MATH
...German offensive of the war. As the turning point in the east, the Battle of Stalingrad took on mythical proportions in Soviet eyes. The war was devastating for Russia. Though the Ukrainians initially greeted the Germans with support, the mass murders of Slavs and Jews began immediately. Besides the millions of people lost, almost all of western Russia was destroyed by the scorched earth policy: factories were dismantled, farms were burned, and crops were spoiled. Billions of dollars in losses destroyed the Soviet economy and devastated its agricultural sector. The government did nothing to prevent the flight of international investment from France, and could not respond to German provocation in the Rhineland. In 1937, Blum's government was dumped for a conservative, right wing government that preferred laissez faire policies to government intervention. By the next year, with parliament unable to form a government, a dictatorship ...