Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by German troops and its allies during World War II, launched on 22 June 1941 on the orders of Adolf Hitler. The operation was named after Frederick Barbarossa ("Red Beard"), the 12th-century Holy Roman Emperor and German king. Its aim was to conquer the western Soviet Union, destroy Joseph Stalin's regime and implement Nazi racial ideology by creating Lebensraum ("living space") for Germany.

The German Generalplan Ost called for the forced deportation, enslavement and eventual destruction of millions of people whom the Nazis regarded as Untermenschen ("subhumans"). Under the authority of Heinrich Himmler, the Einsatzgruppen followed behind the advancing Wehrmacht, carrying out mass shootings of Jews, Communist officials and other civilians across the occupied territories.

In the two years before the invasion, Germany and the Soviet Union had signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a non-aggression agreement that enabled both countries to divide and occupy Poland. The pact, signed on 23 August 1939 by Joachim von Ribbentrop and Vyacheslav Molotov, remained in force until Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

Following the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, the German High Command began planning the invasion in July 1940. More than 3,8 million troops advanced along a 2,900-kilometre (1,800-mile) front, supported by around 600,000 motor vehicles and 600,000 horses, making Operation Barbarossa the largest land invasion in military history.