on the USSR, fascist Germany carried out aggression in the Balkans in the spring of 1941 (see Balkan campaign of 1941). On March 2, Nazi troops entered Bulgaria, which joined the Berlin Pact; On April 6, Italo-German and then Hungarian troops invaded Yugoslavia and Greece and occupied Yugoslavia by April 18, and the Greek mainland by April 29. On the territory of Yugoslavia, puppet fascist “states” were created - Croatia and Serbia. From May 20 to June 2, the fascist German command carried out the Cretan airborne operation of 1941 (See Cretan airborne operation of 1941), during which Crete and other Greek islands in the Aegean Sea were captured.

The military successes of Nazi Germany in the first period of the war were largely due to the fact that its opponents, who had an overall higher industrial and economic potential, were unable to pool their resources and create unified system military leadership, develop unified effective plans waging war. Their military machine lagged behind the new demands of armed struggle and could hardly withstand more modern methods its management. In preparation, combat training and technical equipment The fascist German Wehrmacht was generally superior to the armed forces of Western states. The insufficient military preparedness of the latter was mainly associated with the reactionary pre-war foreign policy course of their ruling circles, which was based on the desire to come to an agreement with the aggressor at the expense of the USSR.

By the end of the 1st period of the war, the bloc of fascist states had sharply strengthened economically and militarily. Most of continental Europe, with its resources and economy, came under German control. In Poland, Germany captured the main metallurgical and engineering plants, the coal mines of Upper Silesia, the chemical and mining industries - a total of 294 large, 35 thousand medium and small industrial enterprises; in France - the metallurgical and steel industry of Lorraine, the entire automotive and aviation industry, reserves of iron ore, copper, aluminum, magnesium, as well as automobiles, precision mechanics products, machine tools, rolling stock; in Norway - mining, metallurgical, shipbuilding industries, enterprises for the production of ferroalloys; in Yugoslavia - copper and bauxite deposits; in the Netherlands, in addition to industrial enterprises, gold reserves amount to 71.3 million florins. total amount material assets looted by Nazi Germany in the occupied countries amounted to 9 billion pounds sterling by 1941. By the spring of 1941, more than 3 million foreign workers and prisoners of war worked at German enterprises. In addition, all the weapons of their armies were captured in the occupied countries; for example, in France alone there are about 5 thousand tanks and 3 thousand aircraft. In 1941, the Nazis equipped 38 infantry, 3 motorized, and 1 tank divisions with French vehicles. In German railway Over 4 thousand steam locomotives and 40 thousand carriages appeared from occupied countries. The economic resources of most European states were put at the service of the war, primarily the war being prepared against the USSR.

In the occupied territories, as well as in Germany itself, the Nazis established a terrorist regime, exterminating all those dissatisfied or suspected of discontent. A system of concentration camps was created in which millions of people were exterminated in an organized manner. The activity of death camps especially developed after the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR. More than 4 million people were killed in the Auschwitz camp (Poland) alone. The fascist command widely practiced punitive expeditions and mass executions of civilians (see Lidice, Oradour-sur-Glane, etc.).

Military successes allowed Hitler's diplomacy to push the boundaries of the fascist bloc, consolidate the accession of Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Finland (which were headed by reactionary governments closely associated with fascist Germany and dependent on it), plant its agents and strengthen its positions in the Middle East, in some areas of Africa and Latin America. At the same time, political self-exposure of the Nazi regime took place, hatred of it grew not only among broad sections of the population, but also among the ruling classes of capitalist countries, and the Resistance Movement began. In the face of the fascist threat, the ruling circles of the Western powers, primarily Great Britain, were forced to reconsider their previous political course aimed at condoning fascist aggression, and gradually replace it with a course towards the fight against fascism.

The US government gradually began to reconsider its foreign policy course. It increasingly actively supported Great Britain, becoming its “non-belligerent ally.” In May 1940, Congress approved an amount of 3 billion dollars for the needs of the army and navy, and in the summer - 6.5 billion, including 4 billion for the construction of a “fleet of two oceans.” The supply of weapons and equipment for Great Britain increased. According to the law adopted by the US Congress on March 11, 1941 on the transfer of military materials to warring countries on loan or lease (see Lend-Lease), Great Britain was allocated 7 billion dollars. In April 1941, the Lend-Lease law was extended to Yugoslavia and Greece. US troops occupied Greenland and Iceland and established bases there. The North Atlantic was declared a “patrol zone” for the US navy, which was also used to escort merchant ships heading to the UK.

2nd period of the war (22 June 1941 - 18 November 1942) characterized by a further expansion of its scope and the beginning, in connection with the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR, of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, which became the main and decisive integral part V.m.v. (for details on the actions on the Soviet-German front, see the article The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union 1941-45). On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany treacherously and suddenly attacked the Soviet Union. This attack completed the long course of anti-Soviet policy of German fascism, which sought to destroy the world's first socialist state and seize its richest resources. Nazi Germany sent 77% of its armed forces personnel, the bulk of its tanks and aircraft, i.e., the main most combat-ready forces of the Nazi Wehrmacht, against the Soviet Union. Together with Germany, Hungary, Romania, Finland and Italy entered the war against the USSR. The Soviet-German front became the main front of the military war. From now on, the struggle of the Soviet Union against fascism decided the outcome of the World War, the fate of mankind.

From the very beginning, the struggle of the Red Army had a decisive influence on the entire course of military warfare, on the entire policy and military strategy of the warring coalitions and states. Under the influence of events on the Soviet-German front, the Nazi military command was forced to determine methods of strategic management of the war, the formation and use of strategic reserves, and a system of regroupings between theaters of military operations. During the war, the Red Army forced the Nazi command to completely abandon the doctrine of “blitzkrieg.” Under the blows of the Soviet troops, other methods of warfare and military leadership used by the German strategy consistently failed.

As a result of a surprise attack, the superior forces of the Nazi troops managed to penetrate deeply into Soviet territory in the first weeks of the war. By the end of the first ten days of July, the enemy captured Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, a significant part of Ukraine, and part of Moldova. However, moving deeper into the territory of the USSR, the Nazi troops encountered growing resistance from the Red Army and suffered increasingly heavy losses. Soviet troops fought steadfastly and stubbornly. Under the leadership of the Communist Party and its Central Committee, the restructuring of the entire life of the country on a military basis began, the mobilization of internal forces to defeat the enemy. The peoples of the USSR rallied into a single battle camp. The formation of large strategic reserves was carried out, and the country's leadership system was reorganized. The Communist Party began work on organizing the partisan movement.

Already the initial period of the war showed that the Nazis’ military adventure was doomed to failure. The Nazi armies were stopped near Leningrad and on the river. Volkhov. The heroic defense of Kyiv, Odessa and Sevastopol pinned down large forces of fascist German troops in the south for a long time. In the fierce Battle of Smolensk 1941 (See Battle of Smolensk 1941) (July 10 - September 10) The Red Army stopped the German strike group - Army Group Center, which was advancing on Moscow, inflicting heavy losses on it. In October 1941, the enemy, having brought up reserves, resumed the attack on Moscow. Despite the initial successes, he was unable to break the stubborn resistance of the Soviet troops, who were inferior to the enemy in numbers and military equipment, and break through to Moscow. In intense battles, the Red Army defended the capital in extremely difficult conditions, bled the enemy’s strike forces dry, and in early December 1941 launched a counteroffensive. The defeat of the Nazis in the Battle of Moscow 1941-42 (See Battle of Moscow 1941-42) (September 30, 1941 - April 20, 1942) buried the fascist plan for a “lightning war”, becoming an event of world-historical significance. The Battle of Moscow dispelled the myth of the invincibility of Hitler's Wehrmacht, confronted Nazi Germany with the need to wage a protracted war, contributed to the further unity of the anti-Hitler coalition, and inspired all freedom-loving peoples to fight the aggressors. The victory of the Red Army near Moscow meant a decisive turn of military events in favor of the USSR and had a great influence on the entire further course of military warfare.

Having carried out extensive preparations, the Nazi leadership resumed offensive operations on the Soviet-German front at the end of June 1942. After fierce battles near Voronezh and in the Donbass, fascist German troops managed to break through to the big bend of the Don. However, the Soviet command managed to remove the main forces of the South-Western and Southern Fronts from the attack, take them beyond the Don and thereby thwart the enemy’s plans to encircle them. In mid-July 1942, the Battle of Stalingrad 1942-1943 began (See Battle of Stalingrad 1942-43) - the greatest battle of military history. During the heroic defense near Stalingrad in July - November 1942, Soviet troops pinned down the enemy strike group, inflicted heavy losses on it and prepared the conditions for launching a counteroffensive. Hitler's troops were unable to achieve decisive success in the Caucasus (see article Caucasus).

By November 1942, despite enormous difficulties, the Red Army had achieved major successes. The Nazi army was stopped. A well-coordinated military economy was created in the USSR; the output of military products exceeded the output of military products of Nazi Germany. The Soviet Union created the conditions for a radical change in the course of the World War.

