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1941 in the Soviet Union

  • Anglo-Soviet AgreementOn the 12th of July 1941, two men sat down in Moscow to sign a document that would reshape the war in Europe. Sir Stafford Cripps, Britain's Ambassador to…
  • Battle of UmanThe Battle of Uman began on the 15th of July 1941 and lasted just over three weeks, yet in that time the Wehrmacht encircled and destroyed two entire Soviet…
  • Hunger PlanThe Hunger Plan was a blueprint for murder by starvation, drafted not by soldiers in the field but by bureaucrats at a conference table in Berlin.
  • Continuation WarThe Continuation War placed Finland in one of the strangest positions of the entire Second World War: a small Nordic democracy fighting alongside Nazi…
  • Battle of Smolensk (1941)The Battle of Smolensk began on the 10th of July 1941, roughly 400 kilometers west of Moscow, and what unfolded over the next two months would alter the…
  • Soviet–Japanese Neutrality PactAfter Stalin signed the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact, he did something almost no one had seen him do. He personally saw off Japan's Foreign Minister…
  • Anglo-Soviet invasion of IranThe Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran began before dawn on the 25th of August, 1941, when Royal Air Force aircraft crossed into Iranian airspace and dropped…
  • First Battle of KharkovIn the fall of 1941, Kharkov stood as a vital rail and air link connecting Ukraine to Crimea, the Caucasus, the Dnieper region, and the Donbass.
  • Siege of Sevastopol (1941–1942)On the 4th of July 1942, the last organized defenses of Sevastopol collapsed after 250 days of siege. When German and Romanian forces finally raised their…
  • Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940)The Soviet occupation of the Baltic states in 1940 unfolded against the backdrop of a continent already consumed by war.
  • Occupation of the Baltic statesThe occupation of the Baltic states is one of modern Europe's longest and most contested erasures of national sovereignty.
  • Winter campaign of 1941–1942The winter campaign of 1941-1942 began on the 5th of December 1941, and the Soviet Union was fighting for its life. Nazi Germany had launched Operation…