Course work
« The First World War: moods at the front and in the rear
INTRODUCTION
Chapter I. The First World War: Moods in the Home Front
1.1 Features of the mood of Russian society in the initial period of the First World War
1.2 Changes in rear sentiments in 1915-1917
CHAPTER II. The mood of the Russian army during the First World War
2.1 Factors affecting the mood of the Russian army in 1914-1917
2.2 Mood in the Cossack troops of the Russian Empire
CONCLUSION
LIST OF USED LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION
Our work is devoted to the study of some aspects of the First World War, namely, the moods that were characteristic of Russian society and the Russian army in 1914-1917. The choice of this topic is connected with a number of factors on which we consider it necessary to focus our attention.
It is known that the First World War is one of the largest armed conflicts in the history of mankind. Its consequences, in fact, redrawn the entire map of the world that took shape at the beginning of the 20th century. The German and Ottoman empires, Austria-Hungary ceased to exist. Germany, having ceased to be a monarchy, was cut down territorially and weakened economically. The US has become a great power. The difficult conditions for Germany of the Treaty of Versailles and the national humiliation it endured gave rise to revanchist sentiments, which became one of the prerequisites for the Nazis to come to power and unleash the Second World War.
The losses of the armed forces of all the powers participating in the world war amounted to about 10 million people. The famine and epidemics caused by the war caused the death of at least 20 million people.
No less severe were the consequences of the war for Russia. The First World War was a great test for Russian society, changing its economy, politics, social psychology and individual consciousness of people. Most historians are of the opinion that there is a direct connection between the events of August 1, 1914 and the death of the monarchy in February 1917 in Russia.
In this regard, it can be argued that the global conflict of 1914-1918 was not only a war of “guns”, but also a psychological war, in which the mood in the army and society was no less important than, for example, the supply of ammunition or the provision of military equipment.
Based on the above considerations, we formulate item of our work, which will be the moods present in the Russian army and rear during the First World War, as well as the factors influencing their changes and formation. object work is determined by the mood that took place in the Russian rear (primarily in the two largest centers of the Russian Empire - Moscow and St. Petersburg), as well as in the Russian army (Cossack troops are taken as an example).
Timeline of the study are limited to August 1914 - the time of Russia's entry into the world conflict and October 1917, when the October Revolution took place in Russia, which led, in particular, to the conclusion of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which legally secured Russia's exit from the military conflict (in fact, the troops did not fight, with rare exceptions, from the summer of 1917).
Target our work is to study the moods that were characteristic of Russian society and the Russian army during the First World War.
Tasks of our work, proceeding from this goal, are as follows:
To study the moods characteristic of the Russian society during the First World War, their features in the initial period of the World War and their changes under the influence of the results of hostilities in 1915-1917;
To identify the main moods of the Russian army during the First World War, to determine the factors influencing their changes and to get acquainted with the trends of these sentiments on a specific example of the Cossack troops of the Russian Empire.
These goals and objectives form structure of our work, which consists of an introduction to two chapters (containing two sections each), a conclusion and a list of references.
Chapter I. The First World War: Moods in the Home Front
1.1 Features of the mood of Russian society in the initial period of the First World War
The mood of Russian society during the First World War is closely related to the successes (failures) of the Russian army on the fronts of the First World War. In 1914, even before the official start of the First World War, from June, when the famous assassination in Sarajevo took place, which in turn led to an aggravation of the contradictions between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, which in turn led to a pan-European conflict, the mood of Russian society with complete base can be called "euphoric".
This euphoria was due to the fact that the official propaganda of the Russian Empire downplayed possible consequences conflict and the military power of the "triple alliance". It was believed that just a few months after the start of the conflict, Germany, squeezed into the “vice” by two members of the Entente, would be forced to make concessions, and its ally, Austria-Hungary, would not continue the fight alone.
As we know, such forecasts were fundamentally wrong, and the outbreak of the First World War, in general, refuted these considerations. At the same time, the national upsurge that was present in the summer of 1914 was quite strong and, on the whole, its strength was enough for the first few months of the war. Russia's claims Black Sea straits and Constantinople as a whole were approved by the majority of the population of the country and gave a certain incentive to continue the struggle. A wave of patriotism, an increase in anti-German sentiment are just some of the many trends that characterized that period. The episode seems characteristic to us when, in August 1914, a crowd broke into the German embassy and smashed this building. See other. Massey R.K. To the defense of Holy Rus' // Nicholas and Alexandra. M., 1996. S. 311.
The first battles, especially the offensive operation of the Russian troops in Prussia in the autumn of 1914, which actually saved France from defeat, although it did not fully justify the existing hopes, however, left some grounds for optimism. The Battle of Galicia, in which the Russian army completely defeated Germany's only ally, Austria-Hungary, having advanced up to 350 km deep into the enemy's territory, reinforced these hopes.
Many sources have been preserved that testify to the attitude of various segments of the Russian population to the First World War in 1914. For an overview of them, see, for example. World War I and Russian Society. - Yaroslavl: YarSU, 2007. - 340 p. .
The general assessment of historians boils down to the recognition of the patriotic upsurge that swept the entire country - from the reigning dynasty to the peasants. At the same time, they refer to such facts as the termination of strikes, successful mobilization, volunteer registration in the army, large donations to the defense account, a fairly significant participation of the population in state military loans, and others.
In St. Petersburg, in the first months of the war, there were many facts that generally illustrate the mood of Russian society of that period. So in St. Petersburg every day there were demonstrations in support of the tsar and the allies. Contemporaries describe it this way: “The workers left the red revolutionary flags and took up icons, portraits of the tsar. Students left universities and volunteered for the army. The officers who met on the streets were enthusiastically rocked in their arms ”Massy R.K. To the defense of Holy Rus' // Nicholas and Alexandra. M., 1996. S. 316.
Here is another opinion of an authoritative contemporary of those events. Kerensky wrote the following about this period; “In 1914, the people immediately regarded the conflict with Germany as their own bloody war, when the fate of Russia was at stake” Quoted from: World War I and Russian society. - Yaroslavl: YarSU, 2007. S. 164. .
At the same time, the Lodz and Warsaw-Ivangorod operations led to the fact that a positional front was established in the Eastern European theater of operations (as well as in the Western one). It became clear that the war would be protracted.
The war required the mobilization of human and all material resources. At present, researchers admit that Russia was not ready to wage a protracted, exhausting war, that its military development program was in the process of implementation, far from completion, there was no specific plan for mobilizing all resources for the needs of the front.
These, on the whole, objective reasons, as well as a number of military defeats, which Russian army suffered during the campaign of 1915, as well as the loss of many industrial territories in Poland and the Baltic States in a certain way corrected the mood in the rear. We will talk about this in our further presentation.
1.2 Changes in rear sentiments in 1915-1917
So, in the previous presentation, we were convinced that in the initial period of the First World War, Russian society was characterized by ultra-patriotic sentiments, which, however, turned out to be unconfirmed by the real state of affairs on the fronts. This became especially clear in 1915.
In 1915, Germany decided to strike the main blow on the Eastern Front in an attempt to pull Russia out of the war. During the 1915 campaign, Germany and its allies managed to advance deep into Russian possessions, but they failed to defeat the Russian army and withdraw Russia from the war. These events provoked, among other things, a clear change in rear sentiment.
The summer campaign of 1915 led the masses to a more intelligent and attentive attitude both to the war itself and to the unprepared home front, which was already threatening at that time.
It became clear to many contemporaries of those events that over the past months of the war, the government not only failed to use the friendly unity of the population and the high patriotic enthusiasm that animated it, but, on the contrary, by its mode of action in internal matters caused a weakening of mood, and in matters of state defense it revealed complete insolvency.
So, for example, according to P.N. Milyukov “Despite the warning of public figures and the press, the government was unwilling to comply with the minimum conditions necessary to maintain unity and inner world, continuing to adhere to the previous policy of distrust of social forces and public initiative, inciting national hatred by their actions and taking a number of measures that upset the correct course of life, violated the interests and caused irritation and discontent of individual nationalities and social groups "Milyukov P.N. How was the war received in Russia? // Memories. M., 1991.S.158. .
Changes in public sentiment had far-reaching political consequences. Thus, according to some historians, many social strata of the Russian Empire fell under the influence of the propaganda of the left-wing socialist internationalists. As a result, the social base of the right-wing parties "thinned", which, together with the authoritarian regime they defended, found themselves isolated from public circles and the broad masses of the people.
In turn, the liberal parties, having strengthened their position in public organizations and structures created during the war years, intensively moved to power by gaining authority in public circles with a conscious loss of support from the broad masses. The proletariat and the peasantry found themselves under the influence of the left-wing radical socialist parties, which skillfully used the political situation unfavorable for the authorities.
On the whole, it can be assumed that in 1915-1916, Russian society grew irritated with the policies of the authorities, who, in the opinion of certain circles of the population, did not fully use the resources at their disposal and thereby dragged out the war. Characteristic is a letter from one of the workers of the Petrograd Putilov factory, dated 1916.
In particular, it says: “The war is tired of everyone, but there are people who, thanks to such a misfortune, receive huge salaries and for nothing - medals, crosses, and so on. awards, and from the battles are a few dozen miles away. They have one dream, how the war would continue. But a lot of people have been taken, and now, I think, only women walk around the streets, and old men and cripples, but there are no healthy men ”Political parties and society in Russia 1914-1917 (Collection of articles and documents). M., 2000. P.113. .
Russian government in 1915-1916, in general, she tried to continue using the "patriotic card", which in the new conditions did not justify itself at all. The growing irritation in society, the increased activity of political parties of the left and radical persuasion - all this ultimately led to the revolutions of 1917. According to most historians, the mood that prevailed in Russian society during the First World War played an almost decisive role in the events of 1917.