The liberation struggle of the peoples against the aggressors created objective prerequisites for the formation and consolidation of the anti-Hitler coalition (See Anti-Hitler coalition). The Soviet government sought to mobilize all forces in the international arena to fight against fascism. On July 12, 1941, the USSR signed an agreement with Great Britain on joint actions in the war against Germany; On July 18, a similar agreement was signed with the government of Czechoslovakia, and on July 30 - with the Polish émigré government. On August 9-12, 1941, negotiations were held on warships near Argentilla (Newfoundland) between British Prime Minister W. Churchill and US President F. D. Roosevelt. Taking a wait-and-see attitude, the United States intended to limit itself to material support (Lend-Lease) to countries fighting against Germany. Great Britain, urging the United States to enter the war, proposed a strategy of protracted action using naval and air forces. The goals of the war and the principles of the post-war world order were formulated in the Atlantic Charter signed by Roosevelt and Churchill (See Atlantic Charter) (dated August 14, 1941). On September 24, the Soviet Union joined the Atlantic Charter, expressing its dissenting opinion on certain issues. At the end of September - beginning of October 1941, a meeting of representatives of the USSR, USA and Great Britain was held in Moscow, which ended with the signing of a protocol on mutual supplies.

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a war against the United States with a surprise attack on the American military base in the Pacific Ocean, Pearl Harbor. On December 8, 1941, the USA, Great Britain and a number of other states declared war on Japan. The war in the Pacific and Asia was generated by long-standing and deep Japanese-American imperialist contradictions, which intensified during the struggle for dominance in China and Southeast Asia. The entry of the United States into the war strengthened the anti-Hitler coalition. The military alliance of states fighting against fascism was formalized in Washington on January 1 with the Declaration of 26 States of 1942 (See Declaration of 26 States of 1942). The Declaration was based on the recognition of the need to achieve complete victory over the enemy, for which the countries waging war were required to mobilize all military and economic resources, cooperate with each other, not make a separate peace with the enemy. The creation of an anti-Hitler coalition meant the failure of the Nazi plans to isolate the USSR and the consolidation of all world anti-fascist forces.

To develop a joint plan of action, Churchill and Roosevelt held a conference in Washington on December 22, 1941 - January 14, 1942 (codenamed “Arcadia”), during which a coordinated course of Anglo-American strategy was determined, based on the recognition of Germany as the main enemy in the war, and the Atlantic and European areas - the decisive theater of military operations. However, assistance to the Red Army, which bore the main brunt of the struggle, was planned only in the form of intensifying air raids on Germany, its blockade and the organization of subversive activities in the occupied countries. It was supposed to prepare an invasion of the continent, but not earlier than 1943, either from the Mediterranean Sea or by landing in Western Europe.

At the Washington Conference, a system of general management of the military efforts of the Western allies was determined, a joint Anglo-American headquarters was created to coordinate the strategy developed at the conferences of heads of government; a single allied Anglo-American-Dutch-Australian command was formed for the southwestern part of the Pacific Ocean, headed by the English Field Marshal A.P. Wavell.

Immediately after the Washington Conference, the Allies began to violate their own established principle of the decisive importance of the European theater of operations. Without developing specific plans for waging war in Europe, they (primarily the United States) began to transfer everything more strength fleet, aviation, landing craft to the Pacific Ocean, where the situation was unfavorable for the United States.

Meanwhile, the leaders of Nazi Germany sought to strengthen the fascist bloc. In November 1941, the Anti-Comintern Pact of the fascist powers was extended for 5 years. On December 11, 1941, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed an agreement on waging war against the United States and Great Britain “to the bitter end” and refusing to sign an armistice with them without mutual agreement.

Having disabled the main forces of the US Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, the Japanese armed forces then occupied Thailand, Hong Kong (Hong Kong), Burma, Malaya with the fortress of Singapore, the Philippines, the most important islands of Indonesia, seizing vast reserves of strategic raw materials in the southern seas. They defeated the US Asiatic Fleet, part of the British fleet, the air force and ground forces of the allies and, having ensured supremacy at sea, in 5 months of war they deprived the US and Great Britain of all naval and air bases in the Western Pacific. With a strike from the Caroline Islands, the Japanese fleet captured part of New Guinea and the adjacent islands, including most of the Solomon Islands, and created the threat of invasion of Australia (see Pacific campaigns of 1941-45). The ruling circles of Japan hoped that Germany would tie up the forces of the United States and Great Britain on other fronts and that both powers, after seizing their possessions in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, would abandon the fight at a great distance from the mother country.

Under these conditions, the United States began to take emergency measures to deploy the military economy and mobilize resources. Having transferred part of the fleet from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, the United States launched the first retaliatory strikes in the first half of 1942. The two-day Battle of the Coral Sea on May 7-8 brought success to the American fleet and forced the Japanese to abandon further advances in the southwest Pacific. In June 1942, near Fr. Midway, the American fleet defeated large forces of the Japanese fleet, which, having suffered heavy losses, was forced to limit its actions and in the 2nd half of 1942 go on the defensive in the Pacific Ocean. Patriots of the countries captured by the Japanese - Indonesia, Indochina, Korea, Burma, Malaya, the Philippines - launched a national liberation struggle against the invaders. In China, in the summer of 1941, a major offensive by Japanese troops on the liberated areas was stopped (mainly by the forces of the People's Liberation Army of China).

The actions of the Red Army on the Eastern Front had an increasing influence on the military situation in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and North Africa. After the attack on the USSR, Germany and Italy were unable to simultaneously conduct offensive operations in other areas. Having transferred the main aviation forces against the Soviet Union, the German command lost the opportunity to actively act against Great Britain and deliver effective attacks on British sea lanes, fleet bases, and shipyards. This allowed Great Britain to strengthen the construction of its fleet, remove large naval forces from the waters of the mother country and transfer them to ensure communications in the Atlantic.

However, soon the German fleet a short time took the initiative. After the United States entered the war, a significant part of German submarines began to operate in the coastal waters of the Atlantic coast of America. In the first half of 1942, losses of Anglo-American ships in the Atlantic increased again. But the improvement of anti-submarine defense methods allowed the Anglo-American command from the summer of 1942 to improve the situation on the Atlantic sea lanes, deliver a series of retaliatory strikes to the German submarine fleet and push it back into central areas Atlantic. Since the beginning of V.m.v. Until the fall of 1942, the tonnage of merchant ships sunk mainly in the Atlantic from Great Britain, the United States, their allies and neutral countries exceeded 14 million. T.

The transfer of the bulk of the Nazi troops to the Soviet-German front contributed to a radical improvement in the position of the British armed forces in the Mediterranean and North Africa. In the summer of 1941, the British fleet and air force firmly seized supremacy at sea and in the air in the Mediterranean theater. Using o. Malta as a base, they sank 33% in August 1941, and in November - over 70% of cargo sent from Italy to North Africa. The British command re-formed the 8th Army in Egypt, which on November 18 went on the offensive against Rommel's German-Italian troops. A fierce tank battle unfolded near Sidi Rezeh, with varying degrees of success. Exhaustion forced Rommel to begin a retreat along the coast to positions at El Agheila on December 7.

At the end of November - December 1941, the German command strengthened its air force in the Mediterranean basin and transferred some submarines and torpedo boats. Having inflicted a series of strong blows on the British fleet and its base in Malta, sinking 3 battleships, 1 aircraft carrier and other ships, the German-Italian fleet and aviation again seized dominance in the Mediterranean Sea, which improved their position in North Africa. On January 21, 1942, German-Italian troops suddenly went on the offensive for the British and advanced 450 km to El Ghazala. On May 27, they resumed their offensive with the goal of reaching Suez. With a deep maneuver they managed to cover the main forces of the 8th Army and capture Tobruk. At the end of June 1942, Rommel's troops crossed the Libyan-Egyptian border and reached El Alamein, where they were stopped without reaching the goal due to exhaustion and lack of reinforcements.

3rd period of the war (November 19, 1942 - December 1943) was a period of radical change, when the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition wrested the strategic initiative from the Axis powers, fully deployed their military potential and went on a strategic offensive everywhere. As before, decisive events took place on the Soviet-German front. By November 1942, of the 267 divisions and 5 brigades that Germany had, 192 divisions and 3 brigades (or 71%) were operating against the Red Army. In addition, there were 66 divisions and 13 brigades of German satellites on the Soviet-German front. On November 19, the Soviet counteroffensive began near Stalingrad. The troops of the Southwestern, Don and Stalingrad fronts broke through the enemy’s defenses and, introducing mobile formations, by November 23 encircled 330 thousand people between the Volga and Don rivers. a group from the 6th and 4th German tank armies. Soviet troops stubbornly defended themselves in the area of ​​the river. Myshkov thwarted the attempt of the fascist German command to release the encircled. The offensive on the middle Don by the troops of the Southwestern and left wing of the Voronezh fronts (began on December 16) ended with the defeat of the 8th Italian Army. The threat of a strike by Soviet tank formations on the flank of the German relief group forced it to begin a hasty retreat. By February 2, 1943, the group surrounded at Stalingrad was liquidated. This ended the Battle of Stalingrad, in which from November 19, 1942 to February 2, 1943, 32 divisions and 3 brigades of the Nazi army and German satellites were completely defeated and 16 divisions were bled dry. The total losses of the enemy during this time amounted to over 800 thousand people, 2 thousand tanks and assault guns, over 10 thousand guns and mortars, up to 3 thousand aircraft, etc. The victory of the Red Army shocked Nazi Germany and caused irreparable harm to its armed forces damage, undermined Germany's military and political prestige in the eyes of its allies, and increased dissatisfaction with the war among them. The Battle of Stalingrad marked the beginning of a radical change in the course of the entire World War.

