Free Essay Sample «Stalin's Halt »

Introduction

The  II  world  war  was  considered  and  is  still considered to  be  the  worst  conflict   between the  militaries  from different   European states. This war lasted for a period of seven years. The  involved   states  were  the  great powers  and  eventually they  formed  two opposing camps  which  fought  for the  rest of the remaining period. The two alliances of the military were Axis and the Allies. Allies   are  described  as  the  states  that  combined their  effort  in  opposing  the powers  of  Axis. Among  the  Allies included  who in  this  case  were anti-German were  Poland, UK  and  France. Later, the US , British  empire  and  the Union  of the Soviet Socialist Republics assumed the control  of  the  Allies  power camp. Axis  powers who were  also  known as  Axis nations  were  those  countries  that  were  opposed  to  Allies  in  the  course  of  the  second  world war. These constituted Germany, Italy and Japan. Later  they  managed  to  rule  the  territories dominated by  large  parts  of  the Africa, Asia  and  Europe. The  second  world  war  as  it is   known  by the current  generation was the  most  brutal ever  as well  as  the largest war  in the  history  of the mankind.

This  has been  a  key  area of  study in institutions of  higher learning  such  as  military  scholars as well as  the historians. On the other hand, there exist a generation which  has grown without having clue of what happened during the Second World War. This essay  intends  to discuss  into details  the causes  of the   second  world  war as  well as   the social,  political  and military implication of the war.  Again the essay will   discuss when and why the Warsaw Uprising began. Of  essence  today  is  that  there  is  there  is  a lot of lessons  that  the  current  generation  can  learn from  the  second ward war II. This can range from arms professionalism, global strategy, preparedness of the military during the war just to mention but a few. It is worth noting that the II world war was triggered in 1938 when Hitler decided to unite all the people who were speaking Germany language. It is here that he demanded that Germany people be liberated in the Czechoslovakia. Before   breaking out of the II world war, Neville went to Germany in an attempt to settle his people. It is  after 1939 after the  pact  signed  between Germany  and  Russia   that  war on  Germany was  declared  by  both France  and Britain. The years that followed were dominated by wars which were engaged by various states until 1945 when Japan surrendered and her surrender was accepted by MacArthur. This is the year that the II world war was officially terminated.

Discussion

This  essay  has   given  an  introduction  regarding the  period within  which  the  II  world  war  took  place. Of essence is to make sure  that  the  reader  of  this  essay  has  got  a solid understanding of the  whole scenario. As mentioned in the introductory part. The discussion  will primarily concentrate on the major events that took place on during the seven years that  dominated the  worst and  major conflict  between the  two camps  that  were fighting each other. The essay now embarks on the discussion of what has been introduced in the previous chapter. In this  section, the  writer embarks or  rather  starts  by  unearthing what  indeed  was  the  root  cause of  the  war in question  before  embarking  on the other  issues that follows.

The   root cause of the II world war was four folds. This is because the battle that occurred in Europe was  mainly triggered  by  the  act  of  Poland suddenly being  attacked by the  Germany while  the  one that took  place in Asia was  started  when China was being  attacked  by the Japanese. Other than these  two  there are  other chain  of events that  are  believed  to have caused world  war 2  and  the  efforts  to find  out  how  this  tragedy  could have  been  prevented  has been done  in vain. The immediate causes of the second world war  are  as  follows:

• Invasion of Poland by Hitler hence bringing Great Britain and France in to war.
• Taking control of Manchuria by Japan hence triggering China into war.
•   The attack of US fleet by Japan made US to be involved into war.
• The sudden attack of the USSR by German brought into war the Soviet Union.

Other  than  the  above mentioned causes, the  following  discussion touches on  the  other possible  root  causes  of  the  world war II.

Treaty versatility failures 

The  agreement which was signed  post  world  war  I  was a total  rejection  by the Germany  due  to the fact  that the  agreement treated  them ruthlessly. The  reason why the  German people  claimed  that  they  were being  treated  ruthlessly  is  three  folds :

• Severe restriction of the size of the German’s military.
• German loosing its territories to the European states.
• The order of paying $33 billion for compensating the damage made during the war.

These are the reasons why the German people were left with grievances. Since this affected German to an extent that unemployment became unbearable, Hitler decided to breach the treaty that was signed initially.  He did this by re-arming his nation and eventually threatening the neighboring states. This was a clear indication that he was ready for war.   

