how important was lend lease to the soviet union

The terms of the agreement provided that the materiel was to be used until returned or destroyed. When Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, we Mongols stood with our northern neighbor as best we could. Bill Introduced in the House Would Allow US to Lend Weapons to Taiwan A monument in Fairbanks, Alaska, to the American pilots who flew almost 8,000 U.S. planes to Alaska and to the Soviet pilots who flew them on to Siberia as part of Lend-Lease. American shipments of telephone cable, aluminum, canned rations and clothing were also critical. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. It has been estimated that American deliveries to the USSR through the Persian Corridor alone were sufficient, by US Army standards, to maintain sixty combat divisions in the line. Agriculture also suffered a loss of labour; between 1941 and 1945, 19.5 million working-age men had to leave their farms to work in the military and industry. [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. Lend-Lease - Wikipedia Yes, in 1942 Lend-Lease was of course important for Soviet Russia. During Nikita Khrushchevs rule in the late 1950s and early 1960s, there was a window of greater frankness and openness about the extent of aid supplied from the West under the Lend-Lease Actbut it was still clearly forbidden for Soviet authors to suggest that such aid ever made any real difference on the battlefield. Most went to Britain, but the Soviet Union received more than $11 billion. In turn, this would have allowed the German commanders to escape at least some encirclements, while forcing the Red Army to prepare and conduct many more deliberate penetration attacks in order to advance the same distance. Lend-Lease also sent aviation fuel equivalent to 57 percent of what the Soviet Union itself produced. An oft-quoted statement by First Vice-Chairman of the Council of Peoples Commissars Nikolai Voznesensky summed up the standard line that Allied aid represented only 4 percent of Soviet production for the entire war. And many of the supplies needed by our Air Force are procured for us without cost by reverse lend-lease. In addition, the Lend-Lease program propped up the Soviet railway system, which played a fundamental role in moving and supplying troops. 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 . Similarly, the Soviet Union repaid $722 million in 1971, with the remainder of the debt written off. Roosevelt's top foreign policy advisor Harry Hopkins had effective control over Lend-Lease, making sure it was in alignment with Roosevelt's foreign policy goals.[3]. Deane, John R. 1947. Alerts and Messages for U.S. visitors to Russia. Collection. Red Army Lend/Lease Vehicles - Axis History As the war continued, however, the United States and Great Britain provided many of the implements of war and strategic raw materials necessary for Soviet victory. As one Roosevelt biographer has characterized it: "If there was no practical alternative, there was certainly no moral one either. How important was the Lend-Lease to the Soviet war effort? Without Lend-Lease, Russia would not have been able to carry out the Stalingrad counteroffensive and Operation Bagration. From: 30 Military Mission. How important was the US lend-lease? ", "How America Helped Build the Soviet Machine | American Heritage", "Ford Motor Company signs agreement with Soviet Union", "Russian historian: Importance of Lend-Lease cannot be overestimated", "Russia and Serbia, A Century of Progress in Rail Transport", "How Much of What Goods Have We Sent to Which Allies? The Soviets have long insisted that Lend-Lease aid made little difference. 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. For comparison, a total of 22 million tons landed in Europe to supply American forces from January 1942 to May 1945. How important was lend lease to Soviet Union? It was a decisive step away from non-interventionist policy and toward open support for the Allies. 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. The most important aspect of Lend Lease was the first few months of the war when British Aircraft and Tanks represented such a huge influx of material while the Soviets had factories still in transit etc. On December 7, 1940, its Prime Minister Winston Churchill pressed President Roosevelt in a 15-page letter for American help. The handing over of forty imported machine tools to Aviation Factory No. L. 77-11, H.R. [8] The Two-Ocean Navy Act of July 1940 set in motion a rapid expansion of the United States Navy. The Lend-Lease program also provided more than 35,000 radio sets and 32,000 motorcycles. A total of 22,800 armored vehicles were delivered to the Red Army during World War II, of which 1,981 were lost in dangerous Arctic convoys. 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. [49], Roosevelt, eager to ensure public consent for this controversial plan, explained to the public and the press that his plan was comparable to one neighbor's lending another a garden hose to put out a fire in his home. On March 12, 1943, the plane was given to the Soviet Air Force in Fairbanks, Alaska, and given the registration USSR-N238. There were apparently only 263 LaGG-3s in the Soviet inventory by the time of the Moscow counteroffensive, and it was an aircraft with numerous defects. Dalton Delan: It's not World War II, but we are dealing with a new Axis In the case of the Soviet Union, this residual civilian-type lend-lease was valued by the United States at $2.6 billion (out of total lend-lease to the Soviet Union of $10.8 billion). Lend Lease For Ukraine: It was not a Good Deal for US - SOFREP Of this, $6.8 billion came from the British and the Commonwealth. Mystery surrounds the infamous burning of the Reichstag in 1933. 