how important was lend lease to the soviet union how important was lend lease to the soviet union

History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. About $11 billion in war matriel was sent to the Soviet Union under that program. Mackenzie, Hector. But the speed at which Britain in particular was willing and able to provide aid to the Soviet Union, and at which the Soviet Union was able to put foreign equipment into frontline use, is still an underappreciated part of this story. Materiel delivered under the act was supplied at no cost, to be used until returned or destroyed. Tens of thousands of agricultural machines, such as tractors and threshers, were destroyed or captured. If Germany defeated the Soviet Union, the most significant front in Europe would be closed. The Soviet Northern Fleet was also a major and early recipient of British Hurricanes, receiving those flown by No. And though rapid increases in tank firepower would soon render the 40mm two-pounder main gun of the Matilda and Valentine suitable for use on light tanks only, the armor protection of these British models put them firmly in the heavy and medium categories, respectively. [73][74], Reverse Lend-Lease was the supply of equipment and services to the United States. Fourth protocol period from July 1, 1944 (signed April 17, 1945), formally ended May 12, 1945, but deliveries continued for the duration of the war with Japan (which the Soviet Union entered on August 8, 1945) under the "Milepost" agreement until September 2, 1945, when Japan capitulated. Both were superior to all but the Soviet KV-1 and T-34 in armor, and indeed even their much maligned winter cross-country performance was comparable to most Soviet tanks excluding the KV-1 and T-34. On the Allied side, there was almost total reliance upon American industrial production, weaponry and especially unarmored vehicles purpose-built for military use, vital for the modern army's logistics and support. For example, in the 4 Ottawa Protocol (July 1, 1944, to June 30, 1945) the USSR requested 240 B-17 bombers and 300 B-24 bombers, none of which were supplied. The Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937 intended to keep the United States out of war, by making it illegal for Americans to sell or transport arms, or other war materials to warring nationsneither to aggressors, nor to defenders. The Lend-Lease law was adopted by the U.S. Congress on March 11, 1941; according to it, all the supplied vehicles, arms, equipment and materials were not to be paid for should they be destroyed. The others were never found. This gold was salvaged in 1981 and 1986. Few Americans objected to Soviet aid until 1943. Nearly $8billion (equivalent to $124billion today) worth of war material was provided to U.S. forces by its allies, 90% of this sum coming from the British Empire. I will quote at length: [11] Isolationists were strongly opposed, warning it would result in American involvement with what was considered by most Americans as an essentially European conflict. While in April 1944 Congress were briefed by the Foreign Economic Administrator, Leo T Crowley; Just as the RAF's operations against Germany and the invasion coasts would not have been possible on their present scale without lend-lease so the United States Eighth and Ninth air forces daylight missions from Britain would not have been possible without reverse lend-lease. How important was the Lend Lease Act for the Soviet Union - Quora [35] At the end of November 1941, only 670 Soviet tanks were available to defend Moscowthat is, in the recently formed Kalinin, Western, and Southwestern Fronts. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. While the Matilda Mk II and Valentine tanks supplied by the British were certainly inferior to the Soviets homegrown T-34 and KV-1, it is important to note that Soviet production of the T-34 (and to a lesser extent the KV series), was only just getting seriously underway in 1942, and Soviet production was well below plan targets. