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

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. [75][77], Though diminutive in comparison, Soviet Union supplied the United States with goods that the latter badly needed, including 300,000 tons of chrome ore, 32,000 tons of manganese ore, and large supplies of platinum, gold and wood. aid from Britain can be argued to have had the most significant impact. 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. [27] Other recipients were led by $11.3billion ($137billion) to the Soviet Union, $3.2billion ($38.7billion) to France, $1.6billion ($19.3billion) to China, and the remaining $2.6billion to the other Allies. "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. The Soviet Union got arms, ammunition, aircraft, and industrial equipment for its army. The Viking Press. Lend-Lease WW2 - American Supply to the Allies - Real History Online British Lend Lease Aid and the Soviet War Effort, - Scribd The handing over of forty imported machine tools to Aviation Factory No. Roosevelt made sure that Lend-Lease policies were supportive of his foreign policy goals by putting his top aide Harry Hopkins in effective control of the program. [36] The USSR was very dependent on rail transport and starting during the latter half of the 1920s[37] but accelerating during the 1930s (The Great Depression), hundreds of foreign industrial giants such as Ford were commissioned to construct modern dual-purpose factories in the USSR, 16 alone within a week of May 31, 1929. While Soviet pilots praised the maneuverability of the homegrown I-153 Chaika and I-16 Ishak fightersstill in use in significant numbers in late 1941both types were certainly obsolete and inferior in almost all regards to the British-supplied Hurricane. But listen, one cannot deny that the Americans shipped over to us material without which we could not have equipped our armies held in reserve or been able to continue the war.[48]. Britain got of their arms and ammunition from this Act. Lend-Lease assistance to the USSR. 1. Roosevelt concluded that the United States needed to help the Soviets fight against the Germans. How important was the Lend-Lease to the Soviet war effort? Romanus, Charles F. and Riley Sunderland. Totaling $11.3 billion, or $180 billion in todays 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., By U.S. Mission Russia | 10 May, 2020 | Topics: History, News, U.S. & Russia. [34], Lend-Lease contributed to the Allied victory. How important was the Lend-Lease to the Soviet war effort? The Soviets lost a substantial number of draft and farm animals as they were not able to relocate all the animals in an area before it was captured and of those areas in which the Axis forces would occupy, the Soviets had lost 7 million of out of 11.6 million horses, 17 million out of 31 million cows, 20 million of 23.6 million pigs and 27 million out of 43 million sheep and goats. Lend-Lease aircraft supplied to the Red Air Force 1942-1944: References and literature American M3 tanks on the railway near Murmansk after arriving in Northern Russia. Lend Lease A transformative example that demonstrated America's willingness and ability to help its allies in times of war was the aid provision America provided to Britain and the Soviet Union during World War II. 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. And many of the supplies needed by our Air Force are procured for us without cost by reverse lend-lease. Borodin said he wished to honor and show gratitude to the United States and its veterans who rendered aid to the Soviet Union during World War II. Most remaining Allies were largely self-sufficient in frontline equipment (such as tanks and fighter aircraft) by this time but Lend-Lease provided a useful supplement in this category and Lend-Lease logistical supplies (including motor vehicles and railroad equipment) were of enormous assistance. 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. In 1939, after Germany invaded Poland, Roosevelt bypassed these restrictions by persuading Congress to permit the government to sell military supplies to France and Britain on a cash-and-carry basisin other words, they could pay cash for American-made supplies and then transport them on their own ships. Russian historian: Importance of Lend-Lease cannot be overestimated The history of Lend-Lease began on May 15, 1940 when UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill asked Roosevelt to temporarily. By the end of 1941 Britain had delivered 466 tanks out of the 750 promised. It carried 40 Hawker Hurricanes along with 550 mechanics and pilots of No. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 2023 RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved. President Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease bill into law on March 11, 1941. Originally, the American policy was to help the British but not join the war. American contributions of the time were far fewer. How important was Lend-Lease for the Soviet war effort? In a November 1943 report to Congress, President Roosevelt said of Allied participation in reverse Lend-lease: the expenditures made by the British Commonwealth of Nations for reverse lend-lease aid furnished to the United States, and of the expansion of this program so as to include exports of materials and foodstuffs for the account of United States agencies from the United Kingdom and the British colonies, emphasizes the contribution which the British Commonwealth has made to the defense of the United States while taking its place on the battle fronts. According to the Russian historian Boris Vadimovich Sokolov, Lend-Lease had a crucial role in winning the war: On the whole the following conclusion can be drawn: that without these Western shipments under Lend-Lease the Soviet Union not only would not have been able to win the Great Patriotic War, it would not have been able even to oppose the German invaders, since it could not itself produce sufficient quantities of arms and military equipment or adequate supplies of fuel and ammunition. Joseph Stalin never revealed to his own people the full contributions of Lend-Lease to their country's survival, but he referred to the program at the 1945 Yalta Conference saying, "Lend-Lease is one of Franklin Roosevelt's most remarkable and vital achievements in the . 