The article considers the experience of lessons of the Second World War, at the same time it raises the question of the approach to the study of the Second World War in the context of information from primary sources, so as not to distort the world historical heritage in the perception of the Russian and Western world. During the writing of the article, the conclusion that the method of studying the history of reference to primary sources is very effective and allows you to get the most accurate information about a particular historical event, on the example of World War II. When writing the article such scientific methods were used as statistical, scientifically analytical, philosophical and dialectical, the results obtained during the study can be applied in improving the methods of teaching the history of World War II in schools and universities.
Keywords: national socialism, nasdap, bipolar world, primary source, lessons of war, learning history, Soviet Union, political achievements.
First of all, we believe that the causes and consequences of the Second World War should be considered in opposition to the Marxist-Leninist conceptions that were firmly established during the period of Soviet historiography. And in this regard, we can view World War II as a war in the context of the creation of National Socialist ideology in Germany, which needed the introduction of war to establish its ideas in society for the following key reasons.
We can find the beginnings of the formation of the ideas of National Socialism in Germany by looking at the events of World War I, and mainly in the decline of the German Empire after the defeat in World War I. Let us agree to consider World War I in this sense (context) as a quite natural political result of international monopoly and policies pursued by the authorities in the world, primarily because of industrial resources. One of the main reasons that led to the rise of the national-socialist regime in Germany — we can consider the payment of reparations and the complete unconditional world blame Germany for the events that occurred during the First World War [12, p. 360].
Because Germany's payment of reparations for the failures of World War I effectively deprived the entire German society and state of almost every means of subsistence to pay for the shameful stigma of war. This led to the development and rapid churching of anti-Semitic thoughts and philosophical-political doctrines in European society, which most Europeans at the time saw as something Jewish and a form of universal evil that had to be fought in every possible way.
The program of the then dominant political party of Hitler and his team (NSDAP) in Germany, which promised people bread and work if they would unite and defeat the red Bolshevik evil, played a significant role in spreading such thoughts in Europe [5].
Secondly, the Great Depression of 1929 was a prerequisite for the strong rise of national socialist ideas in society, and it is remarkable that the term «socialism» did not appear anywhere in the political program of the NASDAP at all. Therefore, although at first it may seem that National Socialism in Germany is a clash of the two pro-war forces of capitalism and communism, it must be seen much more deeply, directly as an idealology which sees its ideal society as a warrior society (like Sparta) and therefore in order to maintain society, it must wage war in order to live. National Socialism was never aimed at anything lasting, nor at creating anything lasting. The entire industry and economy was geared to war, from highways (as a way of transporting and supporting military troops) to heavy industry. It should be noted that the Spartan soldiers of the Third Reich, as well as their commanders, were absolutely ruthless but effective thieves and warriors. And fanatical haters of Semites (Jews) and everything they considered to be Semitic, i.e. related in any way to the Semitic European and world community.
They had the following philosophical attitude. If a society built entirely on militancy is to seduction itself, it must fight. And when a state goes bankrupt (recall the events of the winter of 1933/1934), one must go to some other country and fill it. This is exactly what happened to Austria, plus the living population of Austrian Jews was quickly deported as cheap labor and their property liquidat.
By referring to Mein Kampf we can clearly and distinctly understand the ideas of the Nazi ideology according to which the plans of Hitler and his team for Eastern Europe and the rest of the world were very economical and pragmatic. Hitler's new Aryan race needed space to flourish and if it required the killing of, say, 11 million people, this was unconditionally fulfilled as a kind of self-determined need for world domination. In addition, in this system of coordinates, the Soviet Union was seen by the Nazis as a legitimate prey of the Western European powers, which was to «finish the war» by dismembering the USSR and establishing colonial domination over its peoples [1, p. 409].
In addition, Hitler was inspired by the ideas of several educators, including Mussolini, Houston Stewart Chamberlain and Arthur de Goubineau, and a special place among the Führer's spiritual teachers was occupied by Joseph Stalin with his work on how to treat your enemies. Therefore Hitler, in the best traditions, lulled the vigilance of the Soviet Union and the world in particular and at a time when the Soviet army was not ready and Stalin himself did not want to be involved in a war that turned into a global world conflict in the fall of 1939 he launched an invasion of Poland and started World War II, actually breaking the previously concluded peace pact signed between the USSR and Germany. A note of signature was announced to the USSR by Germany in March 1939 [11].