Isolationism, League of the Nations Failure and Appeasement

Treaty of adaptability was being considered as being unjust by those people from Germany who had their mind set that they had been defeated during the World War I. This idea was spread by Ludendorff and Field Marshals. However they are the ones who told the government to get a ceasefire. Although  the  agreement or rather the  signed  treaty  didn’t  prevent  the  II world  war  from happening, the  great  powers  were  not willing to uphold  the  provisions of the  treaty. The flexibility of the  agreement  became null  and  void  when  the German  announced  that  it  had  already started  mobilizing  its  military to the size of France’s military. Eventually as a result II world war was initialized by West which since they did not understand the extent of the German’s military re-armament as well as Hitler’s aspiration.

The other thing is that some of the Western countries like Denmark had already surrendered their arm and  therefore  German  had  indentified  this as  a weakness and  she  would take  the  advantage to reach  Norway.

When the I world war was ended, the nations which emerged as victorious formed a  league which  would  be used  as  a tool for  airing issues regarding aggression  of a  nation against another. During this period, the United States was not a member while the Soviet Union became a member in 1935. It is in the year 1933 that Hitler became the leader of the German. It is  here  that  he  started to go against the agreements made  initially by reaming  his country hence being  ready  for  the second world war[6]. Again, the Mussolini who was an Italian dictator started to invade Ethiopia. The efforts  to impose  sanctions  on  the Italy  by the  League did  not  bear  any  fruits  and  Italy  was  therefore  in a position to occupy  Ethiopia  in year 1936. 

An alliance with USSR was formed by France due to the manner in which the rearmament of the Germany shocked them. On seeing this, Germany was re-militarized but this time round there was no war that was experienced. The two groups resolved to keep peace. Hitler was motivated by his success and as a result he continued to reinforce his country by re-militarizing and rearming them.

When both the French and the British scheduled a meeting with Mussolini and Hitler, Hitler was increasing load on the Czechs while at the same time the war looked looming. The fact that Germany reclaimed its Memel port from Lithuania was followed by the strain from Poland regarding Polish Corridor as well as Gdansk. After Hitler who was the leader of Germany realizing that he could only achieve his objectives by force, he decided to send his soldiers to the Polish border in 1939.   

The policy of isolation as far as united state  was  concerned  assumed  that there  were  no conflict  which  could  occur outside  their borders and  therefore remained  isolated  from the  rest of the world. 

Nationalism, Collective Ideology, Fascism and Totalitarianism

There was  excess fear of  Bolshevism  which was  intentionally  encouraged by  hardliners  who were  considered as  nationalist such as  Mussolini and  Hitler. It is at this period that Hitler saw it necessary to do away with the Bolshevism as well as the Jews. Both Germany and Italy were  motivated  to involve themselves in war because  they  believed  that war was acceptable to use  it  in achieving objectives. Germany also wanted to bring together the dominant race which was German.

Expansionism

It  is  believed that  Italy, Germany and Japan to enslave  after  conquering  new states  and  eventually eliminate  those who  lived there. The expansionist of Japanese, Hitler and Mussolini are believed to have been the root cause of the war.

Instability and Economic Depression

The economic depression in the year 1929 was a key factor in the cause of the war. This  saw  the  economy of  the  Germany to  its  knees  hence making  the  rate of unemployment in Germany to increase significantly. The people  of  Germany  believed that  their leader  wanted  to deliver them  from the  problems  which they  were currently experiencing. However, this was not the case. The motives of the Hitler were to dominate most of the European countries and in addition the entire world.  Again, he also wanted to eliminate or rather bring to an end the agreement of Versailles. To  realize  all these  motives , it was important for him  to put Russia and  France  to their  knees while  still at the camp of  both Britain and Italy.

The great depression created climate that allowed dictators such as Hitler to rise to the powerful positions. Since Japan has got no resources for its industries, it was necessary to attack states which at that time had resources which Japan was interested in.

Entangling Alliances

France and Britain’s treaty with Poland increased what could have been otherwise considered as a local war or something bigger than that. Had they decided to go against their agreement as far as  the war in Europe was concerned, the end results  would have been a serious war between Russia  and  Germany.

The uprising of the Warsaw

The infamous uprising of the Warsaw can be identified as the armed resistance during of World War II. This involved the liberation of  the  Warsaw from  the  rule  of  Germany and the  rule  of  Nazi  by the Polish Home Army. The period which it started is in August 1944 as a part of Operation Tempest. Another thing to  consider  here and  is of great significance is that the Polish soldiers resisted  the  forces  which  were  being  led  by  Germans. This resistance continued for a period of two months which was until second October. Polish soldiers experienced a lot of looses which was executed by German soldiers inform of mass execution. This resulted in a lot of soldiers from the Polish side bbeing killed and others being seriously wounded. As a result,  the  German soldiers  who  were acting on the  orders  given by  the Hitler  had destroyed the  city  to almost nothing during the urban combat.