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. Originally intended to lend arms and material to the. Tens of thousands of agricultural machines, such as tractors and threshers, were destroyed or captured. US Neutrality Acts of the 1930s and the Lend-Lease Act - ThoughtCo Any mention of the role that Western assistance played in the Soviet war effort was strictly off-limits. About 15 percent of the aircraft of the 6th Fighter Air Corps defending Moscow were Tomahawks or Hurricanes. "One-on-one against Hitler's Germany, we would not have withstood its onslaught and would have lost the war. This page was last edited on 23 February 2023, at 02:14. Aircraft Deliveries to the Soviet Union - Lend-Lease [33], The program was gradually terminated after V-E Day. Alerts and Messages for U.S. visitors to Russia. As early as October 12, 1941, the Soviet 126th Fighter Air Regiment was operating with Tomahawks bought from the United States by Britain. The Lend-Lease Memorial in Fairbanks, Alaska, commemorates the shipment of U.S. aircraft to the Soviet Union along the Northwest Staging Route. The Soviet authorities were well aware of this dependency on Lend-Lease. Although most of the actual construction of joint defense facilities, except the Alaska Highway and the Canol project, had been carried out by Canada, most of the original cost was borne by the United States. ", "Address Is Spur To British Hopes; Confirmation of American Aid in Conflict is Viewed as Heartening, A joining of interests, Discarding of Peace Talks is Regarded as a Major Point in the Speech.". 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". [citation needed]. From 1941 to 1945, total lend-lease aid to the Soviet Union accounted for only 5% of the Soviet GDP in total. American aid also provided 4.5 million tons of food, 1.5 million blankets, and 15 million pairs of boots. The United States is a country of machines. [83] However, none of this cargo has been salvaged, and no documentation of its treasure has been produced.[84]. 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. L.7711, H.R. Some of these shipments were intercepted by the Germans. From the depths of the Cold War to the present day, many Soviet and Russian politicians have ignored or downplayed the impact of American assistance to the Soviets, as well as the impact of the entire U.S.-British war against the Nazis. 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.. [3] In terms of administration, the president established the Office of Lend-Lease Administration during 1941, headed by steel executive Edward R. The Resurrection of World War II Lend-Lease Records on the USSR: A [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. The story of how that microfilm came to be in the National Archives is a convoluted tale worthy of telling. The Lend-Lease program also provided more than 35,000 radio sets and 32,000 motorcycles. the president asked at a press conference. Could we really have set up the production of our tanks without American steel? use.' On the negative side, however, it must be recorded that actual 2009. . 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. 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 1947 money value of the supplies and services amounted to about $11 billion. Britain and the Commonwealth were carrying the battle for all civilization, and the overwhelming majority of Americans, led in the late election by their president, wished to help them. 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 Lend-Lease, the United States provided more than one-third of all the explosives used by the Soviet Union during the war. On May 11, 1947, 27 people were rescued, having spent nearly three weeks in the icebound wreck. On April 23, 1947, it was forced to make an emergency landing with 36 people on board near the village of Volochanka on the Taimyr Peninsula. 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. Under Lend-Lease, the U.S. shipped more than $50 billion in supplies equivalent to more than $700 billion today. Only 205 of these tanks were heavy or medium types, and most of their strength was concentrated in the Western Front, with the Kalinin Front having only two tank battalions (67 tanks) and the Southwestern Front two tank brigades (30 tanks). Painting of Lend-Lease tanks and equipment - Axis History Forum "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. [nb 2][9] Sympathetic to the British plight, but hampered by public opinion and the Neutrality Acts, which forbade arms sales on credit or the lending of money to belligerent nations, Roosevelt eventually came up with the idea of "lendlease". By October, German troops were poised outside both Leningrad and Moscow. 