Despite the bloody confrontation during World War II, the world community has drawn some important lessons from it:
1) The first and most obvious of these. Military conflict brought the world enormous devastation and loss of life. When World War II ended, the United States had suffered the loss of more than 400,000 civilians and servicemembers. For the United Kingdom that number was 450,000. For Italy it was 460,000, Japan 3 million, Germany 9 million, China 20 million, and for the Soviet Union it was 24 million people dead [13]. Furthermore, one cannot deny the enormous loss of life in the prefectures of Japan during World War II. For example, nuclear weapons, during the so-called unfortunate «nuclear events» during the Second World War, caused the death of about 200,000 people by the detonation of the only two nuclear bombs that existed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. It should also be noted that the total charge capacity of these nuclear giants was almost 50 kilotons [2].
2) Technologies and Inventions of World War II. The war gave a strong impetus to the development of science and technology, which became an absolutely essential tool for the combat effectiveness of the powers in World War II. So world scientific and technological progress during the Second World War could boast of such achievements of science and technology as: radar and radar equipment received a wide scope of application, jet aviation, ballistic missiles, antibiotics, electronic computers and many other inventions and discoveries were made or came into wide use during the war. To wartime refers the beginning of the mastery of atomic energy, thanks to which the twentieth century is often called the atomic age. It was then that the foundations were laid for the scientific and technological revolution that transformed, and continues to transform, the postwar world. According to physicist researcher Edward Bullard and a group of other scientists from the United Kingdom, the development of scientific advances in physics and mathematics played a crucial role in the victory, helping to create all the aforementioned «victory inventions» [3, p. 519].
3) The political achievements of World War II. The fundamental achievement was the victory over the fascist aggressors. The countries and peoples threatened by fascism defended their independence and freedom. The aggressive states-Germany, Italy, Japan and their allies-were defeated. Their armed forces, economy, politics, ideology failed utterly; their leaders were put on trial and deservedly punished. The ideology of fascism, nazism, racism, colonialism was completely discredited; on the contrary, the ideas of anti-fascism, anti-colonialism, democracy, socialism gained wide popularity.
Human and civil rights as enshrined in the UN Charter gained international recognition. Members of the Resistance and former front-line fighters gained tremendous prestige. They exercised great influence on public and political life, joined the elite of society and, in some countries, came to power. The influence of parties and groups fighting for democracy and social change — communists, socialists, social democrats, Christian democrats and other democratic forces — increased sharply. The measures they proposed — nationalization of industry and banks, transfer of land to those who work it, participation of workers in the management of production, creation of a comprehensive social insurance system — resonated widely with the population.
In many countries, including Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Holland, socialist, social-democratic and Christian-democratic parties became the leading political force and led governments [14, p. 1221].
The Communist parties have grown and strengthened considerably. In France, the Communist Party became the largest political party, in Italy the Communists were at the head of the largest trade unions. They were part of the government, voted for by millions of voters Besides Italy and France, in seven other Western European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Finland, Luxembourg) [3, p. 139] and four Latin American countries (Chile, Cuba, Costa Rica, Ecuador).
Communists also participated in governments in the first postwar years. Many countries have carried out major reforms: partial nationalization of industry and banks, creation of a state social security system, expansion of workers' rights, and land reforms in some countries (Germany, Italy, Japan). New democratic constitutions were adopted in a number of countries, including France, Italy, Germany and Japan. There was a deep renewal of society; democratization of state and public institutions.
4) The complete collapse of the colonial system of dependent states also seriously changed the world order after World War II. The system of direct colonial subjugation had exhausted its possibilities by the beginning of the twentieth century. During the interwar period and during World War II, a number of Eastern states succeeded in abolishing unequal agreements and recognizing their independence (Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, China). After World War II, the collapse of the colonial system accelerated sharply. Initially it encompassed Asia and North Africa. Here, by the end of the 50s, 14 independent states were formed. Since 1960, Africa became the center of the liberation movement, with 50 countries gaining independence by the mid-1980s. In 1990, Namibia gained its independence, and in 1997, Hong Kong returned under Chinese jurisdiction [9, p. 29]. Colonial empires are a thing of the past. Despite the fact that the reasons for the fall of colonial rule were peculiar for each country, we can identify a number of common reasons that are characteristic of all former colonies.
