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Second World War:
Its Causes and Its Nature

p On September 1, 1939, Hitler’s army invaded Poland; two days later, on September 3, the French and British governments declared war on Germany, in implementation of their undertaking to come to Poland’s aid. The Second World War was on, the most destructive war in the history of mankind. It lasted six years, and it involved nearly all the nations on the face of the earth. Its costs, in terms of human lives, were 50 million dead and 35 million wounded or maimed. In terms of military expenditure it cost the warring nations $1,117,000 million—a truly astronomical figure.

p Like the First World War, it was a product of the capitalist system, and its outbreak was caused by an abrupt sharpening of the contradictions among the imperialist states. The aggressive fascist bloc, that is, Germany, Italy and Japan, embarked on a programme of repartitioning the world by force of arms, claiming that they had been "cheated out of what was due them”. This bloc had to face the coalition of Western powers, that is, Great Britain, France and the United States, which, victorious in the First World War, had partitioned the world to suit themselves and now intended not only to retain but also to expand their possessions and spheres of influence.

p The Second World War was unleashed by the fascist aggressors, by militarist Germany, just as the first had been. This time Hitler Germany and its “axis” partners were able to do so because the imperialist circles in other countries, above all in Britain, France and the United States, had helped them with their preparations for war in the hope that the aggression would be directed eastward, against the USSR. Actually, however, the contradictions among the imperialist powers turned out to be 247 sharper than those between the imperialist powers and the world’s first socialist state; so that when the war broke out both sides found themselves fighting an imperialist war.

p Gradually, however, the war began to acquire another aspect. As the Germans conquered country after country, as they abolished all bourgeois-democratic freedoms in these countries to install regimes of bloody terror in their place, while the peoples of these countries rallied increasingly to resist their conquerors, the war—so far as Germany’s opponents were concerned—-gradually took on the aspect of an anti-fascist war of liberation.

This process came to its pinnacle when Germany attacked the Soviet Union, for the war which the latter began to fight pursued solely the aims of liberation. From then on (i.e., after June 1941) the war waged by the states forming the anti-Hitler coalition became entirely a just war of liberation. The nations forming this coalition were resolved to do away with the plague of fascism intent on dominating the world and setting up a sanguinary world-wide "new order".

Fall of Poland.
“Sitzkrieg” in the West

p Hitler’s armies made rapid progress across Poland, whose reactionary government never did get the aid it had banked on from Great Britain and France. For neither Britain nor France, having declared war on Germany, intended to wage it in earnest, being still hopeful of coming to terms with Germany at the expense of the Soviet Union. The Western statesmen still believed that Hitler’s armies, once in occupation of Poland, would move against the Soviet Union.

p In conditions when the German forces were driving rapidly towards the Soviet Union’s western frontiers and the reactionary circles and press of the Western imperialist powers were openly egging Hitler on to undertake an "Eastern campaign”, the Soviet Union was left no choice but to take steps to secure its own safety. Accordingly, on September 17, 1939, Soviet Army units crossed the frontier of Poland, which had virtually ceased to exist as a state, and began a mission of liberation which resulted in the reunion of Western Ukraine and Western Byelorussia with the Ukrainian and Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republics (it will be recollected that both these regions had been annexed by the bourgeois-landowner masters of Poland back in 1920). This action kept the regions in question from being overrun by the Germans.

The fall of Poland made no substantial change in the strategy or tactics of the Western powers. In the West, the war that 248 became known as the “Sitzkrieg”, the "phoney war”, continued, a war where there was no actual fighting. London and Paris, with the active support of Washington, endeavoured to carry on in the new situation their pre-war policy of appeasement, still under the illusion that German aggression would be directed against the USSR, while they themselves would remain on the side-lines. The truth is that while they abstained from fighting nazi Germany the ruling circles of the Western powers were busy waging in earnest a war against those very Communists who had been and continued to be the foes of fascism. The French Government exhibited the greatest fervour in this respect. It had dissolved the Communist Party in the autumn of 1939, and had then banned all Communist publications, deprived the Communist deputies in the parliament of their parliamentary immunity and placed them under arrest. In Great Britain, too, as in the United States and other capitalist countries, Communists and progressively-minded people were subjected to persecution.

Baltic Countries
Become Soviet Republics

p After the war got under way nazi Germany stepped up its penetration into the Baltic countries. This was observed with consternation by the peoples of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, for just next door in Poland, under their very eyes, the German nazis had established a reign of terror. The fate of the Baltic nations was a matter of concern to the Soviet Union, from which the three countries had split away shortly after the October Revolution. The Soviet Government, aware of the aspirations of the people of the three republics, approached their governments with the proposal to conclude mutual assistance agreements; and these were duly signed in September and October 1939.

p Late in 1939 and throughout the first half of 1940 there was a growing revolutionary movement in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as a consequence of their worsening economic situation and the reactionary policies followed by their pro-nazi rulers. In June 1940, the peoples of the three republics rose in revolt and overthrew their pro-nazi governments. Genuinely free elections were held and popular governments formed. In July the parliaments of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia applied to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for admission into the Soviet Union and a month later were duly granted the status of Soviet Socialist Republics.

p The reunion of Western Ukraine and Western Byelorussia with the Soviet Ukraine and Soviet Byelorussia and the admission of 249 the three Baltic states into the Soviet Union substantially improved the latter’s strategic position by moving the state frontier from 200 to 350 kilometres westward. The security of Leningrad, however, which lay within only 32 kilometres of the Finnish frontier, remained a matter of deep concern to the Soviet Government. An offer to cede a considerably greater area in Karelia in exchange for part of the Karelian Isthmus had been refused by the reactionary Finnish Government, which had thereafter intensified its preparations for war in close proximity to Leningrad. Supported and urged on by both the warring imperialist blocs, Finland’s rulers ended by provoking an armed clash between Finland and the Soviet Union.

p The Soviet-Finnish war began in late November 1939. And almost immediately Britain and France started feverish preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union. British and French expeditionary forces were formed, 100,000 and 50,000 strong, respectively, which were to go to the aid of the Finnish army. Another blow was to be aimed at the Soviet Union from Turkey, Syria and Ira] in the south by a Franco-British force supported by large numl ers of bombers.

p Despite the Western powers’ attempts to support Finland, the Soviet-Finnish war ended, in March 1940, with Finland’s defeat. A peace treaty was signed, which secured the safety of Leningrad.

p During the summer of 1940 the problem of Bessarabia was also solved. That territory had been annexed in 1918 by the bourgeoislandowner government of Rumania. Now the Soviet Union’s legitimate demand for the return of Bessarabia was accepted by Rumania, which did not wish to risk an armed clash with the Soviet Union in the complicated international situation of 1940. Northern Bukovina, with its Ukrainian population, joined the Soviet Union at the same time.

All these developments served to strengthen the Soviet Union’s position and improve the prospects of the country’s defence. Subsequently, however, these added advantages were not used as fully as they should have been.

