The Feat that Won the War? The Soviet Home Front, Evacuation and WWII
Event description
- Academic events
- Family friendly
- Open to the public
During WWII, the great majority of German divisions were arrayed on the Eastern front and here, the Red Army broke the back of the "invincible" Wehrmacht. After the invasion, the Soviet government made an unprecedented decision: to evacuate millions of people, herds and factories from the vast territory soon to be occupied by the Nazis. As the Red Army retreated, workers dismantled the industrial base and moved it far to the east. Millions of people fled their homes and boarded boxcars. Was this the epic feat that won the war and if so, why do Americans know so little about it?
About the speaker
Wendy Z. Goldman is a social and political historian of Russia. Her early work focused on women's emancipation and industrialization. She wrote about Stalinist repression in Terror and Democracy in the Age of Stalin: The Social Dynamics of Repression and Inventing the Enemy: Denunciation and Terror in Stalin’s Russia. Her latest work (with Donald Filtzer), Fortress Dark and Stern. The Soviet Home Front during World War II is the first comprehensive study of the Soviet home front and its role in the Allied victory in World War II.