The victories of the Red Army contributed to the expansion of the partisan movement in the USSR and became a powerful stimulus for the further development of the Resistance Movement in Poland, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Greece, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway and other European countries. Polish patriots gradually moved from spontaneous, isolated actions during the beginning of the war to mass struggle. Polish communists at the beginning of 1942 called for the formation of a “second front in the rear of Hitler’s army.” The fighting force of the Polish Workers' Party - the Ludowa Guard - became the first military organization in Poland to wage a systematic struggle against the occupiers. The creation at the end of 1943 of the democratic national front and the formation on the night of January 1, 1944 of its central body - the Home Rada of the People (See Home Rada of the People) contributed to the further development of the national liberation struggle.

In Yugoslavia in November 1942, under the leadership of the communists, the formation of the People's Liberation Army began, which by the end of 1942 liberated 1/5 of the country's territory. And although in 1943 the occupiers carried out 3 major attacks on Yugoslav patriots, the ranks of active anti-fascist fighters steadily multiplied and grew stronger. Under the attacks of the partisans, Hitler's troops suffered increasing losses; By the end of 1943, the transport network in the Balkans was paralyzed.

In Czechoslovakia, on the initiative of the Communist Party, the National Revolutionary Committee was created, which became the central political body of the anti-fascist struggle. The number of partisan detachments grew, and centers of the partisan movement formed in a number of regions of Czechoslovakia. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, the anti-fascist resistance movement gradually developed into a national uprising.

The French Resistance Movement intensified sharply in the summer and autumn of 1943, after new defeats of the Wehrmacht on the Soviet-German front. Organizations of the Resistance Movement joined the unified anti-fascist army created on French territory - the French Internal Forces, the number of which soon reached 500 thousand people.

The liberation movement, which unfolded in the territories occupied by the countries of the fascist bloc, fettered Hitler's troops, their main forces were bled dry by the Red Army. Already in the first half of 1942, conditions arose for the opening of a second front in Western Europe. The leaders of the USA and Great Britain pledged to open it in 1942, as stated in the Anglo-Soviet and Soviet-American communiqués published on June 12, 1942. However, the leaders of the Western powers delayed the opening of the second front, trying to weaken both Nazi Germany and the USSR at the same time, so that establish their dominance in Europe and throughout the world. On June 11, 1942, the British cabinet rejected the plan for a direct invasion of France across the English Channel under the pretext of difficulties in supplying troops, transferring reinforcements, and a lack of special landing craft. At a meeting in Washington of the heads of government and representatives of the joint headquarters of the United States and Great Britain in the 2nd half of June 1942, it was decided to abandon the landing in France in 1942 and 1943, and instead carry out an operation to land expeditionary forces in French North-West Africa (Operation "Torch") and only in the future begin to concentrate large masses of American troops in Great Britain (Operation Bolero). This decision, which had no compelling reasons, caused a protest from the Soviet government.

In North Africa, British troops, taking advantage of the weakening of the Italian-German group, launched offensive operations. British aviation, which again seized air supremacy in the fall of 1942, sank in October 1942 up to 40% of Italian and German ships heading to North Africa, disrupting the regular replenishment and supply of Rommel’s troops. On October 23, 1942, the 8th British Army under General B. L. Montgomery launched a decisive offensive. Having won an important victory in the battle of El Alamein, over the next three months she pursued Rommel's Afrika Korps along the coast, occupied the territory of Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, liberated Tobruk, Benghazi and reached positions at El Agheila.

On November 8, 1942, the landing of the American-British expeditionary forces in French North Africa began (under the overall command of General D. Eisenhower); 12 divisions (over 150 thousand people in total) unloaded in the ports of Algiers, Oran, and Casablanca. Airborne troops captured two large airfields in Morocco. After minor resistance, the commander-in-chief of the French armed forces of the Vichy regime in North Africa, Admiral J. Darlan, ordered not to interfere with the American-British troops.

The fascist German command, intending to hold North Africa, urgently transferred the 5th Tank Army to Tunisia by air and sea, which managed to stop the Anglo-American troops and drive them back from Tunisia. In November 1942, Nazi troops occupied the entire territory of France and tried to capture the French Navy (about 60 warships) in Toulon, which, however, was sunk by French sailors.

At the Casablanca Conference of 1943 (See Casablanca Conference of 1943), the leaders of the USA and Great Britain, declaring their ultimate goal the unconditional surrender of the Axis countries, determined further plans for waging war, which were based on a policy of delaying the opening of a second front. Roosevelt and Churchill reviewed and approved the strategic plan prepared by the Joint Chiefs of Staff for 1943, which included the capture of Sicily in order to put pressure on Italy and create conditions for attracting Turkey as an active ally, as well as an intensified air offensive against Germany and the concentration of as many as possible large forces to enter the continent “as soon as German resistance weakens to the required level.”

The implementation of this plan could not seriously undermine the forces of the fascist bloc in Europe, much less replace the second front, since active actions by American-British troops were planned in a theater of military operations that was secondary to Germany. In the main issues of strategy V. m.v. this conference turned out to be fruitless.

The struggle in North Africa continued with varying success until the spring of 1943. In March, the 18th Anglo-American Army Group under the command of the English Field Marshal H. Alexander struck with superior forces and, after lengthy battles, occupied the city of Tunisia, and by May 13 forced the Italian-German troops surrender on the Bon Peninsula. The entire territory of North Africa passed into Allied hands.

After the defeat in Africa, Hitler's command expected the Allied invasion of France, not being ready to resist it. However, the allied command was preparing a landing in Italy. On May 12, Roosevelt and Churchill met at a new conference in Washington. The intention was confirmed not to open a second front in Western Europe during 1943 and the tentative date for its opening was set as May 1, 1944.

At this time, Germany was preparing a decisive summer offensive on the Soviet-German front. Hitler's leadership sought to defeat the main forces of the Red Army, regain the strategic initiative, and achieve a change in the course of the war. It increased its armed forces by 2 million people. through “total mobilization”, forced the release of military products, and transferred large contingents of troops from various regions of Europe to the Eastern Front. According to the Citadel plan, it was supposed to encircle and destroy Soviet troops in the Kursk ledge, and then expand the offensive front and capture the entire Donbass.

The Soviet command, having information about the impending enemy offensive, decided to exhaust the fascist German troops in a defensive battle on the Kursk Bulge, then defeat them in the central and southern sections of the Soviet-German front, liberate Left Bank Ukraine, Donbass, the eastern regions of Belarus and reach the Dnieper. To solve this problem, significant forces and resources were concentrated and skillfully located. The Battle of Kursk 1943, which began on July 5, is one of the greatest battles of military history. - immediately turned out in favor of the Red Army. Hitler's command failed to break the skillful and persistent defense of the Soviet troops with a powerful avalanche of tanks. In the defensive battle on the Kursk Bulge, the troops of the Central and Voronezh Fronts bled the enemy dry. On July 12, the Soviet command launched a counteroffensive on the Bryansk and Western Fronts against the German Oryol bridgehead. On July 16, the enemy began to retreat. The troops of the five fronts of the Red Army, developing a counteroffensive, defeated the enemy’s strike forces and opened their way to the Left Bank Ukraine and the Dnieper. In the Battle of Kursk, Soviet troops defeated 30 Nazi divisions, including 7 tank divisions. After this major defeat, the Wehrmacht leadership finally lost its strategic initiative and was forced to completely abandon the offensive strategy and go on the defensive until the end of the war. The Red Army, using its major success, liberated the Donbass and Left Bank Ukraine, crossed the Dnieper on the move (see the Dnieper article), and began the liberation of Belarus. In total, in the summer and autumn of 1943, Soviet troops defeated 218 fascist German divisions, completing a radical turning point in the military war. A catastrophe loomed over Nazi Germany. The total losses of German ground forces alone from the beginning of the war to November 1943 amounted to about 5.2 million people.

