One cannot understate the contribution of lend/lease to the success of the Red Army, nor can one seriously claim that Soviet success was "inevitable" with or without this contribution.
After the colossal losses of 1941 the Red Army was short on everything, from rifles to tanks to planes - even to rank insignia for generals! (Gen. Katukov recounts having to draw the new rank of Major General on his lapels with marker) It was the infusion of western equipment from the US, Britain, and Canada that allowed the Red Army to conduct its counter-offensives in '42 and '43, and which carried it back West in the campaigns of '44 and 45.
For example, the Soviet Union recieved over 10,000 tanks from lend/lease. A significant number when one considers that total T-34 production to 1945 numbered about 35,000 tanks. From a Canadian perspective, the entire Canadian production run (1,388) of Valentine tanks was sent to the Soviet Union, and overall nearly 15% of total British armour production ended up in Russia (this despite critical shortages of tanks in Britain's own forces).
More significantly perhaps, nearly half a million American trucks and jeeps were sent to Russia. Virtually the entire Red Army ran on Studebakers. It was these vehicles that allowed the motorized forces of the Red Army to conduct the sweeping advances that shattered the German Army so completely in 1944 and '45.
In fact American equipment was so ubiquitous in the Russian military that folklore had it that the letters "U.S.A" printed on it stood for Ubiyat Sukinsyna Adolfa or "Kill that Sonofab*tch Adolf".
During the war the Soviet state propaganda downplayed the significance of lend/lease, even while Stalin was privately threatening in frantic messages to Churchill and Roosevelt that he would negotiate peace with Germany unless Britain and America sent him more equipment. After the war, the Soviets conducted a massive campain of denial to state that it had never been much of a factor.
However the truth is that a Red Army without western (and in particular, American) lend/lease might well have survived, but it would have lacked many of the crucial components for a modern army and almost certainly would not have won.
After the colossal losses of 1941 the Red Army was short on everything, from rifles to tanks to planes - even to rank insignia for generals! (Gen. Katukov recounts having to draw the new rank of Major General on his lapels with marker) It was the infusion of western equipment from the US, Britain, and Canada that allowed the Red Army to conduct its counter-offensives in '42 and '43, and which carried it back West in the campaigns of '44 and 45.
For example, the Soviet Union recieved over 10,000 tanks from lend/lease. A significant number when one considers that total T-34 production to 1945 numbered about 35,000 tanks. From a Canadian perspective, the entire Canadian production run (1,388) of Valentine tanks was sent to the Soviet Union, and overall nearly 15% of total British armour production ended up in Russia (this despite critical shortages of tanks in Britain's own forces).
More significantly perhaps, nearly half a million American trucks and jeeps were sent to Russia. Virtually the entire Red Army ran on Studebakers. It was these vehicles that allowed the motorized forces of the Red Army to conduct the sweeping advances that shattered the German Army so completely in 1944 and '45.
In fact American equipment was so ubiquitous in the Russian military that folklore had it that the letters "U.S.A" printed on it stood for Ubiyat Sukinsyna Adolfa or "Kill that Sonofab*tch Adolf".
During the war the Soviet state propaganda downplayed the significance of lend/lease, even while Stalin was privately threatening in frantic messages to Churchill and Roosevelt that he would negotiate peace with Germany unless Britain and America sent him more equipment. After the war, the Soviets conducted a massive campain of denial to state that it had never been much of a factor.
However the truth is that a Red Army without western (and in particular, American) lend/lease might well have survived, but it would have lacked many of the crucial components for a modern army and almost certainly would not have won.
