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The role of the Allies in the Second World War. Who fought in World War II, which countries participated in the conflict and who was on which side

World War II 1939-1945 - the largest war in human history, unleashed by fascist Germany, fascist Italy and militaristic Japan. 61 states (more than 80% of the world's population) were drawn into the war; military operations were carried out on the territory of 40 states.

In 1941, when the Nazis attacked the USSR, Great Britain was already at war with Germany, and the contradictions between the USA, Germany and Japan were on the verge of armed conflict.

Immediately after the German attack on the USSR, the governments of Great Britain (June 22) and the USA (June 24) came out with support for the Soviet Union in its fight against fascism.

On July 12, 1941, a Soviet-English agreement on joint actions against Germany and its allies was signed in Moscow, which served as the beginning of the formation anti-Hitler coalition.

On July 18, 1941, the USSR government signed an agreement with the government of Czechoslovakia, and on July 30 - with the Polish government on joint struggle with a common enemy. Since the territory of these countries was occupied by Nazi Germany, their governments were located in London (Great Britain).

On August 2, 1941, a military-economic agreement was concluded with the United States. At the Moscow meeting, held on September 29-October 1, 1941, the USSR, Great Britain and the USA considered the issue of mutual military supplies and signed the first protocol on them.

December 7, 1941 Japan launched a surprise attack on the American military base Pearl Harbor in Pacific Ocean started a war against the USA. On December 8, the USA, Great Britain and a number of other states declared war on Japan; On December 11, Nazi Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

At the end of 1941, the following countries were at war with the aggressor bloc: Australia, Albania, Belgium, Great Britain, Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras, Greece, Denmark, Dominican Republic, India, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Luxembourg, Mongolian People's Republic, Netherlands, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Poland, El Salvador, USSR, USA, Philippines, France, Czechoslovakia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Yugoslavia, Union of South Africa. In the second half of 1942, Brazil and Mexico entered the war against the fascist bloc, in 1943 - Bolivia, Iraq, Iran, Colombia, Chile, in 1944 - Liberia. After February 1945, Argentina, Venezuela, Egypt, Lebanon, Paraguay, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Türkiye, Uruguay. Italy (in 1943), Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania (in 1944), and Finland (in 1945), which were previously part of the aggressive bloc, also declared war on the countries of the Hitlerite coalition. By the end of hostilities with Japan (September 1945), 56 states were at war with the countries of the fascist bloc.

(Military encyclopedia. Chairman of the Main Editorial Commission S.B. Ivanov. Military Publishing House. Moscow. In 8 volumes, 2004. ISBN 5 203 01875 - 8)

The contribution of individual countries to achieving the goals of the anti-Hitler coalition was different. The USA, Great Britain, France and China participated with their armed forces in the fight against the countries of the fascist bloc. Separate units of some other countries of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, India, Canada, the Philippines, Ethiopia, etc. also took part in the hostilities. Some states of the anti-Hitler coalition (for example, Mexico) helped its main participants mainly with military supplies raw materials.

The USA and Great Britain made a significant contribution to achieving victory over the common enemy.

On June 11, 1942, the USSR and the USA signed an agreement on mutual supplies under Lend-Lease, i.e. loan of military equipment, weapons, ammunition, equipment, strategic raw materials and food.

The first deliveries arrived back in 1941, but the bulk of deliveries occurred in 1943-1944.

According to American official data, at the end of September 1945, 14,795 aircraft, 7,056 tanks, 8,218 anti-aircraft guns, 131,600 machine guns were sent from the USA to the USSR, from Great Britain (until April 30, 1944) - 3,384 aircraft and 4,292 tanks; 1,188 tanks were delivered from Canada, which had been directly involved in providing assistance to the USSR since the summer of 1943. In general, US military supplies during the war years amounted to 4% of the military production of the USSR. In addition to weapons, the USSR received cars, tractors, motorcycles, ships, locomotives, wagons, food and other goods from the United States under Lend-Lease. The Soviet Union supplied the United States with 300 thousand tons of chrome ore, 32 thousand tons of manganese ore, a significant amount of platinum, gold, and timber.

