Spring 1918: Revolution had taken Russia out of the war releasing half a million German soldiers from the East. The First World War: Germany’s Last Gamble 1918
Hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers were decaying in German and Austrian prisoner of war camps. World War I in Colour: Mayhem on the Eastern Front 1914-1918
Discontent was brewing all over Russia. ibid.
The Russian soldiers had finally had enough. ibid.
2,300,000 Russians had died; a further 5,000,000 injured. ibid.
The Russians have risen up and shot all their nobs. Blackadder Goes Forth: Plan C – Major Star, BBC 1989
And they’ve overthrown Nicholas II who used to be bizarre. ibid.
In July 1921 noted Russian author Maxim Gorky issued a plea to the West: ‘Gloomy days have come for the country of Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Mendeleyev ... I ask for prompt aid for the Russian people – give bread and medicine.’ The Great Famine, PBS 2011
The Famine of 1921 ... The worst natural disaster in Europe since the Black Plague. ibid.
Soviet Russia faced the worst famine ever. ibid.
Up to five million Russians had starved to death. ibid.
Russia mid-June 1941 – bewildered uncertain country. Rumours abounded of invasion by Hitler’s Germany. The World at War 5/26: Barbarossa, ITV 1973
Doubts about the Red Army’s strength had been raised inside Russia itself. For the purges of the ’30s had decimated its leadership. ibid.
Even while Molotov was still in Berlin, Hitler ordered his Generals to plan an attack on Russia for May 15th 1941. They responded with a detailed scheme which he now named Operation Barbarossa. ibid.
In a week the Wehrmacht was already halfway to Moscow. ibid.
The Germans were having trouble of their own. Temperatures were down to minus forty degrees Centigrade. Oil solidified in the sumps of lorries and tanks. The intense cold affected the soldiers too. There were more casualties from frostbite and stomach troubles than from actual fighting. ibid.
Russia, the summer of 1942. The Germans are on the move again. The World at War: Stalingrad 9/26
The German army’s plan to destroy Russia by a blitzkrieg in 1941 had failed. And in the attempt they lost a million men. ibid.
Hitler turned south to the Caucasus. Three-quarters of Russia’s oil was there. ibid.
The Germans didn’t take many prisoners. They captured territory and towns. ibid.
Soon it would be 30, 40, 50 degrees below freezing. Equipment and men would freeze. ibid.
Hitler was obsessed with Stalingrad. The Russians too. ibid.
The same day he was promoted, Von Paulus surrendered. His captors had never seen such a senior German officer before ... Hitler had expected him to shoot himself. It was not an ordinary defeat; it was a catastrophe. ibid.
Stalingrad was still cut off and deep down the nation sensed what was to happen ... This was the turning point. This was a tragedy that could not be hidden. The World at War 16/26: Inside the Reich
Like in the West the German leaders rely on the concept of the Blitzkrieg in the East too. Tank units roll over Soviet lines, surround entire divisions and push forward immediately. The Red Army taken by surprise loses a large part of its armed forces in a few weeks. Dying for Hitler, 2011
In 1941 alone more than 3,000,000 Soviet soldiers are taken into German captivity as prisoners of war ... More than half of the prisoners die in German camps. ibid.
What is not destroyed in the fighting is commandeered by the German occupiers. ibid.
They are beginning to realise just how vast Russia is. ibid.
We look to the East. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf
When we think of new territories we must think of Russia. Destiny itself points the way there. Russia will provide living space for the German folk. ibid.
The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in knightly fashions. The struggle is one of ideology and race difference ... And will be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. All officers will have to rid themselves of obsolete ideologies. I know that the necessity for such means of making war is beyond the comprehension of generals, but I insist that my orders be executed without contradiction. The commissars are bearers of ideology directly opposed to National Socialism. Therefore the commissars will be liquidated ... German soldiers guilty of breaking international law will be executed. Russia has not participated in the Hague Convention and therefore has no rights under it. Adolf Hitler
Firstly to rule. Secondly to administer. Thirdly to exploit. Adolf Hitler
We believe in the Russian Army. We believe in the scale of the Russian generals. And we believe in Stalin’s leadership. Lord Beaverbrook, wartime address to troops at Birmingham
Hitler codenames the invasion plan Operation Barbarossa. World War II: The Apocalypse: Origins of the Holocaust aka Apocalypse – The Second World War: Shock, France 2 2009
This is Stalin’s scorched earth policy. ibid.
The 9th Panza Division was ready to attack but the order didn’t come. So they went round in circles waiting. At the last minute Hitler deferred his plans for an offensive in the East. He had to help out his ally Mussolini who had tried to fight his own separate war and got into trouble. ibid.
Operation Barbarossa had been delayed by several weeks. ibid.
The Soviet Air Force was nearly wiped out on the first day. ibid.
The executioners took pictures of their victims ... Holocaust by bullets. ibid.
The Germans capture 600,000 Russian soldiers in one foul swoop. Himmler comes through on a visit – no provisions have been made to feed the prisoners. ibid.
The long siege of Leningrad begins. ibid.
The Germans are no longer able to wash or change their clothes. Like their enemies they are driven crazy by lice and parasites that bring Scabies and Typhus. ibid.
Hitler writes to his troops: Soldiers on the Eastern front, comrades, today begins the last great decisive battle. ibid.
Stalingrad at the end of October 1942: the city on the Volga had still not fallen. German soldiers listened to the Fuhrer on the radio: 'We have taken Stalingrad. A few pockets of resistance remain. We will take them one by one. It’s just a question of time.' World War II: The Apocalypse: Allies Strike Back aka Apocalypse: The Second World War: The Great Landings/The Noose
After seven hundred days of siege the Soviets continued to resist. ibid.
Stalingrad became a raging inferno. ibid.
Von Paulus went on to collaborate with the Russians. And testified at the Nuremberg trials against his former commanders. ibid.
The Russians receive huge shipments of jeeps, tanks, planes and trucks, and cans of corned beef. ibid.
Stalin’s Red Army in Poland prepared to launch a major offensive on Germany’s eastern border. Hitler’s forces in the region were poorly equipped. World War II in HD Colour s1e12: Victory in Europe, Channel 5 2009
There were horrific tales of Russian rape, murder and pillage. ibid.
This battle of epic proportions between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union deserves to be considered as the most important battle of the Second World War if not in all wars in history. More than 6,000 tanks and over 2,000,000 men clashed there. The Battle of Kursk documentary
Dogfights involving up to 150 aircraft at any one time. ibid.
This was a fight to the finish. ibid.
The battle was lost and the fault was Hitler’s. ibid.
From the very beginning of Nazism, from its earliest days, Hitler’s philosophy of National Socialism was a theory of history that explained the past and predicted the future. Hitler saw National Socialism’s destiny as confronting and destroying Soviet communism in the East. It was a fight to gain living space for the superior German race at the expense of the inferior Slavic people of Russia. World War II: The Complete History: The World Shall Hold Its Breath, Discovery 2000