This would bring the bulk of the Soviet population and its economic potential under German control.Īfter a five week delay while operations in Greece and Yugoslavia were completed, Operation 'Barbarossa' - named after the all-conquering Medieval Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I - was launched on 22 June 1941. The German military plan called for an advance up to a hypothetical line running from the port of Archangel in northern Russia to the port of Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea – the so-called 'A-A line'. On 18 December 1940 Hitler issued Führer Directive 21, an order for the invasion of the Soviet Union. Regardless of recent economic and political co-operation, the Soviet Union was regarded as the natural enemy of Nazi Germany and a key strategic objective. The conquest and enslavement of the Soviet Union's racially 'inferior' Slavic populations would be part of a grand plan of 'Germanisation' and economic exploitation lasting well beyond the expected military victory. He intended to destroy what he saw as Stalin's 'Jewish Bolshevist' regime and establish Nazi hegemony. Hitler had always wanted to see Germany expand eastwards to gain Lebensraum or 'living space' for its people.Īfter the fall of France Hitler ordered plans to be drawn up for an invasion of the Soviet Union. In May 1940 the Blitzkrieg rolled westwards and France was conquered in six weeks. Soviet cooperation allowed Hitler to expand his plans for European domination. For the next year and a half Germany also benefitted economically from the arrangement, with Russia exporting grain and oil in return for manufactured goods.
Stalin's forces then attacked from the west and completed the subjugation and partition of the Polish state. It ushered in a period of military co-operation which allowed Hitler to ignore western diplomatic moves and invade Poland. The Nazi-Soviet Pact came as a complete surprise to other nations, given the ideological differences between the two countries. In August 1939, as Europe slid towards another world war, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression treaty.
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