Eastern Front

The World War II theater in Eastern Europe where Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1945. It was the war’s largest and deadliest land campaign.

Operation Barbarossa: The German invasion of the Soviet Union launched on 22 June 1941. Its opening campaign created the Eastern Front and brought German forces deep into Soviet territory.
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact: The 1939 nonaggression treaty between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, with a secret protocol dividing spheres of influence. It postponed open war while enabling both powers to partition Poland.
Joseph Stalin: The Soviet leader who directed the country during World War II. His decisions governed Soviet mobilization, command, and relations with the Allies.
Eastern Front casualties: The military and civilian deaths and injuries resulting from the war between Germany and the Soviet Union. The front’s immense losses made it the deadliest theater of World War II.
Siege of Leningrad: The German and Finnish siege of Leningrad from 1941 to 1944, during which civilians endured famine and bombardment. The prolonged siege shows the civilian cost of the campaign and the endurance of Soviet resistance.
Battle of Moscow: The 1941–1942 battle in which Soviet forces stopped the German advance on Moscow. The failed drive on the Soviet capital ended Germany’s hope for a quick victory.
Nazi–Soviet relations before 1941: The changing political and economic relationship between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union before their 1941 war. Their temporary cooperation gave way to Hitler’s decision to invade.
Adolf Hitler: The dictator of Nazi Germany and its supreme leader during World War II. His ideological aims and interventions shaped German strategy in the east.
Holocaust in the occupied Soviet Union: The mass murder of Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators in occupied Soviet territories. German advances enabled mass shootings and other systematic killings behind the front.
Operation Bagration: The 1944 Soviet offensive that destroyed much of Germany’s Army Group Centre in Belarus. Its success shattered German defenses and opened the route into Eastern Europe.

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