Defeat and Capitulation
of France

p In the spring of 1940, having made excellent use of the breathing spell they had been given, the nazis opened their offensive in the West. In April the German forces drove into Denmark and landed troops in Norway, and the occupation of both these countries was rapidly completed. On the night of 250 May 10, the German army, supported by great fleets of tanks and planes, began a large-scale offensive against Be gium, Holland and Luxemburg. Defeated in battle after battle, the Dutch and Belgian troops tere forced to fall back. Despite a display of real he msm in battle they were unable to offer any sustained resistance, and in the end they were betrayed by their own ruling circles, who came to terms with the nazis Holland capitulated on May 15, Belgium on May 28. Pursuing their advantage the German panzer and motorised divisions broke through the French Hnes Fn the vicinity of Sedan and carried the war into France. The Maginot Line, in which the French strategists had put so much hope, was simply outflanked on the north.

The German invasion of Belgium and Holland posed a definite threat to Great Britain, besides bearing witness to the Smplete failure of the policy pursued by Chamberlain who continued to stake all on a German assault upon the Soviet Union Britain found herself on the brink of a serious political crisis, and the country’s leadership finally realised that Chamberlain must be relieved of his post of prime minister. That post was given to W. Churchill, one of the Conservative Party’s outstanding members and Chamberlain’s opponent in the field o foreign policy. A number of Labour Party leaders, such as Attlee and Bevin were also included in the new cabmet-a definite concession to the popular demand for stronger action to counter the German

p rance too, the government headed by Daladier fell as a result of the’ nazi successes in the West. Unlike Britain, however where the threat of German invasion strengthened the hand ol those who stood for resistance to the nazis, m France the defeatist elements among the ultra-reactionary politicians and soldiers were saining the upper hand. These latter did whatever hey SdTo present the deployment of the larger army units then available, withdrew army units from the front to transfer them to areas away from the sector lying in the path of the mam German assault, etc. That explains why the French army s great potential was never drawn upon and why the eagerness of ordinary Frenchmen in army uniform to come to blows with the enemy and the numerous cases of staunch and heroic conduct when they did so were utterly wasted. The German high command achieved a break-through on a wide front, surrounded a large body ol allied troops near Dunkirk, and drove them to the beaches.

p The then rulers of France feared their own people more than anything else, and therefore turned down the suggestion made by the Central Committee of the French Communist Party to issue arms to the population and organise the defence of Pans, then already under direct military threat. Haunted by the prospect of 251 252 having a popular, revolutionary war on their hands, the gentlemen of the French cabinet were anxious to end the fighting as soon as possible, even at the cost of utter defeat and humiliating capitulation before the nazis.

p On June 10, when the German tanks were already approaching Paris, Italy declared war on France and commenced military operations against her. On June 14, Paris was surrendered to the Germans without a fight, and three days later Marshal Petain, an ultra-conservative leader and proponent of an immediate cessation of hostilities, stepped into the office of head of the French Government.

p Heedless of the will of the nation, Petain asked Berlin for an armistice. On June 22, 1940, in the Forest of Compiegne, in the private railway coach of Marshal Foch (specially brought here from the museum), in which the armistice between Germany and the Entente powers was signed 22 years ago, Hitler dictated to Marshal Pdtain’s representatives the terms of France’s unconditional surrender.

p Two-thirds of France, including Paris, were to be occupied by the German army, the cost of maintaining the army of occupation to be borne by France. The south of France was to remain under the control of the P6tain government, which had set up quarters in the spa town of Vichy. The unoccupied zone was to assume certain obligations to supply Germany with food, fuel, raw materials, etc.

p The French people, however, refused to put up with the German occupation. On July 18, 1940, General Charles de Gaulle, speaking over Radio London, summoned all French patriots to rally around Fighting France. And inside France the Resistance Movement began to form fighting units.

p Anglo-German War After French Surrender.
German Preparations for Assault on the Soviet Union

p Thus it happened that France—strongest capitalist power on the continent of Europe—was defeated in a matter of weeks, to find herself under the heel of the nazi Reich. As to Great Britain, only a part of her expeditionary force that had taken part in the fighting on the continent managed to re-embark for England from the Dunkirk beaches, after abandoning nearly all of its weapons, equipment and supplies.

p The tragic finale of the summer 1940 events on the Western Front showed all too clearly the humiliating failure of the policy of encouraging nazi aggression. The nazi beast that had slipped 253 its leash and pounced on Britain and France was the very same one that the Western powers, and above all the rulers of Britain and France, had nurtured for years in the hope of setting it on the Soviet Union.

p As a matter of fact Britain’s plight after the French surrender was quite desperate. It looked very much as if she was likely to share the fate of her ally. For she had no other allies, and her armed forces, badly battered as they had been on the continent, were in need of thorough reorganisation; and German submarines were prowling the seas, sinking British ships one after another. The German blockade ringed the British Isles tighter and tighter. In August 1940, the Germans began massive devastating bombing raids on British cities and industrial centres, such as London, Birmingham, etc., with the aim of terrorising the population, breaking their will to resistance and disorganising the industry. Coventry, for instance, was reduced to so much rubble. Simultaneously the nazis went on with their much advertised preparations for landing German troops in England.

p Actually, however, it turned out that there had never been a real threat of a German invasion of the British Isles. This was established beyond any doubt at the Nuremberg trials of nazi war criminals. Hitler’s decision to attack the Soviet Union before defeating Britain had been taken in June 1940; for it was the Soviet Union that constituted the main obstacle to German mastery of Europe and in fact the world, and not Britain, which Hitler did not consider to be a serious opponent. "If Russia is defeated,” he told his intimate associates, "England will have lost its last hope.” In December 1940, Hitler endorsed the plan of war against the USSR, which was given the name of Operation Barbarossa in honour of the German emperor who had led the crusades in the East in the 12th century.

p An important milestone on the road of nazi aggression was the Tripartite Pact signed in September 1940, by Hitler Germany, fascist Italy and imperial Japan. It proclaimed the unity of the three fascist countries in their drive to establish a "new order" in Europe and Asia, or, to put it differently, in their drive for world mastery. During the period from September 1940 to March 1941 Germany succeeded in bringing to heel Hungary, Rumania, Slovakia and Bulgaria, which it compelled to join the Tripartite Pact. These countries were turned into a staging area for the German attack on the Soviet Union. In April 1941, the German army invaded and occupied Yugoslavia, whose people refused to join the fascist bloc. About the same time German forces broke down the resistance of the Greek army, which had stood up successfully to the invading Italian troops. Thus Greece was added to the list of occupied countries.

