June 22, 2020

Why Invading Russia was Hitler's Downfall


Why Invading Russia was Hitler's Downfall

“Twenty-seven million dead – such a price was paid by no other country….You cannot understand Russia unless you understand what we went through in the war.”


—Vladimir Putin, June 22, 2001

June 22, 2020, marks the 79th anniversary of Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany’s invasion of Russia. The event set off a new stage of World War II, precipitated a catastrophic loss of life in the Soviet Union, and, it would hardly be an exaggeration to say, changed the course of world history.

On this day in 1941, Nazi troops passed onto Soviet soil to commence a siege that caught most citizens by surprise. While Stalin had received numerous warnings from his military advisors that Hitler's attack was imminent, he did not heed their advice. By the end of the war, over 27 million Soviet citizens lost their lives.

The Soviet Union entered the war in 1939 when, under their Non-aggression Pact of 1939 with Germany, they invaded Poland and quickly defeated the Polish army. Secretly, an addendum had been added to the Pact. According to the addendum, Poland and the whole of Eastern Europe would be divided between Germany and the Soviet Union. The Soviets received Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, and Poland east of a line formed by the Vistula and San rivers.

But Hitler’s share of the spoils was not enough for him. The Führer was determined to take over the Soviet Union as soon as he obtained control of Europe, regardless of his pact with Stalin.

Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union in the surprise attack known as Operation Barbarossa set off the Great Patriotic War, Russia's name for WWII as fought on Soviet soil. The Soviet Union needed to defend its borders and citizens – and to do that, Stalin joined forces with the Allies. This was a significant turnaround after the pact with Hitler, but a necessary one to face the Nazis in war.

It has been speculated that if Hitler had not attacked the Soviet Union, Stalin may well have never entered WWII and would have continued to supply the Nazis with the materials of war. A worse scenario would have been if Stalin had supplemented Hitler’s forces with Soviet troops. The outcome of WWII in Europe might have been very different.

Luckily for that particular period of world history, military leaders with the goal of gaining a foothold on Russian soil have not fared very well. Napoleon invaded Russia and tried to take Moscow beginning in mid-June of 1812. His attempt was far more short-lived than Hitler's, and just as unsuccessful. At least, unsuccessful for him: it became a central element of Lev Tolstoy’s War and Peace, making it one of the most literarily important wars in history.

Hitler, initially, managed to take large portions of the Soviet Union west of the Urals with sweeping panzer movements. His goal was to take down the Soviets, gain control of Moscow, and proceed over the Urals to where Stalin had positioned the bulk of his manufacturing plants.

But it was not to be. By November, 1941, the Germans had suffered an unprecedented 730,000 casualties. The Soviet winter counter-offensives, launched in December, steadily exhausted and demoralized the Nazi troops. Hitler, having visions of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, forbade any form of retreat. This caused his troops to suffer dramatically as they lacked proper clothing and supplies to survive the brutal Russian winter.

On top of that, the Soviet Union was now one of the Allies. The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union prompted a resolution between Moscow, Britain, and the United States in September of 1941. The United States and Britain pledged quarterly allotments of supplies to the Soviet Union to aid in their struggle with Germany. By the end of winter, Hitler's divisions had been diminished by roughly two-thirds: it was a force he would never fully rebuild.

After tremendous suffering, loss of life and bloodshed, the Soviet Union managed to turn the tide with victories at Stalingrad and Kursk in 1942 and 1943. Like Napoleon, Hitler was run out of Russia, pursued by an army of determined Russians with a blood debt to settle. The Red Army pushed Hitler back to Berlin and captured that city in the early days of May 1945. Allied forces entered Berlin from the west, and the end of WWII in Europe was declared on May 9th – a date celebrated as Victory Day in Russia to this day.

June 22 is a date that means little to the rest of the world and is acknowledged only in other nations affected by Hitler's siege, particularly Ukraine and Belarus. Russians see the eventual victory over Hitler as a testament to their endurance, tenacity, and iron will. They also see it, especially the victory at Stalingrad, as a decisive turning point in the ultimate defeat of Nazi Germany.

The significance of today's anniversary and the events of the following years of the Great Patriotic War cannot be underestimated in understanding Russian history. Moreover, the continued impact of the violence of war, massive loss of life, and sense of importance in driving the Allies toward victory continues to shape Russia today.


This article is adapted from “Invasion of Russia Remembered” by Linda Delaine.

You Might Also Like

WWII in Russian Cultural Memory
  • June 22, 2016

WWII in Russian Cultural Memory

June 22nd, as any student of Soviet history knows, is the day remembered in the official histories as the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Recent TV productions have sought to keep the state sanctioned view of the war alive in popular memory.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955