5) These are, first of all, the intensification first of all, a growing dissatisfaction with the colonial regime caused by rising taxes, importation of foreign goods, export of food and raw materials, discrimination against the local population in everyday life, education and employment. In the relatively developed countries of Asia, the contradiction between foreign capital and the national sector, which had gained strength during the war, intensified. All this led to the formation of an anti-colonial alliance of the main social strata: the peasantry, the petty-bourgeois strata of the city, the national bourgeoisie-workers, and intellectuals.
However, the protesters were far from always making demands for independence. Local intellectuals played an important role in uniting all anti-colonial forces under the banner of national liberation. Deprived of the opportunity to apply their knowledge at home, acutely aware of the unequal situation of their countries, familiar with the life of the Western world, they were able to convince the population that only independence is the means to overcome backwardness and guarantee entry into the world community on an equal footing. Another merit of intellectuals is that their propaganda contributed to the emergence of national consciousness and the growth of national pride. It was intellectuals who created national political parties that by the end of World War II had authority among all segments of the population [7, р. 140].
Thus, the anti-colonial movement acquired an ideology and the anti-colonial movement thus acquired an ideology and program of struggle and had the structures capable of leading it. The defeat of the fascist bloc contributed to the rise of the liberation movement. The strengthening of the prestige of the USSR and the establishment of the Socialist camp that supported the national movements both politically and, if necessary, militarily and economically, it should be noted that mostly decolonization in the new post-war world was relatively peaceful (most of the British colonies and African possessions of France).
The liberation struggle against the colonial system represented a special scenario, with a split in India in 1947, conducted primarily for religious motives and motivations, dividing the country into two parts based on the religions of Muslim and Hinduism practiced by the local population of the former colonies: Muslim Pakistan and the Hindu Indian Union. Independence allowed former colonies to become subjects of world politics and join the UN. However, political independence did not guarantee the complete independence of the young states. The low level of economic development of most liberated countries forced them to seek cooperation with developed powers, including former metropolises, which eventually contributed to the transformation of colonialism into neocolonialism — a new type of dependence, in which direct political subjugation is replaced by financial, economic and other means of subordination [4, р. 520].
The elements of neo-colonial policy included loans and credits, various kinds of aid, control of prices of raw materials, industrial and agricultural products on world markets, establishment of branches of major Western companies and mixed enterprises in former colonies, arms supplies, etc. This allowed economically developed countries to gain a foothold in domestic markets of former colonies, siphon resources and foreign exchange from young states, use cheap local labor, influence domestic and foreign policies of these countries, and, in some cases, establish desired regimes there.
Neocolonialism gave rise to reciprocal actions of young states aimed at strengthening economic independence, including protectionist laws, accelerated development of import-substituting products, nationalization of foreign property, strengthening control over the activities of foreign entrepreneurs. At the interstate level, the main manifestation of the desire for economic decolonization was the Movement for a New World Economic Order (MNEO), which emerged in 1974. The movement proclaimed equal economic cooperation, taking into account the special interests of young states, the creation of a number of preferential conditions for them, greater access to modern technology, etc. In the 1970s, it seemed that the energy and raw materials crises would let the liberated countries meet their conditions. However, the transition of developed countries to saving technologies, the interest of young states in foreign loans, and the mismatch of interests of liberated countries allowed the leading countries of the world to completely block the implementation of the main provisions of the New International Economic Order and maintain control over world economic relations [8, pp. 1–31].
In addition, we should also note the establishment of peaceful and dense diplomatic relations between former colonial India and the Soviet Union, which were mutually beneficial to both sides and helped rebuild India's economy devastated by the wartime needs of World War II, a newly colonialized country. In this connection we may recall that since the 1950s India has received generous assistance from the Soviet Union for industrialization and development in defense, space research and nuclear energy. Short of capital, foreign exchange and technology, India appreciated the support it received: cheap loans for infrastructure projects that could be repaid in rupees; reliable, high-quality and affordable military hardware, also on credit; key materials — oil, petroleum products, fertilizers, metals, mostly in barter [6, p. 1187].
6) In parallel with the weakening influence of colonial expansion in the post-war world at the end of World War II, the so-called new model of a bipolar world order began to advance in international political relations, placing the USSR and the United States at its very center.