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p By May 1941, practically all of continental Europe lay under the German heel and Germany seemed to have reached the peak of its power. With vast material resources and manpower at its command and flushed with its swift victories over the capitalist countries of Western and Eastern Europe, nazi Germany was now busy putting the finishing touches on its preparations for a war with the Soviet Union. That “operation”, in the estimation of Hitler and his associates, would require eight weeks!

p German Attack on the USSR.
The Beginning of the Great
Patriotic War

p On June 22, 1941, at dawn, Germany launched its attack on the Soviet Union. There was no declaration of war. Fighting on the side of Germany were Italy, Finland, Hungary and Rumania. Altogether 190 German and satellite divisions were thrown against the Soviet Union. In preparation for the assault Germany had concentrated all four of the then available tank groups and four out of the five available air fleets. In the Far East, Japan had deployed important forces the length of the Soviet frontier, which compelled the Soviet Union to keep sizable contingents of troops in its Far Eastern region.

p Unleashing his war against the Soviet Union Hitler aimed at the destruction of the Soviet state, the seizure of its resources, and the re-establishment of the bourgeois-landowner regime.

p The Soviet people rose in arms to a man in the Great Patriotic War against the nazi invaders. The early frontier battles produced many heroic episodes destined to live forever in the memory of future generations. Thus, on June 22, D.V. Kokorev of the air force performed the first ramming attack in an aerial engagement, using his propeller, when his ammunition gave out, to sever a German bomber’s tail-unit, send it crashing to the ground, then made a safe landing himself. In those early days of the war and later ramming tactics were used by L. G. Butelin, I. I. Ivanov, V. V. Talalikhin and many others. An outstanding feat of heroism was performed by the crew of a bomber commanded by Captain Nikolai Gastello. A direct hit on a fuel tank having set his plane on fire, Captain Gastello managed to crash into a column of German tanks and fuel cisterns, many of which were destroyed in the ensuing conflagration. He and his crew perished in the crash.

p The garrison of the frontier fortress of Brest covered itself with undying glory. Led by Captain I. N. Zubachyov, Regimental Commissar E. M. Fomin, Major P. M. Gavrilov and other officers, 255 this garrison stubbornly held the surrounded fortress for twentynine days, inflicting heavy losses on the two attacking German divisions. Stubborn battles were fought by the Soviet frontier forces on the banks of the Bug and Prut rivers and at Peremyshl.

p Famous among the heroic episodes of the early phases of the war were the defence of Odessa, Kiev, Leningrad and Moscow, which subsequently received the honorary title of Hero Cities. Later, in 1942, similar military valour was displayed by the cities of Sevastopol and Stalingrad. Army and civilians joined in the heroic defence of these cities, laying down their lives to save the country from nazi enslavement.

p Despite the valiant fight they put up the Soviet Army experienced, during that first phase of the war, the bitterness of defeat and heavy losses in manpower, weapons and equipment, especially as a result of encirclement. A vast area was lost to the enemy, including the Baltic Republics, Moldavia, Byelorussia, most of the Ukraine; Leningrad was under siege and the enemy was driving for Moscow. The country found itself facing a deadly peril. A legitimate question is: How did this happen?

p The war had begun under auspices favourable to Germany, which enjoyed a number of distinct advantages. To begin with, her army was in a state of complete preparedness and had, moreover, the experience of two years of major military operations to its credit. Furthermore, the German economy had been 256 put on a war-time footing long before the outbreak of the war and had at its disposal the tremendous resources of the occupied countries, whose industry worked to supply the German war machine. The Soviet armed forces, on the other hand, had no recent experience of major warfare; this experience they were forced to acquire in battle with a powerful and crafty adversary. Then, too, the Red Army had not been fully mobilised. And although a powerful defence industry had been built up during the preceding five-year plan periods the country’s economy as a whole had not been fully prepared for the war to come. For all these reasons the country suffered heavy losses when hostilities began, and the balance of power shifted decisively in favour of nazi Germany and her satellites.

p Miscalculations as to the possible date of the German attack on the Soviet Union also played their role in being responsible for the country’s inadequate preparedness for repelling the first enemy thrusts.

p Important as these German advantages were during the first phase of the war, they could not be decisive in an encounter with a great power like the Soviet Union. The impregnable strength of the Soviet home front became apparent at the very outset. The serious reverses on the fighting front strengthened, rather than weakened, the close ties between workers and peasants and among the many peoples of the USSR. The morale of the Red Army was immeasurably higher than that of the nazi troops, because the Red Army was fighting a just war of liberation, and consciousness of the noble aims of the war spurred the Soviet fighters to unmatched feats of valour.

p In response to the call of the Party and government the Soviet people rallied to the defence of their country. There was a spontaneous rush to recruiting stations, where hundreds of thousands volunteered for duty. In a brief space of time a vast majority of industrial plants had been converted to supply the front. Before 1941 was out more than 1,360 industrial plants had been dismantled and evacuated, together with their personnel, from invasion-threatened areas to the East. Some 1,500,000 railway cars had been required to move them. Their personnel worked valiantly to start the plants going at their new locations.

p Hundreds of thousands of women came to work in plant and factory, quickly learning to replace their husbands, brothers and sons, now at the fighting fronts. Elderly people already on pension volunteered for work in industrial enterprises.

p All over the country workers endeavoured to fulfil several daily work quotas: their own plus that of one, two or more of their comrades in the army. One man would operate several machine tools or handle two different jobs. Front-line brigades 257 came into being, which were called so for regularly considerably overfulfilling their production quotas. This practice became general in all branches of the national economy. An old tradition of civil war days was revived—Communist Subbotniks, overtime volunteer work on Saturdays and Sundays, usually to get some particular job of work done, with all the given personnel lending a hand.

p Collective farms managed to handle all farm work in 1941, including getting in the crops and sowing considerably greater areas to winter crops in Siberia and the Soviet East, despite the difficulties created by the mobilisation of a substantial part of the manpower for military duty and of much equipment for the front. People showed their patriotism in many different ways. A special defence account was opened, for instance, to which they contributed a part of their income, state loan bonds, valuables, etc. In the autumn of 1941 a drive was opened to collect warm garments for the front-line troops. And it was a general practice to send gifts and write letters to soldiers at the front.

p Regular army reinforcements and People’s Volunteer Corps formed in the front-line area were reaching the front in a steady stream. In the occupied regions partisan warfare was spreading and gathering force under the direction of underground Communist organisations. This kind of warfare aimed at disrupting the German rear, destroying communication lines, and aiding the Red Army in many ways.

p As soon as hostilities broke out on the Soviet-German front peoples the world over came out emphatically in support of the Soviet Union, very rightly believing it to be the power that would be able to smash the German war machine and save our civilisation from the nazi barbarians. The peoples of the United States, Great Britain and other countries, for whom the earliest possible destruction of nazism was a matter of paramount urgency, pressed their governments for taking practical steps in furnishing all possible aid to the Soviet Union. The leaders of the Western powers realised, on the other hand, that the nazi aggression not only threatened the existence of the Soviet state and the vital interests of other peoples, but also menaced the interests of influential bourgeois groups in the United States, Great Britain and elsewhere; and these two factors: the pressure of public opinion and the necessity of protecting their own interests, prompted the Western governments to seek the creation of a common antiHitler coalition with the Soviet Union.

p On June 22, 1941, in fact, Prime Minister Churchill, and two days later President Roosevelt of the United States, officially declared their support of the Soviet Union in its war with Hitler Germany and promised all aid to the Soviet Government. In July 258 a Soviet-British agreement was concluded regarding concerted operations in the war against Germany which was joined by some other states. During May and June 1942, a Soviet-British treaty of alliance in the war against Germany and its associates in Europe and co-operation after the war was signed, as well as a Soviet-American agreement concerning the "Principles Applying to Mutual Aid in the Prosecution of the War against Aggression”.

