Why was the USSR involved in World War 2?

Answer 1

USSR and Germany agreed in Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (then secret annex) to divide Poland and some other countries (I.e. Baltics, Finland). Some weeks later 1.9.1939 Germany attached Poland. Great Britain and France declared war to Germany according to the Pact they had with Poland. USSR attached 17.9.1939 to Poland and stated their own escalation of War War II. During autumn USSR invaded Baltics, but Finland tried to negotiate. USSR did an false claim tha Finnish artillery had shot in Mainila and killed some ruskies Nov 1939. This started Finnish Winter War. There are still some unanswered questiosn: why GB and France did not claim war against USSR when they atteched Poland and why GB and France promised help to Finland. There are unproven theory that GB and France had a still secret Pact with USSR to war together with USSR to Nazi-Germany by founding Northern Front to Nordics. The same claim has rised a theory that Rudolf Hess had evidence on this: the motive was to keep GB as the leading power in Europe - read what Churchill said years before WWII in his books!

AnswerRussia (it is a common misconception to refer to any one individual nation in the Soviet Union at this time, as it was a union of many entities. However, for ease of recognition, many people refer to Russia as it was the largest member of the Soviet Union) were invaded on June 22,1941 by Hitler's Germany as part of 'Operation Barbarossa'. Hitler wanted Lebensraum ('living space') in the east for Germans and that is why Hitler started the war (after invading Austria, the Sudetenland, Czechslovakia, and finally Poland).

Admittadly Stalin did sign a Non-Agression Pact with Hitler but this was to avoid war rather than to enter it because Stalin's Soviet Union was not ready for another great war in 1939 (there was a secret clause however that meant Stalin and Hitler would invade Poland together in September 1939 and divide the land, however Hitler had no intention whatsoever of sticking to this and had always planned on invading Russia during the war. I personally believe Stalin knew this but he was just stalling for much needed time).

Admittadly, they did enter the second Great War of WW2 after they were invaded in June 1941, but they were in wars before that. they invaded Poland in September of 1939 and by 1940, the Soviets occupied Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. They also invaded Finland and fought the Finnish-Russian War in 1939-1940 and Finland ceded territory. Romania was also forced to cede territory. Then, on June 22,1941, Germany attacked them. So it could be said the Soviet Union was involved long before they were invaded by Germany.

Being invaded by Germany, therefore, was without a doubt a major short term cause. This however didn't happen until June 22, 1941. Other reasons include Stalin's hunger for a world wide socialist revolution. As long as they won again, the Soviet Union could benefit from the War by gaining lots of much wanted land. The Soviet Union did so and gained a great amount of land during WWII as the West had a very difficult time dealing with Stalin's demands. Stalin didn't have much care for human life and therefore he was very willing to give lives for a good image. Stalin saw the Soviets as the liberators. They did liberate Warsaw and they were the first to come into Berlin. There are a lot of factors with this as well however. Due to the ideological (political) differences between the USSR and the US, they grew into enemies which brings up the Cold War.