Hitler's Fatal Relationship With The Soviet Union

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Ever since World War I, Germany was not on a friendly terms with Russia. Germany hated the Soviet Union and despised communists. This very hate for communism was what allowed Hitler to promote his Enabling Act providing unlimited power and creating a totalitarian state. Germany had previously suffered from various terrorist attacks and the infamous alleged communist attack on the Reichstag building. While the true motivations and attackers remain debatable, this attack on the Reichstag building caused Germany (and Hitler) to take action against the communist.

Hitler's main war aim was to create "lebensraum" or in other words living space for the expansion of Germany. The need for "lebensraum" was described by him in his book "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle)published in the 1920's. Hitler believed that the place for this expansion was to the East of Germany. For this reason he invaded Poland in 1939. The attack on Poland was a clear sign of aggression, Britain and France could no longer ignore Germany and declared war against Germany. Germany with it's new tactic Blitzkrieg outmatched that of France and Britain's. Soon France was defeated and Britain was forced back to the other side of the English Channel. Much of Western Europe was now under control of Nazi Germany and it was time to take the West.

Germany had a Non-Aggression Pact with the Soviet Union. This gave Stalin a sense of security. Hitler knowing that the peace between Russia and Germany would be difficult to maintain. Soon,Hitler launched operation Barbarossa for the following reasons.

*Hitler have always hated the Soviet Russia because of their communist ideology.

*Hitler believed the Russian population were inferior and therefore should be exterminated.

*Hitler, bein...

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...US mobilized 16.4 million men and women.

The US and British empire forces dropped 2.7 million tons of bombs in nazi Europe. The Red Army fired about 10 million tons of ammunition in the war.

The Soviets lost 90.000 combat aircraft, the US made 200.000 (45% of the American production).

The Soviets lost 218 thousand artillery pieces, the US produced 512 thousand guns between 1941 and 1944.

In the eastern front, the Germans lost 5.4 million men between 1941 and 1944, in the western front, in 1944, they lost 400.000 men. For the same period (06/1944-12/1944), the Soviets inflicted 1.25 million casualties on the germans.” quoted Guaporense

As seen from the statistics above, the Soviet contributed tons toward the second World War. Germany was doomed from the start but without the Soviet intervention, the allies would have taken a lot longer to defeat Germany.

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