Thus amid the din of battle a British-Soviet-American coalition was forged, an instructive instance of co-operation among states with different social systems.

Two Conflicting Policies Within
the Anti-Fascist Coalition

p Even now, however, just as in the past, the imperialist bourgeoisie of the West pursued aims poles apart from the progressive ideals of liberation which inspired the nations that were fightingr fascism. Among the ultra-reactionary circles of the American and British bourgeoisie there were those who, as, for instance, President Truman and Senator Taft in the USA and Moore-Brabazon in England, made no secret, in their widely publicised statements, of their hopes that the war between the USSR and Germany would lead to the exhaustion of the two sides and thus create a situation favourable to Anglo-American domination in the postwar world.

p Two policies were in continuous conflict within the anti-Hitler coalition throughout the war, that is, the policy of the Soviet Union which, conscious of its noble historic mission of ridding mankind of the fascist plague, bent its efforts towards defeating the nazi invaders in the shortest possible time, and the policy of the Anglo-American ruling circles, who conducted their military operations with an eye to their own selfish interests. Their purpose was to oust Germany, Italy and Japan as dangerous competitors in the world markets and to establish their dominance over the world.

p The governments of the United States and Britain persistently put off opening a second front in Europe, thus adding to the burden carried by the Soviet Army and delaying the end of the Second World War. The Soviet Government had approached its Western Allies on the subject of a second front back in 1941, making it clear that by the second front it meant a landing of Anglo-American troops in force in northern France. Under the pressure of public opinion the governments of the United States and Great Britain undertook to open a second front in Europe in 1942, but failed to live up to their promise on the grounds that 259 preparations had not yet been completed. Nor was the second front opened in 1943. It was opened only in the summer of 1944, when the brilliant successes of the Red Army had already assured eventual victory; and when the Anglo-American troops did begin to land on the French coast their purpose was, essentially, to forestall the liberation of Western Europe by Soviet forces.

These delays with the opening of the second front had been dictated by the anxiety of the British and American governments to save their strength and simultaneously to see their Soviet ally seriously weakened, so that when the war was over the Soviet people, whose strength would have been drained by years of heavy fighting, would become economically dependent on the Anglo-American imperialists.

Japan Attacks USA.
War in the Pacific Begins

p The Red Army’s heroic resistance upset the expectation of the German Command that the Soviet Union would be crushed in a matter of weeks. While it is true that in the autumn of 1941 the German armies had invested Leningrad, taken Kiev, and threatened Moscow, their Blitzkrieg had signally failed.

p In the Far East, the Japanese militarists realised that Hitler’s plan to smash the USSR in eight weeks had fallen through and that they, too, might find themselves embroiled in a dangerous and costly enterprise should they start a war with the Soviet Union, and therefore decided against risking such an armed conflict. Instead, they started (in great secrecy) all-out preparations for an assault upon the United States and Britain. To lull the enemy into a sense of security and gain time, which would make possible a sudden strike at their Far Eastern possessions, the Japanese resorted to outright perfidy: they initiated diplomatic talks in Washington regarding a "peaceful solution" of the differences between the United States and Japan. On December 7, 1941, in the midst of these negotiations, Japanese aviation and warships made a devastating raid on the main United States naval base at Pearl Harbour, in the Hawaiian Islands, which destroyed or put out of commission, within a few hours, nearly al? of the United States Pacific Fleet, including eight battleships. Singapore, the main British naval base Tn the Far East, was heavily bombed at the same time, and other American and British strategic points in the Pacific and Indian oceans were assaulted.

p Heavy losses sustained by the American and British navies allowed the Japanese to develop far-flung offensives in the Southeast Asia theatre. In a relatively short time (by May 1942) 260 they occupied Malaya, Burma, the Philippines and Indonesia, and numerous American- and British-owned islands in the Pacific. Thus the Second World War spread geographically as more and more lands and nations were engulfed.

On January 1, 1942, a joint declaration was signed at Washington by the twenty-six Allied states, notably the USSR, the USA, Great Britain, China, Poland and Yugoslavia. The signatories confirmed their resolution to co-operate in pursuing the war until victory was achieved over the fascist bloc that was their common enemy, and undertook to conclude no separate peace.

Soviet-German Front—the Decisive Front.
Resistance Movement in Europe

p Without belittling the importance of the military operations in the Far East, in Northeast Africa, where British forces fought against the Germans and Italians with variable success all through 1940 and 1941, and elsewhere, it is necessary to emphasise that the crucial battles of the Second World War were fought on the Soviet-German Front. It was here that the fate of humanity was being decided, and here that the attention was focussed of the 261 millions who watched with bated breath the gigantic battle the Soviet people were waging to save civilisation from nazi barbarism.

p The routing of the German army on the approaches to Moscow in the winter of 1941-42—its first serious defeat in the Second World War—became an important milestone. Two massive drives on Moscow were unleashed by the German army, the first in October, the second in November 1941. Powerful forces were thrown into the battle by the German Command, only to bog down in the face of stubbornly resisting Soviet troops, who displayed not only heroism of a high order, but growing skill in battle as well.

p Undying fame was won by the 28 fighters of the 316th Division (later renamed the 8th Guards Division) commanded by General I. V. Panfilov. This unit, under political instructor V. G. Klochkov, was defending a position at the small railway station of Dubosekovo, near Volokolamsk. On November 16 it was attacked by fifty German tanks and a strong detachment of submachine-gunners. "Our Russia is vast, but we can’t yield an inch: we’ve Moscow behind us!" was the slogan given by the commander, and the men, fighting tenaciously, destroyed eighteen tanks and made the Germans give up the attack, unaware, perhaps, that only four of the defenders were still alive.

p People’s Volunteer Corps divisions of Moscow fought with no less valour. Some 100,000 Communists and 250,000 Komsomol youths were mobilised by the Communist Party and the Young Communist League, respectively, for the defence of Moscow. Almost half a million men and women took part in building a defence belt around the capital, including anti-tank ditches and steel obstacles, barbed wire, trenches, bunkers, pill-boxes, etc.

p Meantime partisans were increasingly active back of the enemy lines. Forty partisan detachments 10,000 strong operated in the Moscow area towards the close of 1941. In a short space of time they had killed 18,000 enemy soldiers and destroyed 222 tanks and armoured vehicles, six planes, and 29 supply depots and ammunition dumps.

For courage and valour these partisans were a match for the soldiers at the front. The Soviet people will ever hold sacred the memory of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. A girl of eighteen, she volunteered for duty and undertook perilous assignments in the enemy rear. She was caught when trying to set fire to an important military objective. Tortured, she refused to betray her comrades; and with the hangman’s noose around her neck she shouted to the people who had been driven to watch her execution: "I’m not afraid to die, Comrades! I’m happy to die for my people!”