Some of the American cargo (about 1 million tons) did not reach the Soviet Union, because it was destroyed by the enemy during transportation.

There were about ten routes for delivering goods under Lend-Lease to the USSR. Many of them took place in areas of intense hostilities, which required great courage and heroism from those who provided supplies.

Main routes: across the Pacific Ocean through the Far East - 47.1% of all cargo; across the North Atlantic, skirting Scandinavia - to Murmansk and Arkhangelsk - 22.6%; via the South Atlantic, Persian Gulf and Iran - 23.8%; through the ports of the Black Sea 3.9% and through the Arctic 2.6%. Aircraft moved by sea and independently (up to 80%) through Alaska - Chukotka.

Help from the allies came not only through the Lend-Lease program. In the USA, in particular, the “Russia War Relief Committee” was created, which during the war collected and sent goods worth more than one and a half billion dollars to the USSR. In England, a similar committee was headed by Clementine Churchill, the wife of the Prime Minister.

In 1942, an agreement was reached between the USSR, Great Britain and the USA to open a second front in Western Europe. In June 1944, this agreement was implemented - Anglo-American troops landed in Normandy (northwest France), and a second front was opened. This made it possible to withdraw about 560 thousand German troops from the eastern front and contributed to the acceleration of the final defeat of Nazi Germany, which was now forced to fight on two fronts.

The material was prepared based on open sources

USSR and allies in the Second World War.