Let us formulate the main conclusions of this part of our presentation:
As the main premise, the statement is accepted that the mood of Russian society during the First World War is closely connected with the successes (failures) of the Russian army on the fronts of the First World War;
In 1914, the mood of Russian society can rightly be called "euphoric." This euphoria was due to the fact that the official propaganda of the Russian Empire downplayed the possible consequences of the conflict and the military power of the "triple alliance";
There are many sources that testify to the attitude of various segments of the Russian population towards the First World War in 1914. A general analysis of them indicates that the patriotic upsurge in 1914 swept the entire country - from the reigning dynasty to the peasants;
A number of military defeats that the Russian army suffered during the 1915 campaign of the year, as well as the loss of many industrial territories in Poland and the Baltic states, in a certain way corrected the mood in the rear that was characteristic at the beginning of the conflict.
The summer campaign of 1915 led the masses to a more intelligent and attentive attitude as towards the war itself. It became clear to many contemporaries of those events that over the past months of the war, the government had shown complete failure;
In general, it can be assumed that in 1915-1916 Russian society grew irritated with the policies of the authorities, who, in the opinion of certain circles of the population, did not fully use the resources at their disposal and thereby dragged out the war;
The Russian government in 1915-1916, in general, tried to continue using the "patriotic card", which in the new conditions did not justify itself at all. The growing irritation in society, the increased activity of political parties of the left and radical persuasion - all this ultimately led to the revolutions of 1917.
CHAPTER II. The mood of the Russian army during the First World War
2.1 Factors affecting the mood of the Russian army in 1914-1917
Let us turn to the moods that were present in the Russian army in the period 1914-1917. They can also be conditionally divided into two components - into those moods that took their place at the beginning of the war and those transformations that they underwent in 1915-1917.
At the beginning of the war, the atmosphere in the army was, on the whole, similar to the mood in society - there was enthusiasm, patriotism, and there were expectations of a quick end to the war.
At the same time, the facts that Russia was not ready to wage a protracted, exhausting war, that its military development program was in the process of being implemented, far from completion, there was no specific plan for mobilizing all resources for the needs of the front, etc. and so on. - all this led to a fairly quick change of mood, which became noticeable in the army in the first months of the war. History of the First World War 1914 - 1918 / / ed. Rostunova I.I. - M.: Nauka, 1975. S. 112. .
Positional warfare, problems with the supply of everything necessary - from provisions to ammunition were literally in full view of every Russian soldier. Very soon it became clear even to outside observers.
This is how the British war correspondent R. Massey describes the situation in the Russian army: “The Russian army was colossal in size. Before the declaration of war, it numbered 1 million 400 thousand people. General mobilization brought 3,100,000 recruits under arms. However, this was only the beginning. Following them, new millions of people flowed to the front. During the three years of the war, 15 million people went to defend the Tsar and Holy Rus'. In all other respects, except for manpower, Russia was completely unprepared for war. The railroad network was clearly inadequate. Specific gravity industrial production in Russia was small, its organization was primitive. One factory in Russia accounted for 150 in the UK. Russian generals, counting on a quick victory, did not take care of sufficient reserves of weapons and equipment. The Russian artillery, having quickly exhausted its stocks of shells, fell silent, while the enemy shells, which came uninterruptedly from the German factories, solved the Russian formations ”Massy R.K. To the defense of Holy Rus' // Nicholas and Alexandra. M., 1996. S. 314. .
Already in 1915, the soldiers of the Russian army ceased to believe in victory and were increasingly subject to the pacifist propaganda of various left-wing forces.
Here are some excerpts from the soldiers' letters of that time:
“The German has fortified his positions and is sitting in the trenches, as the master says to the Russians - do not come close; our deeds are ugly, even very bad, horror is tired of suffering and tormenting like this in the world; we live on the earth too very badly, there is no strip of land per soul, and among the landlords - you can’t see with your eyes, as if only for them God created the earth, our brother, a peasant, a peasant, a soldier, is offended. You don’t need to firmly believe in victory, everyone knows that we don’t have unity and we don’t need to think inside Russia, that the German has nothing, and we, the defenders of the motherland, are boiled 3 pounds of mushrooms for 250 people "Political parties and society in Russia 1914- 1917 (Collection of articles and documents). M., 2000. S. 109. .
Another telling example:
“If we judge strictly, then laying down our lives for the fact that others line their pockets, for the fact that there is treason at every step, and in such a war to strive for the front, to be a patriot is stupid” Political parties and society in Russia 1914-1917. (Collection of articles and documents). M., 2000. S. 111. .
In fact, by the beginning of 1916, the morale of the Russian army was very low, and the situation at the fronts, problems with supplies, only contributed to its decline. The events of 1917 - the actual abandonment of their positions by the troops, fraternization with the Germans, the widespread dissemination of pacifist slogans and ideas showed the complete failure of the work of the military departments of the Russian Empire to maintain high morale in the active units.
To illustrate the above considerations, let us briefly consider the moods inherent in the active Russian army in 1914-1917 using the example of the Cossack troops of the Russian Empire.
2.2 Mood in the Cossack troops of the Russian Empire
The Cossacks, in the context of our topic, is a very significant example. This is due to the fact that the Cossacks in the Russian Empire are actually a separate class, they guarded the state and internal ethnic borders, they constantly sent people to many wars and even served as a personal escort of the king. As compensation, they had significant social autonomy, wide fertile lands, were exempt from taxes, etc. As a result, by the beginning of the 20th century, the Cossacks had become a stereotype of Russia abroad and its power inside.
The Cossack troops, in a sense, were the most combat-ready formations of the Russian army at the beginning of the First World War. Cossack formations participated in hostilities on all fronts and were even used as expeditionary forces of the Russian army (operations in Thessaloniki and France) See other. Evdokimov R.N. Cossack troops in the First World War. - M.: Shipyard, 2005. S. 114. .
At the beginning of 1914, representatives of the Cossack estate assessed their participation in the war as fair and justified by a number of factors. In 1915-1916, these sentiments were corrected, partly under the influence of military failures, partly due to the ill-conceived policy of the leadership of the Russian empire.
Among the Cossacks, which was considered the most stable military formation of the Russian Empire, moods began to appear that, in general, echoed the moods of the Russian army.
Here is one of the letters of the Cossacks of that period - “Our Russia will probably have to suffer, and we have already suffered, and there is no end in sight to these sufferings. With our valiant forces with strong hearts, we could have finished with the German, but the matter remained as follows: our ministers and representatives of the State Duma were bad. They’ve been at the theater since the evening, and in the morning they slept for a long time, so they all overslept, now we have nothing to cover up as now rich peasant fists are sleeping in our country, but now we should not sleep, but take more care of the army in the field, but with us it’s not at all like that everyone robs us as long as possible” Quoted from: Russia in the First World War / / ed. Savchenko P. A. - M .: Vest, 1995. S. 164. .
In the memoirs of representatives of the Cossacks of that period that have come down to us, there is a picture of general chaos, the power of the mob, anarchy, which aggravates the already difficult situation of the front, the squalor of the soldier masses, who easily succumbed to the political agitation of various parties and forgot about their duty to the country. This atmosphere infected with laxity even the Cossacks, who were considered the most resistant troops of Russia.
In 1917, the Cossacks, on the whole, did not accept the revolution, but this rather indicates their desire to retain the many benefits and privileges that were granted to them over the years of their history. Their mood at the end of the war can also be called decadent, even though for some time they remained the only real force preventing the further advance of the German, Turkish and Austrian troops.
Let us summarize the main conclusions of this part of our work:
At the beginning of the war, the atmosphere in the army was, in general, similar to the mood in society - there was enthusiasm, patriotism, there were expectations of a quick end to the war;
The facts that Russia was not ready to command a protracted, exhausting war led to a rather rapid change in mood, which became noticeable in the army in the first months of the war. A protracted and hopeless positional war, problems with the supply of everything necessary - from provisions to ammunition were literally in full view of every Russian soldier;
In fact, by the beginning of 1916, the morale of the Russian army was very low, and the situation at the fronts, supply problems, only contributed to its decline;
The events of 1917 - the actual abandonment of their positions by the troops, fraternization with the Germans, the widespread dissemination of pacifist slogans and ideas showed the complete failure of the work of the military departments of the Russian Empire to maintain high morale in the active units;
The Cossacks, in the context of our topic, is a very significant example. They were the most combat-ready formations of the Russian army by the beginning of the First World War. Cossack formations participated in hostilities on all fronts and were even used as expeditionary forces of the Russian army;
At the beginning of 1914, representatives of the Cossack estate assessed their participation in the war as fair and justified by a number of factors. In 1915-1916, these sentiments were corrected, partly under the influence of military failures, partly due to the ill-conceived policy of the leadership of the Russian empire;
The mood of the Cossacks at the end of the war can also be called decadent, even though for some time they remained the only real force preventing the further advance of the German, Turkish and Austrian troops.
CONCLUSION
Now, in accordance with the goals and objectives set, let us sum up the main results of our presentation.
As the main premise of our work, the statement was adopted that the mood of Russian society during the First World War is closely related to the successes (failures) of the Russian army on the fronts of the First World War.
In 1914, the mood of Russian society can rightly be called "euphoric." This euphoria was due to the fact that the official propaganda of the Russian Empire downplayed the possible consequences of the conflict and the military power of the “triple alliance”.
Currently, there are many sources that testify to the attitude of various segments of the Russian population to the First World War in 1914. A general analysis of them indicates that the patriotic upsurge in 1914 swept the entire country - from the reigning dynasty to the peasants.
A number of military defeats that the Russian army suffered during the campaign of 1915, as well as the loss of many industrial territories in Poland and the Baltic states, in a certain way corrected the mood in the rear, which was typical at the beginning of the conflict. It became clear to many contemporaries of those events that over the past months of the war, the government had shown complete failure.
On the whole, it can be assumed that in 1915-1916, Russian society grew irritated with the policies of the authorities, who, in the opinion of certain circles of the population, did not fully use the resources at their disposal and thereby dragged out the war.
The Russian government in 1915-1916, in general, tried to continue using the "patriotic card", which in the new conditions did not justify itself at all. The growing irritation in society, the increased activity of political parties of the left and radical persuasion - all this ultimately led to the revolutions of 1917.