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. [32] In September 1943, he was promoted to Undersecretary of State, and Leo Crowley became director of the Foreign Economic Administration, which was given responsibility for Lend-Lease. Some idea of the scope of economic collaboration can be had from the fact that from the beginning of 1942 through 1945 Canada, on her part, furnished the United States with $1,000,000,000 to $1,250,000,000 in defense materials and services. Check out A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn on Amazon https://amzn.to/3lS8oVMLike & Subscribe for Daily US H. To address balance of payment issues between the US and Canada, and to prevent the US monopolizing British orders, the Hyde Park Declaration of 20 April 1941[28] made weapons and components manufactured in Canada for Britain eligible for Lend-Lease financing as if they had been manufactured in the US. About half of these were delivered by sea via the North Atlantic or were flown across the South Atlantic Ocean to the USSR via North Africa. Courses on the British tanks for Soviet crews started during November as the first tanks, with British assistance, were being assembled from their in-transit states and undergoing testing by Soviet specialists. Lend-Lease Act: Definition, Ukraine & World War II - HISTORY newsletter for the best of the past, delivered every Monday and Thursday. The country's agriculture was in a difficult situation. How Much of What Goods Have We Sent to Which Allies? [53] Soviet Ambassador Maxim Litvinov significantly contributed to the Lend-Lease agreement of 1941. Roosevelt approved $1billion in Lend-Lease aid to Britain at the end of October 1941. Member since Oct 2007. But it cannot be denied that the Americans sent us materiel without which we could not have formed our reserves or continued the war. The total amount that Canada agreed to pay under the new arrangement came to about $76,800,000, which was some $13,870,000 less than the United States had spent on the facilities. uboat.net - Fighting the U-boats - The Lend-Lease Act History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. Lend Lease was pretty much strategic charity. The first American tanks and planes reached Egypt in time to be used in the second British drive into Libya which started on November 2, 1941. Report from Mikoyan to Stalin and Molotov regarding Lend-Lease [6], After the Fall of France during June 1940, the British Commonwealth and Empire were the only forces engaged in war against Germany and Italy, until the Italian invasion of Greece. In 194546, the value of Reciprocal Aid from New Zealand exceeded that of Lend-Lease, though in 194243, the value of Lend-Lease to New Zealand was much more than that of Reciprocal Aid. Alerts and Messages for U.S. visitors to Russia. Lend-lease will be considered, first, as a method of wartime supply allocation; second, as a method of accounting which may create inter- . Supplies that arrived after the termination date were sold to the United Kingdom at a large discount for 1.075 billion, using long-term loans from the United States, which were finally repaid in 2006. Lend-lease was a system of U.S. assistance to the Allies in World War II.It was based on a bill of March, 11, 1941, that gave the president of the United States the right to sell, transfer into property, lease, and rent various kinds of weapons or materials to those countries whose defense the president deemed vital to the defense of the United States itself. Exmo. Rather, Lend-Lease was designed to serve America's interest in defeating Nazi Germany without entering the war until the American military and public was prepared to fight. World War II | Facts, Summary, History, Dates, Combatants, & Causes In fact, for a brief period during December 1941, the relative importance of British aid increased well beyond levels planned by the Allies as a result of American reaction to the outbreak of war with Japan; some American equipment destined for the Soviet Union was actually unloaded from merchant vessels and provided to American forces instead. Lend-Lease assistance to the USSR. Much of the American fuel was added to lower-grade Soviet fuel to produce the high-octane fuel needed by modern military aircraft. The 1947 money value of the supplies and services amounted to about $11 billion. In th. While much of the documentary evidence remains classified secret in the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense and the Russian State Archive of the Economy, Western and Russian researchers have been able to gain access to important, previously unavailable firsthand documents. The United States used lend-lease to induce recipients to the American way of thinking, especially regarding the economy and free-market trade. 