After the end of the struggle in North Africa, the Allies carried out the Sicilian Operation of 1943 (See Sicilian Operation of 1943), which began on July 10. Having absolute superiority of forces at sea and in the air, they captured Sicily by mid-August, and in early September crossed to the Apennine Peninsula (see Italian campaign 1943-1945 (See Italian campaign 1943-1945)). In Italy, the movement for the elimination of the fascist regime and exit from the war grew. As a result of attacks by Anglo-American troops and the growth of the anti-fascist movement, the Mussolini regime fell at the end of July. He was replaced by the government of P. Badoglio, which signed an armistice with the United States and Great Britain on September 3. In response, the Nazis sent additional troops to Italy, disarmed the Italian army and occupied the country. By November 1943, after the landing of Anglo-American troops in Salerno, the fascist German command withdrew its troops to the north, to the area of ​​Rome, and consolidated on the river line. Sangro and Carigliano, where the front has stabilized.

In the Atlantic Ocean, by the beginning of 1943, the positions of the German fleet were weakened. The Allies ensured their superiority in surface forces and naval aviation. Large ships of the German fleet could now only operate in the Arctic Ocean against convoys. Given the weakening of its surface fleet, the Nazi naval command, led by Admiral K. Dönitz, who replaced the former fleet commander E. Raeder, shifted the center of gravity to actions submarine fleet. Having commissioned more than 200 submarines, the Germans inflicted a number of heavy blows on the Allies in the Atlantic. But after the greatest success achieved in March 1943, the effectiveness of German submarine attacks began to rapidly decline. Growth in the size of the allied fleet, application new technology to detect submarines, the increase in the range of naval aviation predetermined the increase in losses of the German submarine fleet, which were not replenished. Shipbuilding in the USA and Great Britain now ensured that the number of newly built ships exceeded those sunk, the number of which had decreased.

In the Pacific Ocean in the first half of 1943, the warring parties, after the losses suffered in 1942, accumulated forces and did not carry out extensive actions. Japan increased the production of aircraft more than 3 times compared to 1941; 60 new ships were laid down at its shipyards, including 40 submarines. The total number of Japanese armed forces increased by 2.3 times. The Japanese command decided to stop further advance in the Pacific Ocean and consolidate what had been captured by going over to the defense along the Aleutian, Marshall, Gilbert Islands, New Guinea, Indonesia, Burma lines.

The United States also intensively developed military production. 28 new aircraft carriers were laid down, several new operational formations were formed (2 field and 2 air armies), and many special units; Military bases were built in the South Pacific. The forces of the United States and its allies in the Pacific Ocean were consolidated into two operational groups: the central part of the Pacific Ocean (Admiral C.W. Nimitz) and the southwestern part of the Pacific Ocean (General D. MacArthur). The groups included several fleets, field armies, marines, carrier and base aviation, mobile naval bases, etc., in total - 500 thousand people, 253 large warships (including 69 submarines) , over 2 thousand combat aircraft. The US naval and air forces outnumbered the Japanese. In May 1943, formations of the Nimitz group occupied the Aleutian Islands, securing American positions in the north.

In the wake of the Red Army's major summer successes and the landings in Italy, Roosevelt and Churchill held a conference in Quebec (August 11–24, 1943) to again refine military plans. The main intention of the leaders of both powers was to “achieve, in the shortest possible time, the unconditional surrender of the European Axis countries,” and to achieve, through an air offensive, “undermining and disorganizing the ever-increasing scale of Germany’s military-economic power.” On May 1, 1944, it was planned to launch Operation Overlord to invade France. In the Far East, it was decided to expand the offensive in order to seize bridgeheads, from which it would then be possible, after the defeat of the European Axis countries and the transfer of forces from Europe, to strike Japan and defeat it “within 12 months after the end of the war with Germany.” The action plan chosen by the Allies did not meet the goals of ending the war in Europe as quickly as possible, since active operations in Western Europe were planned only in the summer of 1944.

Carrying out plans for offensive operations in the Pacific Ocean, the Americans continued the battles for the Solomon Islands that had begun in June 1943. Having mastered Fr. New George and a bridgehead on the island. Bougainville, they brought their bases in the South Pacific closer to the Japanese ones, including the main Japanese base - Rabaul. At the end of November 1943, the Americans occupied the Gilbert Islands, which were then turned into a base for preparing an attack on the Marshall Islands. MacArthur's group, in stubborn battles, captured most of the islands in the Coral Sea, the eastern part of New Guinea and established a base here for an attack on the Bismarck Archipelago. Having removed the threat of a Japanese invasion of Australia, she secured US sea communications in the area. As a result of these actions, the strategic initiative in the Pacific passed into the hands of the Allies, who eliminated the consequences of the defeat of 1941-42 and created the conditions for an attack on Japan.

The national liberation struggle of the peoples of China, Korea, Indochina, Burma, Indonesia, and the Philippines expanded more and more. The communist parties of these countries rallied the partisan forces in the ranks of the National Front. The People's Liberation Army and guerrilla groups of China, having resumed active operations, liberated a territory with a population of about 80 million people.

The rapid development of events in 1943 on all fronts, especially on the Soviet-German front, required the allies to clarify and coordinate war plans for the next year. This was done at the November 1943 conference in Cairo (see Cairo Conference 1943) and the Tehran Conference 1943 (See Tehran Conference 1943).

At the Cairo Conference (November 22-26), the delegations of the USA (head of delegation F.D. Roosevelt), Great Britain (head of delegation W. Churchill), China (head of delegation Chiang Kai-shek) considered plans for waging war in Southeast Asia, which provided limited goals: the creation of bases for a subsequent attack on Burma and Indochina and the improvement of air supply to Chiang Kai-shek's army. Issues of military operations in Europe were viewed as secondary; The British leadership proposed postponing Operation Overlord.

At the Tehran Conference (November 28 -December 1, 1943), the heads of government of the USSR (head of delegation I.V. Stalin), USA (head of delegation F.D. Roosevelt) and Great Britain (head of delegation W. Churchill) focused on military issues. The British delegation proposed a plan to invade South-Eastern Europe through the Balkans, with the participation of Turkey. The Soviet delegation proved that this plan does not meet the requirements for the rapid defeat of Germany, because operations in the Mediterranean Sea are “operations of secondary importance”; With its firm and consistent position, the Soviet delegation forced the Allies to once again recognize the paramount importance of the invasion of Western Europe, and Overlord as the main Allied operation, which should be accompanied by an auxiliary landing in southern France and diversionary actions in Italy. For its part, the USSR pledged to enter the war with Japan after the defeat of Germany.

The report of the conference of the heads of government of the three powers said: “We have come to complete agreement as to the scale and timing of the operations to be undertaken from the east, west and south. The mutual understanding we have achieved here guarantees our victory.”

At the Cairo Conference held on December 3-7, 1943, the US and British delegations, after a series of discussions, recognized the need to use landing craft intended for Southeast Asia in Europe and approved a program according to which the most important operations in 1944 should be Overlord and Anvil ( landing in the south of France); The conference participants agreed that "no action should be taken in any other area of ​​the world that could interfere with the success of these two operations." This was an important victory for Soviet foreign policy, its struggle for unity of action among the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition and the military strategy based on this policy.

4th war period (1 January 1944 - 8 May 1945) was a period when the Red Army, in the course of a powerful strategic offensive, expelled fascist German troops from the territory of the USSR, liberated the peoples of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe and, together with the armed forces of the Allies, completed the defeat of Nazi Germany. At the same time, the offensive of the armed forces of the United States and Great Britain in the Pacific Ocean continued, and the people's liberation war in China intensified.

As in previous periods, the Soviet Union bore the brunt of the struggle on its shoulders, against which the fascist bloc continued to hold its main forces. By the beginning of 1944, the German command, out of 315 divisions and 10 brigades it had, had 198 divisions and 6 brigades on the Soviet-German front. In addition, there were 38 divisions and 18 brigades of satellite states on the Soviet-German front. In 1944, the Soviet command planned an offensive on the front from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea with the main attack in the southwestern direction. In January - February, the Red Army, after a 900-day heroic defense, liberated Leningrad from the siege (see Battle of Leningrad 1941-44). By spring, having carried out a number of major operations, Soviet troops liberated Right Bank Ukraine and Crimea, reached the Carpathians and entered the territory of Romania. In the winter campaign of 1944 alone, the enemy lost 30 divisions and 6 brigades from attacks by the Red Army; 172 divisions and 7 brigades suffered heavy losses; human losses amounted to more than 1 million people. Germany could no longer make up for the damage suffered. In June 1944, the Red Army attacked the Finnish army, after which Finland requested an armistice, an agreement on which was signed on September 19, 1944 in Moscow.

The grandiose offensive of the Red Army in Belarus from June 23 to August 29, 1944 (see Belarusian operation 1944) and in Western Ukraine from July 13 to August 29, 1944 (see Lvov-Sandomierz operation 1944) ended in the defeat of the two largest strategic groupings of the Wehrmacht in the center of the Soviet -German front, breakthrough of the German front to a depth of 600 km, the complete destruction of 26 divisions and inflicting heavy losses on 82 Nazi divisions. Soviet troops reached the border of East Prussia, entered Polish territory and approached the Vistula. Polish troops also took part in the offensive.