Let's move on to the mood in the troops, which, although they had something in common with the "rear", however, had a certain specificity. Here we can conclude that at the beginning of the war the atmosphere in the army was, in general, similar to the mood in society - there was enthusiasm, patriotism, there were expectations of a quick end to the war.
At the same time, the facts that Russia was not ready to command a protracted, exhausting war led to a rather rapid change in mood, which became noticeable in the army in the first months of the war. A protracted and unpromising positional war, problems with the supply of everything necessary - from provisions to ammunition were literally in full view of every Russian soldier.
In fact, by the beginning of 1916, the morale of the Russian army was very low, and the situation at the fronts, problems with supplies, only contributed to its decline.
The events of 1917 - the actual abandonment of their positions by the troops, fraternization with the Germans, the widespread dissemination of pacifist slogans and ideas showed the complete failure of the work of the military departments of the Russian Empire to maintain high morale in the active units.
The Cossacks, in the context of our topic, is a very significant example. They were the most combat-ready formations of the Russian army by the beginning of the First World War. Cossack formations participated in hostilities on all fronts and were even used as expeditionary forces of the Russian army.
At the beginning of 1914, representatives of the Cossack estate assessed their participation in the war as fair and justified by a number of factors. In 1915-1916, these sentiments were corrected, partly under the influence of military failures, partly due to the ill-conceived policy of the leadership of the Russian empire;
The mood of the Cossacks at the end of the war can also be called decadent, even though for some time they remained the only real force preventing the further advance of the German, Turkish and Austrian troops.
LIST OF USED LITERATURE
1. Evdokimov R.N. Cossack troops in the First World War. - M.: Shipyard, 2005. - 203 p.
2. Political parties and society in Russia 1914-1917 (Collection of articles and documents). M., 2000. S.196.
3. History of the First World War 1914 - 1918 / / ed. Rostunova I.I. - M.: Nauka, 1975. - 579 p.
4. Massey R.K. To the defense of Holy Rus' // Nicholas and Alexandra. M., 1996. S. 311-317.
5. Milyukov P.N. How was the war received in Russia? // Memories. M., 1991.S.157-162.
6. The revolutionary movement in the army and navy during the First World War: 1914 - February 1917. Collection of documents // ed. Sidorova A.L. M.: Pravda, 1966. - 368 p.
7. Russia in the First World War//ed. Savchenko P. A. - M.: Vesti, 1995. - 379 p.
8. World War I and Russian society. - Yaroslavl: YarSU, 2007. - 340 p.
The beginning of the war. The war broke out on August 1, 1914 and lasted more than four years - until November 11, 1918. The international crisis, which led to millions of victims and the devastation of vast territories, began with the assassination on June 28, 1914.
The Serbian nationalist of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in the city of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, annexed in 1908 by Austria-Hungary. Incited by Germany, the leaders of Austria-Hungary used this event as an excuse to declare war on Serbia on July 28, 1914; over the next seven days, many leading European powers were involved in armed confrontation. The main reason for the outbreak of the world war was the acute conflict between two military-political groups: Germany and Austria-Hungary, on the one hand, and the Entente countries, on the other. The struggle was for a leading position in Europe, for the redistribution of the already divided world, the redistribution of colonies and spheres of influence.
Over time, 38 countries (including the British dominions and India) were drawn into the war. Almost all European states participated in hostilities, with the exception of Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland and three Scandinavian states. The share of all the warring powers, together with the colonies, accounted for 1.5 billion people, i.e. 87% of the world's population. The fighting unfolded on the territory of 14 states in Europe, Asia and Africa. Of decisive importance for the outcome of the global armed conflict was the military confrontation in Europe, where the main forces of the two military-political blocs were concentrated and where most of the most massive and bloody battles took place.
The United Kingdom entered the war on August 4, 1914 after the German troops invaded Belgium, one of the guarantors of the neutrality of which was the official London. The main goals of Great Britain in this war were to defend their economic and colonial positions in the world and crush Germany as the main rival and competitor in the commercial, industrial and colonial spheres, as well as at sea.
In August 1914, the Liberal government headed by Herbert Asquith, a 63-year-old statesman who by this time had been in charge of the country for six and a half years, was at the helm of the British government. Most of the leading politicians representing the main parties of the country supported the decision of the liberal cabinet to declare war on Germany. Conservatives under the leadership of Andrew Bonar Law unanimously voted for participation in hostilities; most Liberals and Labor also supported Asquith's government. Many British political leaders believed that the war would not last long and in a few months, “by Christmas”, it would end victoriously.
Britain entered the war with the support of two strong allies in Europe, France and Russia, who had large land armies. In addition, Belgium, Serbia and Montenegro took the side of the Entente states at the beginning of the war. In 1914, in the east of Europe, the troops of the Russian Empire fought against the armies of Austria-Hungary and Germany; in the west of Europe, German units were opposed mainly by French, as well as British and Belgian units.
Another front existed in the south of Europe - the Balkan, or Serbian, where Serbian units fought with Austrian military units. September 5, 1914 in London, representatives of the United Kingdom, France and Russia signed a declaration, according to which they pledged not to conclude a separate peace with Germany and its allies.
For the military-political leadership of Great Britain, for almost the entire time of the war, the Western Front was the main one. There, in France and Flanders (a region in northern Belgium), already in early August 1914, the first divisions of the British Expeditionary Force were sent, commanded by General J. French. He reported to Lord G. Kitchener, who was appointed Secretary of War on 5 August.
The fighting on the Western Front in the autumn of 1914 proceeded with varying degrees of success. At the end of August, four British divisions took a baptism of fire near the Belgian city of Mons, repelling an attack by six German divisions on August 23. However, after the retreat of the neighboring French units on August 24, the British were forced to leave their positions.
In August 1914, the German armies, having fought almost all of Belgium, entered the northeastern regions with large forces.
France and launched a swift offensive in the direction of Paris. Under the onslaught of the Germans, the British and French units had to retreat. By the beginning of September, four German armies crossed the Marne River and found themselves 40 km from Paris. More than 1.5 million people took part in the Battle of the Marne (September 5-9, 1914) on both sides. The main burden of the fight against the German armies was borne by the French troops, led by General J. Joffre. The British Expeditionary Force, under the command of J. French, was located east of Paris, on the left flank of the defense line. The offensive undertaken by the Allies on September 5-9 allowed the German units to be thrown back from the capital of France. During this operation, the British units, together with the French troops, carried out a successful offensive into the gap between the first and second German armies, which played an important role in the fact that the German command began a general retreat on September 9. The success of the Allies in this battle was to a large extent made possible thanks to the active actions in the second half of August 1914 of the Russian troops in East Prussia, where the German command had to transfer part of its troops from the Western Front.
Another major battle in which the British Expeditionary Force took an active part was the battle near the Belgian city of Ypres in West Flanders (October 14 - November 11, 1914). Military operations in this area went down in history as the First Battle of Ypres. In mid-October, German troops tried to break through the defenses of the British and Belgian units in the Ypres region. The Allies managed to stop the German advance and launched a series of counterattacks, after which, in early November, hostilities effectively ceased, while the troops of the United Kingdom continued to hold positions on the ruins of Ypres. During these battles, the British Expeditionary Force suffered huge losses: more than 58 thousand soldiers and officers died.
By the end of the autumn of 1914, the situation on the Western Front had stabilized, and the military confrontation between the parties took the form of a protracted positional war for a long time. Trenches and rows of barbed wire fences stretched in a continuous line for 720 km from the border of Switzerland to the English Channel. In December 1914, the share of the British units was 50 km long, the French troops held the front for 650 km, the Belgian - 20 km.
Since the beginning of the war, hostilities have been actively conducted not only on land, but also in the expanses of the oceans. As noted earlier, by agreement with France, the British fleet controlled the North Sea and the Atlantic, the French - the Mediterranean Sea. The first Lord of the Admiralty until May 1915 was W. Churchill, and the commander-in-chief of the Big Fleet in 1914-1916. - J. Jellicoe. Great Britain already at the first stage of the war began to establish a distant naval blockade of Germany and was able to seize a dominant position in various parts of the oceans. In the first months of the war, the Royal Navy managed to almost completely paralyze the German maritime trade communications.
By early 1915, the British had succeeded in destroying most of the German warships outside German coastal waters. The largest unit - the squadron of Admiral M. Spee - was completely defeated in the battle near the Falkland Islands on December 8, 1914. The Indian Ocean became safe for sailing allied merchant and transport ships after the Australian cruiser Sydney sank a German warship on November 8 " Emden", which had previously bombarded the Indian city of Madras and destroyed 15 Allied ships since the beginning of the war. The Royal Navy also won a number of victories in the North Sea. On August 28, near the small island of Helgoland (50 km from the northwestern coast of Germany), where a large German naval base was located, ships of the United Kingdom Navy, led by Admiral D. Beatty, sank three German light cruisers.
The German command did not remain in debt. At the end of September 1914, a German submarine sent three English cruisers to the bottom - Aboukir, Hog and Cressy. The German Navy conducted a number of reconnaissance raids to the shores of Britain at the beginning of the war. November 2
In 1914, a squadron of German ships approached Norfolk, and on December 15-16 - to the Yorkshire coast, while Scarborough, Huatby and Hartlepool were fired upon. On January 24, 1915, in the area of Dogger Banks (a shallow in the center of the North Sea, 100 km from the coast of Britain), a battle took place between the German and British squadrons, the latter was commanded by Admiral D. Beatty. As a result, one German cruiser was sunk, two others were damaged, and the ships of the German Navy had to retreat to their bases.
After that, the leadership of the German naval forces, almost until the very spring of 1916, adhered to a passive wait-and-see tactic, and large formations of surface ships, as a rule, did not leave their bases on the North Sea coast. However, submarines continued to operate actively. From February 18
In 1915, the German authorities declared all the waters around the British Isles a military zone, and German submarines were instructed to sink not only military, but also British merchant ships, as well as ships of neutral countries.