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p While heavy defensive battles were being fought on the approaches to Moscow, in the rear areas fresh Soviet armies were being formed, equipped with tanks, planes, artillery and mortars, and concentrated in the vicinity of the capital.

p On December 6, 1941, when it became abundantly clear that weeks of heavy fighting on the approaches to Moscow had sapped the strength of the German army and its communication lines had become dangerously tenuous, the Soviet Army, supported by great numbers of tanks and planes, launched a powerful counteroffensive.

p The German troops beat a hasty retreat, pressed by the Red Army and abandoning their weapons, equipment and supply trains. Fifty enemy divisions were smashed in the course of the Soviet winter offensive which recaptured 11,000 localities, including over sixty big and small towns, and upset the German plans for the seizure of Moscow and Leningrad.

p The German debacle at Moscow was the most important event of the first year of the Great Patriotic War. Hopes of a " lightning war" against the Soviet Union had gone by the board, and with them the myth of German invincibility.

The Soviet victory at Moscow had its effect far beyond the Soviet-German Front. It inspired the peoples of conquered Europe 263 to a determined struggle against the nazi invaders. The Resistance movement spread rapidly, workers, peasants, petty and middle bourgeoisie rallying to its support. Led by the Communists, the patriotic forces of France, Yugoslavia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Norway and other European countries struck telling blows at the invaders, destroying enemy personnel and those who worked for them, blasting airfields, blowing up bridges, derailing enemy troop trains, so that there was no longer any peace for the invaders in the occupied countries.

Stalingrad Battle;
Its International Significance.
Allied Operations in North Africa

p Hitler Germany was still strong, however. In the summer of 1942, having concentrated some 240 divisions on the Soviet Front, the German army launched a new large-scale drive. This time, though, it was no longer capable of offensive operations along the entire front as in 1941, and this new drive was therefore limited to the southern sector. The aim of the drive was to seize the oil-rich areas of the Caucasus, the Stalingrad industrial region and the rich farmlands of the Kuban and Don valleys. Having built up a decidedly preponderant force, the Germans directed their offensive towards the river Don.

p Fighting against great odds, the Soviet troops put up a heroic resistance. Eternal glory was won by Lieutenant Kochetkov’s sixteen Guardsmen of the 1st Guards Army, who defended an important height near Stalingrad. After throwing back four attacks of an Italian infantry detachment they were attacked anew by a company of German submachine-gunners. This assault was also beaten off. At sunrise on the following day twelve German tanks moved against them. By then many of the sixteen were wounded, including the commander, but the German tanks did not pass: carrying bundles of hand grenades the defenders threw themselves under the tank tracks. None of the sixteen survived. And reinforcements reaching the height counted six burnt-out German tanks still smoking on its slope.

p With numerical superiority on their side, however, and fresh reserves continuously coming up, the Germans achieved a breakthrough and crossed the Don. On August 23, at the cost of heavy losses, they reached the Volga at a point northwest of Stalingrad, and attempted an immediate assault of the city, preceded by a devastating aerial bombing. The city’s defenders fought back skilfully and courageously, however, stubbornly defending every house. Sergeant Y. Pavlov, for instance, in command of a handful 264 of fighters held a building for 58 days, turning it into a veritable fortress.

p Workers of the Stalingrad factories fought side by side with the soldiers, repeating the heroic defence of Tsaritsyn  [264•1  in 1918. No small part in the city’s defence was played by the sailors of the Volga Flotilla. Under ceaseless shelling and bombing the ships of the flotilla carried tens of thousands of fighters and thousands of tons of ammunition and food supplies across the Volga, and used their artillery to aid in the defence of the city.

p The fury of the battle mounted, until over 2,000,000 men, 26,000 guns and mortars, over 2,000 tanks and some 2,000 planes were disputing possession of the city. More than 100,000 strikes were carried out by the German air force and something like 1,000,000 bombs were dropped in the course of the battle.

p The valiant resistance of the Soviet troops had taken the punch out of the German offensive, while the Red Army had grown tough and learnt to fight in extremely adverse conditions. And a growing stream of arms and ammunition provided by the home front was reaching the defenders of Stalingrad.

p On November 19, 1942, the Red Army counter-attacked at Stalingrad, and a few days later closed the ring around the main 265 body of enemy forces in the area. All German efforts to break out of the encirclement failed. Following the refusal of the German Command to lay down arms the Red Army launched, on January 10, 1943, an operation calculated to wipe out the enemy force at Stalingrad.

p In the beginning of February the Battle of Stalingrad ended in a brilliant victory of Soviet arms. Twenty-two picked enemy divisions had been smashed and over 90,000 officers and men under Field Marshal Paulus, Commander of the German Sixth Army, had surrendered. Vast quantities of weapons and equipment had been seized. What had started out as a counter-offensive developed into a general offensive along the Soviet-German Front. Smashing through the German defences, Soviet troops moved as much as 600-700 kilometres westward in some sectors, crushing 112 nazi and satellite divisions. The Red Army went about the business of driving the invaders from Soviet soil with tremendous zeal and resolution. Reports of deeds of valour poured in from all fronts. Thus, on February 23, 1943, Alexander Matrosov, a private of the 254th Guards Regiment, threw himself bodily on the loop-hole of a pill-box to silence a machine-gun that had been holding up his regiment’s advance. His feat was repeated by more than two hundred Soviet fighters in the course of the war.

The Soviet victory on the banks of the Volga was an event of tremendous international import. Hitler Germany had been dealt a blow from which it was never to recover. The Anglo-American forces were now free to commence military operations in North Africa. A large allied force was landed in Algeria and Morocco in November 1942, and engaged an enemy force considerably weaker in numbers and equipment. This offensive ended with the capitulation of the German-Italian forces in Africa in May 1943.

Axis Partners Face Crisis.
Anti-Fascist Coalition Strengthened

p With the Allied African campaign brought to a successful close, the situation was definitely favourable to the opening of a second front in Europe. A factor in favour of large-scale offensive operations in France and adjacent West European countries was the upsurge of the Resistance Movement that had followed the German debacle at Stalingrad. Nevertheless Great Britain and the United States again postponed the all-important invasion of Europe across the English Channel, preferring a landing in Sicily, which was carried out in July 1943. The rulers of the Western powers cherished the hope that after occupying 266 Sicily their forces would break through into Southeastern and Central Europe, thereby preventing the arrival of Soviet troops there and helping maintain the reactionary bourgeois-landowner regimes in the countries of that area.

p Meanwhile the German reverses on the Soviet-German Front had produced a serious crisis in the fascist camp. In Italy, Rumania, Finland and Hungary discontent was on the increase in regard to the war that more and more people in all walks of life were coming to consider hopeless. Anti-war and anti-government sentiment in the satellite countries was given a particularly strong impetus by the miserable failure of the German offensive at Kursk in the summer of 1943. The German High Command had concentrated a powerful striking force within a small confined area in preparation for that offensive, in the hope that it might avenge the defeat at Stalingrad. But the outcome at Kursk was the same as at Stalingrad. The German plans were soon upset, and the German troops, worn out by heavy fighting, began to roll back under heavier and heavier hammering by the Red Army, which was now developing a counter-offensive on a wide front. Before 1943 was out, two-thirds of the Soviet territory at one time held by the enemy had been liberated. The offensive destined to drive the enemy completely from Soviet soil was now in full swing.