In Chelm, the first Polish city liberated by the Red Army, on July 21, 1944, the Polish Committee of National Liberation was formed - a temporary executive body of the people's power, subordinate to the Home Rada of the People. In August 1944, the Home Army, following the orders of the Polish exile government in London, which sought to seize power in Poland before the approach of the Red Army and restore pre-war order, began the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. After a 63-day heroic struggle, this uprising, undertaken in an unfavorable strategic situation, was defeated.

The international and military situation in the spring and summer of 1944 was such that a further delay in the opening of a second front would have led to the liberation of all of Europe by the USSR. This prospect worried the ruling circles of the USA and Great Britain, who sought to restore the pre-war capitalist order in the countries occupied by the Nazis and their allies. London and Washington began to rush to prepare an invasion of Western Europe across the English Channel in order to seize bridgeheads in Normandy and Brittany, ensure the landing of expeditionary forces, and then liberate northwestern France. In the future, it was planned to break through the Siegfried Line, which covered the German border, cross the Rhine and advance deep into Germany. By the beginning of June 1944, the Allied expeditionary forces under the command of General Eisenhower had 2.8 million people, 37 divisions, 12 separate brigades, “commando units”, about 11 thousand combat aircraft, 537 warships and a large number of transports and landing craft.

After the defeats on the Soviet-German front, the fascist German command could maintain in France, Belgium and the Netherlands as part of Army Group West (Field Marshal G. Rundstedt) only 61 weakened, poorly equipped divisions, 500 aircraft, 182 warships. The Allies thus had absolute superiority in forces and means.

On September 1, 1939, Nazi German troops suddenly invaded Poland. On September 3, England and France, bound by allied obligations with Poland, entered the war against Germany. By September 10, the British dominions declared war on it - Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, Canada, as well as India, which was then a colony (see Colonialism). The fire of the Second World War, the flames of which flared up from the beginning of the 30s. (Japan's capture of Manchuria in 1931 and the invasion of Central China in 1937 (see China, liberation and revolutionary struggle, victory of the people's revolution); Italy - Ethiopia in 1935 and Albania in 1939; Italian-German intervention in Spain in 1936–1938 (see the Spanish Revolution and Civil War (1931-1939)); the German occupation of Austria in 1938 and Czechoslovakia in 1939 (see the Munich Agreement of 1938) became increasingly widespread , and it was no longer possible to stop it. The USSR and the USA declared their neutrality. Gradually, the war drew 61 states, 80% of the world's population, into its orbit; it lasted six years. The firestorm swept over vast areas in Europe, Asia and Africa, captured ocean expanses, reached the shores of Novaya Zemlya and Alaska in the north, the Atlantic coast of Europe in the west, the Kuril Islands in the east, the borders of Egypt, India and Australia in the south.The war claimed about 60 million lives.

The Nazis enter Paris. 1940



German tanks on the Polish front. 1939



Leningrad Front. Katyushas are firing.



January 1943 The army of Field Marshal von Paulus capitulated at Stalingrad.



Allied landings in Normandy in 1944



On April 25, 1945, troops of two powers of the anti-Hitler coalition - the Soviet Union and the USA - met on the Elbe. In the photo: a handshake on the Elbe near Torgau.



Fights on the streets of Berlin. May 1945



Signing of the declaration of surrender of Germany. Marshal of the Soviet Union G. K. Zhukov puts his signature.



From June 17 to August 2, 1945, a conference of the heads of the three great powers - the USSR, the USA, and Great Britain - was held in Potsdam. She solved urgent problems of a peaceful settlement.



In September 1945, Japan surrendered. In the photo: sailors of the Pacific Fleet hoist the flag of the USSR Navy over Port Arthur Bay.

Map. Territorial changes in Europe according to the decisions of the Crimean and Potsdam conferences and treaties concluded after the Second World War.

The key to understanding the reasons for the outbreak of war is its assessment as a continuation of the policy of a certain state and its ruling groups through violent means. Uneven economic development and imperial ambitions led to to the split of the capitalist world. One of the warring forces included Germany, Italy and Japan, the second - England, France and the USA. The military danger especially intensified when the Nazi dictatorship was established in Germany (see Fascism). England and France made efforts to ward off the threat of German aggression from their countries and direct it to the east (policy of appeasement), to pit Nazism against Bolshevism, which was the main reason for the failure to create an anti-Hitler coalition with the participation of the USSR at that time (policy of collective security), and consequently, and preventing a global fire.

On August 23, 1939, a few days before Germany attacked Poland, a Soviet-German non-aggression pact was concluded. For Germany, he eliminated the threat of the USSR entering the war on the side of Poland. The USSR, through the division of “spheres of interest” with Germany, provided for in the secret protocol to the treaty, prevented German troops from reaching the Soviet borders. The treaty provided about two years for strengthening the country's defense capability, contributed to the conclusion of a neutrality pact with Japan (May 1941), but was accompanied by a demonstration of “friendship” with the Hitler regime and many illegal actions of the USSR in relation to neighboring countries.

As a result of the current balance of power, the war initially unfolded as a battle between two imperialist coalitions: the German-Italian-Japanese and the Anglo-French, which was supported by the United States, which entered the war on December 7, 1941, after the Japanese air attack on the US Pacific Fleet base in Pearl Harbor.

The fascist coalition led by Germany aimed to redraw the world map and establish its dominance by destroying entire states and peoples; Anglo-French and the USA - to retain possessions and spheres of influence won as a result of the victory in the First World War and the defeat of Germany in it. The just nature of the war on the part of the capitalist states that fought against the aggressors was due to their struggle to defend national independence from the threat of fascist enslavement.

In Poland, the German army, having superiority, especially in tanks and aircraft, was able to implement the strategy of “blitzkrieg” (lightning war). Within a week, fascist German troops reached the approaches to Warsaw. Soon they captured Lublin and approached Brest. The Polish government fled to Romania. In this situation, the Soviet Union, using the agreement on the division of “spheres of interest” reached with Germany, sent its troops into Eastern Poland on September 17 in order to prevent further advance of the Wehrmacht to the Soviet borders and to take under protection the Belarusian and Ukrainian population in the territory previously belonging to Russia. England and France did not provide the effective assistance promised to Poland, and the Anglo-French troops on the Western Front, in anticipation of a compromise with Germany, were virtually inactive. This situation was called the “strange war.” In April 1940, Nazi troops occupied Denmark and then Norway. On May 10, they struck the main blow in the west: they invaded Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and launched an offensive against France. After 44 days, France capitulated and the Anglo-French coalition ceased to exist. The British Expeditionary Force, leaving behind its weapons, evacuated with difficulty to the islands of the metropolis through the French port of Dunkirk. In April - May 1941, fascist armies occupied Yugoslavia and Greece during the Balkan campaign.

By the time of the attack of fascist Germany on the USSR, 12 countries of the European continent - Austria, Czechoslovakia, Albania, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Yugoslavia, Greece - were captured by fascist aggressors, the population was subjected to terror, and democratic forces and " inferior races" (Jews, gypsies) - gradual destruction. The mortal danger of a Nazi invasion loomed over England, whose staunch defense only temporarily weakened this threat. From Europe the fire of war spread to other continents. Italo-German troops launched an offensive in North Africa. They expected to begin in the fall of 1941 the conquest of the Middle East, and then India, where a meeting between German and Japanese troops was expected. The development of draft Directive No. 32 and other German military documents indicated that following the “solution of the English problem” and the defeat of the USSR, the invaders intended to “eliminate the influence of the Anglo-Saxons” on the American continent.

On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany and its allies in Europe attacked the Soviet Union with a huge invasion army unprecedented in history - 190 divisions (5.5 million people), over 3,000 tanks, about 5,000 aircraft, more than 43 thousand guns and mortars , 200 ships (134 enemy divisions operated in the first strategic echelon). To wage war against the USSR, an aggressive coalition was created, the basis of which was the Anti-Comintern and then the Berlin (tripartite) Pact, concluded in 1940 between Germany, Italy and Japan. Romania, Finland, and Hungary were involved in active participation in the aggression, where by that time military-fascist dictatorships had been established. Germany was assisted by the reactionary ruling circles of Bulgaria, as well as the puppet states of Slovakia and Croatia created as a result of the division of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Spain, the remaining unoccupied Vichy part of France (named after its “capital” of Vichy), Portugal, and Turkey collaborated with fascist Germany. For the purpose of military-economic support for the campaign against the USSR, the resources of almost all European states were used.

The Soviet Union was far from fully prepared to repel the fascist invasion. Much was done for this, but the miscalculations of the war with Finland (1939–1940) were slowly eliminated; Stalin's repressions of the 1930s and unjustified “strong-willed” decisions on defense issues caused heavy damage to the country and the army. In the Armed Forces alone, more than 40 thousand commanders and political workers were subjected to repression, of which 13 thousand were shot. The troops were not brought to combat readiness in a timely manner.