During the first months of the war, a significant part of the professional British army was destroyed. In all the battles of 1914, the losses of Great Britain amounted to about 89 thousand soldiers and officers. Under these conditions, the British government, realizing that the war was gaining unprecedented ferocity and huge scope, and many British ground units would have to participate in hostilities outside the country, decided to create a mass army. In the first five months after the entry of Great Britain into the war, the composition of its armed forces increased many times over and by January 1914 reached 1.5 million people. In total, during the war years, an army unprecedented in the history of Great Britain in terms of its size was formed. During the period from 1914 to 1918, more than 6 million people served in all branches of the British troops, and together with military and auxiliary units from the colonies, about 9 million soldiers and officers were under British command.
Colonial empire during the war. During the global military conflict, the leadership of Great Britain was able to rely not only on the forces of its country, but also to use the huge material and human resources of the vast colonial empire. Already in early August 1914, the governments of the dominions (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa) announced their full support for the United Kingdom and expressed their readiness to send their troops to Europe and other parts of the world. About 400,000 Canadians fought on the Western Front; 330,000 Australians and 100,000 New Zealanders fought in Europe and other parts of the world. The South African Union put about 200 thousand people under arms, of which 30 thousand were transferred to the Western Front. About 1.5 million Indians were in the combat auxiliaries of the British army, they fought in the Middle East, Europe and Africa. 500 thousand Egyptians were forced to work in the so-called labor corps, organized by the British for digging trenches, building roads, etc. From 1914 to 1918, the British Empire provided a total of almost 3 million people for combat and other purposes. After the end of the First World War, D. Lloyd George, speaking
0 soldiers from the colonies and dominions, argued that "if they had stayed at home, the outcome of the war would have been different, and the whole subsequent history of the world would have taken a different turn."
In 1914, the military units of Australia and New Zealand, in accordance with the plans of the Entente countries, captured a number of German colonies in the Pacific Ocean: German New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, the Bismarck Archipelago, German Samoa. On the African continent in August 1914, the troops of the South African Union, together with the French and Indian units, occupied German Togo.
On October 29, 1914, Turkey entered the war on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary, which was the political center of the decrepit Ottoman Empire, which included Mesopotamia, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and some other territories. The appearance of a new enemy forced the British troops already in 1914 to deploy military operations in Mesopotamia. The rich oil fields in the Persian Gulf played a large role in supplying the United Kingdom with oil. At the end of October, British units occupied the port of Fao in Mesopotamia, and a month later, the Anglo-Indian troops captured an important strategic point in the south of the country - the port of Basra. On December 18, 1914, the Asquith government declared its protectorate over Egypt, which had previously been formally considered part of the Ottoman Empire. In the Middle East, the British command at the beginning of the war had to create a Palestinian front to defend the Suez Canal from a possible attack by Turkish troops.
Changes in the functioning of the party-political system.
From the first days, the global armed conflict began to take on an uncompromising character. Military operations took place on land, in the air, on the seas and under water, in addition, an “economic”, propaganda and psychological war was waged. This was the first all-out military confrontation between dozens of countries, which required the maximum effort of all its main participants.
The war had a significant impact on all the most important areas of British society, including the nature and methods of governing the country. The urgent wartime need for quick decision-making and vigorous action led to a significant redistribution of powers in government bodies in favor of the executive branch. The Cabinet of Ministers was given the right to legislate by decree, without consulting parliamentarians. Passed August 8, 1914 Law
0 protection of the Kingdom and numerous additions to it significantly expanded the powers of the executive branch in the socio-economic sphere. At the same time, the role and importance of the Parliament in the life of society has significantly decreased. Many of the most important questions of the conduct of the war were decided without discussion by the members of the House of Commons. The latter not only did not have access to all the information necessary for their work, but often could not openly discuss the most important problems facing the country. Moreover, the questions that parliamentarians planned to ask informally were adjusted, and in practice nothing could be heard within the walls of the House of Commons that could violate the requirement of secrecy.
In order to consolidate the efforts of the whole society and demonstrate the unity of the country's political establishment, the leaders of the leading parties in Great Britain agreed to establish a "party truce" for the duration of the war and to refrain from public criticism of each other. The country's leadership considered it inappropriate to hold general elections, which could lead to an active inter-party struggle and thereby help to weaken the military efforts of the whole society. In this situation, the members of the highest legislative body made a series of decisions that made it possible to postpone the holding of elections to the House of Commons until the end of the war. In the event that a parliamentarian could not fulfill his duties, the leaders of the main political parties came to an agreement that there should be no party rivalry in the by-elections: only a member of the party whose representative occupied this place in August 1914 could apply for a vacant seat.
Significant changes also took place in the sphere of rights and freedoms during the war years. The law was suspended in the country
0 personal integrity, censorship introduced, newspaper editors could be prosecuted for publishing news unauthorized by the government.
The working class and trade unions at the beginning of the war. In the first months of the global military conflict, euphoria and jingoistic moods reigned in British society. It seemed to many that the war would end with a quick victory for the Entente countries. Tens of thousands of Britons lined up in long lines to enlist in the active army. During August and early September 1914, about 500 thousand people entered the army, and by the end of 1914 - more
1 million people. For almost a year and a half from the beginning of the war (that is, until 1916), the British army was formed on a voluntary basis.
The war hysteria, which engulfed all sectors of society, also affected the largest part of the country's population - the workers. In the first two months after the declaration of war, under the influence of patriotic sentiments and propaganda actively carried out by the state, more than 10% of all industrial workers joined the army, by February 1915 - 15%, and by the beginning of 1916 - 28%. The general mood prevailing among the workers at the beginning of the war was quite accurately expressed by one of the representatives of the railroad trade union. Speaking in 1915 at the Congress of Trade Unions, he said: "When the life of the nation is threatened, we must be citizens, and not just workers."
The world war, like no other armed conflict, was fought using various technical means and with the involvement of huge material resources. As a result, the production of everything necessary for the front became one of the most important conditions for successful military operations.
In the first months after the start of the war, in an atmosphere of patriotic upsurge, strike activity in the country significantly decreased. If in the first 7 months of 1914 836 strikes were registered, then during the period from August to December - only 137 small strikes.
Representatives of the British political establishment from the first days of the war made a lot of efforts to get help from the workers and their organizations in the production of weapons. The leaders of the trade unions and the Labor Party supported the war efforts of the government, declaring at the end of August 1914 the need to establish "peace in industry" for the duration of the war.
In mid-March 1915, a conference was held in the premises of the Treasury, in which the leaders of most trade unions and the government took part. On March 19, 1915, the parties signed a document that went down in history as the Treasury Agreement. In accordance with it, organized workers refused to use strikes for the duration of the war; all disputes in the sphere of industrial relations were to be resolved only with the assistance of state arbitration. The leaders of the trade unions agreed not to apply those union rules that could lead to the restriction of the production of armaments, and pledged not to prevent the use of unskilled workers where only skilled workers were previously allowed.
Commenting on the conclusion of the "Treasury Agreement", the British newspaper "Daily Herald" wrote that "the labor lamb lay side by side with the capitalist lion." The "Treasury Agreement" recorded the cardinal changes that took place in trade union practice in wartime. It became an important milestone on the path of establishing close contacts between the trade union leadership and the state. Prominent figures in the Labor movement, Sidney and Beatrice Webb, rightly noted that during the war years the trade union apparatus actually became part of the "state social machine."
After the conclusion of the Treasury Agreement, strikes in the country did not completely stop. In March 1915, 74 strikes were organized, in April - 44, in May - 63. In July 1915, 200 thousand miners of South Wales held a week-long strike. Workers sought to improve working conditions and increase wages. In this difficult social situation, the political elite of the country in 1915 resorted to an unusual method - they tried to actively use the authority of the monarch to maintain the morale of the working people. In the spring and summer of 1915, King George V of Great Britain made a number of trips to enterprises that produced military equipment. The main purpose of these events was to induce the workers to strictly fulfill all military orders and prevent strikes.
Formation of a coalition government headed by G. Asquith. At the beginning of the war in the political and military leadership of the United Kingdom, few could have imagined that hostilities would drag on for a long time. The prevailing mood in society was expressed in the slogan "Business as usual" popular at that time. The first months of the war showed that society and the entire British economy were not ready to ensure large-scale hostilities. As a result, by the spring of 1915, the British army began to lack ammunition and equipment. There was a shortage of rifles, machine guns, heavy guns, but the question of the supply of shells to the Western Front was especially acute.
The problems of supplying the army with everything necessary and the lack of noticeable successes of the British troops in Western Europe and in other theaters of military operations - all this caused in the spring of 1915 an aggravation of contradictions between the conservatives and the liberals who were in power. As a result, on May 26, 1915, under pressure from the parliamentary opposition, the liberal government was replaced by a coalition government, which, in addition to the liberals, included 8 conservatives, as well as 3 laborists, who for the first time in their history took part in the work of the country's supreme executive body. The liberals continued to play the leading role in the new cabinet of ministers, and G. Asquith retained the post of prime minister. Labor leader Arthur Henderson received the post of Minister of Education, but his main function was to assist the leadership of Britain in matters of relations with workers. Two other Labor MPs, U Brace and J. Roberts, took up minor posts in the government. These appointments testified to the fact that in the ruling circles of Great Britain it was well understood that the maintenance of social peace and the establishment of cooperation with workers' organizations was a paramount task for achieving military victory. The formation of a government coalition contributed to the consolidation of the country's main political forces and helped to avoid a parliamentary conflict.
Changes in the economy. On the eve of August 1914, the British government did not have a detailed plan of action in the economic sphere in the event of a large-scale prolonged military conflict. As D. Lloyd George later recalled, “there has never been such a war as the war of 1914-1918 turned out to be, and neither we nor the continental powers of Europe could foresee it and draw up a plan for its conduct in advance. Therefore, our actions at the beginning were unsystematic and inconsistent.”
Adopted in August 1914, the Law on the Defense of the Kingdom and numerous additions to it significantly expanded the powers of various executive authorities. However, at the beginning of the war, the authorities did not always fully use them. On August 4, 1914, the government, realizing the importance of the uninterrupted functioning of the country's transport system, put everything under its control. railways. In the same month, the state requisitioned 21% of the total tonnage of British ships - yachts, trawlers, schooners, etc. as auxiliary navigational facilities. In August, a special royal commission was set up to purchase sugar from abroad and distribute it in the UK. This measure was dictated by the fact that before the start of the war, a significant part of the sugar entered the country from Germany and Austria-Hungary.