Soviet diplomacy during the war years solved three main tasks: the creation of an anti-fascist coalition, the opening of a second front and the solution of the issue of the post-war world order. The process of forming a coalition lasted for a year - from June 1941 to June 1942. The first step towards a coalition was the Soviet-British agreement on joint actions in the war against Germany concluded on July 12, 1941 in Moscow. It contained two points: mutual obligations to provide each other with assistance and support in the war against Germany and mutual obligations to negotiate, conclude a truce or peace only with mutual consent. The last point was directed against a possible separate peace between one of the parties and Germany. A new step on the path to a coalition was the Moscow Conference of representatives of the USSR, USA and Great Britain (September-October 1941). The USA and England pledged to supply the USSR with weapons and military materials, and the Soviet Union pledged to supply its allies with the necessary raw materials. The movement towards a coalition was accelerated after the Japanese defeated the largest US naval base in the Pacific, Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, and the United States entered the war. On January 1, 1942, at the initiative of the United States in Washington, representatives of 26 countries, including the Soviet Union, signed the Declaration of the United Nations. It stated that the governments of these countries undertake to use all their resources, military or economic, against those members of the Tripartite Pact and its affiliated states with which these governments are at war. The states that signed the Declaration pledged to cooperate with each other and not to conclude a separate peace with their enemies. The final steps towards creating a coalition were taken during the trip of the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR V. Molotov to London and Washington in May-June 1942. May 26, 1942 in In London, a Soviet-British agreement was signed on an alliance in the war against Nazi Germany and its accomplices in Europe and on cooperation and mutual assistance after the war. On June 11, 1942, a Soviet-American agreement on the principles of mutual assistance in the war was concluded in Washington. The Americans agreed to this agreement, clearly realizing how dangerous the aggressive plans of the fascist bloc were for the United States. Union Treaty with Great Britain and an agreement with the United States finally formalized the anti-Hitler coalition, which during the war years included more than 40 states. The problem of the second front was solved long and difficult. The Soviet leadership understood the second front as the landing of Allied troops on the territory of Northern France and only there, and not in Africa or the Balkans. This issue was first raised by the Soviet government in July 1941 before the British government. However, the British government then avoided a definite answer, citing limited resources and the geographical position of their country The question of a second front was at the center of the negotiations that were conducted by V. Molotov in London and Washington in May-June 1942. During the negotiations, the Allies stubbornly avoided specific commitments regarding the timing and number of armed forces that could be allocated for the invasion. Nevertheless, Molotov extracted from the British a commitment to land troops on the continent “in August or September 1942.” However, during his visit to Washington, British Prime Minister Churchill agreed with US President Roosevelt not to carry out a cross-Channel invasion of Europe in 1942, but to occupy French North-West Africa with a joint expeditionary force. At the end of 1942 such an operation was carried out. At the beginning of 1943, Anglo-American conferences were held in Casablanca and Washington, which approved the “Balkan option” of the second front, which Churchill insisted on. The meaning of this option was that Anglo-American troops would enter the countries of South-Eastern Europe before the Soviet ones, and then they cut off the Red Army's path to the West. The operation in the Mediterranean region was planned to be carried out in 1943. The opening of the second front on the Atlantic coast (Northern France) was postponed to May 1944. The problem of the second front became the most important at the Tehran Conference of the Heads of Government of the USSR, USA, Great Britain - J.V. Stalin, F. Roosevelt and W. Churchill, which took place on November 28 - December 1, 1943. This was the first of three “Big Three” conferences, despite Churchill’s next attempt to replace the landing of US and British troops in France. "Balkan" option, at the conference an agreement was reached on the landing of Anglo-American troops in France in May 1944. Soviet diplomacy regarded this decision as a significant victory. In turn, at the conference, Stalin promised that the USSR would declare war on Japan after the defeat of Germany. The second front was opened in June 1944. On June 6, in the north-west of France, the landing of Anglo-American troops began in Normandy (Operation Overlord). The combined forces were commanded by General D. Eisenhower. It was the largest landing operation of the Second World War, in which up to 1 million people participated. Allied losses amounted to several tens of thousands of soldiers. On August 15, Allied troops landed in the south of France (auxiliary operation Anvil); by mid-September 1944, Allied troops reached the western border of Germany. The opening of a second front shortened the duration of the Second World War and brought the collapse of Nazi Germany closer. For the first time, the tasks of the post-war world order were widely discussed at the Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers of the three great powers in October 1943. At the conference, a declaration was adopted on the issue of general security, where the three states pledged not only to wage war until the unconditional surrender of the countries of the fascist bloc, but also to continue cooperation after the war. This document contained the main principles of the post-war world order. Issues of the post-war system occupied an important place on the agenda of the Tehran Conference. In the adopted declaration, the heads of government of the three states expressed their determination to work together both during the war and in subsequent peacetime. Since the Soviet delegation insisted on decisive measures to prevent future German revanchism and militarism, Roosevelt proposed a plan to dismember Germany into five independent states. Churchill supported him. In turn, Stalin obtained from the allies agreement in principle to transfer Soviet Union Koenigsberg and its surrounding areas. The tasks of the post-war peace order came to the fore at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences of the Big Three. The Yalta (Crimean) conference of the heads of government of the three great powers took place on February 4-11, 1945 in the Livadia Palace. It agreed on plans for the final defeat of Germany, the terms of its surrender, the procedure for its occupation, and the mechanism of allied control. The purpose of occupation and control was declared to be “the destruction of German militarism and Nazism and the creation of guarantees that Germany would never again be able to disturb the peace of the whole world.” The "three D" plan (demilitarization, denazification and democratization of Germany) united the interests of the three great powers. At the insistence of the Soviet delegation to occupy Germany at equal rights France was also involved with other great powers. The conference adopted the "Declaration of a Liberated Europe", which stated the need to destroy traces of Nazism and fascism in the liberated countries of Europe and create democratic institutions of the people's own choice. Particular emphasis was placed on the Polish and Yugoslav issues, as well as a complex of Far Eastern issues, including the transfer of the USSR Kuril Islands and the return to him of Southern Sakhalin, captured by Japan in 1904. At the conference in Crimea, the issue of creating the United Nations to ensure international security in the post-war years was finally resolved. The parties agreed to convene a UN conference in San Francisco in April 1945 to finalize the Charter of this organization. It was agreed to invite to the conference the states that signed the United Nations Declaration on January 1, 1942, and those countries that declared war on the common enemy by March 1, 1945.

