The Run-up and the Beginning of the German-Soviet Warin the Research of Foreign Scholars

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the key issues of the run-up and beginning of the first period of the German-Soviet war, which are reflected in foreign historiography. The authors of the publication tried historically reconstruct the events that preceded Nazi Germany’s attack on the USSR, the military confrontation on the Soviet-German battlefield from June 22 to December 1941 based on the most famous works of researchers from neighboring countries and beyond.The publication attempts to cover a wide range of problems: secret diplomacy, political maneuvers of the USSR and Germany in advance of the war, strategic plans of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army and the Wehrmacht, the course of military operations on the Eastern Front in the summer and winter of 1941.The authors of the publication mainly focus on documents and materials belonging to direct participants of the events, well-known scholars and politicians. The facts and analysis of historical events presented by them cannot remain outside the scientific controversy. The geopolitical plans of the Nazis, who posed a threat to the entire world civilization, seem impressive.The article refutes most of the assessments and key conclusions from the times of Soviet historiography. Important historical sources included in the scientific discourse deny the conceptual issues of the Soviet historical narrative about the nature of international relations on the run-up of the war and the initial period of the war with Nazi Germany. The authors explain their critical attitude to the publications of the post-Soviet era, which, first, do not pass the source test, and second, do not meet the principles of humanism, democracy and tolerance, which are inherent in the ideas of the 21st century.To obtain unbiased results and conclusions, the authors of the publication relied on various methods of scientific research: content analysis, synthesis, historical-comparative, historical-chronological, critical and comparative analyses.The authors believe that this publication is not only of scientific and cognitive interest, but provides a deep understanding of the lessons of the past war, which are important for the current security of the Ukrainian state and formation of patriotic consciousness of society, unbiased evolvement of its historical memory. The presented results of research in foreign historiography are a strong argument for modern Ukrainian discourse.The main visions of the authors meet the consolidation of the current scientific trend of Ukraine — glorification of the significant role of the Ukrainian people in the victory over Nazi.