On the very eve of the announcement of the entry of the United Kingdom into the war, a panic began on the London Stock Exchange, the prices of most shares fell sharply, and loans were stopped. Under these conditions, Parliament passed the Deferred Payments Act, and the Bank of England was given large sums of government guarantees to settle various bills of exchange. Such actions already at the end of the first week of August strengthened the confidence of citizens in the banking system and made it possible to normalize the situation in the country's financial markets.
The prominent British historian A. Taylor noted that before August 1914, an Englishman could live his whole life and hardly know about the existence of the state, except for contacting the post office or the police. As the war dragged on, this situation changed dramatically. The need to create a massive land army, the ever-increasing needs of the troops for weapons, ammunition, and various equipment - all this required from the political leadership of Great Britain already in the first half of 1915 more energetic measures in the economic field than those carried out at the very beginning of the war.
In the summer of 1915, the coalition government created a special Ministry of Armaments under the leadership of D. Lloyd George. The purpose of the new department was to mobilize national resources for the production of military equipment. The German researcher W. Fischer rightly noted that Lloyd George's office, on an unprecedented scale, intervened in private industry in order to achieve priority production of products required for waging war. Over time, almost the entire industry that worked for the war turned out to be subordinate to Lloyd George. The Ministry led the production of not only ammunition and weapons, but also cars, trench equipment, optical instruments, building materials and much more.
Under the Armaments Act, passed by Parliament on June 2, 1915, Lloyd George's department had the broadest authority in the organization of the production of ammunition and military equipment. It directed the activities of state military enterprises, received the right to force entrepreneurs to fulfill government orders, and also, for the duration of the war, "take over" private plants and factories if their products were necessary for waging war. This ministry controlled and helped organize the work of many private factories and firms, created new ones and managed existing state military enterprises, providing them with raw materials, equipment and labor. Soon after the creation of the Ministry of Armaments, by December 1915, the country produced almost three times more shells than a year before, and the production of artillery pieces increased six times compared to June 1915.
Lloyd George was given broad powers to regulate industrial relations. It was forbidden to organize strikes and hold lockouts at military plants and factories; in the event of labor conflicts, compulsory state arbitration was introduced and the Law on Labor Protection was repealed; the manager of a military enterprise could prohibit the transfer of any worker to any other plant. The Ministry of Armaments has become one of the most important instruments in the system of state management of the country's economy. By 1918, it directly or indirectly controlled the activities of about 20 thousand plants, factories, mines, which employed more than 5 million people.
During the war years, the government carried out compulsory cooperation of small and medium-sized enterprises, and merged banks. To provide the troops with everything necessary, not only factories and factories that produced weapons were placed under state control, but also steel mills, machine-building plants, leather and wool production, and by the beginning of 1917, all coal mining; at the last stage of the war - bakeries, flour mills and oil and fat plants. In addition, government agencies provided the leading industries of the country with almost all the necessary raw materials.
Never before had the British authorities intervened so energetically and on such a large scale in the economic field as in 1914-1918. By the end of the war, state control in one form or another had covered almost all the most important areas of the British economy.
The war was fought by Great Britain with an overstretch of the country's economic and financial resources. The total cost of the war amounted to more than 10 billion pounds. Art. In this regard, taxes in Britain from 1914 to 1918 increased six times. However, they reimbursed only a third of military expenses, the rest were covered by internal and external loans. One of the main foreign creditors of Great Britain during the war was the United States of America.
Considerable economic assistance to the United Kingdom in 1914-1918. and the countries of its colonial empire. Canada has made a large cash loan of £500m. Art., and also supplied explosives, aircraft, warships and other weapons for the Anglo-French troops. Almost every third projectile fired by the troops of the Entente countries on the Western Front was produced in Canada. In addition, non-ferrous metals, medicines and food were sent from this North American dominion to Great Britain. Australia played a primary role in supplying the metropolis with non-ferrous metals, wool, leather, and oil. Frozen meat, cheese, wool, butter were sent from New Zealand to the UK, cotton from Egypt, fish, timber, pulp from Newfoundland, rails, uniforms, shoes, cotton, jute and much more from India. At the same time, the United Kingdom during the war years itself acted as a creditor and supplier of weapons. In total for the period 1914-1918. London has allocated for the military allies 1.825 billion pounds. Art.
Military operations in 1915. This year, British troops took part in the battles that took place in various parts of the world, but London paid the most attention to conducting a major naval and landing operation against Turkish troops in the area of the Dardanelles, which separates Europe from Asia Minor and connects Marmara and Aegean seas. One of the initiators of this military action was the first Lord of the Admiralty Wu Churchill, who believed that the capture of the strait and the subsequent strike on the Turkish capital, Istanbul, would help solve not only local military tasks, but the fate of the entire war as a whole.
From February 19 to 25, 1915, British and French warships carried out an intensive shelling of Turkish fortifications on
Gallipoli peninsula in the Aegean Sea. However, this did not bring the desired results, the Turkish forts were only slightly destroyed. An attempt by the Anglo-French fleet to cross the strait on March 18 was also unsuccessful: out of 16 large Allied warships, 2 British and 1 French were sunk, and 3 more were seriously damaged. On April 25, the first landing units of the Allies landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Over the entire period of this military operation, Great Britain and its dominions sent about 340 thousand people to the Gallipoli region, France - 79 thousand people. Numerous Allied attacks were carried out over several months, and parts of Australia and New Zealand (ANZAC) played the most active role in them. For all the time of the fighting on the peninsula, the troops of the British Empire lost about 200 thousand, the French - 47 thousand people, but the allies could not break the defense of the Turkish units led by German officers. The entire operation in the Dardanelles ended in failure for the Entente countries, and from the end of November 1915 to the beginning of January 1916, the Anglo-French command evacuated troops from this area.
In Western Europe in 1915, the British Expeditionary Force occupied only about 10% of the total front with the French. This year's military reports noted attempts by the Anglo-French units to intensify their operations in Champagne, Artois and Flanders, but they did not lead to a significant change in the front line.
The attempt to push the German units around the village of Neuve-Chapelle in North-East France (March 10-13) ended in failure for the troops of the United Kingdom. On March 10, 1915, the British First Army under the command of Douglas Haig, after a 35-minute shelling of German positions, attacked and was able to break through the enemy's first line of defense and take Neuve Chapelle. However, the inconsistency in the actions of the command of the British corps, the lack of sufficient ammunition and the five-hour delay between the first attack and the subsequent offensive - all this allowed the Germans to organize defense and stop the advance of the British units, which suffered heavy losses (about 13 thousand killed and wounded).
The actions of the German troops on the Western Front in 1915 were marked by the first large-scale use of chemical weapons. On April 22, in the Ypres region, the Germans used the poison gas chlorine. British troops stationed in the area lost about 60 thousand soldiers as a result of a gas attack. German units advanced 3.5 km and occupied part of the so-called Ypres ledge - advanced positions of the allies. The offensive of the German troops was stopped by introducing reserves. However, in the long term, the local success of the German command,
largely due to the unexpected use of poison gas, did not lead to a fundamental change in the situation on this sector of the front. Soon after the events of April 22, the Entente countries also launched the production of poisonous substances and means of protection against them.
September 25 - November 4, 1915, the Allies launched a series of attacks on German positions on the Western Front. The French troops advanced in Champagne and Artois, the British - at Loos (north of Lens - a city in northern France, the department of Pas de Calais). J. French involved 6 divisions, more than a hundred heavy guns and used chlorine poison gas. However, the offensive of the British troops, as well as the French, ended in failure, the allies could not noticeably push the German units. The total losses of the Anglo-French troops in this operation amounted to 242 thousand people, the German units lost almost half as much.
The lack of notable successes of the British in Western Europe led to a change in the commander of the British military units in Western Europe. In December 1915, instead of J. French, the British Expeditionary Force was headed by D. Haig, who remained in this post until the end of the war.
During the First World War, military aviation developed rapidly, a new type of military action appeared - air combat and attack on enemy territory from the air. Under these conditions, the British Isles became more vulnerable than ever before. From January 13, 1915, the Germans, using airships, repeatedly bombed various objects on British soil. Since the end of May 1915, London began to be subjected to raids, mainly at night. To combat the airships, the command of the United Kingdom used military aircraft. British air Force("Royal Flying Corps", and since 1918 - "Royal Air Force") were formed in May 1912 and on the eve of the war there were almost 200 aircraft. Germany used to destroy ground targets in the UK (often civilian targets) not only airships, but also bomber aircraft (since 1917). During the entire war, more than a thousand civilians in the United Kingdom died as a result of the actions of German airships and aircraft.
On the African continent in 1915, the liquidation of the German colonies continued. By July 1915, British and South African troops captured German South-West Africa (modern Namibia), and at the end of this year - the beginning of 1916, another German colony, Cameroon, was occupied. In February 1915, the military units of Great Britain were able to prevent the capture of the Suez Canal by the Turks. In the same year, in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, Turkish units and their Yemeni allies laid siege to the British base of Aden. In late 1915, the British Expeditionary Force, led by Major General Charles Townsend, failed near Baghdad. His twelve thousandth army (most of which were Indians) was forced to retreat to the small city of Kut-el-Amar, which was an important strategic point near Baghdad, where it was besieged by Turkish units.
As the military conflict dragged on, both warring factions made great efforts to enlist the support of new allies. On May 23, 1915, after lengthy negotiations, Italy joined the Entente countries, as a result of which the Italian-Austrian front appeared. The Central Powers in 1915 were also able to acquire a new ally - Bulgaria, which on October 14 of this year entered the war on the side of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey. Thus, the Quadruple Alliance was finally formed, headed by the Kaiser's Germany.
Inseparable unity with military organizational activities, the Communist Party intensified ideological work among the Soviet people and soldiers of the army and navy. At the same time, as always, she was guided by Lenin's position that the state "is strong when the masses know everything, can judge everything and go for everything consciously."
