2.  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

3.  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

4.  On June 22 nd 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

5.  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

6.  The Germans reached the outskirts of Moscow on October 10 th 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

7.  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

8.  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

9.  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

10.  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

11.  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