The uprising of Warsaw started when the Soviet army approached Warsaw. The Soviet soldiers apparently were powerful since they were nearing the Vistula River after fierce fighting. However they were not in a position to go further in the line of uprising. This resulted in Stalin being accused that he was not for the success of the uprising. To this far, there were no facts to prove that the Home Soldiers  were accomplice of the  Soviet army.

The Home Army's plans

The initial plans of the Home Army of the   uprising national which in this case would bring an association with the British power, was identified to have changed in 1943 when it emerged that the Red Army had plans to force Germans out of the Poland. The moment when Katyn massacre was discovered, the Polish –Soviet relationship was soured and it was a bit hard to reconcile. This  saw  the  continuation of  the  plans  despite  the fact that there  were doubts  regarding the military  intelligence regarding  major uprising.

The scenario came to a head as Operation Bagration at that moment the Soviet offensive had reached the Polish border. This triggered the Poles to make a wise decision. They had two options; either not to involve themselves in the uprising and approach Soviet misinformation relating  to Armia Krajowa as ineffective cowards and collaborator else risk  the  troubles with  Soviet support by  involving  itself in the uprising  in  the  current political scenario. This  decision  became  more  and  more urgent after realization that if  there  were  successful Soviet-polish cooperation in  saving various  towns, in most cases the  Soviet elements who  followed had to either shoot or  send the  officers  who resisted to join  the Soviet Army  to the Gulag.

It was  in 1944   that the planning  which was  being executed by the Germans which required  that the Warsaw  to be a  key  ingredient  in  serving the tough position of the area  and to  be held  no matter what happed. Again, Germans had already set up their soldiers in the area. The failed plan to assassinate Hitler slowed down the process. However, by the end of 1944, the soldiers of the Germany had recovered. It is during the same  year that Hans Frank  who  in  this  case was  the  general government governor announced  that there would  be a meeting  of  all the men  who were between  the age  of  17 to 65  in various venues of Warsaw. This plan envisioned the Poles to construct defenses for Wehrmacht around the city. This move was viewed by the Home Army as a move planned towards reducing the effect of the underground forces. This led the underground forces asking the Warsaw to pay no attention to it.

Soviet official misinformation’s tried to depict that the Polish underground as not fighting the common enemy. When Soviet solders were approaching the Warsaw  in 1944, the radio  stations owned  by the  Soviet  issued  a harsh rule  that demanded  complete national  uprising in Warsaw so as  to demolish  or rather interfere with  the communication lines of  the Germans which  were still on  the  Vistula’s bank. In July 1944, the outskirts of Warsaw were reached by the first Soviet units. However, they were counterattacked by the German soldiers. This resistance had been eventually trampled on by Germany by August impacting almost 95 percent rate of casualty on the Soviet forces who had been encircled. Finally the Polish cabinet held in London approved the plan regarding the Warsaw uprising. What followed is that the Home Army forces were ordered to mobilize in Warsaw area on August of the same Year. This resulted due to the ignored order in support of the reinforcement construction.

This shows that the decision regarding mobilization resulted in key consequences for the relations as far as Soviet Union is concerned. The  failure  to consult  Stalin  in the  uprising  made him to suspect that a strategy  was  being deployed by his  allies  from Western. As a result, both Soviet and Polish Home Army were jockeying for alignment of regional politics. Polish Home Army were for a pro –Western Polish government while Soviet were to form a Polish Communist regime.

The entering of Warsaw by the Red Army

The efforts  of  the  red  Army was not in  vain  since they  finally  got  a  chance  to  cross Vistula River. This was in early 1945. After they managed to do this, of interest to them was to get the Festung Warschau ruins without any opposition from Germans. It is thereafter that the German’s units erected negligible conflict in the Warsaw. However, the forces of the Soviet overcame the German forces even without much effort. This move was aided when the High command of Germany decided to redeploy fourth SS Panzer soldiers from the area of the Warsaw to Budapest.

Stalin had particularly disowned the supply of planes right of entry to his airfield, effectively getting rid of assistance for those dying and fighting in the Warsaw. There has always been notion that the Soviet soldiers had a deliberate plan when they failed to advance to Warsaw and assist the Polish uprising which was made by Stalin so as to take the advantage or rather for opportunistic reasons. Again, the situation of the military in the Vistula had changed towards August. 

Conclusion

This essay is very important to the reader as the writer has started by giving an introduction of the World War II. Of essence in this essay is those who were involved as well as those who initialized or rather triggered the war. In the discussion part  the  essay  concentrated  to what the causes of  the world  war II  and  how  this  is linked to the first  world  war. Here, the  writer come  out very  clear  that the in the second  world  war, there were  two camps  which involved  themselves in the war as  well as  those who supported each side. Again, still in the discussion body, the writer has talked about both the Warsaw well as the Stalin.