The summer and autumn of 1941 were the most critical for the Soviet Union. Nazi troops invaded the country to a depth of 850 to 1200 km, blocked Leningrad, were dangerously close to Moscow, captured most of the Donbass and Crimea, occupied the Baltic states, Belarus, Moldova, almost all of Ukraine, a number of regions of the RSFSR and part of Karelo -Finnish Republic. Millions of Soviet people died at the fronts, found themselves in occupation, captivity, and languished in Nazi camps. “Plan Barbarossa” was designed to repeat the “blitzkrieg” and crush the Soviet country within a maximum of five months, before the onset of winter.

However, the onslaught of the enemy was increasingly resisted by the strength of spirit of the Soviet people and the material capabilities of the country brought into action. Most Valuable industrial enterprises were evacuated to the east. A popular guerrilla war was unfolding behind enemy lines. Having bled the enemy in defensive battles, Soviet troops during the Battle of Moscow launched a strategic counteroffensive on December 5–6, 1941, which partially developed into an offensive along the entire front and continued until April 1942. Outstanding Soviet commander Marshal of the Soviet Union G. K. Zhukov called the battle of Moscow “the most crucial moment of the war.” The victory of the Red Army in this battle dispelled the myth of the invincibility of the Wehrmacht and was the beginning of a radical turning point in the Great Patriotic War. The peoples of the world have gained faith that there are forces capable of ridding humanity of fascism. The international authority of the USSR increased sharply.

On October 1, 1941, a conference of the USSR, USA and Great Britain ended in Moscow, at which a protocol on military supplies from the USA and Great Britain to the Soviet Union was signed. Deliveries were carried out by the United States on the basis of the Lend-Lease law (from the English lend - to lend and lease - to rent), and by England - agreements on mutual supplies and provided significant support to the USSR in the war, especially deliveries of aircraft and cars from the USA. On January 1, 1942, 26 states (USSR, USA, Great Britain, China, Canada, etc.) signed the Declaration of the United Nations. Its participants pledged to use their military and economic resources to fight against the fascist bloc. The most important decisions on issues of waging war and the post-war structure of the world on a democratic basis were made at joint conferences of the leaders (F. Roosevelt, J. V. Stalin, W. Churchill) of the leading allied powers - participants in the anti-Hitler coalition of the USSR, USA and Great Britain in Tehran (1943) , Yalta and Potsdam (1945).

In 1941 - the first half of 1942, the USSR's allies retreated in the Pacific Ocean, Southeast Asia and North Africa. Japan captured part of China, French Indochina, Malaya, Burma, Singapore, Thailand, present-day Indonesia and the Philippines, Hong Kong, most of the Solomon Islands, and reached the approaches to Australia and India. The Commander-in-Chief of the US Armed Forces in the Far East, General D. MacArthur, addressed the defeated American troops with a statement that said: “From the current international situation, it is clear that the hopes of world civilization are now inextricably linked with the actions of the Red Army and its valiant banners.”

Taking advantage of the absence of a second front in Western Europe and concentrating maximum forces against the USSR, fascist German troops launched a decisive offensive in the summer of 1942 with the goal of capturing the Caucasus and Stalingrad, depriving the Soviet country of oil and other material resources and win the war. The initial successes of the German offensive in the south were also the result of underestimating the enemy and other gross miscalculations of the Soviet command, which resulted in defeats in the Crimea and near Kharkov. On November 19, 1942, Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive, which ended in the encirclement and complete liquidation of more than 330,000 enemy forces near Stalingrad. “The victory at Stalingrad,” writes the famous English historian D. Erikson, “working like a powerful reactor, influenced all subsequent events both on the Eastern Front and in general.”

In the fall of 1942, the Western allies stopped the enemy's advance in North Africa and near the borders of India. The victory of the British 8th Army at El Alamein (October 1942) and the landing of Anglo-American troops in North Africa (November 1942) improved the situation in this theater of operations. The US Navy's success at the Battle of Midway (June 1942) stabilized its position in the Pacific.

One of the main military events of 1943 was the victory of the Soviet Armed Forces in the Battle of Kursk. Only in the Prokhorovka area (south of Kursk), where the largest oncoming tank battle of the Second World War took place on June 12, the enemy lost 400 tanks and more than 10 thousand killed. Nazi Germany and its allies were forced to go on the defensive on all land fronts. In the same year, troops of the Western Allies landed in Italy. In 1943 there were also important changes and in the struggle on sea lanes in the Atlantic Ocean, where the navies of the United States and Great Britain gradually gained the upper hand over the “wolf packs” of fascist submarines. A radical turning point occurred in the Second World War as a whole.

In 1944, the Belarusian strategic operation became the largest on the Soviet-German front, as a result of which Soviet troops reached State border The USSR and began the liberation of the countries of Eastern and Central Europe captured by the aggressors. One of the objectives of the Belarusian operation was to provide assistance to the allies. Their landing in Normandy (in northern France) on June 6, 1944 marked the opening of a second front in Europe, which the USSR was counting on back in 1942. By the time of the landing in Normandy (the largest amphibious operation of the Second World War), 3/4 of the Wehrmacht troops were on the Soviet-German front. In 1944, the United States and Great Britain launched an offensive in the Pacific Ocean and the China-Burma theater of operations.

In Europe in the winter of 1944–1945. During the Ardennes operation, the Germans inflicted a serious defeat on the Allied forces. The winter offensive of the Red Army, launched at the request of the allies ahead of schedule, helped them get out of a difficult situation. In Italy, the Allied forces slowly advanced north and, with the help of partisans, captured the entire territory of the country in early May 1945. In the Pacific, US armed forces liberated the Philippines and a number of other countries and territories and defeated the Japanese Navy, approached directly to Japan, cutting off its communications with the countries of the southern seas and Southeast Asia. China inflicted a number of defeats on the aggressors.

In April - May 1945, the Soviet Armed Forces defeated the last groupings of Nazi troops in the Berlin and Prague operations and met with the troops of the Western Allies. During the offensive, the Red Army made a decisive contribution to the liberation of European countries occupied by the invaders from the fascist yoke with the active support of their peoples. The armed forces of the United States and Great Britain, which included troops from France and some other states, liberated a number of countries in Western Europe, partially Austria and Czechoslovakia. The war in Europe is over. The German armed forces surrendered unconditionally. May 8 in most European countries and May 9, 1945 in the Soviet Union became Victory Day.

Fulfilling allied obligations undertaken to the USA and Great Britain, as well as in order to ensure the security of its Far Eastern borders, the USSR entered the war against Japan on the night of August 9, 1945. The advance of the Red Army forced the Japanese government to admit final defeat. The atomic bombings by US aircraft of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9), condemned by the world community, also played a role in this. On September 2, 1945, the Second World War ended with the signing of the act of surrender of Japan. On October 20, 1945, the trial of a group of major Nazi war criminals began (see Nuremberg Trials).

The material basis for the victory over the aggressors was the superior power of the military economy of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, primarily the USSR and the USA. During the war years, 843 thousand guns and mortars were produced in the USSR, 651 thousand in the USA, 396 thousand in Germany; tanks and self-propelled artillery in the USSR - 102 thousand, in the USA - 99 thousand, in Germany - 46 thousand; combat aircraft in the USSR - 102 thousand, in the USA - 192 thousand, in Germany - 89 thousand.

The Resistance Movement made a significant contribution to the overall victory over the aggressors. It largely drew strength, and in a number of countries, relied on material support from the Soviet Union. “Salamin and Marathon,” wrote the underground Greek press during the war, “which saved human civilization, are today called Moscow, Vyazma, Leningrad, Sevastopol and Stalingrad.”

Victory in World War II is a bright page in the history of the USSR. She demonstrated the inexhaustible supply of patriotism of the people, their resilience, unity, ability to maintain the will to win and win in the most seemingly hopeless situations. The war revealed the enormous spiritual and economic potential of the country, which played a decisive role in the expulsion of the invader and his final defeat.

The moral potential of the anti-Hitler coalition as a whole was strengthened in the joint struggle by the just goals of the war in defense of the freedom and independence of peoples. The price of victory was extremely great, the disasters and suffering of the peoples were immeasurable. The Soviet Union, which bore the brunt of the war, lost 27 million people. The country's national wealth decreased by almost 30% (in the UK - by 0.8%, in the USA - by 0.4%). The results of the Second World War led to major political changes in the international arena, the gradual development of a tendency towards cooperation between states and various social systems(cm.

Neither geographically nor chronologically the history of the Second World War is comparable to. On a geopolitical scale, the events of the Great Patriotic War unfolded on the Eastern Front, although these events undoubtedly most influenced the outcome of this global military-political crisis. The stages of World War II also coincide with the general stages of the Great Patriotic War.

In contact with

Balance of power

How the Second World War took place, briefly about its main participants. 62 states (out of 73 existing at that time) and almost 80% of the population of the entire globe took part in the conflict.