Churchill's speech on March 5, 1946 in the American city of Fulton before an audience of many thousands in the presence of President Truman was considered the first swallow of change toward a bipolar world. In this historic, famous speech, Churchill repeated at the top of his voice the thoughts he had privately presented to Eden and Truman at the end of the war. At Fulton, Churchill said that the Soviet Union had divided Europe «with an iron curtain», had established «tyranny» in its sphere of influence, was guided by «expansionist tendencies» and wanted «an unbounded spread of its power and its doctrines». He called for countering the USSR «with all the power of the English-speaking countries» and with a monopoly on atomic weapons. Stalin immediately responded that Churchill's position «is an attitude of war, a call to war with the USSR». A fierce polemic unfolded, with mutual accusations of preparing a new war, which for many years remained a dominant feature of public and political life and defined the basic content of international relations. The realities of the bipolar world led to the disintegration of the once friendly anti-fascist coalition of Western countries and the Soviet Union, which as good comrades-in-arms rallied against the common enemy of the spread of the Führer's ideas in the world. Its participants engaged in a struggle with each other, since originally they had pursued alien and opposite to each other interests, to divide the new world destroyed by the troubles of World War II and on this ground the «cold war» obviously began, which lasted over 45 years, until the USSR collapse, the collapse of the socialist states and the bipolar world system [15].
Summing up the lessons of the Second World War, we can say with confidence that the world has been greatly changed and these changes are primarily related to the new world order, the weakening of all kinds of fascist regimes and idealogy, the Nuremberg Tribunal, which recognized the ideas of Hitler and the team unacceptable in society.
However, in the context of studying history, we consider it simply necessary to turn to according to various primary sources and archival documents, the necessity of this fact is confirmed by the study of the history of the Second World War, as well as universal history in particular, to establish the true causes of the origin of certain events in the history of mankind without the possibility of retelling them by various historians, adherents of various schools and thereby distorting the true truthful paradigm of the course of history and important historical facts, for the sake of a particular state.
An example of such a statement is the distortion of the fact that the military force of the United States and Europe was crucial for the defeat of the Nazis, some historians, due to the distorted perception of the Russian world and history [10, p. 120] by the Western world, without referring to the primary sources, cannot study the truthful course of historical events, which once again confirms the need to study history by means of circulation to the primary sources of politically and legally significant speeches, archival documents, various philosophical works, etc., which we have done, for a better and objectively truthful study of the issue of the Second World War, as well as its lessons for the world community while writing this article and understanding the material for it, so that the reader has fewer white spots and gaps in the study of the main causes and outcomes (lessons) of this great historical event for all mankind.
An example of such research will be the study of maps and the results of the major battles of WWII, ensuring the status of the USSR as one of the most active contributors to the fight against fascism, with the results of which and their importance for the victory of the world over the Hitler coalition is difficult to argue and how to falsify them.
7) Battle of Kursk in the Second World War: The most important result of the victory in the Battle of Kursk strategic initiative finally shifted to the side of the Red Army, the Germans lost the ability to conduct offensive operations. During Kursk battle the Soviet armies crushed 30 German divisions (including seven tank divisions). Losses of the enemy were 500 thousand killed, wounded and prisoners of war. According to calculations of research group under the direction of Colonel-General Grigori Krivosheev, the total losses of Soviet armed forces in Kursk, Oryol and Belgorod-Kharkov operations during the period from July 5 to August 23, 1944 were 254 470 people, total sanitary losses — 608 833 people.
8) The Battle of Stalingrad weakened the ratio of forces of Hitler's coalition.
On November 19, 1942 the troops of the South-Western Front under the command of General N. F. Vatutin and the Don Front under the command of General K. K. Rokossovsky took the offensive. They managed to surround the enemy despite the resistance. Also during the offensive five enemy divisions were taken prisoner and seven were defeated. During the week from November, 23rd efforts of the Soviet armies were directed on strengthening of the blockade round the enemy. To break this blockade the German High Command formed the Army Group «Don» (commander — Field Marshal General Manstein), but it was also defeated. Destruction of the surrounded grouping of the enemy army was entrusted to the forces of the Don front (commander — general K. K. Rokossovsky). Since the German command rejected the ultimatum to stop the resistance, the Soviet troops moved on to the destruction of the enemy, which was the last of the major stages of the Battle of Stalingrad. On February 2, 1943 the last enemy grouping was liquidated, which is considered to be the date of the end of the battle.