After the end of World War I, the international situation was complex and tense. To a large extent, this was due to the Versailles-Washington system, which was unfair to the losing countries and consolidated the dominance of England, France, and the United States. It became the basis of new imperialist contradictions and provoked interstate conflicts, including armed ones. A fierce struggle between the victorious powers began immediately after the truce. Germany sought to split the allies, achieve concessions, and in the future dreamed of revenge in a new war.

States emerged from the crisis in different ways. Thus, in Italy and then in Germany, fascist regimes arose based on nationalist priorities. Fascist propaganda was based on social demagoguery, criticism of bourgeois society with its individualism, parliamentary democracy, market economy. Fascist regimes represented for other countries real danger, openly declaring the need to establish their dominance throughout the world by subjugating or destroying all peoples of the “non-Aryan” race.

During the interwar period 1918 - 1939. All participating countries World War I was preparing for a new military redistribution of the already divided world, regardless of what forces were in power. The difference between them was the ideological justification for the impending war. The policies of all states in the 20-30s were ideologized: the doctrines of anti-communism, anti-democracy, anti-imperialism, and fascism were in effect. Their manipulation made possible the union of Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union. The forces of peace were small and much weaker than the forces of war, and the governments of the great powers sought to ensure only their own security, often to the detriment of other states.

At the same time, secret negotiations were conducted, behind-the-scenes meetings were held, secret plans were developed, which resulted in mutual distrust and suspicion.

Foreign policy of Soviet Russia after the end civil war was formed under the influence of two mutually exclusive goals that the country's leadership was striving for. First goal- pragmatic - implied the creation of mutually beneficial relations with other countries. But the principle of peaceful coexistence of states with different social order did not mean a renunciation of the class struggle. Second goal- ideological - contributed to the implementation of the principles of proletarian internationalism through the Communist International. The last one in 1919-1943. was International organization on coordination of actions communist parties. There was a lot coming from this organization financial assistance(gold, money, weapons, specialists) to the communist and national liberation movements that destabilized the regime within the countries. Such an effective policy led to distrust of partners and repeatedly led to complications in international relations. So, for example, in 1927, relations with England were broken; 1929 - Soviet-Chinese conflict etc. However, relatively quickly Soviet Russia came out of international isolation: in the 1920s peace treaties were signed with Finland. Poland, Mongolia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan. During the Genoa Conference (1922), a Soviet-German treaty was signed on the renunciation of mutual claims and the establishment of diplomatic relations. In the 1920s, the Soviet Union established official relations with more than twenty countries of the world. Including with England. France. Italy. Japan, China. In 1933, the Soviet Union was recognized by the United States. The fate of the Soviet-British-French negotiations in 1939 was predetermined by the lack of political desire of England and France to compromise and sign an agreement that would ensure peace in Europe. Totalitarian regimes - both communist and fascist - opposed Western civilization, each offering its own alternative. Therefore, their “Union”, concluded on the eve of the Second World War, became possible. The non-aggression pact, designed for ten years, was signed by the foreign ministers: from the Soviet side - V.M. Molotov, from German - A. Ribbentrop. The articles of this pact obliged the governments of Germany and the Soviet Union to “refrain... from any aggressive action and any attack against each other...” - in fact it was a treaty of friendly neutrality. Germany was able to use this neutrality much more effectively than the USSR and was better prepared for war against it. The policy of "non-interference" of England and France actually strengthened Germany's position in Europe. Encouraged her aggressive intentions towards neighboring countries(Austria, Czechoslovak Republic). As a result, Germany broke away from Anglo-French control and started World War II.

