Called the “Great Patriotic War” in Russia The bloodiest war ever fought in Europe A war fought between races and ideologies

rather than by states The Soviet Union lost around 12 million

civilians and 10 million soldiers in the war 14% of its population

Nazi Germany lost around 5 million soldiers and suffered 1.5 million civilian casualties (including from allied strategic bombing) 10% its population

The population of Canada was 11 million in 1939

Germany’s invasion of Russia appears to be one of Hitler’s biggest mistakes

He felt compelled to invade due to his racial ideology and the perceived need of lebensraum “We’ll take away its

character of an Asiatic steppe, we’ll Europeanize it… There’s only one duty: to Germanize this country by the immigration of Germans and to look upon the natives as Redskins” – Adolf Hitler

The Soviet Union’s military appeared weak during their 3.5 month war with Finland

On June 22nd 1941, Germany caught the Soviet Union completely off guard when Operation Barbarossa

Stalin, who did not think Germany would invade, suffered a nervous breakdown

Soviet armies collapsed, with over 4 million soldiers being taken prisoner (POW)

Many people in the western USSR welcomed the Germans as liberators

Germany was helped by Axis friends Romania, Hungary, Finland, Slovakia, Croatia and Bulgaria

The German blitzkrieg was so successful that they gained 200 miles in one month

The Soviets practiced “scorched earth,” where they burned farms and destroyed factories, mines and roads as they retreated

The soviets managed to relocate many of their factories to Siberia

The Germans reached the outskirts of Moscow on October 10th 1941

However, Hitler did not equip his soldiers for winter and his soldiers and equipment started freezing

Marshall Zhukov managed to successfully defend the Soviet capital and start counterattacking

This marks the failure of Operation Barbarossa

The battle on the Eastern Front was a war of extermination

The Germans used brigades called Einsatzgruppen to find and kill Jews and communist party members

Local collaborators would often help the Nazis find and kill Jews

The Slavic inhabitants of the western USSR were deprived of health care, education and basic services to reduce their numbers in preparation for German colonization

60% of Soviet POWs were died in German POW camps or gas chambers

7 million Soviet civilians were victims of Genocide

Blond haired blue eyed Belorussian and Ukranians were spared for future use as slaves

Many civilians became to Partisans to fight Nazi occupation

One of the decisive battles of World War Two

Started in late August 1942

Represented the farthest extent of German conquests

Hitler was obsessed with taking Stalingrad

Stalin was obsessed with defending it

Each threw everything their respective countries had into the battle, even though the city had only moderate strategic value

There was a battle for every house

At one point, Germany controlled 90% of the city

The Soviets managed to break the Hungarian and Romanian flanks and surrounded the city

The Germans lasted until February, when they surrendered, with 300,000 casualties

The largest tank battle in history

In the spring of 1943, Germany made its last major offensive against the Soviets

The Germans wanted to encircle a Soviet army, however Soviet intelligence learned of this

The Soviets used defense in depth and defeated the Germans

By 1944, the Germans were pushed out of Soviet territory and Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary had all surrendered