106124, Albert L. Weeks The Other Side of Coexistence: An Analysis of Russian Foreign Policy, (New York, Pittman Publishing Corporation, 1974), p. 94, quoted in Albert L. Weeks, Russia's Life-Saver: Lend-Lease Aid to the U.S.S.R. in World, Zaloga (Armored Thunderbolt) pp. The supplies dispersed under the Lend-Lease Act ranged from tanks, aircraft, ships, weapons and road building supplies to clothing, chemicals and food. [63] The production of heavy bombers in the United States until 1945 amounted to more than 30,000. About 15 percent of the aircraft of the 6th Fighter Air Corps defending Moscow were Tomahawks or Hurricanes. As early as October 12, 1941, the Soviet 126th Fighter Air Regiment was operating with Tomahawks bought from the United States by Britain. And they would have been perpetually hungry without American canned meat and fats. It is obvious from this information that during the period of October 1, 1941, to May 1, 1944, the U.S.A., under Lend-Lease, Sent the Soviet Union arms, equipment, materials, and food totaling $5,357,300,000 and weighing 8,514,000 long tons, not including the weight of 92 delivered ships or the weight of 3333 airplanes, which arrived by air. Extrapolating from available statistics, researchers estimate that British-supplied tanks made up 30 to 40 percent of the entire heavy and medium tank strength of Soviet forces before Moscow at the beginning of December 1941, and certainly made up a significant proportion of tanks available as reinforcements at this critical point in the fighting. WWII lend-lease: was the US aid that helpful? (I) "I want to tell you what, from the Russian point of view, the president and the United States have done for victory in this war," Stalin said. The lend/lease military aid program, and the Matilda's role in it, was hardly decisive to the Soviet Union's subsequent victories on the Eastern or Western front. For European Recovery (June 23, 1997) - Library of Congress - Loc.gov When poll participants were asked their party affiliation, the poll revealed a political divide: 69% of Democrats were unequivocally in favor of Lend-Lease, whereas only 38% of Republicans favored the bill without qualification. A total of $50.1 billion (equivalent to $719billion in 2021) worth of supplies was shipped, or 17% of the total war expenditures of the U.S.[2] In all, $31.4 billion went to the United Kingdom, $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union, $3.2 billion to France, $1.6 billion to China, and the remaining $2.6 billion to other Allies. How much Soviet equipment was Lend-Lease? In practice, very little equipment was in usable shape for peacetime uses. Even before the United States entered World War II in December 1941, America sent arms and equipment to the Soviet Union to help it defeat the Nazi invasion. But Was He Drugged Into Confessing. The 19th and Early 20th Century History. The first of these units to have seen action seems to have been the 138th Independent Tank Battalion (with twenty-one British tanks), which was involved in stemming the advance of German units in the region of the Volga Reservoir to the north of Moscow in late November. WWII program to provide U.S. allies with free armaments, This article is about the World War II program. Lend-Lease: Western Aid for the Soviet UnionPart of Eastern Front Fortnight (4) on WW2TVWith Denis HavlatDuring WWII the Soviet Union received large amounts . Lend-Lease started in March 1941, providing for military aid to any country whose defense was considered vital to the security of the U.S. Under conditions of much of European Russia being occupied by the Axis, attrition was a losing prospect for the USSR; without Allied aid they might very well have collapsed as a military power some time in 1943. By the end of 1942, the Nazi advance into the Soviet Union had stalled; it was finally reversed at the epic battle of Stalingrad in 1943. D.C. 4 Ottawa Protocol (July 1, 194430 June 1945). Lend Lease came as a response to the Axis Powers' violence and showed that America was committed to defending their nation and its . Democrats. Washington. Russia's War in Ukraine: Putin's Soviet Delusion He stated bluntly that if the United States had not helped us, we would not have won the war. "It was not just some piece of scrap metal. Matilda II in Soviet Service - Tank Encyclopedia 28, 30, 31, harvnb error: no target: CITEREFHardesty1991 (, Soviet Supply Protocols. Dec 7, 1941 . Britain got of their arms and ammunition from this Act. First, I would like to tell about some remarks Stalin made and repeated several times when we were "discussing freely" among ourselves. In the meantime, Great Britain was running out of liquid currency and asked not to be forced to sell off British assets. Initially, this proposal failed, but after Germany invaded Poland in September, Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1939 ending the munitions embargo on a "cash and carry" basis. The handing over of forty imported machine tools to Aviation Factory No. initially requested by the Soviet Union from Britain was naval, in the. Payment was to be