On September 1, 1939, the Second World War- German attack on Poland. In response to the German invasion of Poland, England and France declared war on Germany, but did not provide effective and real help, although they were united by armed forces militarily superior to the German ones. On September 17, 1939, Soviet troops crossed the border with Poland and took under protection the lives and property of the population of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus.

On September 28, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union entered into an agreement on friendship and borders.
On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany attacked the USSR without declaring war. At the same time, Germany's allies in the fascist bloc - Italy, Hungary, Romania, Finland, and Slovakia - opposed the Soviet Union. The million-strong Kwantung Army of Japan was concentrated on the Far Eastern borders of the Soviet Union, which, despite the neutrality treaty, was waiting for the moment to enter the war on the side of Germany.

Germany's war against the USSR was of an aggressive, predatory nature. Having a goal on the part of Germany: to destroy the Soviet state, territorially dismember the USSR, defeat and destroy the Red Army through a “blitzkrieg” war. A military victory over the Soviet Union, in the opinion of the German generals, should have ensured the creation favorable conditions to complete the struggle for world domination. One of the main tasks foreign policy The Soviet Union was the creation of an anti-Hitler coalition. The prerequisites for its formation were: liberation goals in the war for most countries; the general danger that came from the fascist bloc.

On June 22, 1941, Prime Minister of England Churchill, and on June 24, US President Roosevelt announced their countries’ intention to assist the Soviet Union in its fight against Germany, since the Soviet Union and Great Britain, unlike the United States, were already part of the war against Germany. The Soviet government invited England to immediately conclude an agreement on joint activities. The British government accepted this proposal.
On July 12, 1941, the Anglo-Soviet Agreement on joint action in the war against Germany was signed, the USSR and England pledged to provide each other with assistance and support, as well as not to negotiate, not to conclude a truce or peace treaty, except with mutual consent. The USSR's proposal to open a front in northern France was rejected.

In August 1941, Roosevelt and Churchill, meeting in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Canada, signed the so-called charter, which set out official purposes USA and Great Britain in the war - and became one of the program documents of the anti-Hitler coalition.

Thus, in the Second World War, the conflicting parties were divided as follows (Table 2).

Table 2 Opposing sides of World War II

The Atlantic Charter stated that the United States and Great Britain do not seek territorial or other changes and respect the right of all peoples to choose their own form of government.

They promised to seek the restoration of the sovereign rights and self-government of those peoples who had been deprived of this by force. Britain and the United States said that after the final destruction of Nazi tyranny they hoped for peace. Roosevelt and Churchill announced that they considered it necessary to disarm the aggressors and create an indivisible system of universal security. The charter was formulated in a democratic spirit and indicated ways to eliminate the fascist order. To fulfill these mutual obligations, there were three forms of cooperation between the coalition states:

financial assistance;

political.

The victory near Moscow (December 1941) contributed to the final formation of the anti-Hitler coalition. On January 1, 1942, in Washington, twenty-six states, including the Soviet Union, the United States and Great Britain, signed the Declaration of the United Nations. They pledged to use their resources to fight against the aggressors, cooperate in the war and not conclude a separative peace.

On May 26, 1942, an agreement was signed in London between the USSR and Great Britain on an alliance in the war against Hitler's Germany and her accomplices in Europe. The agreement also provided for cooperation and mutual assistance after the war. In May-June 1942, Soviet-American negotiations took place in Washington, ending on June 11 with the signing of an agreement on principles applicable to mutual assistance in waging war against aggression. Both sides pledged to supply each other with defense materials, information and to develop trade and economic cooperation. The signing of these documents showed that differences in social structure and ideology are surmountable.

At the same time, there were deep differences between the participants in the anti-fascist coalition regarding the goals of the war and the program for the post-war world order.

Soviet Union saw the goals of the war in the defeat of Nazi Germany, the liberation of enslaved peoples, the restoration of democracy, and the creation of conditions for lasting peace. USA and UK believed main goal war weakening Germany and Japan as main competitors. At the same time, the Western powers sought to maintain Germany and Japan as military force to fight against the USSR.