p About this time, a serious political crisis was brewing in Italy, where fascism had had its origin. The Italian people refused to fight and demanded a break with nazi Germany. The Italian troops in Africa had suffered a heavy defeat, and the Italian army of ten divisions dispatched by Mussolini to, the Eastern Front had been completely routed. The greater part of the Italian navy had been sunk or damaged. After the Anglo-American forces occupied Sicily the leaders of the Italian bourgeoisie realised the futility of continuing the war and decided to depose Mussolini and begin negotiating with the Allies. Towards the end of July 1943, Mussolini was placed under arrest. A new government was formed, with Marshal Badoglio at its head; and by agreement with him British and American troops landed in the south of Italy. On September 8, Italy surrendered. This event was followed by a German invasion of northern and central Italy, and on October 13 the Badoglio government declared war on Germany. A puppet fascist “republic” was created on the German-occupied territory, and Mussolini, who had, with German aid, made good his escape, was placed at its head.

The victories of the Red Army at Stalingrad and Kursk, which became the decisive turning-point of the Second World War, stimulated closer union among the members of the anti-Hitler coalition and strengthened the international prestige and influence of the Soviet Union. This is evidenced by the fact that periodic 267 conferences at the highest level of the Allied powers, that is, the USSR, USA and Great Britain, commenced precisely in the autumn of 1943. A conference of foreign ministers, held in October 1943 in Moscow, made arrangements for a conference of the Heads of Government of the USSR, USA and Great Britain, which met at Teheran from November 28 to December 1, 1943. It was at this conference that the decision was reached to open a second front in Western Europe (not in the Mediterranean area as insisted upon by Churchill) in May of the following year, and the basic outlines of a co-ordinated strategy of all three powers were worked out. The conference adopted a Declaration regarding concerted action in the war against nazi Germany and post-war co-operation, which was destined to prove of great political importance. Thus at Teheran, as at other subsequent conferences of the heads of the Soviet, British and American governments, thanks primarily to the determined efforts of the Soviet delegation, extremely important decisions were made both on problems of the war with the fascist bloc and on certain problems relating to the post-war period.

Decisive Red Army Victories.
Second Front Opened in Europe

p For the Red Army the year 1944 was a year of decisive victories over the armies of Germany and its satellites. During January and February the Soviet forces inflicted a heavy defeat on the enemy Army Group North and lifted the blockade of Leningrad, which had lasted 900 days. About the same time a group of over ten enemy divisions was surrounded in the area of Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, the Ukraine. When they turned down a Soviet offer to surrender the entire group was either annihilated or taken prisoner. During February, March and April the Red Army had routed the enemy Army Group South, cleared the Ukraine west of the Dnieper, reached and crossed the Czechoslovak and Rumanian frontiers, and was now pursuing its westward drive to liberate the German-occupied countries. In April the Soviet forces freed the Crimea. During the winter and spring Red Army offensives 175 enemy divisions were put out of action and over a million officers and men killed, wounded or taken prisoner.

The growing power of the Red Army offensive made it plain that it was by itself fully capable of crushing nazi Germany and thus achieving its noble mission of liberating the captive nations. Faced with this prospect, the British and American monopolies could no longer afford to delay the opening of a second front. 268 Accordingly, on June 6 British and American troops began the long-overdue landing operations on the north coast of France. Despite their overwhelming land, sea and air superiority over the enemy in this theatre, their advance in Northern France was extremely slow and hesitant. On August 15, British and American troops made a landing in the south of France and began to move north. Summoned by the leaders of the Resistance, the French people rose in arms against the invaders. Numerous towns were liberated one after another, and on August 18, French patriotic forces engaged the German garrison in Paris. By August 25, when the Allied divisions entered Paris, they found it already in the hands of the patriots. Although there was now a second front in Europe, the Soviet-German Front remained the crucial battleground of the Second World War, where the German High Command continued to keep its main forces.

Invaders Driven From Soviet Soil.
Fascist Bloc Crumbles

p During the summer and autumn of 1944 the Red Army delivered a series of fresh, exceptionally heavy blows against the enemy. One of the most important operations of the war, the liberation of Byelorussia, was completed during June and July 269 with the encirclement and destruction of the powerful German Army Group Centre totalling over a million men. During the second half of 1944 the northern flank of the German army—the army group in the Baltic area—was also crushed; and about the same time the Red Army put out of action the army groups Northern Ukraine and Southern Ukraine, totalling some 90 divisions, thereby causing the southern flank of the German army to crumble.

p The successful operations of the Soviet Armed Forces in 1944 brought a decisive military defeat to the nazis: 183 enemy divisions had been destroyed and 2,600,000 officers and men killed in action. These losses in manpower and equipment could no longer be replaced. Moreover, all of the Soviet territory at one time overrun by the invaders had now been cleared and the state frontier of the Soviet Union once again re-established from the Barents Sea in the north to the Black Sea and the Danube in the south.

p The destruction of the armed forces of the German satellites by the Red Army made the final collapse of the criminal Axis bloc inevitable. Such factors as the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives in battle, the extreme suffering and privations of the civilian population, and the realisation of the injustice and futility of the war—all this exercised a powerful influence on the peoples of the fascist countries, increasing anti-war feeling together with the desire to make an end of the reactionary cliques that had plunged their countries into a world war at Hitler’s bidding.

p When the armies of Marshal R. Y. Malinovsky’s Second Ukrainian Front and Marshal F. I. Tolbukhin’s Third Ukrainian Front crushed the enemy divisions at Kishinev and Jassy, Rumanian patriots staged an armed revolt and toppled, on August 23, 1944, the venal Antonescu dictatorship. A new government was set up, which concluded an armistice with the Allies and declared war on Germany.

p On the strength of the fact that the ruling circles of Bulgaria had actively aided Hitler all through the war, the Soviet Government proclaimed, on September 5, 1944, a state of war existing between the Soviet Union and Bulgaria; and Soviet forces crossed the Bulgarian frontier. On September 9, the Communist-led Patriotic Front raised a popular revolt against the reactionary ruling clique and set up a Patriotic Front government, which, having concluded an armistice with the Allies, also declared war on Germany.

p In September 1944, Finland, too, dropped out of the fascist bloc. In October 1944, the Red Army’s developing offensive took it into Hungary, where, beating down the stubborn resistance 270 offered by the Hungarian fascist forces, it began to converge on Budapest. In December 1944, a provisional national Hungarian government was set up in Debrecen, which concluded an armistice with the members of the anti-Hitler coalition and also declared war on Germany. In Yugoslavia, the Soviet forces gave valuable aid to the People’s Liberation Army led by J. Broz Tito in driving the nazis from that country.

p Driving the nazi invaders and their local collaborationists out of the countries of Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union left it to the peoples concerned to choose their own state system. While pursuing the policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of the liberated countries, the Soviet Union barred any attempts against their sovereignty and independence by other states, the rulers of Great Britain and the United States above all. The British and American imperialists were thus deprived of a chance to force reactionary bourgeois-landowner regimes upon the peoples of Eastern and Southeastern Europe or to prevent radical democratic and, later, socialist reforms.

