On the question of the interpretation of the US assistance program to the Soviet Union during the Second World War (Lend-Lease) in modern Russian historiography

The lend-lease program, in terms of US assistance to the Soviet Union, has always been at the center of political and scientific discussions. The extreme politicization of this phenomenon from the moment of its inception influenced its coverage both in the media and in historical science. Changes in relations between the USSR and the United States, political changes within these countries led to the appearance in historiography of various, sometimes mutually exclusive interpretations of this American aid program. The extreme interpretations of this program were, on the one hand, lend-lease is not the reason for the victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany, the USSR could have won without this help. On the other hand, lend-lease practically saved the Soviet Union from defeat, and became the decisive factor in the USSR's victory over Nazi Germany. The author's analysis of Lend-Lease historiography shows that with such an antagonism of interpretations almost all researchers proceed from the concept of considering Lend-Lease as one of the elements of equal cooperation between the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition in the fight against the “world evil” - German Nazism. It is from the perspective of this concept that researchers considering the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the Lend-Lease program come to the above conclusions. In the proposed article, based on the analysis of modern Russian historiography, a conclusion is made about the inconsistency of this concept. In the author's opinion, consideration and evaluation of the whole complex of relations between the collective West and Russia is possible only taking into account the fundamental basis of these relations - the permanent, civilizational confrontation. With this approach, the definition of the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the Lend-Lease program as the main content of its interpretation in historiography cannot be considered as a determining factor for understanding the historical process.

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