The need to further strengthen the ideological influence on the masses in 1944 was caused by a number of circumstances. Over the past years of the war, the political activity of the masses has significantly increased, their interest in ideological, military-political and international issues has increased. Under these conditions, the Party faced new, more responsible tasks of educating the Soviet people and intensifying the struggle against the bourgeois ideology alien to the Soviet people.
The importance of strengthening ideological and mass-political work was also determined by the fact that the population of the regions liberated from fascist occupation was deprived of truthful information for a long time. Through false propaganda, the enemy tried to poison the consciousness of the Soviet people, to hide from them the truth about the course of the war, about the power Soviet army and her victories. He tried in every possible way to undermine the friendship of the peoples of the USSR, the union of workers and peasants, and slandered the collective farm system.
During the war, the composition of party, Soviet, trade union cadres was significantly updated. In place of those who left for the front, new workers came to the leadership, many of whom did not yet have sufficient experience in managerial work, the necessary ideological hardening and theoretical training.
The importance of ideological work at the front and in the rear also increased in connection with the entry Soviet troops on the territory of the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe and the fulfillment by the Soviet people and their Armed Forces of their great liberation mission. Under these conditions, the military councils, commanders, political agencies and party organizations of the army in the field, while ensuring the success of offensive operations, had to prepare personnel for operations abroad in moral, political and ideological terms, achieve increased vigilance and organization, and strengthen the education of soldiers in the spirit of proletarian internationalism. . There was a problem of political work among the population of foreign countries, establishing the correct relationship between troops and local authorities. It was also necessary to intensify work among the enemy troops.
As before, the fight against the enemy on the ideological front was sharp and active. Organizing and directing it, the party proceeded from the premise that for complete victory over Nazi Germany it was necessary to achieve not only the military, but also the moral and political defeat of fascism.
The main content of the ideological work of the party in the second half of 1944 was the education of workers and soldiers in the spirit of Soviet patriotism, proletarian internationalism and friendship of peoples, propaganda of the great advantages of the socialist system, explanation of Lenin's teaching on the defense of the socialist Fatherland, the just nature of the war of the USSR and other countries of the anti-Hitler coalition against fascist Germany and its satellites, the goals of the liberation mission of the Soviet Armed Forces, exposing the ideology of fascism and the anti-people essence of imperialism. It was aimed at achieving a clear understanding by all home front workers, soldiers of the army in the field of the exceptional importance of the successful solution of the tasks facing them, to mobilize the will and energy of all Soviet people to further strengthen the economic, moral, political and military power of the country, increase assistance to the front, increasing attacks on the enemy.
In the ideological-political, agitational and mass work of party organizations among the working class, carried out under the slogan "End 1944 - the year of decisive victories - with new production achievements!" improving their quality, mastering new types of weapons. The importance of maximizing the use of all reserves and opportunities for increasing the production of coal, oil, the production of electricity, metal, fuel, to meet all the needs of the front and rear was emphasized. In this work, the “Appeals of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks for the 27th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution” were widely used. In those days, the illustrious teams of the two largest enterprises of the country's ferrous metallurgy - the Magnitogorsk and Kuznetsk metallurgical plants, which played a huge role in strengthening the military and economic power of the Soviet state, addressed all workers, employees, engineers and technicians of industry and transport of the Soviet Union in response to Appeals of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks to end 1944 with new production achievements.
Agitation and propaganda work has intensified among the collective farmers, workers of the MTS and state farms. It was aimed at further increasing the political and labor activity of rural workers, at developing socialist competition for early fulfillment of the state plan for grain deliveries and above-plan delivery of grain for the front. A vivid manifestation of its effectiveness was the wide scope of the mass movement unfolding in the country at the call of the collective farmers of Ukraine for the creation of a food fund for the Red Army. This movement resulted in a new demonstration of the patriotism of the Soviet people, their close unity around the party and the government.
Ideological work among the intelligentsia was aimed at mobilizing engineers and technicians, agronomists, teachers, doctors, workers in science, art and literature, as well as employees of enterprises and institutions to further strengthen the combat power of the Soviet Armed Forces, to expand assistance to the working class and collective farm peasantry in the future. the rise of the national economy, the fastest restoration of cities and villages destroyed by the fascist invaders, industry, transport, communications, Agriculture, on the development of science and culture, improvement of management.
In the second half of 1944, the Central Committee of the Party adopted a number of decisions on questions of ideological work. An important role in increasing its activity and effectiveness was played, in particular, by the decree of August 9 “On the state and measures to improve mass political and ideological work in the Tatar Party organization”. It noted that the Tatar Regional Committee, focusing its efforts on solving economic problems, paid little attention to the Marxist-Leninist studies of party, Soviet and Komsomol cadres, propaganda of the principles of collective farm construction, and the struggle against violations of labor discipline. The resolution stressed the need to strengthen the ideological and political education of the intelligentsia, to organize the scientific development of the history of Tataria, to eliminate the serious shortcomings and mistakes of a nationalist nature made by individual historians and writers. The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks paid special attention to the need to study and highlight the history of the joint struggle of the Russian, Tatar and other peoples of the USSR against foreign invaders, against tsarism and landowner-capitalist oppression, as well as the history of socialist transformations in Tataria during the years of Soviet power. Obliging the Tatar Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the party organization of the republic to eliminate the identified shortcomings in the shortest possible time, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks determined specific measures to raise the level of all ideological and mass-political work among the working people of Tataria.
The requirements and recommendations set out in the resolution, especially on the education of workers in the spirit of Soviet patriotism, the propaganda of the heroic past of the peoples of the Soviet Union, their revolutionary traditions, contributed to raising the level and effectiveness of propaganda and agitation in all the republics of the Soviet Union, and the further development of Soviet historical science. The importance of the class approach to assessing the events of the past was also pointed out at a conference of historians convened by the Party Central Committee in May 1944.
The Party's theoretical activity in the field of Marxist-Leninist philosophy, political economy, and scientific communism expanded and rose to a higher level. Implementing the requirements of the Decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted in May 1944 in connection with the publication of the third volume of the History of Philosophy, the scientific cadres of the party increased their attention to the study of Lenin's philosophical heritage. The development and popularization of Lenin's theoretical propositions on questions of political economy and the defense of the socialist Fatherland also intensified. In scientific research and propaganda work, the two-volume collection of selected works of V.I. propaganda of the ideological and theoretical heritage of V. I. Lenin was played by the printed and oral speeches of A. A. Zhdanov, M. I. Kalinin, I. V. Stalin, A. S. Shcherbakov, E. M. Yaroslavsky, as well as the works of M. B. Mitin, K. V. Ostrovityanova, B. N. Ponomarev, P. N. Pospelova, P. N. Fedoseeva and others.
The doctrine of the party, the alliance of workers and peasants, and the friendship of peoples received further development. Of great theoretical and practical importance were studies on the nature of Soviet patriotism, its sources, on the unprecedented feat of the working class, the collective farm peasantry, the intelligentsia, and the entire Soviet people in the fight against fascism.
On the basis of a generalization of the experience of the three years of the war, many provisions of the Marxist-Leninist teaching on war and the army, on the defense of the socialist Fatherland, were developed. In party documents, in the speeches of prominent figures of the party and the state, the most essential feature and feature of the Great Patriotic War - its consistently just, liberation character - was substantiated; functions to protect the gains of socialism, the interests of the international proletariat.
The documents of the party, the works of Soviet scientists revealed the anti-people, reactionary essence of fascism, the further aggravation of the crisis of its ideology, domestic and foreign policy, military organization, emphasized the heroic past and present of the peoples of the USSR in the struggle against foreign invaders. Academicians B. D. Grekov, N. S. Derzhavin, E. V. Tarle, M. N. Tikhomirov, I. P. Trainin, Corresponding Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences I. I. Mints, A. M. Pankratova, Professor M. V. Nechkina and others.
The Party showed constant concern for raising the level of teaching of the social sciences in higher educational institutions. In August 1944, an all-Union conference of heads of the departments of Marxism-Leninism, philosophy, political economy and history of the USSR was held on this issue. The results of this meeting were discussed at the interregional and regional theoretical seminars held in September for teachers of socio-economic disciplines.
Many party organizations, concentrating their efforts on the logistics of the front with everything necessary, somewhat weakened scientific and educational propaganda. This, in particular, led to some revival of religious survivals among part of the population. Therefore, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks carried out a number of measures to strengthen the propaganda of natural science knowledge among the working people. Ways to improve this work were outlined in a special resolution adopted by him on September 27, 1944 "On the organization of scientific and educational propaganda." “The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks considers,” the resolution noted, “that the propaganda of natural science knowledge among the masses is acquiring particular importance in the current conditions in further raising the cultural level of broad sections of the working people and overcoming the remnants of lack of culture, superstitions and prejudices.” The implementation of the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks contributed to the improvement of the propaganda of the achievements of science.
As an important means of political education of the masses, the Party made extensive use of lecture propaganda in combination with mass agitation work. A large amount of work was carried out by the lecture bureau established in July 1943 under the Committee for Higher School Affairs. Leading scientists, writers, cultural figures, prominent political and military workers were involved in reading public lectures. In December 1944, the Lecture Bureau of the Administration for Higher School Affairs under the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR was also created. Under the People's Commissariat of Education of the Ukrainian SSR, the Central Lecture Bureau began to function. In 1944, the number of lectures, reports, and talks held around the country increased by more than 3 times compared to 1942.
Prominent party and state figures took an active part in the ideological and political education of the working people and soldiers. By decision of the Central Committee, many leading party, Soviet and military workers, figures of science, literature and art conducted this work as part of the propaganda groups of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, as well as freelance lecturer groups and groups of speakers created under the Central Committee of the Allied Communist Parties. republics, regional committees, regional committees, city committees and district committees of the party. Local Party organizations have become more actively engaged in the selection and training of agitators, organizing their work at enterprises, construction sites, collective farms and state farms.