D. Eisenhower believed that the quick path to victory lay through the opening of a second front in Europe, through the landing of the Allies in France. His position on this issue was determined by the fact that he, like many other American military and political leaders, seriously doubted whether the Soviet Union would be able to withstand the terrible blow of the Wehrmacht. Among the factors that forced the Allies to open a second front were vital role was played by the speech of the broad masses of the USA and Great Britain with demands to carry out the landings allied forces V Western Europe. One of the first joint actions was the decision of the USSR and England to send Soviet and British troops into Iran in August 1941 to prevent this country from taking the side of Germany.

1943 turned out to be a very difficult year in relations between the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition. Anglo-American troops landed in Italy at the end of July 1943. Soon the fascist government of Mussolini, as a result palace coup fell, but hostilities continued. However, the second front (understood as the Allied landing in France) was not opened. The US and British governments explained this by the lack of floating facilities to transport troops to the continent. The Soviet government expressed open dissatisfaction with the delay in opening a second front.

In October 1943, a conference of foreign ministers of the three powers was held in Moscow, at which the Western allies informed the Soviet side about plans to open a second front in May-June 1944. However, there was a certain lack of agreement in relations between the allies, a personal meeting of the heads of government was required to quickly resolve pressing issues. Such a Conference began on November 28, 1943 in the capital of Iran. There was no predetermined agenda. Although its participants knew what it would be about. I.V. met at the negotiating table. Stalin, F. Roosevelt, W. Churchill.

Stalin, in the eyes of millions of Westerners, embodied the entire Soviet people who courageously fought against fascism. He had power that none of his partners had. In May 1943, Stalin ordered the dissolution of the Comintern, which created the impression in the West that Stalin was abandoning his plans to establish communist regimes in other countries. Roosevelt had already established himself as the greatest reformer of the 20th century, the inspirer of the “New Deal,” while Churchill, a politician who emerged from the 19th century, personified the forces that stubbornly delayed the decline of the British Empire.

Each of them, arriving at the conference, was thinking about achieving their goals. Stalin managed to very subtly play on some of the contradictions between Churchill and Roosevelt. First of all, it was necessary to resolve the issue of a second front. After short but heated discussions Between Churchill and Stalin about the timing of the opening of a second front, it was decided that the Allied landings in Northern France would take place in May 1944.

Thus, it was only in May 1944 that the Allies opened a second front. By this time, the Soviet armed forces had suffered enormous losses, the war had left millions of people homeless, personal consumption had dropped to 40%, money had depreciated, cards could not always be purchased, speculation and the naturalization of exchange were growing. All this was combined with constant psychological stress: grief due to the death loved one, waiting for a letter from the front, 11-12 hour working days, rare days off, worrying about children who found themselves virtually unattended. And at the same time hard work in the name of approaching victory. Workers who fulfilled two standards began to give three and mastered related specialties. Especially big role The factor that played a role in the victory was that at the beginning of the war, the relocation of heavy industry factories, previously located in the southern regions of Ukraine and Belarus, to the Urals and other regions of the Union, where tanks, aircraft, guns and other heavy equipment were produced, took place in an organized and quick manner. military equipment and ammunition. Thanks to the heroic work of the rear in the first half of 1944, it was possible to achieve superiority of the Red Army over the enemy in terms of equipping the troops with military equipment.

Therefore, the opening of a second front was clearly belated, since the outcome of the war was already a foregone conclusion. The USSR suffered the greatest losses in the war, but on the other hand, the offensive of the allied forces accelerated the defeat of Nazi Germany, chaining up to 1/3 of its ground forces.

On May 8, 1945, the Act of Unconditional Surrender of Germany was signed in the Berlin suburb of Karlsharst.