stretched out over 50 annual payments, starting in 1951 and with five years of deferred payments, at 2% interest. Lend Lease For Ukraine: It was not a Good Deal for US - SOFREP Perhaps most directly, without Lend-Lease trucks, rail engines, and railroad cars, every Soviet offensive would have stalled at an earlier stage, outrunning its logistical tail in a matter of days. This is the official website of the U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Russia. In practice, most equipment was destroyed, although some hardware (such as ships) was returned after the war. This followed the 1940 Destroyers for Bases Agreement, whereby 50 US Navy destroyers were transferred to the Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy in exchange for basing rights in the Caribbean. [80], The final payment of $83.3million (42.5million), due on December 31, 2006 (repayment having been deferred in the allowed five years and during a sixth year not allowed), was made by Britain on December 29, 2006 (the last working day of the year). Ukraine is in the process of joining the European Union and has submitted an application for NATO membership. Lend-Lease Act - Conservapedia [35] Most tank units were Soviet-built models but about 7,000 Lend-Lease tanks (plus more than 5,000 British tanks) were used by the Red Army, eight percent of war-time production. [7], During this same period, the U.S. government began to mobilize for total war, instituting the first-ever peacetime draft and a fivefold increase in the defense budget (from $2billion to $10billion). It was part of a scratch operational group of the Western Front consisting of the 18th Rifle Brigade, two ski battalions, the 5th and 20th Tank Brigades, and the 140th Independent Tank Battalion. on the Soviet war effort during the first year of the war was in the far. [64], From October 1, 1941, to May 31, 1945, the United States delivered to the Soviet Union 427,284 trucks, 13,303 combat vehicles, 35,170 motorcycles, 2,328 ordnance service vehicles, 2,670,371 tons of petroleum products (gasoline and oil) or 57.8 percent of the aviation fuel including nearly 90 percent of high-octane fuel used,[35] 4,478,116 tons of foodstuffs (canned meats, sugar, flour, salt, etc. Nikolay Ryzhkov & Georgy Kumanev Food and other strategic deliveries to the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease Act, 19411945, pp. I was recently able to examine Russian-language materials of the State Defense Committeethe Soviet equivalent of the British War Cabinetheld in the former Central Party Archive. And many of the supplies needed by our Air Force are procured for us without cost by reverse lend-lease. And the Soviet Union didn't pay much of that. Did Soviet Union Repay Lend-lease? - Caniry Campbell, Thomas M. and George C. Herring, eds. It seems to fly in the face of some stories I've heard about Stalin ordering the obliteration of all USA and British markings on Lend Lease Materiel so as to maintain the illusion of the USSR doing it all on its own and that the others fighting the common enemy were the "little allies". On September 20, 1945, all Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union was terminated. British Matilda tanks are loaded onto a ship for transportation to the U.S.S.R. as part of the Lend-Lease program. 1. How important was Lend-Lease for the Soviet war effort? In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. How important was the Lend Lease Act to the Soviet Union? Without Lend-Lease, Russia would not have been able to carry out the Stalingrad counteroffensive and Operation Bagration. (German Language). Nikita Khrushchev offered the same opinion. "In order to really assess the significance of Lend-Lease for the Soviet victory, you only have to imagine how the Soviet Union would have had to fight if there had been no Lend-Lease aid," Sokolov wrote. In fact the British intercepted German communications indicating that German forces had first come in contact with British tanks on the Eastern front on November 26, 1941. During the war the USSR provided an unknown number of shipments of rare minerals to the US Treasury as a form of cashless repayment of Lend-Lease. In particular, it shows that British Lend-Lease assistance to the Soviet Union in late 1941 and early 1942 played a far more significant part in the defense of Moscow and the revival of Soviet fortunes in late 1941 than has been acknowledged. In all, the United States shipped $50 billion ($608 billion in 2020 money) worth of materiel under the program, including $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union. Under Lend-Lease, the U.S. shipped