NEW DELHI: When the First World War ended, there was no animosity between Germany and Russia. Germany had not been part of the Army of Intervention (1918) that tried to defeat the new Soviet state and Soviet Union was not a signatory to the Treaty of Versailles of 1919. The vindictive Treaty of Versailles of 1919 which imposed punitive war reparations against Germany and which was economically ruinous for Germany, guaranteed a guerre de revanche – war of revenge – against Britain and France. Indeed, the defeated and humiliated Germans looked to the people of Russia for support.
But the thousand year old history of Western European invasion of Russia was to be repeated again. The invasions were prompted by Europe’s avarice for Russia’s immense natural resources.
Germany survived economically by exporting manufactured goods and industrial equipment to Soviet Union in exchange for raw materials from there. It seemed as if cooperation between Germany and Soviet Union would be mutually beneficial.
Uneasy about the growing amity between Stalin and Hitler, Britain and France invited Soviet Union to form a defensive pact to protect Poland from Germany. Stalin made terms unacceptable to Poland. The proposed treaty fell through.
German invasion of Czechoslovakia left Stalin no illusions about any enduring friendship with Hitler. The day of reckoning was a matter of time.
As early as 1931, Rabindranath Tagore – aristocrat, educationist and metaphysical poet – prophesied in his Letters from Russia –“Russian people must build their strength swiftly. They have many adversaries.”
After rising to power in 1933, Hitler began repudiating terms of the Versailles Treaty. The formidable Rome-Berlin Axis was formed. The shadow of a global war fell upon the world when Italian forces invaded Ethiopia with the support of Nazi German. Russia watched the rise of Germany with mixed feelings. Russia did not to be drawn into Franco-British plans to subdue Germany but it soon became clear that Germany not only wanted to punish Britain and France for the Versailles Treaty but wished also to defeat Russia not because of socialist ideology but because it wanted access to Russia’s boundless resources and Russian manpower.
Hitler had outlined his maniacal plans to conquer Russia in his autobiography Mein Kampf. With insane hubris he ignored lessons of history – of the crushing defeat of the massive Teutonic army in 1241, defeat of the formidable Mongol army in 1380, Peter the Great’s victory over Sweden in 1707 and Napoleon Bonaparte’s disastrous Moscow campaign in 1812. But he wanted to buy time by a brief alliance. So did Stalin.
On 23rd August 1939 the German foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop and Vyacheslav Molotov signed the German-Soviet non-aggression pact in Moscow. The heroic Mikhail Tukachevsky, commander of the Red Army who led the Bolsheviks to victory in the civil war (1918-1921) had earlier advised Stalin to make massive investment in the armaments sector. He indicated the urgent need for 40,000 aircraft and 50,000 tanks. Defence expenditure increased from 12 % to 18 %. Russia prepared for war at a frenetic pace by augmentation of weaponry and training of its defence forces.
Through its excellent espionage network, and the brilliant double agent Viktor Sorge, Soviet Union learnt in December 1940 that Hitler had ordered his generals to defeat Soviet Russia in a swift and surprise invasion. Soviet Union now prepared in right earnest for German invasion by massive deployment of its troops and a formidable arsenal on her western frontier.
To embolden Russians, words of Grand Prince Alexander Nevsky who had repulsed a formidable army of Teutonic Knights in 1242 was recited over radio: Whosoever shall come to us with the sword shall perish by it. Upon this stood and stands the land of Russia.
Operation Barbarossa or Unternehmen Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union. It began on 22 June 1941. Nazi Germany expected it to be over swiftly. They had under estimated the industrial and military might that Russia had quietly built in ten years. They had also under-estimated the valour and fierce resistance of the Russian people.
After advancing into Russian territory, the German army laid siege to Leningrad. The first heavy artillery shelling began on 1st September 1941. All roads to Leningrad were blocked to prevent the entry of food and fuel. The German Luftwaffe dropped leaflets warning citizens of impending starvation. Germany expected Leningrad to “drop like a leaf.”
Never in the history of mankind had such savage onslaught met such heroic resistance. Germans bombed power stations so there was no electricity and heating. Dwindling food stocks could not be replenished. Rationing was unsuccessful. People brewed broth of leaves and seaweed, ate grease from machinery and then cats and dogs. Millions of seeds at the Plant Research Institute could have staved off deaths for a while. But scientists stubbornly and heroically guarded them for future agronomist research. Starving and exhausted, people died on the roads. Three thousand people were estimated to have died daily. Snow covered corpses littered the streets; there was nobody to bury them. Though the exact number is not known it is estimated that about three million people died of starvation during the siege of Leningrad.