15 Great Facts About Ukraine - Discover Walks Blog Balances for the Soviet Union were solved through a payment scheme in 1972, where they pledged to make three initial payments. In April, this policy was extended to China,[20] and in October to the Soviet Union. "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. Crowley, Leo T. "Lend-Lease". Although it was not entirely reasonable that Canada should pay for any construction that the Canadian Government considered unnecessary or that did not conform to Canadian requirements, nevertheless considerations of self-respect and national sovereignty led the Canadian Government to suggest a new financial agreement. On April 28th, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act ( S.3522 ), which has now gone to President Joe Biden's desk for signature.. Evolucin de los . New Orleans. The U.S. government never published detailed reports on what and how much was sent under the Lend-Lease program to the USSR. This Douglas is the only Lend-Lease aircraft that remains in Russia.". "If the United States had not helped us, we would not have won the war," he wrote in his memoirs. The Soviet air force received 18,200 aircraft, which amounted to about 30 percent of Soviet wartime fighter and bomber production (mid 194145). 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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." The supplies dispersed under the Lend-Lease Act ranged from tanks, aircraft, ships, weapons and road building supplies to clothing, chemicals and food. [55] This constituted some 23% of the total aid to the USSR during the war. After the German assault on Russia in June 1941, the defenders got aid with this system through war material, food, fuel and other important raw materials. A Soviet report by Politburo member Nikolai Voznesensky in 1948 asserted that the United States, described as "the head of the antidemocratic camp and the warrior of imperialist expansion around the world," contributed materiel during the war that amounted to just 4.8 percent of the Soviet Union's own wartime production. Few Americans objected to Soviet aid until 1943. 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. The program sent nearly 2,000 locomotives and innumerable boxcars to the Soviet Union. Learn more about quality higher-education opportunities in the U.S. that you will not find anywhere else in the world. The Resurrection of World War II Lend-Lease Records on the USSR: A After the war, it was transferred to civilian aviation, carrying passengers over the frozen tundra above the Arctic Circle. "During World War II, only the supplies brought in by Lend-Lease prevented the paralysis of rail transport in the Soviet Union." 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. 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. 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. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 2023 RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved. In 1946, the post-war Anglo-American loan further indebted Britain to the U.S. Lend-Lease items retained were sold to Britain at 10% of nominal value, giving an initial loan value of 1.075billion for the Lend-Lease portion of the post-war loans. Regardless of Soviet cold-war attempts to forget (or at least diminish) the importance of Lend-lease, the total impact of the Lend-Lease shipment for the Soviet war effort and entire national economy can only be characterized as both dramatic and of decisive importance. [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. Subscribe to our HistoryNet Now! Romanus, Charles F. and Riley Sunderland. As early as October 12, 1941, the Soviet 126th Fighter Air Regiment was operating with Tomahawks bought from the United States by Britain. Britain also supplied extensive material assistance to American forces stationed in Europe, for example the USAAF was supplied with hundreds of Spitfire Mk V and Mk VIII fighter aircraft. Lend Lease was pretty much strategic charity. Did Russia Really Go It Alone? How Lend-Lease Helped the - HistoryNet U.S. Citizens with emergencies, please call +(7) (495) 728-5577, Outside of Office Hours, contact: +7 (495) 728-5000. Lend-Lease Act: Definition, Ukraine & World War II - HISTORY Just 446 locomotives were produced during the war,[39] with only 92 of those being built between 1942 and 1945. But Was He Drugged Into Confessing. The Warplanes to Siberia Project | Historical Spotlight | News | Wargaming 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. "[50] To which Senator Robert Taft (R-Ohio), responded: "Lending war equipment is a good deal like lending chewing gumyou certainly don't want the same gum back. 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. It carried 40 Hawker Hurricanes along with 550 mechanics and pilots of No. Thereafter it saw the passage of 4,160,000 tons of goods, 27% of the total. | AHA", "Lend-Lease and Military Aid to the Allies in the Early Years of World, The United States at war; development and administration of the war program by the federal government, Sea routes of Soviet Lend-Lease:Voice of Russia, "$220 Million in Gold Bullion was Recovered from HMS Edinburgh", "Report to Congress on Reverse Lend-Lease", "Chapter XIV: The United States and Canada: Copartners in Defense. 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. Lend-Lease Act - Conservapedia [3] In terms of administration, the president established the Office of Lend-Lease Administration during 1941, headed by steel executive Edward R. 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. [66], By the end of 1941, early shipments of Matilda, Valentine and Tetrarch tanks represented only 6.5% of total Soviet tank production but over 25% of medium and heavy tanks produced for the Red Army. The cooperation that was built up with Canada during the war was an amalgam compounded of diverse elements of which the air and land routes to Alaska, the Canol project, and the CRYSTAL and CRIMSON activities were the most costly in point of effort and funds expended. The others were never found. It was said that the Matilda was inferior to the T-34, and in truth it probably was. Lend-Lease kept the Soviet home front going through the winter of 1941 and throughout 1942. "[10] As the President himself put it, "There can be no reasoning with incendiary bombs."