ABSTRACT
During the dark days of 1941, the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union consummated an unusual alliance that would eventually lead to the defeat of the Axis powers. The wartime alliance was, in many ways, a strange arrangement. After approving lend-lease aid for the Soviet Union, Roosevelt treated Russia differently from other Allies because he did not expect to evaluate the Soviets’ needs or their use of the military equipment they received. People who opposed Roosevelt’s desire to include the Soviet Union in the lend-lease program quickly pointed out that Stalin had agreed to the "Four Freedoms" contained in the Atlantic charter but there was no mention of freedom of religion. When British and US authorities began talks with the new Italian ministry of Badoglio in July 1943, Stalin complained that the Soviet Union was not represented on the negotiating team. The Soviet Union formally requested a $6 billion line of credit to assist in rebuilding their devastated countryside.