All participants had one relationship or another with two clearly defined coalitions:

• anti-Hitler,
• Axis coalition.

The creation of the Axis began much earlier than the formation of the anti-Hitler coalition. In 1936, the Anti-Comintern Pact was signed between Japan and Berlin. This was the beginning of the formalization of the union.

Important! A number of countries changed their coalition orientation at the very end of the confrontation. For example, Finland, Italy and Romania. A number of puppet countries formed by the fascist regime, for example, Vichy France, the Greek Kingdom, completely disappeared from the geopolitical map of the world.

Territories affected by hostilities

There were 5 main theaters of war:

• Western European - France, Great Britain, Norway; active combat operations were carried out throughout the Atlantic;
• Eastern European - USSR, Poland, Finland, Austria; combat operations took place in such parts of the Atlantic as the Barents Sea, Baltic Sea, Black Sea;
• Mediterranean - Greece, Italy, Albania, Egypt, all of French North Africa; All countries that had access to the Mediterranean Sea, in whose waters active hostilities were also taking place, joined the hostilities;
• African - Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and others;
• Pacific - Japan, China, USSR, USA, all island countries of the Pacific basin.

Major battles of World War II:

• Battle for Moscow,
• Kursk Bulge (turning point),
• Battle for the Caucasus,
• Operation of the Ardennes (Wehrmacht Blitzkrieg).

What triggered the conflict

We can talk a lot about the reasons for a long time. Each country had objective and subjective reasons for becoming a participant in the military conflict. But overall it came down to this:

• revanchism - the Nazis, for example, tried in every possible way to overcome the conditions of the Versailles Peace of 1918 and again take a leading position in Europe;
• imperialism - all major world powers had certain territorial interests: Italy launched a military invasion of Ethiopia, Japan was interested in Manchuria and Northern China, Germany was interested in the Ruru region and Austria. The USSR was worried about the problem of the Finnish and Polish borders;
• ideological contradictions - two opposing camps have formed in the world: communist and democratic-bourgeois; the member countries of the camps dreamed of destroying each other.

Important! The ideological contradictions that existed the day before made it impossible to prevent the conflict at the initial stage.

The Munich Agreement was concluded between the fascists and the democratic countries of the West, which ultimately led to the Anschluss of Austria and the Ruhr. The Western powers actually disrupted the Moscow Conference, at which the Russians planned to discuss the possibility of creating an anti-German coalition. Finally, in defiance of the Munich Treaty, the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact and the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact were signed. In such difficult diplomatic conditions, it was impossible to prevent war.

Stages

The entire Second World War can be divided into five main stages:

• first – 09.1939 – 06.1941;
• second – 07.1941 – 11.1942;
• third - 12.1942 - 06. 1944;
• fourth – 07/1944 – 05/1945;
• fifth – 06 – 09. 1945

The stages of the Second World War are conditional; they include certain significant events. When did World War II start? How did World War II start? Who started World War II? The beginning is considered to be September 1, 1939, when German troops invaded Poland, that is, in fact, the Germans took the initiative.

Important! The question of when the Second World War began is clear; a direct and accurate answer can be given here, but it is more difficult to say about who started the Second World War; it is impossible to answer unequivocally. All powers of the world are to one degree or another guilty of unleashing a global conflict.

The Second World War ended on September 2, 1945, when the act of surrender of Japan was signed. We can say that Japan has not yet completely closed the page of World War II. A peace treaty has not yet been signed between the Russian Federation and Japan. The Japanese side disputes the Russian ownership of the four South Kuril Islands.

First stage

The main events that unfolded at the first stage can be presented in the following chronological order (table):

The beginning of the war

Second phase

It became a turning point in many ways. The main thing here is that the Germans lost the strategic initiative and speed characteristic of 40-41. The main events take place in the Eastern European theater of operations. The main forces of Germany were also concentrated there, which can no longer provide large-scale support in Europe and North Africa to its coalition allies, which, in turn, led to the successes of the Anglo-American-French forces in the African and Mediterranean theaters of combat.

Second stage of the war

Important! It was at the second stage that the Anti-Hitler Coalition was formed, the USSR, USA, China and Great Britain signed the Declaration of the United Nations (01/01/1942).

Third stage

It is marked by a complete loss of strategic initiative from the outside. On the eastern front, Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive. On the Western, African and Pacific fronts, the allies of the anti-Hitler coalition also achieved significant results

An important diplomatic event of the third stage was the Tehran Conference of the Allies (11.1943). At which joint military actions against the Third Reich were agreed upon.

Third stage of the war

These are all the main stages of the Second World War. In total, it lasted exactly 6 years.

Fourth stage

It meant a gradual cessation of hostilities on all fronts except the Pacific. The Nazis suffer a crushing defeat.

At the allied conference in Yalta (02.1945), the leaders of the USA, the USSR and Britain discussed the post-war structure of Europe and the world (they also discussed the main thing - the creation of the UN). The agreements reached in Yalta influenced the entire course of post-war history.

Start Second world wars(September 1, 1939 – June 22, 1941).

At dawn on September 1, 1939, the troops of the German Wehrmacht suddenly launched military operations against Poland. Using overwhelming superiority in forces and means, the Nazi command was able to quickly achieve large-scale operational results. Despite the fact that France, Great Britain and the countries of the British Commonwealth immediately declared war on Germany, they never provided effective and real assistance to Poland. The courageous resistance of Polish soldiers near Mlawa, at Modlin and the heroic twenty-day defense of Warsaw could not save Poland from disaster.

At the same time, the Red Army troops, almost without encountering resistance, occupied the regions of Western Belarus and Western Ukraine from September 17 to 29. September 28, 1939 first campaign Second world wars was completed. Poland ceased to exist.

On the same day, a new Soviet-German treaty “On Friendship and Border” was concluded in Moscow, which formalized the division of Poland. New secret agreements gave the USSR the opportunity for “freedom of action” in creating a “security sphere” on its western borders, secured the annexation of the western regions of Belarus and Ukraine, and allowed the Soviet Union to conclude “mutual assistance” agreements on September 28, 1939 with Estonia, October 5 - with Latvia, October 10 - with Lithuania. According to these treaties, the USSR received the right to station its troops in the Baltic republics and create naval and
air bases. Stalin went to the transfer into the hands of the Gestapo of many hundreds of German anti-fascists hiding in the USSR from the Nazis, and also carried out the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Poles, both former military personnel and the civilian population.

At the same time, the Stalinist leadership increased pressure on Finland. On October 12, 1939, she was asked to conclude an agreement “on mutual assistance” with the USSR. However, the Finnish leadership refused to agree with the USSR, and the negotiations were unsuccessful.

The defeat of Poland and a temporary alliance with Stalin provided Hitler with a reliable rear for carrying out a blitzkrieg in the Western European theater of operations. Already on October 9, 1939, the Fuhrer signed a directive on preparing an attack on France, and 10 days later a plan for the strategic concentration of German troops to conduct offensive operations in the West was approved.

The Soviet leadership took active steps to expand the “security sphere” to northwest. On November 28, 1939, the USSR unilaterally denounced the non-aggression pact with Finland of 1932, and on the morning of November 30 began hostilities against the Finns, which lasted almost four months. The next day (December 1) in the village. Terijoki was immediately proclaimed the “government of the Democratic Republic of Finland”.

On March 12, 1940, a Soviet-Finnish peace treaty was signed in Moscow, which took into account the territorial claims made by the USSR. The Soviet Union during wars suffered huge human losses: the active army lost up to 127 thousand people killed and missing, as well as up to 248 thousand wounded and frostbitten. Finland lost just over 48 thousand killed and 43 thousand wounded.
Politically, this war caused serious damage to the Soviet Union. On December 14, 1939, the Council of the League of Nations adopted a resolution expelling him from this organization, condemning the actions of the USSR directed against the Finnish states and called on member states of the League of Nations to support Finland. The USSR found itself in international isolation.

Results of the "winter wars" clearly showed the weakness of the "indestructible" Soviet Armed Forces. Soon K.E. Voroshilov was removed from the post of People's Commissar of Defense, and his place was taken by S.K. Timoshenko.
In the spring of 1940, Wehrmacht troops began a large-scale military campaign in Western Europe. On April 9, 1940, a strike group of Nazi troops (about 140 thousand personnel, up to 1000 aircraft and all naval forces) attacked Denmark and Norway. Denmark (which had only a 13,000-strong army) was occupied within a few hours, and its government immediately announced capitulation.

The situation was different in Norway, where the armed forces managed to avoid defeat and retreat into the interior of the country, and Anglo-French troops were landed to help them. The armed struggle in Norway threatened to become protracted, so already on May 10, 1940, Hitler launched an offensive according to the Gelb plan, which envisaged a lightning strike on France through Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands, bypassing the French defensive Maginot Line. On June 22, 1940, the act of surrender of France was signed, according to which its northern territory was occupied by Germany, and the southern regions remained under the control of the “government” of the collaborationist Marshal A. Petain (“Vichy regime”).