It should be noted that the victory of Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad had a major impact on the further course of World War II. It intensified the fight against the Nazis in all countries of Europe. As a result of this victory, the German side was no longer dominant. The outcome of this battle caused confusion in the Axis (Hitler coalition) countries. The crisis of the pro-fascist regimes in the countries of Europe set in.
Moreover, the Soviet Union's Red Army achieved not small successes against the enemy during the second war campaign in November 1942 and December 1943, while the allied anti-fascist coalition forces in all these campaigns were much less involved than the Soviet Union and the entire blow of Russia had to be taken on itself, In the same Stalingrad battle and defense of St. Petersburg (Leningrad), for example, we have already noted above about the importance of the Battle of Stalingrad for the gradual fall and defeat of the Nazi regimes in Europe. More globally, we can say that thanks to the Soviet Union it was possible to achieve a significant reduction of fascist aggression in Europe, and this can be confirmed by studying the course and significance of key battles to combat fascism, taking place with the tremendous and participation of the Soviet people [5].
At the same time, the Soviet Union had the back of the United States and the rest of the world, preventing the forces of fascism from spreading in Europe, and this is its great inestimable merit. There are many viewpoints on the history of World War II, but one must remember and not distort the merits of the Soviet people on their way to a peaceful Europe, in this constant, centuries-long confrontation of the Russian and Western worlds, for despite the seeming differences between us, we have a lot of common heritage. An undeniably peaceful and sunny sky overhead, which is our common merit.
References:
- Adolf Hitler “Mein Kampf” Franz Eher Nachfolger, Munich, 1936 p. 409.
- Defense Primer: U. S. Precision-Guided Munitions, Congressional Research Service, November 15, 2022: https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11353; Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor, accessed 12/2022: https://banmonitor.org/profiles
- Donald Sassoon The Rise and Fall of West European Communism 1939–48 Contemporary European History Vol.1, No.2 (Jul.,1992), pp.139–169.
- Edward Bullard, Bernard Lovell and George Deacon The Effect of World War II on the Development of Knowledge in the Physical Sciences [and Discussion] Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences Vol. 342, No. 1631, A Discussion on the Effects of the Two World Wars on the Organization and Development of Science in the United Kingdom (Apr. 15, 1975), pp. 519–536.
- First political program of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (nsdap), Anton Drexler (1884–1942) and Adolf Hitler (1889–1945), Munich, Feb. 24, 1920 [URL: https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/documents.jpg]
- G. I. KhaninThe 1950s: The Triumph of the Soviet Economy Europe-Asia Studies Vol. 55, No. 8 (Dec., 2003), pp. 1187–1211.
- Kartapalov A.V The decisive contribution of the Soviet Union to the defeat of Nazi Germany during the Second World War: — M.:VU, 2020. pp. 134–143.
- Keane J. (1988). Introduction. In J. Keane (Ed.), Civil Society and the State: New European Perspectives (pp. 1–31.) London: Verso.
- Liu Shuyong, “History of Hong Kong: A completely objective account of how Hong Kong was stolen from China”, China Today, Feb. 1997, pp.29–32.
- Mark Edele Fighting Russia's History Wars: Vladimir Putin and the Codification of World War II History and Memory Vol. 29, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 2017), pp. 90–124.
- Note of the German Embassy in the USSR to the Soviet People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of March 16, 1939 (Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation [AVPRF], coll. 06, ser. 1, box 7, fold. 62, ff. 10–11).
- Shelley Baranowski Armin NolzenClaus-Christian W. Szejnmann, eds, A Companion to Nazi Germany , Wiley Blackwell: Oxford, 2018 — p. 360.
- The National WWII Museum, “Research Starters: Worldwide Deaths in World War II”, accessed 12/2022: https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-starters/research-starters-worldwide-deaths-world-war
- Thomas G. Weiss The United Nations: Before, during and after 1945 November 2015 International Affairs 91(6) pp.1221–1235.
- Winston Churchill — Sinews of Peace (Iron Curtain Speech) [URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJxUAcADV70]
