On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany launched a massive surprise invasion of the Soviet Union, codenamed Operation Barbarossa. This attack marked the beginning of the largest and bloodiest military campaign in history, ultimately leading to the deaths of countless millions and shaping the course of World War II.

Background and Preparation

Adolf Hitler had long viewed the Soviet Union as an ideological enemy due to its “Jewish” Communism. He also saw the nation as a source of Lebensraum (“living space”) for the German people to expand. Despite the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (1939), a non-aggression treaty between Germany and the USSR, Hitler secretly planned for an invasion behind Stalin’s back. By late 1940, German military strategists had prepared Operation Barbarossa, named after the medieval Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.

The Germans assembled over 3 million soldiers, 3,600 tanks, and 2,700 aircraft for the massive attack. The Soviet Union never fully trusted Hitler’s word and it is debatable to what extent they were actually surprised. The key thing is that despite calls for massive industrialization and big leaps forward in technological progress after the Revolution calmed down, the Soviets were not fully prepared in 1941 for the blitzkrieg.

The Attack Begins – June 22nd, 1941

At 3:15 AM on June 22, German forces launched a three-pronged assault:

–Army Group North – Advanced toward Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) through the Baltic states.
-Army Group Center – Pushed toward Moscow through Belarus.
-Army Group South – Moved into Ukraine and toward the Caucasus.

The Luftwaffe (German air force) destroyed many Soviet aircraft on the first day, especially those that were vulnerable while still on the ground. Soviet defenses crumbled as German panzer divisions encircled entire Red Army units, leading to massive surrenders.

Early German Successes

The initial phase of Operation Barbarossa was devastating for the USSR:

–Battle of Białystok-Minsk (June–July 1941) – Over 300,000 Soviet troops were captured.
–Battle of Smolensk (July–August 1941) – Delayed the German advance but at a heavy cost.
–Siege of Kiev (August–September 1941) – Resulted in 665,000 Soviet prisoners, one of the largest encirclements in history.

By December 1941, German forces were within 25 miles of Moscow, but vigilant Soviet resistance and the harsh winter stalled their advance.

Soviet Response and Turning Point

Despite catastrophic losses, the USSR mobilized its vast resources. Stalin called for a “Great Patriotic War” to rally the population. Fresh Siberian divisions, better equipped for winter, counterattacked near Moscow in December 1941, marking the first major German setback. The Soviets were also able to evacuate many factories and means of productions eastwards and out of range of the Nazis.

Just like Napoleon, Hitler’s forces were overly optimistic about their ability to maintain supply lines deep into Russian soil. The initial battles of the war were “close by” and conducted by a fresh and well-fed force. This state of affairs was not able to be maintained so far away from Germany itself. Their initial push was extremely successful but was based on a short-term optimistic planning. The reality of things was that Germany found itself not in a fight against a clownish Jewish oligarchy ruling over slaves, but against a peer opponent with abundant resources and iron will.
 

The Crimes of the Nazi Regime against the Soviet People started on 22^nd

With the launch of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, SS death squads (Einsatzgruppen) followed German troops into Eastern Europe, systematically executing any groups of people they viewed as inferior. This included Slavs, Jews, Soviet officials, and Gypsies in mass shootings. Some of the worst massacres occurred at Baby Yar near Kiev, where over 33,000 Jews were murdered in two days, and in the Rumbula Forest outside Riga, where more than 25,000 were killed. By 1943, these mobile killing units had slaughtered over 1.5 million Soviet citizens many of whom were Jewish.

Simultaneously, the Nazi regime implemented Generalplan Ost, a blueprint for the extermination or enslavement of 30–50 million Slavs to create living space for German settlers. Entire villages were annihilated—such as Khatyn in Belarus, where 149 civilians were burned alive. At the same time millions of Eastern Europeans were “deported” for forced labor in German factories. Soviet prisoners of war faced deliberate starvation, with 3.3 million of the 5.7 million captured dying in the camps. This would all lead to the creation of the “death camp” network by the Nazis that has become infamous throughout the world.  

The Nazi occupation also relied on extreme collective punishment. In retaliation for resistance attacks, entire communities were wiped out—most infamously the Czech village of Lidice, where all men and boys were executed and women sent to concentration camps. The 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was crushed with such brutality that 13,000 Jews perished in the final assault, with survivors deported to their deaths. Medical experiments, starvation policies, and the wholesale destruction of cities further demonstrated the regime’s commitment to racial warfare. There are many regions around the western part of Russia where so many homes were burnt down by the Germans that only vast fields of brick ovens remain like tombstones. The ovens were the only the thing that could not be burnt and is a reminder to this day to all those who drive by of the horrors of Operation Barbarossa.

By the war’s end, Nazi crimes had claimed over 17 million civilian lives in occupied Europe, leaving a legacy of trauma that would shape history for generations. This is exactly why June 22^nd is a day mourning throughout modern Russia even 80 years after the end of the war.

Russia still feels the consequences of June 22^nd

Even in modern Russia generations after the end of the War, many are still haunted by the tales of their grandparents who had to live through the nightmare of Nazi occupation and\or war on the Eastern Front. There is not one family today who did not suffer some sort of tragedy in connection with Operation Barbarossa. Although Russians are much more vibrant in their celebration of Victory day on May 9^th, no one ever forgets the beginning of the war on June 22^nd. The mental scars caused by the invasion of the USSR go so deep that they have become a permanent part of the national psyche.