Operation Barbarossa

On the morning of December 1st, 1934, Leonid Nikolaev walked inside the Party Headquarters in Leningrad, where he shot and killed Sergei Kirov, the head of the Leningrad Party organization. Owing to Joseph Stalin’s growing suspicion of party members, the death of Kirov opened the door for what became known as The Great Terror. By the end of 1939 over two million people were directly impacted by the purges, estimates put the death toll close to 800,000 people killed outright, and hundreds of…

Introduction Coinciding with the Nazi takeover in 1933, Germany began a belligerent rearmament of the Wehrmacht by taking advantage of political and ideological strains in Europe and Russia. By rearming and reforming the German military, Hitler hoped to secure Germany’s global dominance by creating a powerful striking force, capable of rapid mobilization and decisive victory. In part, historians attribute Germany’s ability to rearm to liberating appeasement policies; however, another…

Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union drastically changed the course of World War II from that point on. Since nothing was changing on the Western front, Hitler turned to the East. He decided the time had officially come to create living space for the German people. His attack on the Soviets came as a surprise to Stalin, but later contributed to Hitler’s downfall. Hitler also ordered the killing or imprisonment of Jews, Communists, and people who were suspected of anti-German activity. When…

Many events made Hitler very successful in exporting war and terror. With little to no resistance from major European power, and the United States, primarily staying out of the conflict the Nazi regime easily infiltrated much of Europe and the Soviet Union. Had the Ally forces stepped up early in the war, it may have saved millions of innocent lives and countries from German control. With the victory of Poland under Hitler’s belt, and many more able-bodied fighters for Nazi military, he was…

Operation Barbarossa Finalized the Outcome of World War II World War II was considered the most devastating war of the 20th century but it could have been the last. Hitler pumped his people full of false statements throughout the war. Sure enough he gave one speech that was extremely premature. He said in a statement to the German people: “I declare without any reservation that the enemy in the East has been struck down and will never rise again.” He said this because of how fast his troops were…

Summary: The key themes that were covered in unit two were the Battle of Britain, Operation Barbarossa, and Stalingrad. In chapter two of the book, The West Point History of World War 2 volume 1, the key point consisted of the initiative and success the Germans had in both Western and Eastern Europe. For example, Robert Citino writes, “Since this was a war of choice-a war that Adolf Hitler and the German high command had opted to fight rather than one they had thrust upon them- the Germans…

(codenamed Operation Barbarossa), resulted in a massive and costly failure, leading to the eventual fall of the Third Reich. The decision to invade the Soviet Union was one of the most fateful and seminal decisions of the war, and it was likely Hitler’s greatest blunder. This pivotal decision, which would eventually lead to the turning of the tide in the Second World War, was influenced by a number of factors. An ill-fated mixture of Hitler’s racial sentiments…

The battle of Stalingrad is one of the most important battles in all of World War two for two reasons. It halted the German offensive, and it laid the foundation for future Russian victories. Without Stalingrad, the Russians would have had no hope for World War two, and had to have been defeated by the Nazi army. If Russia had fallen, it could have meant a whole new outcome to World War two, changing the world as we know it. Stalingrad held the original name of Tsaritsyn until the year of 1925.…

leader Joseph Stalin, he was not prepared for the bloody battle that came. According to the Remembering Stalingrad article (2012), “[a]s the battle for the city raged and Hitler grew impatient to capture it, the Soviet Army command planned a massive operation to encircle the Germans in Stalingrad.” This battle saw the creation of one of the greatest tanks, the T-34 by the Soviet Union that was nearly indestructible, as well as the defeat of Germany’s most feared army. The Battle of Stalingrad…

“When it comes to controlling human beings, there is no better instrument than lies. Because you see, humans live by beliefs. And beliefs can be manipulated. The power to manipulate beliefs is the only thing that counts.”- Michael Ende. Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, both very manipulative people, may have seemed great to many people of Germany and Russia at first, but in the end they were known as very evil. After World War I, Hitler entered politics and realized his ability of giving great…