Marxist activists and historians, along with their left-wing allies often make the claim that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics under Joseph Stalin should somehow receive our thanks and praise for the defeat of Nazism.  They often back this up with the statistical figure that many more Soviet soldiers died defeating Nazi Germany than American soldiers or the Western Allies.

While this statistic is true, it does not mean that the USSR should be thanked for defeating Nazi Germany, or that without the USSR, Nazi Germany would not have been defeated.  This myth will be debunked thoroughly in this article.

The USSR played a key role in the rise of Nazi Germany.  Starting in the 1920s, the Germans and Soviets began a partnership of military cooperation in both training and industrial engineering, starting with the Rapallo Treaty and reaffirmed in the Treaty of Berlin.  This cooperation was significant: in exchange for German engineering assistance, many future famous German officers would be able to train in the Soviet Union.  This was done to hide such activities from the Western Allies, since the Treaty of Versailles prevented German re-armament.  It was not the Soviets training the Germans: It was the Soviets allowing German industry to produce (via shell companies) in the USSR and allowing the Weimar/Nazi military to train on Soviet territory, away from Western Allied inspectors.

The generals who were involved in the training on Soviet territory will be familiar to anyone who follows military history.  Here are a few:

Heinz Guderian – Considered by many to be the “father of armored warfare” (a title which is probably not accurate, but not relevant to this discussion), Guderian studied armored tactics in the USSR and refined his theories that would make him a successful armored commander in the early stages of World War II.

Erich von Manstein – One of the best German generals of the war, Manstein was heavily involved in German-Soviet cooperation during the interwar period.  He was responsible for the Battle of France, when the Wehrmacht achieved in seven weeks what the Kasier’s army could not in 4 years and drove the British Army to its humiliating salvation at Dunkirk.

Albert Kesselring – Was involved in many aspects of aviation training in the USSR.  Sending German pilots to flight school in the USSR was one of the ways that the Germans avoided the Treaty of Versailles.  This contributed greatly to the early war success of the Luftwaffe.

Despite the ideological differences the Nazis had with the Soviets, this cooperation continued clandestinely after 1933.  Germany, who was lacking natural resources, would often trade their technical expertise for Soviet raw materials.  Military training continued, and German officers and engineers gained valuable experience working with the Soviet Union.

In 1939, this relationship was formalized with the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.  In it, the Nazis and the Communists agreed to carve up Poland and the Soviets provided the Nazis with millions of tons of valuable war material such as oil, metals and even food.

This was all happening as Hitler’s panzers rolled across France in 1940.  The Nazis were receiving millions of tons of Soviet aid as Hitler conquered France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Poland and Greece.  Nazi Germany won its most significant military victories while receiving massive amounts of supplies from the Communists.

In the end, the Communists did not turn against Hitler out of moral indignation at the Nazi regime: they had no say in the matter, because Hitler betrayed them first and invaded the USSR in June 1941.

The Communists were perfectly happy to supply the Nazis with badly needed oil and food while the Dachau Concentration Camp was operating.

Further, the Soviets were in a non-aggression pact with Imperial Japan for most of World War II.  After the battle of Khalkhin Gol in 1939, the Soviets contributed almost nothing to Allied victory in Asia.  Marxist historians will often point to the invasion of ManchuTia (after the 5-year non-aggression pact expired) as being a factor in Japan’s surrender: this is possible, however the Soviets possessed no serious navy to get their army from China to Japan.  Even after being devastated by the United States Navy in battles like Midway and the Marianas, the Imperial Japanese Navy was still larger than the Soviet Pacific Fleet. The Soviets were in no position to threaten Japan without getting there on US ships, and they could never have fielded a Navy capable of taking on the IJN’s Combined Fleet in it’s prime.

After the Soviets were backstabbed by Hitler, they were still unable to produce many vital war supplies that had to be supplied by the Western Allies: in particular, high quality radios and high-octane aviation fuel were items that the Soviet industry was simply unable to produce.  The USSR relied on Lend-Lease for both items.

The myth that we should be “thankful” to Communism because they lost more men defeating the Nazis is yet another vicious Marxist deception: the Communists were just as, if not more, responsible for the rise of Nazi Germany as they were for its fall.  The Nazis won their greatest military victories while their tanks were running on oil from the Soviet Union and being led by generals who had trained in the Soviet Union, with pilots whose instructors had attended flight school in the Soviet Union.  This was happening while the United States was sending millions of dollars of war supplies to Great Britain, who was fighting to stop Hitler and the Nazis.

All the Soviet Union did was prevent Germany from becoming a nuclear wasteland.  Had the western allies been unable to invade Germany or perform the invasion of Normandy (which was enabled by the Soviet Operation Bagration), the United States had nine nuclear bombs by the end of 1945 and could build them at a rate of one bomb per month, a capacity that would only have increased as 1946 progressed.  Berlin, Dresden and a half-dozen other German cities would have been leveled, along with anywhere the German Army massed for an attack or defense.  And Germany was far less determined to fight to the death than Imperial Japan.

While the sacrifice of the millions of Red Army soldiers should be respected, it should come with the understanding that the Soviets helped the Nazis rise as much as they participated in their downfall.  Had the Soviets not allowed German officers to train in Russia, had Stalin not made an agreement with Germany and had the Communists not provided the Nazis with vital war supplies such as oil and rare metals, Hitler may not have been able to conquer seven countries from Sept 1939 to June 1941.

Image via Picryl.