The Potsdam Conference (July 17 - August 2, 1945) was dedicated to the post-war structure of the world. I.V. participated in its work. Stalin, G. Truman, W. Churchill. The central question was German. Germany was viewed as a single, democratic, peace-loving state. The main principles of policy towards Germany were demilitarization and democratization. Berlin was subject to occupation by troops of the USSR, USA, and France in the relevant sectors. It was found that Western border Poland will pass along the Oder River, thereby returning its ancestral lands to Poland. Koenigsberg and the surrounding areas of eastern Prussia were transferred to the Soviet Union. The first body was created - the Council of Foreign Ministers, consisting of representatives of the USSR, USA, Great Britain, France, China to prepare a peace treaty with Germany's former allies, as well as the International Military Tribunal for the trial of the main fascist war criminals.

The main idea of the Potsdam Conference and the agreement of the three powers is partnership and cooperation for peace without war and violence, based on balance legitimate interests- agreement that the victorious powers will never allow a repetition of aggression on the part of Germany or any other state.

It is not customary to talk much about the assistance of the USSR allies during the Second World War. However, it was there, and it was considerable. And not only within the framework of Lend-Lease. Soviet troops food, medicine, and military equipment were delivered.

As you know, from love to hate there is only one step. Especially in politics, where it is quite permissible to smile at those whom yesterday you reviled as fiends of hell. Here we are, if we open the Pravda newspaper for 1941 (before June 22), we will immediately find out how bad the Americans and British were. They starved their own population and started a war in Europe, while the Chancellor of the German people, Adolf Hitler, was just defending himself...

Well, even earlier in Pravda one could even find the words that “fascism helps the growth of class consciousness of the working class”...

And then they became suddenly good...

But then came June 22, 1941, and literally the next day Pravda came out with reports that Winston Churchill had promised the USSR military assistance, and the US President unfrozen Soviet deposits in American banks, frozen after the war with Finland. That's all! Articles about hunger among British workers disappeared in an instant, and Hitler turned from “Chancellor of the German People” into a cannibal.

Convoy "Dervish" and others

Of course, we don't know about all the behind-the-scenes negotiations that took place at that time; even declassified correspondence between Stalin and Churchill with all the nuances of this difficult period of our general history doesn't open. But there are facts showing that the Anglo-American allies of the USSR began to provide assistance, if not immediately, then in a sufficiently timely manner. Already on August 12, 1941, the Dervish convoy of ships left Loch Ewe Bay (Great Britain).

On the first transports of the Dervish convoy on August 31, 1941, ten thousand tons of rubber were delivered to Arkhangelsk, about four thousand depth charges and magnetic mines, fifteen Hurricane fighters, as well as 524 military pilots from the 151st Wing of two squadrons of the Royal Air Force of Great Britain.

Later, pilots even from Australia arrived on the territory of the USSR. There were a total of 78 convoys between August 1941 and May 1945 (although there were no convoys between July and September 1942 and March and November 1943). In total, about 1,400 merchant ships delivered important military materials to the USSR under the Lend-Lease program.

85 merchant ships and 16 warships of the Royal Navy (2 cruisers, 6 destroyers and 8 other escort vessels) were lost. And this is only the northern route, because the cargo flow also went through Iran, through Vladivostok, and planes from the USA were directly transported to Siberia from Alaska. Well, and then the same “Pravda” reported that in honor of the victories of the Red Army and the conclusion of agreements between the USSR and Great Britain, the British were organizing folk festivals.

Not only and not so much convoys!

The Soviet Union received assistance from its allies not only through Lend-Lease. In the USA, the “Russia War Relief Committee” was organized.

“With the money collected, the committee acquired and sent the Red Army, to the Soviet people medicines, medical supplies and equipment, food, clothing. In total, during the war, the Soviet Union received assistance worth more than one and a half billion dollars.” A similar committee led by Churchill’s wife operated in England, and it also purchased medicines and food to help the USSR.

When Pravda wrote the truth!

On June 11, 1944, the Pravda newspaper published significant material on the entire page: “On the supply of weapons, strategic raw materials, industrial equipment and food to the Soviet Union by the United States of America, Great Britain and Canada,” and it was immediately reprinted by all Soviet newspapers, including local and even newspapers of individual tank armies.