Germans wanted to starve Russians to quell them into submission. Those who lived those 900 odd days could never banish the horrific images of starvation and death. It is a tribute to the people of Leningrad that they were prepared to endure 20th century European barbarism rather than surrender to the enemy. Citizens of Leningrad offered another unforgettable spectacle of heroic dignity. In the midst of death and starvation Dmitry Shostakovich composed his famous 7th or Leningrad Symphony. To still German guns the Russian general defending Leningrad bombed Germany artillery and then broadcast the symphony over the city on loudspeakers. Resistance of the people stiffened. The German retreated southwards.
Failure of Operation Barbarossa was a turning point in the Second World War. For Germany it was a rude awakening. For USA, Britain and France Russian victory over Germany made them realize that the Soviet Union was now a formidable force to contend with. The sagacious American President Franklin Roosevelt realized the imperative of alliance with Russia. He offered Stalin assistance in the war effort.
Russia would need every assistance for the bloodiest battle in history that was about to commence on a once-quiet town on the banks of the mighty Volga.
The brutal Battle of Stalingrad was the turning point in the Second World War. It was the bloodiest battle in the history of warfare. The Battle of Stalingrad began in September 1942. It continued through the terrible winter of 1942 to winter of 1943. It is no small irony that victory of the communist Red Army saved western capitalism from the Nazi yoke.
The Sixth Army of Germany under the command of General Friedrich von Paulus advanced on Stalingrad. At the rear came the Fourth Panzer Army. Germany’s allies joined the German forces at Stalingrad. He was tasked with occupying the oil fields in the Caucasus and Baku, centre of rich oilfields and the centre of communications in Southern Russia. Germany desperately needed fuel in the third year of the war. Stalingrad stood on the path of Baku. Therefore Stalingrad had to be destroyed. Hitler told his generals that conquest of the city bearing Stalin’s name would humiliate Stalin and shatter the morale of the Soviet Union. Germany saw that though Russia had been severely wounded by Operation Barbarossa, the suffering and starving Leningrad had not surrendered. Russians were grimly determined not to lose Stalingrad and the Caucasian oilfields. General Zhukov was given command of the defence of Stalingrad. Stalin instructed his chief commander Grigory Zhukov: “Remember, not a step backwards”.
Most of General von Paulus’ massive Sixth Army entered Stalingrad and wreaked unimaginable havoc in two months. Not only did German soldiers kill Soviet soldiers but they killed non-combatants as well – elderly women carrying food to starving soldiers, little boys carrying messages to Red army officers. The relentless artillery fire had reduced the once prosperous town to a heap of rubble. There was hand to hand fighting in the streets between the two sides. Germans occupied large portions of the city but Russian forces often reoccupied areas with a few days.
After sustaining heavy losses of men and weapons Russians launched a fierce counter-offensive in November 1942. Marshal Zhukov surrounded the city with six million men. . The 52nd, 57th, 64th and 65th armies attacked from the south.
Trapped inside the city, German soldiers froze in the cold. Food and fuel were scarce but most important of all ammunition was running out. It was the siege of Leningrad in reverse; the besieged were now the Germans. On 31st January 1943 General von Paulus surrendered the southern sector of Stalingrad. General Scherek surrendered the northern part. The battle of Stalingrad was the beginning of the end of the Third Reich.
General Georgy Zhukhov contributed significantly to Russian victory in Stalingrad; he masterminded the assault on Germany and was soon to become the most decorated officer of the Soviet Army. The losses sustained by both nations can never be known. . The approximate estimate of lost lives runs into millions.
Soon after, the victorious Soviet Army began its unstoppable advance towards Berlin. Stalin ordered General Zhukov to occupy Berlin. General Zhukov gathered two and a half million troops; 6000 tanks and 40,000 artillery weapons were deployed for the final battle against Nazi Germany.
Though Germany was near collapse, its army offered a desperate resistance to the formidable Red Army. Germans were afraid of retaliation because their army had perpetrated atrocities during the war which had massacred millions of Russians. General Zhukhov warned against violence on civilians. On 15th April 1945, Soviet forces launched a powerful artillery attack on German forces west of the River Oder which forced Germans to retreat from their positions. Zhukov then decided to send a huge force against them. German resistance was fierce but it was over in three days.
The battle for Berlin ended on 2nd May 1945 when the hammer and sickle red flag was hoisted on the roof of German Reichstag – the very place from where Nazi Germany had planned the destruction of Soviet Russia.
Russia emerged as one of two superpowers after the victory against Nazi Germany in 1945. Russian power assisted in the liberation of people from colonial rule. This great victory whose 80th anniversary is being celebrated this May, is a chronicle of incandescent courage, nobility, and sacrifice of the Russian nation.
Such a nation can never be defeated.
Achala Moulik, is a former Education Secretary, Government of India and former Director General, Archaeological Survey of India. She has authored three best selling novels, books on political and cultural history, and on Russian history and literature. She was awarded the prestigious Pushkin Medal and Sergey Yesenin Prize