WWII Allies?

[Yinzer]

Ok, I still can't understand if russia was on our side or not. I get the idea that they were at first but then Stalin wanted to go and do his own thing.
Can anybody help me out on this?

Sorry if I sound stupid... I should've paid attention when I was in school.

[LordyGeordie]

Initially the soviet union wasn't on our side as such, although they didn't particulalrly like the germans. hitler and stalin had signed a non-agggression pact which basically said they'd leave each other alone. So at the very beginning of the war the Russians weren't really involved.

However, this all changed when Hitler broke the pact and invaded the Soviet Union. Naturally this brought Russia into the war and on the premise that my enemy's enemy is my friend they were on our side.

Although Russia, the UK and America were allies, there was probably a latent distrust of teh Soviet Union (mostly from the Americans) who distrusted communists. There weren't really joint operations between russia and the other allies although this may have had more to do with the fact that Russia was fighting its war on a seperate front to the other allies.

However, Stalin did take part in conferences with the other allied leaders about how the war was progressing and tactics etc. he also was involved in the peace negotations at the end of the war.

However, it was these peace negotiations particularly the partitioning of Germany and Berlin which led to the start of the Cold War.

[Pootle]

In a paragraph; they were on the same side because they were fighting a common enemy. However, relations between the "Big 3" (Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt) were always strained as LordyGeorge mentioned. Stalin was desperate to have his revenge on the Germans for breaking the Nazi-Soviet pact and invading the Soviet Union. It was the German civilians, women especially, who paid this high price as the Red Army advanced into Germany. Stalin wanted to reach Berlin before the Allies and sought to disrupt the Allied advance by suggesting alternative plans to Churchill so he could get there first. He was also keen to acquire as much territory in the East as possible whilst advancing, including Poland which he hated. It was over Poland that the relations were particularly strained. Whilst the Polish resistance rose up in Warsaw against the Germans in 1944, Stalin refused to help re-supply the Polish troops and refused the Allies use of Soviet airfields. The Red Army could easily have intervened but halted its advance short of Waraw while the resistance were wiped out by the Germans.
Ultimately, Churchill knew that to win the war, the Allies required the brute strength and numbers of the Red Army. You could argue that the Allies pandered to Stalin to get the job done thus sealing the fate of Poland which the Soviets then occupied. It is debatable how much the Allies knew of Stalin�s reign of terror; the persecution of German POWs, the Polish people, Gulag, Soviet people, and anybody else for that matter... which adds to it all.

[Johnmof]

The answers you've had are fairly comprehensive, but Pootle's reference to Poland shows how the reality of politics often buries the principles involved. Britain and France declared war on Germany to honour the guarantee they had given Poland that they would defend her sovereignty. However, when the Russians invaded the eastern half of Poland, we didn't feel inclined to declare war on them. Similarly, when the war was over, Poland's sovereignty went the same way as that of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, etc. It's curious that we keep reminding ourselves that we won the war, but when you think that the short term strategic aim was to guarantee Polish sovereignty and the long term strategy was to preserve the balance of power in Europe, it rather paints a different picture in the light of what actually happened.

[Peter Pedant]

listened up in school or read Mad (magazine) on the subject.

Before WWII the Russians were bad, then during the war they became good. Then after the war they were bad, but since the fall of the berlin wall, 1989, they've become good again. Easy.

The real issue for us Europeans is that there is a fear that Pres bush's foreign policy advisers may, if Iraq  is any example, be advising at this level of comprehension

[KebabMeister]

Britain also supplied aircraft to Russia (which they received as lend-lease from the States).  None of these aircraft were paid for and the UK footed the entire bill.

As mentioned, allies means Allied, in other terms Allied towards a common enemy.  Doesn't mean they have to be friends and when war is involved anyone helping you fight your enemy is an ally.

[ursula62]

I thought that at the end of the war, Churchill wanted to invade Russia and topple Stalin's leadership but he was talked out of it by the other allies. He later said that not doing this had been the biggest mistake of WW2.

[Ethreal]

It's interesting that the blueprints for one of the most effective weapons in the Russian arsenal, the T-32 Tank were actually supplied by the Americans...

Ironic that just a few years after the war we would be at each other's throats again during the Cold War.