ABSTRACT
Given the legitimating role that eventual victory in the Great Patriotic War would play for the Soviet regime, and the terrible cost the Soviet population would pay for victory, it is understandable why the role of Allied aid in the Soviet war effort was played down in Soviet writing on the war, to the point that it was almost ignored. This is particularly understandable in the context of Cold War animosities. Aid, provided by the United States, Britain and the Commonwealth, was provided in the main without charge under the US Lend-Lease Act of March 1941 or its principles as described below and adopted by the British. Whilst the capitalist world could be accused of providing material assistance to the Soviet Union to save the lives of its own troops, it could not reasonably be accused of profiteering at Soviet expense. Military and associated aid, provided at Soviet request, was a stark reminder of the limitations of the Soviet system under Stalin and the debacle faced by the Soviet Union as a result of Soviet foreign and defence policy on the eve of war.
