World War II is the bloodiest massacre in modern history. She claimed millions of lives, was marked by incredible cruelty and global destruction. It involved 62 countries! Victory in this brutal war around the world brought Soviet soldiers.
The results of the Great Patriotic War for the USSR and other states are presented in the article.
End of the great battle
The night of May 9, 1945 was, oddly enough, quiet. And it was only audible how the Soviet radio stations worked. For a long time, they practically did not interrupt their work, because people were looking forward to news from Berlin, which soon gave them hope for a new happy life without war.
About 2 hours and 10 minutes on the air of the radio station, finally, the message was heard, which was waiting for more than a million people. Those words will long remain in the memory of parents, their children, grandchildren ... "The victory of the Soviet army!" - that's what everyone heard on the air then. The Soviet people could survive and defeat Nazi Germany.
The actual end of World War II
Having recovered from the good news, after 107 days, the Soviet people learn that the flame of war has finally been extinguished between all enemy countries. The Second World War is over.
When did the Second World War end? Why this question, if everyone already knows that the Act on the surrender of Germany was signed on May 8, 1945 , and Victory Day is celebrated on May 9? However, this day was not yet considered the end of the great battle of 62 states. According to international law, a war is considered to be finished only when all opposing countries conclude a peace treaty among themselves.
If you look at the war between the Soviet Union and Germany from a legal point of view, then in fact you had to rejoice in the victory after 10 long years. The war was officially ended on January 25, 1955, when a decree was signed to end the confrontation, and the USSR and Germany began peaceful relations.
Such an incredible gap between the actual and legal end of hostilities did not happen by chance. There were good reasons for that. Firstly, the defeat of fascism led to the fact that Germany did not have a government. Secondly, after the war, this country split into two separate states - the capitalist FRG and the socialist GDR, which opposed each other.
Liberation of the world from Nazism
What were the results of the Great Patriotic War? Everyone knows about them firsthand. Everyone once enthusiastically listened to the stories of veterans. However, until the end, no one realizes how everything really was and what the price of victory over Nazi Germany was.
The Soviet army dealt a crushing blow to fascism, as a result of which it saved most of humanity from enslavement. It came at a price. Scientists estimate that up to 27 million people, mostly men, died. As a result, there were 2 times more women, and the birth rate fell dramatically.
Nevertheless, the authority of Stalin and the USSR throughout the world soared to unprecedented heights. People were full of hope for a bright future, enthusiastically undertook to rebuild cities and villages, to raise the country from ruins.
Arms race
Germany, Japan and Italy were completely disarmed, they ceased to pose a military threat to other states. The political situation in the world has changed; in fact, it has become bipolar: on the one hand, the USSR, on the other, the USA. These states began a tough confrontation, which resulted in a crazy arms race and cold war.
Different opinions
Initially, the results of the Great Patriotic War, which were described in each document, newspaper or book, differed from each other and caused a lot of discussion about this:
- In Soviet historical documents it was said that the victory of the USSR over Germany was a world-wide historical event.
- Western countries increasingly focused on the negative consequences of the war, which affected the economy, culture, large-scale production. But the greatest attention, of course, was paid to the huge number of victims.
- Churchill expressed his opinion that the victory was completely meaningless, although during the course of hostilities he said the exact opposite.
- US officials said that victory at such a price did not justify the funds that were spent on it.
A little later, in the 80s, when perestroika began , in the USSR the war of 1941-1945 was no longer called domestic. They said that it was just a bloody battle between two countries, totalitarian regimes.
Since the war ended, as many as three generations of people have already been born on our planet. The history of the bloody battle gradually fades into the shadows. You cannot refuse the history of your homeland; you cannot forget your past. Everyone knows that the most precious and valuable that has been preserved from Soviet history are those millions of people who believed in good, truth, and victory. They had to go through pain, suffering, loss. They had a difficult share, but they hoped that someday the nightmare would end and they would live a better life ... And their dream came true, they not only won, they lifted the country from the ashes and built a superpower.
Undoubtedly, nobody will ever forget the price of victory, those fallen soldiers and ordinary civilians who died in the desire to be free, to have a future. And May 9th is a tribute to the fact that they won. This is a holiday, albeit with tears in his eyes.
Summary
If you briefly list the results of World War II, the list will look like this:
- Demographic - according to various studies, 20 to 27 million people died, almost the entire male population was exterminated, and fertility dropped sharply.
- Economic - the country was destroyed, cities and villages lay in ruins, the standard of living of the population fell to a critically low level, hunger came.
- Social - the lack of schools, hospitals, libraries, cultural life. All this required restoration.
- Geographical - a significant expansion of the territorial borders of the USSR: the annexation of Transcarpathia, the Kaliningrad region, part of the Murmansk region, Southern Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Lithuanian Klaipeda and Tuva HP as autonomy.
- Political - The Country of Soviets has gained enormous weight in the political arena, has become a superpower. Confrontation of the USSR and the USA. The beginning of the arms race and the Cold War.
Thus, the Great Patriotic War had serious consequences not only for the USSR, but for the whole world.