more than $50 billion in supplies equivalent to more than $700 billion today. The United States and the British Commonwealth provided 55. Photo: Museum of the U.S. Air Force (Courtesy Photo). He suggested amending the act to allow warring nations to purchase military goods, arms and munitions if they paid cash and bore the risks of transporting the goods on non-American ships, a policy that would favor Britain and France. The Yak-1, arguably the best of the batch, and superior in most regards to the Hurricane, suffered from airframe and engine defects in early war production aircraft. At a time when the majority of Americans opposed direct participation in the war, Lend-Lease represented a vital U.S. contribution to the fight against Nazi Germany. According to research by a team of Soviet historians, the Soviet Union lost a staggering 20,500 tanks from June 22 to December 31, 1941. In 1941, the threat of World War II drove passage of the Lend-Lease Act repealing key provisions of the Neutrality Acts. Saudi Arabia-Top 10 most important events in the History. Posted on 2/25/23 at 2:25 pm to WPBTiger. It permitted him to "sell, transfer title to, exchange, lease, lend, or otherwise dispose of, to any such government [whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States] any defense article." "I knew that its place was in a museum," Vyacheslav Filippov, a colonel in the Russian Air Force reserve who has written extensively about the Lend-Lease program's Siberian connection, told RFE/RL at the time. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. The munitions totaled 308m (not including naval munitions supplied), the food and raw materials totaled 120m in 1946 index. The Lend-Lease program also sent tons of factory equipment and machine tools to the Soviet Union, including more than 38,000 lathes and other metal-working tools. Painting of Lend-Lease tanks and equipment - Axis History Forum [29] During early February 1941, a Gallup poll revealed that 54% of Americans were in favor of giving aid to the British without qualifications of Lend-Lease. More than 20,000 Katyusha mobile multiple-rocket launchers were mounted on the chassis of American Studebaker trucks. . The Lend-Lease Act was signed into law on March 11, 1941, and ended on September 20, 1945. This Douglas is the only Lend-Lease aircraft that remains in Russia.". First protocol period from October 1, 1941, to June 30, 1942 (signed October 7, 1941), Second protocol period from July 1, 1942, to June 30, 1943 (signed October 6, 1942), Third protocol period from July 1, 1943, to June 30, 1944 (signed October 19, 1943). ", Nikolai Ryzhkov, the last head of the government of the Soviet Union, wrote in 2015 that "it can be confidently stated that [Lend-Lease assistance] did not play a decisive role in the Great Victory.". The Lend-Lease act was enacted in March 1941 and authorized the United States to provide weapons, provisions, and raw materials to strategically important countries fighting Germany and Japan -- primarily, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China. Almost all European nations outside the Soviet bloc were members of the plan from the beginning. The records constitute the primary policy and subject files on World War II Lend-Lease to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Any mention of the role that Western assistance played in the Soviet war effort was strictly off-limits. After the war, it was transferred to civilian aviation, carrying passengers over the frozen tundra above the Arctic Circle. Most visibly, the United States provided the Soviet Union with more than 400,000 jeeps and trucks, 14,000 aircraft, 8,000 tractors and construction vehicles, and 13,000 battle tanks. How Lend-Lease helped the Red Army win in World War II (PHOTOS) For travel to the United States on a temporary basis, including tourism, temporary employment, study and exchange. What Was the Lend-Lease Act? - The Defense of the United States Roosevelt's Soviet Protocol Committee was dominated by Harry Hopkins and General John York, who were totally sympathetic to the provision of "unconditional aid". Robert Coalson is a senior correspondent for RFE/RLwho covers Russia, the Balkans, and Eastern Europe. Secret Cipher Telegram. [33], The program was gradually terminated after V-E Day. Could the soviets have won without lend lease? The Short History Of The Great Patriotic War, also from 1948, acknowledged the Lend-Lease shipments, but concluded: "Overall this assistance was not significant enough to in any way exert a decisive influence over the course of the Great Patriotic War. World War II Allies: U.S. Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union, 1941-1945 Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (Pub. How Much Did Lend Lease Help Russia? - Czech Heritage The Warplanes to Siberia Project | Historical Spotlight | News | Wargaming Roosevelt believed that if the Soviets were defeated the Allies would be far more likely to lose. The British Eighth Army under Gen. Bernard Law Montgomery employed U.S. planes, guns and tanks when they whipped Rommel's Afrika Korps at El Alamein. 'We Would Have Lost': Did U.S. Lend-Lease Aid Tip The Balance In Soviet Fight Against Nazi Germany? Negotiations dragged on intermittently for 25 years. Marshall Plan Countries. The United States is a country of machines. External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein. And it is a salient point that over 80% of the aid was received after June 1942, when the tide of the war had already turned against the Germans on the Eastern Front. Lend Lease Acts - Lend Lease Lend Lease: A Transformation of - Studocu Havlat, Denis. It is an indication of the extent to which the British have been able to pool their resources with ours so that the needed weapon may be in the hands of that soldierwhatever may be his nationalitywho can at the proper moment use it most effectively to defeat our common enemies.[76]. Under these circumstances even small quantities of aid took on far greater significance. [38] With the outbreak of war these plants switched from civilian to military production and locomotive production ended virtually overnight. ), 1,911 steam locomotives, 66 diesel locomotives, 9,920 flat cars, 1,000 dump cars, 120 tank cars, and 35 heavy machinery cars. Thus, Stalin told Harry Hopkins [FDR's emissary to Moscow in July 1941] that the U.S.S.R. could not match Germany's might as an occupier of Europe and its resources.[35]. billion (about $ billion in prices ) were sent to several dozen recipient countries, including the main ones: Totaling $11.3 billion, or $180 billion in today's currency, the Lend-Lease Act of the United States supplied needed goods to the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1945 in support of what Stalin described to Roosevelt as the "enormous and difficult fight against the common enemy bloodthirsty Hitlerism." 400,000 jeeps & trucks; 14,000 airplanes Following the Nye Committee[nb 1] hearings, as well as influential books of the time, such as Merchants of Death, both 1934, the United States Congress adopted several Neutrality Acts in the 1930s, motivated by non-interventionismfollowing the aftermath of its costly involvement in World War I (the war debts were still not paid off), and seeking to ensure that the country would not become entangled in foreign conflicts again. [34], Lend-Lease contributed to the Allied victory. Some of these shipments were intercepted by the Germans. Lend-lease | Facts & Definition | Britannica The Government of Mongolia donated its gold and hard currency reserves to the Soviet Union for four years in a row. "[17], Opposition to the Lend-Lease bill was strongest among isolationist Republicans in Congress, who feared the measure would be "the longest single step this nation has yet taken toward direct involvement in the war abroad". Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (Pub. The Lend-Lease act was enacted in March 1941 and authorized the United States to provide weapons, provisions, and raw materials to strategically important countries fighting Germany and Japan primarily, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China. The United States, the Soviet Union, and the End of World War II Newly discovered files tell another story. The US Supported Soviet Union with Lend-Lease Program - YouTube 1776, 55Stat. 150 in July 1942, for example, was the critical factor in enabling the factory to reach projected capacity within two months. Lend-Lease: How the US Kept the Soviets Afloat in World War II I recently heard someone claim that the Soviet Union would have been unable to survive Operation Barbarossa and subsequent German offensives without the vast amount of supplies they received from the Allies under the Lend-Lease program. President Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease bill into law on March 11, 1941. [70][71], Significant numbers of British Churchill, Matilda and Valentine tanks were shipped to the USSR.[72]. Yes, in 1942 Lend-Lease was of course important for Soviet Russia. Lend-Lease aid to the USSR was nominally managed by Stettinius. In terms of its relationship with the Soviet Union, lend-lease served as a powerful tool for demonstrating the benefits of the .