THE COURSE OF THE WAR
By Izze Best
Overview
The war on the Eastern Front was a war of ideologies, a war of territory, and a war of resources. Hitler's National Socialist Party sought land to fulfill a dream of lebensraum, or living space--this territorial expansion came with a search for oil, along with a conflict of beliefs between the Communists of Stalin's USSR and Germany's Nazi regime. Regarded as the bloodiest conflict in the history of human kind, this theater of World War II claimed the lives of some 30 million soldiers and civilians and was characterized by the sheer brutality of Hitler's army and its policies, which included much of the Nazis' genocidal and racial cleansing schemes; the eastern front most notably held a large portion of Germany's concentration camps. The beginning of this sector of the war was made up almost entirely of German victory. Soviet success was accompanied by Russian winter, which caught the Germans by surprise and proved to be too much for the tired troops and overextended supply line. The USSR's dominance lasted a period of almost two years--from Stalingrad to Berlin over a thousand miles, a string of Soviet victories allow the eventual fall of Germany, leaving the Allies on top. Not only was the Eastern Front a loss for Germany, but it was a victory for Stalin and Soviet Russia, as it resulted in large territorial gains and a foothold in the politics of the modern world.
Timeline
1940
- USSR annexes Finland, Baltic States, parts of Romania
- Hitler invades Poland form the West
- Stalin invades Poland from the East
- Soviets reveal their plans for the control of Finland and Sweden, which conflicts with Nazi plans in the region
- Hitler declares war on December 18th
1941
|
1943-1944
|
1945
- Soviets encircle Berlin
- Hitler commits suicide on April 30th
- Germany surrenders, war ends on May 8th
Analysis and Detailed Description
Bibliography
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Taylor, Alan. "World War II: The Eastern Front." The Atlantic. September 18, 2011. http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/09/world-war-ii-the-eastern-front/100150/.
"The German Army and the Racial Nature Of The War Against The Soviet Union." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. August 18, 2015. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007182.
Olson-Raymer, Gayle, Dr. "World War II - The Eastern Front." Humboldt State Department of History. Accessed November 2, 2015. http://users.humboldt.edu/ogayle/hist111/WWII_EasternFront.html.
"The Soviet Union and the Eastern Front." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. August 18, 2015. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005507.
Taylor, Alan. "World War II: The Eastern Front." The Atlantic. September 18, 2011. http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/09/world-war-ii-the-eastern-front/100150/.