As a result of the decisive victories of the Soviet armies Germany found itself shorn of all its Allies in Europe and virtually completely isolated. Gripped in a vice between two fronts, the German troops were forced to wage heavy defensive battles.

Red Army Liberates Poland,
Austria and Czechoslovakia

p The war in Europe was now in its final phase. The immediate aim was to liberate Poland, Czechoslovakia and Austria and to deal the death blow to the foe in his own homeland This was no easy task. It was necessary to break through powerful defence systems built up by the enemy over many years. Aware of imminent disaster, the nazis fought desperately to stave it off, using terror and deceit to make millions in the army and on the home front carry on the futile resistance. Even then Germany had substantial forces and means at its disposal.

Towards the end of December 1944, as a matter of fact, the German army launched an offensive in the West and achieved a break-through on the British and American front in the Ardennes. The plan was to reach Antwerpen, surround the main body of Allied troops, force Britain out of the war, and induce the United States to conclude a separate peace. The British and American forces were on the brink of defeat, when Prime Minister W. Churchill of Great Britain addressed the Soviet Government, on January 6, 1945, a message requesting a large-scale Soviet offensive to relieve the situation.

271 272

p In order to help the Allies, the Red Army opened a great offensive along the entire front, from the Baltic Sea to the Carpathian Mountains, on January 12, 1945 (instead of January 20, as scheduled); and on that very same day the German High Command called off its assault on the British and American positions. The reserves that had been held in readiness for a renewed German westward drive were transferred to the Soviet Front.

p The onslaught of the Soviet Army against the Germans carried tremendous force. The powerful German defence system was smashed along a line 1,200 kilometres long. The troops of Marshal I. S. Konev’s First Ukrainian Front liberated Silesia in a drive that carried them across the Oder, and by the end of February stood on the banks of the Neisse. By January 17, the troops of Marshal G. K. Zhukov’s First Byelorussian Front, fighting shoulder to shoulder with the First Polish Army, had driven the Germans from Warsaw. Swiftly advancing on westward, these forces reached the Oder and established a bridgehead on its western bank in the area of Kiistrin, within 60 kilometres of Berlin.

p The troops of the Second and Third Byelorussian fronts, commanded respectively by Marshal K. K. Rokossovsky and General I. D. Chernyakhovsky (by Marshal A. M. Vassilevsky after the latter was killed in battle), carried out early in 1945 a remarkable operation that resulted in the encirclement and annihilation of the enemy’s East-Prussia group of 38 divisions. On April 9, Soviet troops took Konigsberg (renamed Kaliningrad). The troops of General A. I. Yeremenko’s Fourth Ukrainian^ Front advanced through Czechoslovakia. During March and April 1945, Soviet troops crushed German resistance in Austria and on April 13 liberated Vienna.

By the end of February the British and American forces had resumed their offensive in the West.

Yalta Conference; Its Decisions

p In February 1945, a second conference of the heads of the Soviet, American and British governments was convened at Yalta in the Crimea to co-ordinate the final operations of the war and examine a number of important post-war problems. The conference worked out plans for Germany’s final defeat and drew up the terms for the unconditional surrender of Germany. A programme providing for Germany’s military, economic and political disarmament was submitted by the Soviet Union and accepted by the Heads of Government of the United States and Great Britain in recognition of the Soviet Union’s major contribution 273 to the victory over nazi Germany and its growing influence in the international arena. The programme provided for the destruction of German militarism and fascism and for guarantees against leaving Germany any chance of making war in the future.

p Another important document drawn up by the Yalta Conference was a "Declaration on Liberated Europe”, in accordance with which the three Great Powers undertook to aid the nations liberated from nazi tyranny in setting up democratic regimes and to afford them economic assistance.

It was decided at the Yalta Conference to establish the United Nations Organisation, and the basic principles of the United Nations Charter were drawn up. The noble and lofty aims of the United Nations included the maintenance of peace and the security of nations, settlement of differences between states solely by peaceful means, prevention of aggression, and the promotion of friendship, mutual understanding and co-operation among nations. The Soviet diplomats played an important role in the drafting of the Charter; many important progressive provisions were included in the text of the Charter thanks to the determination and firmness they exhibited. The United Nations Charter is

274 based on the principle of peaceful co-existence and co-operation of states regardless of their social and political systems.

The establishment of the UNO, finally formalised at the San Francisco Conference in April 1945, became an event of great international significance, harmonising with the aspirations of peoples everywhere who hated war and longed for an enduring peace. If the activities of the United Nations have often failed to reflect these ideals, the reasons should be sought in the departure of the Western powers from the principles adopted in 1945 and their desire to impose their will and their way of life on the nations of the world. One more decision reached at the Yalta Conference at the request of Great Britain and the United States concerned the entry of the USSR into the war against Japan three months after the end of the war in Europe.

Berlin Taken by Storm.
Unconditional German Surrender

p Hitler Germany’s final spectacular collapse was brought about by the Berlin operation carried out by three Soviet army groups. This operation had been prepared with maximum thoroughness. 275 Vast quantities of materiel had been assembled, including 41,600 artillery pieces and mortars, 8,000 planes, 6,300 break-through tanks, etc. The morale of the troops investing Berlin was excellent; the Soviet fighters were out to plant their banner of victory over the Reichstag.

p At daybreak on April 16, 1945, Soviet artillery opened up with a concentrated massive shelling of the enemy defences. Simultaneously tanks moved into action, with the air force providing support. Despite bitter resistance the German defence system was cracked. By April 21 fighting had been carried into the city’s suburbs, and on the 25th units of the First Byelorussian and First Ukrainian fronts joined forces in the vicinity of Potsdam, thus completing the encirclement of the enemy force in Berlin. That same day units of the First Ukrainian Front and those of the American First Army met at Torgau on the west bank of the Elbe.

p Despite the hopeless position of the surrounded German forces the German High Command continued to fight back. Hitler counted on the arrival of American troops and a collision between them and the Red Army. The newly formed German Twelfth Army moved to the relief of the troops in Berlin, but failed to save the situation. The German losses southeast of Berlin totalled 60,000 killed in battle and 120,000 taken prisoner.

p Inside Berlin the Germans battled with fanatical desperation. The Soviet troops fought on from house to house, from block to block. The fighting for the Reichstag was especially fierce. On the night of April 30, sergeants M. Yegorov and M. Kantaria planted the Banner of Victory on the roof of the Reichstag. On May 2, the Berlin garrison laid down its arms. Hitler and Goebbels had committed suicide. Over 300,000 German officers and soldiers surrendered to the Soviet troops.