'We Would Have Lost': Did U.S. Lend-Lease Aid Tip The Balance In Soviet Fight Against Nazi Germany? In th. [38] With the outbreak of war these plants switched from civilian to military production and locomotive production ended virtually overnight. Lend-Lease's precise significance to Allied victory in WW2 is debated. "Western Aid for the Soviet Union During World. How important was Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union? Much of the logistical assistance of the Soviet military was provided by hundreds of thousands of U.S.-made trucks and by 1945, nearly a third of the truck strength of the Red Army was U.S.-built. Churchill also granted the US base rights in Bermuda and Newfoundland for free; this act allowed their British garrison to be redeployed to more crucial theatres. 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. 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. Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (Pub. American deliveries to the Soviet Union can be divided into the following phases: Delivery was via the Arctic Convoys, the Persian Corridor, and the Pacific Route. 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. . Heavy bombers had not been mentioned in previous protocols. 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. But according to . "The Museum of the Allies and Lend-Lease is a unique, one-of-a-kind museum," said Borodin. 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. As such, Ladd Field came to represent not only a political and economic exchange, but a cultural one as well. Part of the bill required the British to open their empire to trade. The Soviet Union and the United States - Library of Congress "It should be remembered that during World War I, the transportation crisis in Russia in 1916-17 that did a lot to facilitate the February Revolution [which lead to the abdication of the tsar] was caused by a shortage in the production of railway rails, engines, and freight cars because industrial production had been diverted to munitions," Sokolov wrote. Large quantities of undelivered goods were in Britain or in transit when Lend-Lease terminated on September 2, 1945. Lend-Lease: Aircraft to the Soviet Union > National Museum of the 19329 posts. -8. It was a decisive step away from non-interventionist policy and toward open support for the Allies. Red Army Lend/Lease Vehicles - Axis History billion (about $ billion in prices ) were sent to several dozen recipient countries, including the main ones: Lend-Lease Act (1941) | National Archives The British Commonwealth and, to a lesser extent, the Soviet Union reciprocated with a smaller Reverse Lend-Lease program. How Much Did Lend Lease Help Russia? - Czech Heritage D.C. 4 Ottawa Protocol (July 1, 194430 June 1945). U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act on March 11, 1941. Source: "The Soviet Union: The Defeated Victor" pp. Message to U.S. Citizens Winter Holiday Hours U.S. Mission Russia, Security Alert U.S. Mission Russia (December 14, 2020), U.S. National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirbys Interview with TV Rain, Russias War Against Ukraine One Year Later, G7 Foreign Ministers Statement on the Illegal Annexation of Sovereign Ukrainian Territory, U.S. Embassy Moscow Spotlights Posters for Peace, Message to U.S. Citizens: U.S. Mission Russia Reduction of Consular Services, Security Incident at Spaso House, the U.S. Ambassadors Residence in Moscow, Ambassador Sullivans Interview with Echo Moskvy in St. Petersburg Radio, Young Actors Present a New Interpretation of An American Classic, American Choreographer Bob Boross Introduces Jazz Dance to Russian Students, Statement from the Consul General on the Suspension of Operations at U.S. Consulate General, Vladivostok, Temporary Suspension of Operations at the U.S. Consulate General in Vladivostok, Ambassador Jon Huntsman Speaks at Media Roundtable in Vladivostok, April 24, 2018, Statement from Consul General Amy Storrow U.S. Consulate General Yekaterinburg, Celebrating 295th anniversary of Yekaterinburg, World War II Allies: U.S. Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union, 1941-1945, Novaya Gazeta Europe Interview with Victoria Nuland, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. 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. Matilda II in Soviet Service - Tank Encyclopedia In fact our armed forces in Britain, ground as well as air, receive as reverse lend-lease, with no payment by us, one third of all the supplies and equipment they currently require, Britain furnishes 90% of their medical supplies and in spite of her food shortage, 20% of their food.[78]. Lend-Lease Helped Win World War II, But Not On The Eastern Front The evidence is here. 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. From there, it flew 5,650 kilometers to the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, one of some 14,000 aircraft sent by the United States to the Soviet Union during World War II under the massive Lend-Lease program. Ordnance goods (ammunition, artillery shells, mines, assorted explosives) provided amounted to 53 percent of total domestic consumption. 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. The Warplanes to Siberia Project | Historical Spotlight | News | Wargaming Even aid that might seem like a drop in the bucket in the larger context of Soviet production for the war played a crucial role in filling gaps at important moments during this period. Stalin needed trucks and was provided with Studebaker trucks on a massive scale. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. 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. "Without Lend-Lease, the Red Army would not have had about one-third of its ammunition, half of its aircraft, or half of its tanks.