Even before World War II, the Soviet Union and France wanted to create a military anti-German coalition. However, due to a number of reasons, in 1939 the coalition did not take shape. Events began to develop in the most tragic way possible. However, already in 1941, the military alliance still took place. The success of Soviet diplomacy in this field is difficult to overestimate. However, the Americans also made their contribution, who set themselves the task of convincing millions of people that the fate of the world is being decided in the east.
The United States of America was one of the last countries to recognize the USSR as a sovereign state. In the 1930s, a significant part of the American population was distrustful of the dangerous and shrouded in a veil of rumors and tales of the new state system of the "Russian Bear". After the start of the Great Patriotic War, through the efforts of Soviet and British diplomacy, the United States joined the war on the side of the Allies. At the same time, the American leadership faced a serious task: millions of people had to be convinced that the Soviet Union was a friend of the entire free world. Immediately after that, American newspapers began to write about the USSR and the Red Army in a positive way, the first state officials publicly spoke positively about the Soviet system and, of course, connected Hollywood.
Pro-Soviet propaganda in the United States in 1941 was needed in order for millions of Americans to agree with the need for economic, and perhaps even military, assistance to the allies in Europe. This was an important task, since the Great Depression, a terrible economic crisis, had just ended, and many US citizens adhered to isolationist sentiments, not wanting to get into the affairs of distant Europeans, and even more so to spend precious resources on them. And let the politicians of all countries pursue, among other things, their own, exclusively pragmatic goals, propaganda has achieved the desired effect: the atmosphere of friendship and brotherhood of peoples fighting for a common cause, formed.
>>>>Ideas for life | NOVATE.RU<<<<
One of the most graphic illustrations of how the opinion of ordinary Americans about a distant and incomprehensible country has changed is the story told in his memoirs by the Soviet tanker Dmitry Loza, who fought on the American "Sherman". Allied equipment sent to the USSR under Lend-Lease came in a mothballed form. Preservation was necessary so that the equipment would not deteriorate during transportation by sea. Outside, the Shermans were pasted over with a special black film, wooden plugs were inserted into the gun and cannon fat was poured. The re-mothballing of allied tanks was a serious and difficult task.
Dmitry Loza recalled that during one of the first unpacking of the Shermans, an "incident" occurred. Cleaning the cannon with a ramrod, the tankers pushed a bundle out of the cannon. The mysterious object fell to the ground, and there was a sound of breaking glass. Immediately after that, some kind of liquid spread on the ground. It turned out that a bottle of whiskey and sweets were hidden in the package. Later it turned out that the same gift packages are in many other tank guns. Subsequently, Soviet tankers even came up with a whole technology for carefully removing the plug from the main gun in order to check if there was also a gift between the wooden plugs.
In continuation of the topic, read about what tanks did the UK supply to the USSR and how they influenced the course of the war.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/291021/61069/