On the night of May 8, an act of unconditional surrender on behalf of Germany was signed at Berlin by representatives of the German High Command. This act was followed by the capitulation of German troops in isolated pockets in the Baltic area, east of Danzig, and elsewhere. One important enemy force holding out in Czechoslovakia and Austria, under the command of General Schoerner, refused to surrender to the Soviet Command, in violation of the act of capitulation. Resolute action was called for to crush this force and come to the aid of the Czechoslovak patriots who had risen, on May 5, against the German invaders. The Third and Fourth Armoured Guards Armies of the First Ukrainian Front, commanded, respectively, by Generals P. S. Rybalko and D. D. Lelyushenko, moved rapidly on Prague. At daybreak of May 9, Soviet tanks entered the city. They were followed into the city by motorised infantry. By 10 o’clock Prague

276 was completely in the hands of Soviet troops and its destruction had thus been averted. The Soviet troops were enthusiastically welcomed by the population. On the same day mobile units of the First and Second Ukrainian fronts joined forces 35 kilometres southeast of Prague and Schoerner’s entire army group, numbering some 60 divisions or nearly 1,000,000 men, was surrounded and forced to surrender.

As a result of the Soviet-German war 506 German and at least 100 satellite divisions had been crushed, while German battle casualties totalled 10,000,000, or 73.5 per cent of the aggregate German battle casualties in the Second World War. Some 77,000 planes, 48,000 tanks and 167,000 artillery pieces had been destroyed by the Red Army.

The Potsdam Conference

p Supreme power in the defeated nazi Reich now devolved on the Allied powers: the USSR, USA, Great Britain and France. Germany was divided into four zones of occupation: Soviet, American, British and French. By way of proving its good will and desire to co-operate with its Western Allies the Soviet Government agreed to have Berlin partitioned into four sectors (though the city was within the Soviet zone) under the rule of officers representing the occupying powers.

p On July 17, 1945, a conference of Heads of Government of the USSR, USA and Great Britain opened at Potsdam (near 277 278 Berlin) and continued to August 2. The conference proclaimed the main aims of the Allied powers in respect of Germany to be: demilitarisation, denazification and democratisation. One important decision was that despite its temporary occupation and its partitioning into four separate zones Germany was to be regarded as an economic and political entity and that a common policy was to be followed in regard to the population of all four zones. An International Military Tribunal was to be set up to try the leading German war criminals.

p Peace treaties with Germany and its former allies were to be drafted by a Council of Foreign Ministers of the four Great 279 Powers. Regardless of the final settlement of territorial problems the conference decided that a part of East Prussia, including Konigsberg, was to be turned over to the Soviet Union, the rest being transferred to Poland. Poland’s western frontier was to run along the rivers Oder and Neisse.

The decisions of the Potsdam Conference were of great international significance. Public opinion the world over welcomed them as an important contribution to the establishment of an enduring peace and as convincing evidence of the possibility of cooperation among the Great Powers. To understand how it came about that the governing circles of the United States and Great Britain were led to conclude agreements largely at variance with their plans and aims it is necessary to visualise the background against which the conference met. Anti-fascist feeling was running high as never before all over the world at the time, the wounds inflicted by fascism on millions and millions were still fresh, and people were united in their desire to end, uproot the fascist menace once and for all. Moreover—and this was an extremely weighty factor—the Soviet Union had not emerged from the war in a weakened condition, as the ultra-reactionaries among the British and American bourgeoisie had wished. The British and American governing circles were compelled to reckon with the military power of the Soviet Union as well as with its greatly enhanced prestige in the international arena. It is hardly to be doubted that enduring peace could have been achieved had the Westein powers carried out the provisions of the Potsdam agreements.

Military Operations in the Far East, 1943-1945.
Second World War Ends

p The changed balance of power between the warring coalitions altered the situation in the Pacific theatre as well. From 1943 on the American and British fleets developed offensive operations, as did their ground forces on the Asiatic mainland. Meantime the national liberation movement of the peoples in Japanese-conquered lands was also on the upswing. Patriotic forces in Vietnam, Burma, Indonesia, Korea and the Philippines were waging an armed struggle for freedom and independence. Liberated areas in China were being expanded and strengthened.

p During their 1944 offensives the Allied forces occupied the Marianas and the Marshalls in the Pacific and began the battle for the Philippines. One of the greatest naval engagements of the Second World War was fought off Leyte, an island of the 280 Philippine group, in October, ending in a holocaust for the Japanese fleet, which lost three battleships, four aircraft carriers, ten cruisers, nine destroyers, and other ships. The Allies were successful in Burma, too, and by the end of 1944 the Japanese had been driven out of Northern and, partially, Central Burma. The Japanese thus found themselves deprived of important sources of petroleum and rubber. The situation here was favourable on the whole to the British and American forces, which had shifted their operations to the South China Sea and .the Archipelago.

p At the close of 1944 the situation in the Far East and Southeast Asia nevertheless remained serious. Driven from part of the areas she had occupied, Japan still had very powerful forces at her disposal, mainly in the shape of land forces that had not yet taken an active part in the war with the United States and Great Britain. Together with the picked Kwantung army, which formed their core, these land forces were more than 5,000,000 strong. Their quality as a fighting force had been demonstrated in their 1944 offensive in China, when they occupied in a matter of months a strip of coast several hundred kilometres broad, penetrated into the southwestern provinces and joined up with the Japanese forces operating in Indo-China.

p Uncertain of their ability to defeat Japan in a reasonably short time unaided, the British and American governments approached the Soviet Union on the subject of its joining in the war with Japan. On August 9, 1945, the Soviet Union, acting in compliance with the obligation assumed at Yalta, declared war on Japan. The government of the Mongolian People’s Republic followed suit. Attacking on a wide front, in co-ordination with the Mongolian troops, the Soviet armies broke through the enemy’s defence systems and forced the Kwantung army to lay down arms. The last remaining islands of Japanese resistance in Northeast China, North Korea, Southern Sakhalin and the Kuriles crumbled under the weight of the Soviet onslaught.

p On September 2, 1945, Japan, nazi Germany’s last surviving ally in the Second World War, signed an act of unconditional surrender. The ceremony took place on board the United States battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Japan’s capitulation ended the Second World War.

p On August 6 and 9, or less than a month before the Japanese surrender, American planes, on orders from President Truman, had dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, practically wiping out both and causing enormous loss of life. The use of atomic weapons against Japan had not been dictated by military necessity. Coming at a time when Japan’s fate was to all intents and purposes sealed, this 281 act of senseless savagery was never meant to hasten the end of the war in the Pacific. It pursued an entirely different purpose. It was intended to frighten the world at large and above all the Soviet people, so that United States rule, American imperialist “leadership” in the post-war world would never be challenged. Subsequent events showed, however, that the hopes of the American atomic strategists and diplomats were fortunately not destined to be realised.

Substantial losses had been inflicted on the capitalist system by the Second World War. Entering upon the second phase of its crisis, the world capitalist system continued to lose ground.