It reported in detail how much had been sent to us and how many tons of cargo were floating by sea at the time the newspaper was published! Not only tanks, guns and planes were listed, but also rubber, copper, zinc, rails, flour, electric motors and presses, portal cranes and technical diamonds!

Military shoes - 15 million pairs, 6491 metal-cutting machines and much more. It is interesting that the message made an exact division of how much was purchased in cash, that is, before the adoption of the Lend-Lease program, and how much was sent after. By the way, it was precisely the fact that at the beginning of the war a lot of things were purchased for money that gave rise to the opinion that still exists today that all Lend-Lease came to us for money, and for gold. No, a lot was paid for with “reverse Lend-Lease” - raw materials, but the payment was postponed until the end of the war, since everything that was destroyed during hostilities was not subject to payment!
Well, why such information was needed at this particular time is understandable. Good PR is always a useful thing! On the one hand, the citizens of the USSR learned how much they supply us with, on the other hand, the Germans learned the same thing, and they simply could not help but be overcome by despondency.

How much can you trust these numbers? Obviously it is possible. After all, if they contained incorrect data, then only German intelligence would have figured it out, although according to some indicators, how could they declare everything else propaganda and, of course, Stalin, giving permission for the publication of this information, could not help but understand this!

Both quantity and quality!

In Soviet times, equipment supplied under Lend-Lease was usually criticized. But... it’s worth reading the same “Pravda” and in particular the articles of the famous pilot Gromov about American and British aircraft, articles about the same English Matilda tanks, to be convinced that during the war all this was assessed completely differently than after its end!

How can one appreciate the powerful presses that were used to stamp turrets for T-34 tanks, American drills with corundum tips, or industrial diamonds, which Soviet industry did not produce at all?! So the quantity and quality of supplies, as well as the participation of foreign technical specialists, military sailors and pilots, was very noticeable. Well, then politics and the post-war situation intervened in this matter, and everything that was good during the war years immediately became bad with just the stroke of a leading pen!

It is not customary to talk much about the assistance of the USSR allies during the Second World War. However, it was there, and it was considerable. And not only within the framework of Lend-Lease. Soviet troops were supplied with food, medicine, and military equipment.

Well, even earlier in Pravda one could even find the words that “fascism helps the growth of class consciousness of the working class”...

And then they became suddenly good...

But then came June 22, 1941, and literally the next day Pravda came out with reports that Winston Churchill promised military aid to the USSR, and the US President unfrozen Soviet deposits in American banks, frozen after the war with Finland. That's all! Articles about hunger among British workers disappeared in an instant, and Hitler turned from “Chancellor of the German People” into a cannibal.

Convoy "Dervish" and others

Of course, we don't know about all the behind-the-scenes negotiations that took place at that time; Even the declassified correspondence between Stalin and Churchill does not reveal all the nuances of this difficult period of our common history. But there are facts showing that the Anglo-American allies of the USSR began to provide assistance, if not immediately, then in a sufficiently timely manner. Already on August 12, 1941, the Dervish convoy of ships left Loch Ewe Bay (Great Britain).

On the first transports of the Dervish convoy on August 31, 1941, ten thousand tons of rubber, about four thousand depth charges and magnetic mines, fifteen Hurricane fighters, and 524 military pilots from the 151st Air Wing of two Royal Military Squadrons were delivered to Arkhangelsk. British Air Force.

Not only and not so much convoys!

The Soviet Union received assistance from its allies not only through Lend-Lease. In the USA, the “Russia War Relief Committee” was organized.

“With the money collected, the committee purchased and sent medicines, medical supplies and equipment, food, and clothing to the Red Army and the Soviet people. In total, during the war, the Soviet Union received assistance worth more than one and a half billion dollars.” A similar committee led by Churchill’s wife operated in England, and it also purchased medicines and food to help the USSR.