[11]. [citation needed] The USSR had only a very small number of heavy bombers in comparison. Ukraine is in the process of joining the European Union and has submitted an application for NATO membership. Moscow. It is our living history. Mackenzie, Hector. Even Joseph Stalin himself would say that the lend-lease was . In th. [22], In February 1942, the U.S. and Britain signed the Anglo-American Mutual Aid Agreement[23] as part of a greater multilateral system, developed by the Allies during the war, to provide each other with goods, services, and mutual aid in the widest sense, without charging commercial payments. Substantial quantities of machine tools and raw materials, such as aluminum and rubber, were supplied to help Soviet industry back on its feet: 312 metal-cutting machine tools were delivered by convoy PQ-12 alone, arriving in March 1942, along with a range of other items for Soviet factories such as machine presses and compressors. More than 20,000 Katyusha mobile multiple-rocket launchers were mounted on the chassis of American Studebaker trucks. 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. The 1930s began with one of the world's greatest economic depressionswhich had started in the United Statesand the later recession of 193738 (although minor relative to the Great Depression) was otherwise also one of the worst of the 20th century. The Arctic route was the shortest and most direct route for lend-lease aid to the USSR, though it was also the most dangerous as it involved sailing past German-occupied Norway. [56] Nevertheless, some 8,244,000 tons of goods went by this route, 50% of the total. ", 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.". 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. From 1941 to 1945, total lend-lease aid to the Soviet Union accounted for only 5% of the Soviet GDP in total. Lend-Lease: Western Aid for the Soviet Union - YouTube This gold was salvaged in 1981 and 1986. 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. Campbell, Thomas M. and George C. Herring, eds. The Lend-Lease policy was officially titled "An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States", and was a program where the U.S. supplied Free France, Great Britain and the Republic of China with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and August 1945. . Matilda II in Soviet Service - Tank Encyclopedia 5,218 tanks (including 1,380 Valentines from Canada), 323 machinery trucks (mobile vehicle workshops equipped with generators and all the welding and power tools required to perform heavy servicing), 1.15bn ($1.55bn) worth of aircraft engines, Allen, R. G. D. "Mutual Aid Between the U.S. and The British Empire, 1941-45". At a time when Soviet industry was in disarraymany of their industrial plants were destroyed or captured by the advancing Nazi troops or in the process of evacuation eastbattlefield losses of specific equipment approached or even exceeded the rate at which Soviet domestic production could replace them during this crucial period. British Lend Lease Aid and the Soviet War Effort, - Scribd After a series of dramatic Nazi successes during the opening stages of Hitlers invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, foreign observers predicted that Soviet resistance would soon collapse. The Soviet Northern Fleet was also a major and early recipient of British Hurricanes, receiving those flown by No. No one ever discussed this subject officially, and I don't think Stalin left any written evidence of his opinion, but I will state here that several times in conversations with me he noted that these were the actual circumstances. Much of the meaning of Lend-Lease aid can be better understood when considering the innovative nature of World War II, as well as the economic distortions caused by the war. Painting of Lend-Lease tanks and equipment - Axis History Forum Milestones: 1937-1945 - Office of the Historian 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 September 20, 1945, all Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union was terminated. Trucks such as the Dodge '"`UNIQ--templatestyles-0000003F-QINU`"'34-ton and Studebaker 2+12-ton were easily the best trucks available in their class on either side on the Eastern Front. [63] The production of heavy bombers in the United States until 1945 amounted to more than 30,000. Between June 1941 and May 1945, Britain delivered to the USSR: In total 4million tonnes of war material including food and medical supplies were delivered. This act set up a system that would allow the United States to lend or lease war supplies to any nation deemed "vital to the defense of the United States." . Ukraine is a founding member of the United Nations and it is also a member of the Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization, and the OSCE. Lend-Lease assistance to the USSR. Lend-Lease: How the US Kept the Soviets Afloat in World War II According to Biriukovs service diary, the first 20 British tanks arrived at the Soviet tank training school in Kazan on October 28, 1941, at which point a further 120 tanks were unloaded at the port of Archangel in northern Russia. The story of how that microfilm came to be in the National Archives is a convoluted tale worthy of telling. Photo: Museum of the U.S. Air Force (Courtesy Photo). How important was the Lend Lease Act to the Soviet Union? [6], In 1939 howeveras Germany, Japan, and Italy pursued aggressive, militaristic policiesPresident Roosevelt wanted more flexibility to help contain Axis aggression. Report from Mikoyan to Stalin and Molotov regarding Lend-Lease 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.

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