Party attached great importance further improvement of party education, arming the communists, and above all the cadres of party, Soviet, trade union and Komsomol workers, propagandists, as well as non-party activists, with Marxist-Leninist theory. Thanks to the efforts of the Central Committee of the Party, the Central Committee of the Communist Parties of the Union Republics, regional committees, regional committees, city committees and district committees, the system of party education has become more harmonious and efficient. An important role in the further improvement of the Marxist-Leninist training of party cadres was played by the one-year party schools created in the autumn of 1944 by decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks at the regional committees, regional committees and the Central Committee of the Communist Parties of the Union republics. They trained and retrained employees of city committees, district party committees and secretaries of primary party organizations. In most republics and regions, these schools began their work on November 1, 1944.
Mass political training of party and non-party activists was carried out in the evening universities of Marxism-Leninism, as well as in district and city party schools and rural political schools. In 1944 there were 25,000 such schools in the country. More than 500 thousand communists, Komsomol members, party, Soviet and economic workers were engaged in them. By the end of the year, there were 22,270 political schools in the Soviet Army, in which 380,000 members and candidate members of the party were studying.
In addition to political schools for young communists, a network of divisional schools of party activists with day and evening departments with a six-month training period was deployed here. By the end of 1944, there were 900 such schools in the army.
The state of the Marxist-Leninist training of party activists was discussed at a conference convened in December 1944 by the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, secretaries of the Central Committee of the Communist Parties of the Union republics, regional committees and regional committees, heads of organizational and instructor departments.
The educational network for the training and retraining of ideological cadres has been significantly expanded. In 1944 admission to the Correspondence Higher Party School was opened. Since December 1, more than 3,000 party workers have begun their studies there. The Lenin courses under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks resumed their work, at which the secretaries of city and district committees were trained. By decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the Central Newspaper Courses were opened. At the Higher Party School, courses were organized for lecturers of regional committees, regional committees and the Central Committee of the Communist Parties of the Union republics. At many regional committees and regional committees, as well as at the Central Committee of the Communist Parties of the union republics, there were six-month courses for propagandists and journalists. In 1944, 8,065 people graduated from such courses.
The scale and effectiveness of printed propaganda and agitation has been expanded. In 1944, 6,072 newspapers were published in the country with a total circulation of 20 million copies. As the occupied Soviet territory was liberated, the network of periodicals increased. The military press played an enormous role in the ideological, political and military education of Soviet soldiers. For them, the newspapers Krasnaya Zvezda and Krasny Fleet, the magazines Agitator and Propaganda of the Red Army, Notebook of an Agitator, Krasnoarmeyets, and nine special magazines were published. 821 newspapers were published at the fronts, fleets and districts. Their one-time circulation reached 3,195 thousand copies. 64 newspapers were published in national languages (979). As emphasized in the directive of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army of July 19, 1944, one of the most important tasks of the front-line press was "educating personnel in the spirit of constant readiness for offensive battles and the desire to finish off the enemy on his territory." At the same time, the newspapers of the fronts, fleets, flotillas, armies and formations widely covered the situation in the country and abroad, on the Soviet-German front and other theaters of the Second World War, explained the policy of the Communist Party and the Soviet government, showed the unity of the front and rear, the army and people, the further growth of the power of the Motherland.
The party also paid great attention to the development of such an important mass media and propaganda as radio. In December 1944, the 20th anniversary of Soviet radio broadcasting was celebrated, which was broadcast daily in more than 70 languages of the peoples of the country and in 28 foreign languages. Local radio broadcasting was also widely deployed, created in 126 republican, regional and regional centers, in more than 2000 districts.
In the ideological and cultural education of the people, the role of literature and art increased more and more. The books of Soviet writers published in 1944, as in the previous war years, were mainly devoted to the heroic history of the country, the selfless struggle of the Soviet people against the Nazi invaders. They mobilized the Soviet people to overcome the difficulties of wartime, strengthened their confidence in the final victory over the Nazi invaders.
One of the features of the works of literature and art created during this period was the comprehension of the major events of the past three years of the war. This, in particular, was typical for K. Simonov's story Days and Nights, dedicated to the heroic defense of Stalingrad, and A. Vek's story Volokolamsk Highway, which tells about the great battle near Moscow. Y. Chepurin's plays Stalingraders, Vs. Vishnevsky “At the walls of Leningrad”, L. Leonov “Invasion” and others. huge role in patriotic education people and their soldiers also played new works published in 1944 by O. Bergholz “They lived in Leningrad”, L. Leonov “The Capture of Velikoshumsk”, S. Sergeev-Tsensky “The guns are advanced”, L. Sobolev “Roads of victories”, A Surkov “Russia Punishing”, A. Tvardovsky “A Book about a Fighter”, A. Tolstoy “The Stories of Ivan Sudarev”, A. Fadeev “Leningrad in the days of the Siege”, K. Fedin “Date with Leningrad”, M. Sholokhov “They fought for the Motherland ”(chapters from the novel), S. Shchipachev“ House in Shusheshzhom ”, I. Ehrenburg“ War ”, journalistic articles by N. Tikhonov and other writers.
Soviet cinema has been enriched with new interesting works. The greatness of the feat of soldiers and home front workers was reflected in the films released in 1944: “Zoya”, “Man No. 217”, “Malakhov Kurgan”, “Great Land” and others. The Party continued to take measures to further improve the state of affairs in the field of cinematography. In August, the Artistic Council of the Committee for Cinematography under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was created. The measures envisaged by the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “On the production of film magazines and documentaries” adopted in May were successfully carried out. Soyuzkinozhurnaly, the magazines News of the Day, and Frontline Film Release gained wide popularity among the Soviet people.
The Communist Party carried on a great deal of ideological and political work among the population of the liberated regions. Despite all sorts of tricks, the enemy failed to ideologically disarm and morally corrupt the Soviet people who temporarily found themselves under Nazi occupation. They remained faithful to the party and the Soviet Motherland, to the ideals of socialism. Extensive agitation and mass work was carried out among the population of the occupied territory. Radio programs were regularly broadcast for him, leaflets, newspapers, magazines and brochures were delivered. Behind enemy lines, underground fighters and partisans intensified verbal agitation.
However, it was impossible to ignore the fact that the population of the occupied regions for a long time was deprived of the opportunity to regularly receive truthful information, was under the influence of hostile propaganda that tried to poison it with the poison of anti-Sovietism, private property, bourgeois nationalism and religion. In the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, in Moldavia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, the working people were subjected to bourgeois ideological indoctrination for decades, and during the war years they became the object of fascist and bourgeois-nationalist propaganda. Considering all these circumstances, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a number of special decisions on questions of ideological work in the liberated regions and republics. An important role in eliminating the consequences of enemy propaganda during the occupation of these areas was played by his decree “On the immediate tasks of the party organizations of the CP (b) of Belarus in the field of mass political and cultural and educational work among the population” dated August 9, 1944. In this document, the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) drew special attention of the party organizations of Belarus to the education of the working people of a socialist attitude towards labor and public property, to the strengthening of state discipline, to overcome the private property, anti-collective farm and anti-state sentiments implanted by the occupiers, manifested in certain groups of the population. It was proposed in agitation and propaganda work to make wider use of the facts of the bloody crimes of the Nazi invaders against the Belarusian people, to expose Hitler's predatory policy of enslavement and extermination of peoples, to increase the vigilance of the masses, to timely uncover and stop the subversive activities of enemy agents. The resolution set out specific instructions on the organization and content of agitation and propaganda work, improving its means, forms and methods, on improving the Marxist-Leninist training of party, trade union, Komsomol cadres and the intelligentsia, and improving the activities of the editorial offices of regional and district newspapers.
Fulfilling the Decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the party organizations of Belarus took measures to strengthen propaganda and agitation among the population, attracted their best forces to this work, as well as the most trained part of the intelligentsia. Under the Central Committee of the CP(b)B, regional committees, city committees and district committees, groups of speakers were created. Seminars of propagandists on the organization and ideological content of agitation and propaganda work were held in all regions. In addition, conferences of teachers with reports and lectures on theoretical topics were held in cities and district centers. By the end of the year, 2,830 people graduated from the existing courses under the Central Committee of the CP(b)B for the training of party, Soviet and propaganda workers.
In the autumn of 1944, a republican conference on issues of propaganda and agitation was held in Minsk. The secretaries of the regional committees of the CP(b) of Belarus for propaganda, heads of propaganda and agitation departments of city and district committees of the party, lecturers, heads of party offices and editors of newspapers took part in its work. The meeting discussed the first results of the work of party organizations on the implementation of the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “On the immediate tasks of the party organizations of the Communist Party of Belarus (b) of Belarus in the field of mass political, cultural and educational work among the population.” The participants of the meeting exchanged experience in conducting advocacy work and outlined measures for its further strengthening. P. K. Ponomarenko, Secretary of the Central Committee of the CP(b) of Belarus, spoke at the meeting.
On September 27, 1944, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution “On shortcomings in political work among the population of the western regions of the Ukrainian SSR”. It pointed out the slowness of the party organizations in these regions in developing mass political work among the population and its weak organization, especially in the countryside. There were shortcomings in the content and direction of ideological education. The resolution defined the tasks of party organizations to strengthen assistance to the front, restore and develop the economy, further unite the Soviet people, and educate them in the socialist spirit. The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks ordered the communists "to explain to the population that only the Soviet state, based on the friendship of peoples, provides the working people of the western regions of Ukraine with true freedom, material well-being and a rapid cultural upsurge."
The implementation of these instructions, the elimination of revealed shortcomings raised the mass political and cultural educational work in the liberated areas to a new level, contributed to the strengthening of the political and labor activity of the population in restoring the national economy, multiplying its contribution to the victory over the enemy. The party organizations of the western regions of Ukraine have widely launched political work among the masses, especially in the countryside, organized systematic information for the population about military-political and international events, explained to the working people the provisions of the Soviet Constitution, the foundations of the Soviet system, the rights and duties of citizens of the USSR, educated them in every possible way in the spirit of socialist attitude to social labor and public property, strict observance of state discipline. The activity of propaganda increased in exposing the Ukrainian bourgeois nationalists, their hostile activities aimed at disrupting the activities of the Soviet state. The Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Ukraine, regional committees, city committees and district committees of the party adopted effective measures to enhance the role of the press in the ideological and political education of the working people. Newspapers and magazines began to cover ideological issues more deeply and more broadly, to show more vividly the life of Soviet Ukraine and other republics of the USSR, the course of economic restoration and the development of culture in the western regions of the Ukrainian SSR.