The defeat of France led to a dramatic change in the strategic situation in Europe. The threat of a German invasion loomed over Great Britain. The war unfolded on sea lanes, where German submarines sank 100-140 British merchant ships every month.
Already in the summer of 1940, the front in the west ceased to exist, and the impending clash between Germany and the USSR began to take on more and more real outlines.

As a result of the German “pacification policy” in the northeast and east of Europe, territories with a population of 14 million people were included in the USSR, and the western border was pushed back by 200-600 km. At the VIII session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on August 2-6, 1940, these territorial “acquisitions” were legally formalized by the laws on the formation of the Moldavian SSR and the admission of the three Baltic republics to the Union.
After the victory over France, Germany accelerated preparations for the war against the USSR: the issue of the “eastern campaign” was already discussed on July 21, 1940 at a meeting of Hitler with the commanders of the armed forces, and on July 31 he set the task of starting the operation in May 1941 and finishing her for 5 months.

On August 9, 1940, a decision was made to transfer Wehrmacht forces to the borders of the USSR, and from September they began to concentrate in Romania. At the same time, a broad campaign of disinformation to the Soviet leadership began, which played a fatal role in carrying out measures to repel aggression. On September 27 in Berlin, Germany, Italy and Japan signed a tripartite pact, which was subsequently joined by Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Croatia. Finally, on December 18, 1940, Hitler approved the famous “Barbarossa option” - a plan wars against the Soviet Union.

In order to hide military preparations, I. Ribbentrop, on October 13, 1940, invited I.V. Stalin to take part in the division of spheres of interest on a global scale. A meeting on this issue took place on November 12-13 in Berlin with the participation of V.M. Molotov, but due to mutually unacceptable conditions put forward by both sides, it was not successful.

A terrible war with large-scale human losses began not in 1939, but much earlier. As a result of the First World War of 1918, almost all European countries acquired new borders. Most were deprived of part of their historical territory, which led to small wars in conversations and in minds.

In the new generation, hatred of enemies and resentment for lost cities were brought up. There were reasons to resume the war. However, in addition to psychological reasons, there were also important historical prerequisites. The Second World War, in short, involved the entire globe in hostilities.

Causes of the war

Territorial disputes. The winners of the 1918 war, England and France, divided Europe with their allies at their own discretion. The collapse of the Russian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire led to the emergence of 9 new states. The lack of clear boundaries gave rise to great controversy. The defeated countries wanted to return their borders, and the victors did not want to part with the annexed territories. All territorial issues in Europe have always been resolved with the help of weapons. It was impossible to avoid the start of a new war.

Colonial disputes. The defeated countries were deprived of their colonies, which were a constant source of replenishment of the treasury. In the colonies themselves, the local population raised liberation uprisings with armed clashes.

Rivalry between states. After the defeat, Germany wanted revenge. It was always the leading power in Europe, and after the war it was limited in many ways.

Dictatorship. The dictatorial regime in many countries has strengthened significantly. The dictators of Europe first developed their armies to suppress internal uprisings and then to seize new territories.

The emergence of the USSR. The new power was not inferior to the power of the Russian Empire. It was a worthy competitor to the USA and leading European countries. They began to fear the emergence of communist movements.

Beginning of the war

The Germans did not recognize their defeat in 1918 and the Versailles agreements, which oppressed the interests of Russia and Germany. Power went to the Nazis, blocs of fascist states began to form, and large states did not have the strength to resist German aggression. Poland was the first on Germany's path to world domination.

At night September 1, 1939 German intelligence services launched Operation Himmler. Dressed in Polish uniforms, they seized a radio station in the suburbs and called on the Poles to rebel against the Germans. Hitler announced aggression from the Polish side and began military action.

After 2 days, England and France declared war on Germany, having previously entered into agreements with Poland on mutual assistance. They were supported by Canada, New Zealand, Australia, India and the countries of South Africa. The war that began became a global war. But Poland did not receive military-economic assistance from any of the supporting countries. If British and French troops were added to the Polish forces, then German aggression would be instantly stopped.

The population of Poland rejoiced at the entry of their allies into the war and waited for support. However, time passed and no help came. Weak side The Polish army had aviation.

The two German armies “South” and “North”, consisting of 62 divisions, opposed 6 Polish armies of 39 divisions. The Poles fought with dignity, but the numerical superiority of the Germans turned out to be the decisive factor. In almost 2 weeks, almost the entire territory of Poland was occupied. The Curzon line was formed.

The Polish government left for Romania. The defenders of Warsaw and the Brest Fortress went down in history thanks to their heroism. The Polish army lost its organizational integrity.

Stages of the war

The Polish armed forces did not have time to deploy, the top leadership was weak, and the allied powers were in no hurry to help. The result was the complete cupping of Polish territory.

France and England until May next year didn't change yours foreign policy. They hoped that German aggression would be directed against the USSR.

In April 1940, the German army entered Denmark without warning and occupied its territory. Immediately after Denmark, Norway fell. At the same time, the German leadership implemented the Gelb plan and decided to surprise France through the neighboring Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The French concentrated their forces on the Maginot Line rather than in the center of the country. Hitler attacked through the Ardennes Mountains beyond the Maginot Line. On May 20, the Germans reached the English Channel, the Dutch and Belgian armies capitulated. In June, the French fleet was defeated, and part of the army managed to evacuate to England.

The French army did not use all the possibilities of resistance. On June 10, the government left Paris, which was occupied by the Germans on June 14. After 8 days, the Compiègne Armistice was signed (June 22, 1940) - the French act of surrender.

Great Britain was supposed to be next. There was a change of government. The USA began to support the British.

In the spring of 1941, the Balkans were captured. On March 1, the Nazis appeared in Bulgaria, and on April 6, in Greece and Yugoslavia. Western and Central Europe were under Hitler's rule. Preparations began for an attack on the Soviet Union.

From June 22, 1941 to November 18, 1942 The second stage of the war lasted. Germany invaded the territory of the USSR. A new stage has begun, characterized by the unification of all military forces in the world against fascism. Roosevelt and Churchill openly declared their support for the Soviet Union. On July 12, the USSR and England entered into an agreement on general military operations. On August 2, the United States pledged to provide military and economic assistance to the Russian army. England and the USA promulgated the Atlantic Charter on August 14, to which the USSR later joined with its opinion on military issues.

In September, the Russian and British military occupied Iran to prevent the formation of fascist bases in the East. The Anti-Hitler Coalition is being created.

The German army encountered strong resistance in the fall of 1941. The plan to capture Leningrad could not be carried out, since Sevastopol and Odessa resisted for a long time. On the eve of 1942, the plan for a “lightning war” disappeared. Hitler was defeated near Moscow, and the myth of German invincibility was dispelled. Germany faced the need for a protracted war.

In early December 1941, the Japanese military attacked a US base in the Pacific Ocean. Two powerful powers went to war. The USA declared war on Italy, Japan and Germany. Thanks to this, the anti-Hitler coalition strengthened. A number of mutual assistance agreements were concluded among allied countries.

From November 19, 1942 to December 31, 1943 The third stage of the war lasted. It is called a turning point. The military activities of this period acquired huge scale and tension. Everything was decided on the Soviet-German front. On November 19, Russian troops launched a counteroffensive near Stalingrad (Battle of Stalingrad July 17, 1942 - February 2, 1943) . Their victory provided a strong impetus for subsequent battles.

To regain the strategic initiative, Hitler carried out an attack near Kursk in the summer of 1943 ( Battle of Kursk July 5, 1943 - August 23, 1943). He lost and went into a defensive position. However, the allies of the Anti-Hitler Coalition were in no hurry to fulfill their duties. They expected the exhaustion of Germany and the USSR.

On July 25, the Italian fascist government was liquidated. New chapter declared war on Hitler. The fascist bloc began to disintegrate.

Japan did not weaken the group on the Russian border. The United States replenished its military forces and launched successful offensives in the Pacific.

From January 1, 1944 to May 9, 1945 . The fascist army was driven out of the USSR, a second front was being created, European countries were being liberated from the fascists. The joint efforts of the Anti-Fascist Coalition led to the complete collapse of the German army and the surrender of Germany. Great Britain and the United States carried out large-scale operations in Asia and the Pacific.

May 10, 1945 – September 2, 1945 . Armed actions are carried out in the Far East, as well as in Southeast Asia. The US used nuclear weapons.

Great Patriotic War(June 22, 1941 - May 9, 1945).
World War II (September 1, 1939 – September 2, 1945).

Results of the war

Military action could lead to the collapse of civilization. War criminals and fascist ideology were condemned in all world trials.

In 1945, a decision was signed in Yalta to create the UN to prevent such actions.

The consequences of the use of nuclear weapons over Nagasaki and Hiroshima forced many countries to sign a pact banning the use of weapons of mass destruction.

The countries of Western Europe lost their economic dominance, which passed to the United States.

Victory in the war allowed the USSR to expand its borders and strengthen the totalitarian regime. Some countries became communist.

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