Презентация "Russia at war"

Introduction:

Many children find stories about the war interesting and very exciting. But because the war happened almost 70 years ago most elementary school children today have no direct personal connection to these events. Pupils are often able to form their own opinions about the war after learning the historical facts. Indeed ‘The war’ is a concept they understand but they are often unable to name specific events or people. They don’t have an overview or see connections between the events. Knowledge that children have often comes from fiction, books and films which don’t always stick to accurate historical facts. Despite increasing their personal involvement we sometimes misinterpret the facts. Discussions in the class using a mind map allow us to show what we know and how involved we are in the subject matter.

Content:

We refer to the official site of Wikipedia encyclopedia. It says: “ World War II (WWII or WW2), also known as the Second World War (after the recent Great War), was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, though related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. In a state of "total war", the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust (during which approximately 11 million people were killed)^[1][2] and the strategic bombing of industrial and population centres (during which approximately one million people were killed, including the use of two nuclear weapons in combat),^[3] it resulted in an estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history.^[4]

The Empire of Japan aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific and was already at war with the Republic of China in 1937,^[5] but the world war is generally said to have begun on 1 September 1939^[6] with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Following the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, including Poland, Finland and the Baltic states. The United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth were the only Allied forces continuing the fight against the Axis, with campaigns in North Africa and the Horn of Africa as well as the long-running Battle of the Atlantic. In June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history, which trapped the major part of the Axis' military forces into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European territories in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific.

The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, and Germany was defeated in North Africa and then, decisively, at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union. In 1943, with a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasion of Italy which brought about Italian surrender, and Allied victories in the Pacific, the Axis lost the initiative and undertook strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands.

The war in Europe ended with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet and Polish troops and the subsequent German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945. Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 August and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, and the Soviet Union's declaration of war on Japan and invasion of Manchuria, Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945. Thus ended the war in Asia, and the final destruction of the Axis bloc.

World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world. The United Nations (UN) was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, and France—became the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.^[7] The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia and Africa began. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities and to create a common identity.^[8]”

In comparison we’ve taken three articles. There are foreign editions who think that the history of Russia in World War 2 is still being revised.

Here are two different treatments of the history of Russia in World War 2. Negative and incompetent one, according to our history:

“In the first decades after World War 2, the historiography of Russia's part in the war in between 1939 and the end of 1941, was largely based on a combination of the strictly censored Russian state propaganda's version and of what was known outside Russia, which was then closed behind the "Iron Curtain" of the Cold War.

Eventually, two new factors provided new insights and new proofs which enable a revision that let us get much closer to the truth.

The first factor was the great and laborious work of a few open-minded 2nd generation independent researchers like Viktor Suvorov and Mark Solonin, which applied analytic approaches to the vast scope of publicly available Russian wartime and post-war documentation and literature, detected thousands of small details of information that slipped over the years through the Soviet censorship, and processed these into coherent new insights which dramatically changed our perception of what happened, both before the German invasion (Suvorov's work), and after it started (Solonin's work).

First and foremost of these researchers was Vladimir Rezun (known by his pen name Viktor Suvorov), a Russian military intelligence officer who applied his deep knowledge of intelligence gathering and analysis methods, and of Russian military doctrines, to Russia's World War 2 military literature, with dramatic results.

The second factor was the partial removal of the deep cover of censorship from Russian military and state archives for a period of just five years, between the collapse of the Communist Soviet Union in 1991 and the gradual recovery of conservative nationalism in the Russian government, marked, for example, by the rise to power of Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer. This gap of five years of relative openness was used by historians to access previously closed archives and reach documents which provide previously unavailable proofs that further support the claims of Suvorov and the other researchers. Since the mid-1990s, 'mainstream' western historiography increasingly accepts both the main claims and the main supporting facts and evidence of the pioneering work of researchers like Suvorov, and the "history as we know it" of Russia in World War 2 is being re-written”.

And compare  with this one:

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

“In my column, “The Lies Grow More Audacious,” I mentioned that Obama and the British prime minister, who Obama has as a lap dog, just as George Bush had Tony Blair as lap dog, had managed to celebrate the defeat of Nazi Germany at the 70th anniversary of the Normandy invasion without mentioning the Russians.

Propaganda has always been with us. The difference is that in the 21st century Americans have nothing but propaganda. Nothing else at all. Just lies. Lies are the American experience. The actual world as it exists is foreign to most Americans. In 1973 a British television documentary series was released that chronicled WW II. Of the 28 episodes, only 3 and a part of a 4th acknowledge Russian participation in the war. From the British standpoint, victory was an Anglo-American victory.

This did not sit well with the Soviet government. The Soviets offered their film archives to the West. In 1978 a 20 part series of 48 minutes per episode was released in an American documentary television series narrated by Burt Lancaster. The documentary was titled: “The Unknown War.”   

Certainly, it was a war unknown to most Americans, raised as they are on propaganda.

The Unknown War was a revelation to Americans because it demonstrated beyond all doubt that Nazi Germany lost World War II on the Russian front. Of the 20 episodes, “The Allies,” that is, the Anglo-Americans and free French, feature only in number 17. One out of twenty is about the correct proportion of the West’s participation in the defeat of Nazi Germany.  I pointed out the fact, well known to historians and educated people, that the Red Army defeated Nazi Germany long before the US was able to get geared up to participate in the war. The Normandy invasion most certainly did not defeat Nazi Germany. What the Normandy invasion did was to prevent the Red Army from overrunning all of Europe.”  PCR/NN

Articles by:

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

http://paulcraigroberts.org

Conclusion:

Выводы:

There is nothing horrible and awful than war. In comparison we’ve taken three different articles. They are very different. History can’t be rewritten. Monuments and memorials erected in honor of dead shouldn’t be ruined. Sufferings, famine, death of innocent children mustn’t be forgotten. Never. New lie bear new lie. People must live in peace, not in lie.

During preparation for our project we intently surf the net in searching for useful information about WW2 in the English language. Unfortunately, we didn’t find any truthful material in foreign mass media. We faced to misunderstanding and a strong wish of the abroad historians to rewrite the history of Russia. Our generation will never betray our ancestors’ glorious victory on fascism. We’ll always remember their immortal deeds for the benefit of the good fortune and happy life and cloudless sky over our heads. We won’t allow to pagan the history of Russia and dear veterans. They are the only witnesses and they are still alive. That is why it was necessary to do this project on the 70^th anniversary eve. We made a survey among the students of 5-11 forms of our school (approximately 35%) to consider what they know about WW2. They were given questions in English. Now you are able to see the results.  Naturally, the students of the upper grades showed the best results. Others show good knowledge of WW2 events. Also we organized “The best poem about war” contest and “The best booklet“.

Список использованной литературы
 
1. Аксел А. Герои России. 1941-1945 / А. Аксел. – М.: Интерстамо, 2002.
2. Баграмян И.Х. Так мы шли к победе. Военные мемуары / И.Х.Баграмян. – М.: Воениздат, 1990.
3. Дмитриенко В.П. История Отечества. XX век.: Пособие для учащихся / В.П. Дмитриенко, В.Д. Есаков, В.А. Шестаков. – М.: Дрофа, 2002.
4. Краткая всемирная история. В 2 книгах / Под ред. А.З. Манфреда. – М.: Изд-во Наука, 1996.
5. Падерин А.А. Война и мир: роль духовной культуры в воспитании патриотического сознания / А.А. Падерин // Материалы научно-практической конференции. – Москва: Изд-во Серебряные нити, 2005.
6. Википедиа (интернет)
7. Articles by:  Dr. Paul Craig Roberts   http://paulcraigroberts.org