A wide range of party and Soviet workers were involved in mass political work among the population of the liberated regions. They delivered political reports and talks at enterprises, institutions, and villages. A daily issue of leaflets with summaries of the Sovinformburo was organized. Radio broadcasting and the work of cultural and educational institutions have improved.
Particular attention was paid to work among the urban and rural intelligentsia. After the occupiers were expelled, party and Soviet bodies involved her in active participation in state, economic and cultural construction. Lectures and consultations were organized for her on the history of the party, the history of the USSR and the Ukrainian SSR, on Marxist-Leninist philosophy, literature and art.
Strengthening of ideological work in the western regions was facilitated by the decisions of the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CP(b)U held on November 22-24, 1944, which discussed the reports of the secretaries of the Volyn, Stanislav and Chernivtsi regional party committees on the implementation of the Decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of September 27, 1944.
Propaganda and agitation also gained wide scope in Moldavia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the Karelian-Finnish SSR. They were built taking into account the specific conditions of these republics and the characteristics of various segments of the population.
Further improvement of the ideological education of the masses produced results. The Soviet people rallied even more closely around their native Communist Party and increased their efforts in the fight against the enemy. Workers, collective farmers, engineers and scientists, by selfless labor in the rear, provided the front with everything necessary for conducting large-scale offensive operations.
Ideological work in the Armed Forces, in accordance with the decisions and instructions of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, was subordinated to the mobilization of Soviet soldiers to complete the liberation of the areas of the country occupied by the Nazis, to deliver the peoples of Europe from fascism and to ensure the final defeat of the enemy.
In connection with the beginning of the liberation of the peoples of Central and South-Eastern Europe, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks drew the attention of the military councils, commanders and political agencies to the fact that the enemy here would resist with the despair of the doomed, and demanded in this regard to develop in every possible way the perseverance in the personnel in performing combat missions, fortitude, courage and courage, the desire to finish off the wounded fascist beast in its lair as quickly as possible.
The education of soldiers in the spirit of proletarian internationalism was intensified on the basis of the requirements of the Decree of the State Defense Committee of April 10, 1944 and the instructions given at the meeting of members of the military councils of the fronts in the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on May 4, 1944. All means of propaganda and agitation were used to reveal the anti-people essence of capitalism and its offspring - fascism, in order to bring to the consciousness of every fighter the inadmissibility of identifying the ruling exploiting classes and bourgeois governments with the working people of those countries into whose territory the Soviet troops entered, the features and nature of the Armed Forces of the first socialist state, which considers it its sacred duty to provide assistance and support oppressed peoples in their struggle for social and national liberation.
Military councils and political agencies, guided by the instructions of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, in the regions of the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe liberated by the Soviet Army, established relations with the local administration, assisted it in restoring the economy, transport, housing destroyed by the invaders, organized reports for the population, lectures, rallies, conversations, published newspapers, distributed agitation and propaganda literature, which reflected the goals of the Soviet Armed Forces, their liberation mission and exposed the reactionary essence of fascism. In total, in 1944, the political organs of the Soviet Army published and distributed among the troops and the population of foreign countries almost 450 million copies of newspapers, leaflets, brochures, and posters.
Great importance was attached to familiarizing Soviet soldiers with the nature of the social and state system of the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe, with the traditions, culture and way of life of their peoples. So, for the soldiers of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, certificates were issued about Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Hungary. Conversations and press materials were devoted to these countries.
Documents such as the “Agreement on relations between the Soviet Commander-in-Chief and the Czechoslovak Administration after the entry of Soviet troops into the territory of Czechoslovakia” (dated May 8), “Statement of the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the USSR on the relations of the Soviet Union to Poland” (dated July 26) were widely used in mass propaganda work. ), “Note of the Soviet government to the government of Bulgaria” (dated September 5), as well as materials published in the newspaper “Pravda” and other central press organs.
The recommendations of the July 15 meeting of the Military-Political Propaganda Council at the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army with the participation of the secretaries of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks A. A. Zhdanov and A. S. Shcherbakov contributed to the wide development of this work. At the meeting, a report was heard and discussed by the head of the political department of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, Lieutenant-General A. N. Tevchenkov “On the state of party political work in the troops of the front outside the Soviet Union”. As a result of the discussion, the Main Political Directorate prepared a special directive, which was sent to the troops on July 19. It summarized the first experience of the work of political agencies and party organizations in the new conditions, revealed shortcomings and indicated ways to eliminate them, contained recommendations for further strengthening the political and moral state of the personnel, increasing the vigilance and organization of soldiers in every possible way, and the personal responsibility of each of them for the assigned work.
Of great importance in strengthening the ideological and political, including international, education of Soviet soldiers was the further improvement of work with the command and political staff of the army and navy. This was pointed out by the Main Political Directorates of the Red Army and the Navy in a number of their directives.
With an increase in the ideological level, an increase in the scope of propaganda and agitation, their effectiveness grew, beneficial effect on personnel, on the state of combat readiness of troops and fleets.
Thus, the Communist Party, taking into account the new tasks facing the Soviet people and their Armed Forces in the second half of 1944, significantly intensified ideological work, aiming it at mobilizing the masses for the successful solution of political, economic and military tasks, for the victorious end of the struggle against fascist German invaders.
Soviet rear during the war. In the fight against the German invaders, not only military formations, but also all home front workers took an active part. They provided the front with everything necessary: weapons, military equipment, ammunition, fuel, as well as food, footwear, clothing, etc. Despite the difficulties, the Soviet people managed to create a powerful economic base that ensured victory. IN a short time the national economy of the USSR was reoriented to the needs of the front.
The occupation of the most important economic regions of the USSR placed the country's national economy in extremely difficult conditions. Before the war, 40% of the country's population lived in the occupied territory, 33% of the gross output of the entire industry was produced, 38% of grain was grown, about 60% of pigs and 38% of cattle were kept.
In order to urgently transfer the national economy to a military footing, the country introduced compulsory labor service, military norms for the issuance of industrial goods and food products to the population. Everywhere an emergency order of work was established for state institutions, industrial and commercial organizations. Working overtime has become common practice.
On June 30, 1941, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a national economic plan for the third quarter of 1941, which provided for the mobilization of the country's material and labor resources to meet the needs of defense as soon as possible. The plan provided for the urgent evacuation of the population, institutions, industries and property from areas threatened by the German occupation.
Through the efforts of the Soviet people, the Urals, Western Siberia and Central Asia were transformed into a powerful military-industrial base. By the beginning of 1942, most of the plants and factories evacuated here had launched the production of defense products.
Military destruction, the loss of a significant part of the economic potential led to the fact that in the second half of 1941 in the USSR there was a critical decline in production volumes. The transfer of the Soviet economy to martial law, which was completed only in mid-1942, had a positive effect on increasing the output and expanding the range of military products.
Compared with 1940, the gross industrial output in the Volga region increased 3.1 times, in Western Siberia - 2.4 times, in Eastern Siberia- 1.4 times, in Central Asia and Kazakhstan - 1.2 times. In the all-Union production of oil, coal, iron and steel, the share of the eastern regions of the USSR (including the Volga region) ranged from 50 to 100%.
The growth of military production with a reduction in the number of workers and employees was achieved through the intensification of labor, an increase in the length of the working day, overtime work and the strengthening of labor discipline. In February 1942, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued an Order "On the mobilization of the able-bodied urban population for work in production and construction during the wartime period." Men from 16 to 55 years old and women from 16 to 45 years old were mobilized from among those not employed in state institutions and enterprises. The labor resources of the USSR in 1944 amounted to 23 million people, half of them were women. Despite this, in 1944 the Soviet Union produced 5.8 thousand tanks and 13.5 thousand aircraft per month, while Germany produced 2.3 and 3 thousand, respectively.
The measures taken were supported and understood by the population. During the war, the citizens of the country forgot about sleep and rest, many of them overfulfilled labor standards by 10 or more times. The slogan: "Everything for the front, everything for the victory over the enemy!" became essentially universal. The desire to contribute to the victory over the enemy manifested itself in various forms of labor competition. It became an important moral stimulus for the growth of labor productivity in the Soviet rear.
The achievements of the Soviet economy during the Great Patriotic War would have been impossible without the labor heroism of the Soviet people. Working in incredibly difficult conditions, not sparing their strength, health and time, they showed stamina and perseverance in completing tasks.
Socialist competition for the production of above-plan products has acquired an unprecedented scope. A feat can be called the heroic work of young people and women who did everything necessary to defeat the enemy. In 1943, a movement of youth brigades unfolded for the improvement of production, the fulfillment and overfulfillment of the plan, for the achievement of high results with fewer workers. Thanks to this, the production of military equipment, weapons and ammunition has significantly increased. There was a continuous improvement of tanks, guns, aircraft.
During the war, aircraft designers A. S. Yakovlev, S. A. Lavochkin, A. I. Mikoyan, M. I. Gurevich, S. V. Ilyushin, V. M. Petlyakov, A. N. Tupolev created new types of aircraft, superior to the German ones. New models of tanks were developed. The best tank of the period of the Second World War - T-34 - was designed by M.I. Koshkin.
The workers of the Soviet rear felt like participants great battle for the independence of the Fatherland. For the majority of workers and employees, the appeals became the law of life: “Everything for the front, everything for the victory over the enemy!”, “Work not only for yourself, but also for a comrade who has gone to the front!”, “In work - like in battle!” . Thanks to the dedication of the workers of the Soviet rear, in a short time the country's economy was transferred to martial law in order to provide the Red Army with everything necessary to achieve victory.
