Eastern Front (World War II)

The Eastern Front of World War II was the theatre of war covering the conflict in eastern Europe. Many sources include the German-Polish War of 1939 in this World War II theatre but this article concentrates on the much larger conflict which was fought from June 1941 to May 1945 in which the two principal belligerent nations were Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. It resulted in the rise of the Soviet Union as a military and industrial superpower, the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe, and the partition of Germany.

Background

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939 had established a non-aggression agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and a secret protocol described how Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania would be divided between them. In the Polish September Campaign of 1939 the two powers invaded and partitioned Poland, and in June 1940 the Soviet Union, threating to use force if her demands are not fulfilled, won the diplomatic wars against Romania and three Baltic states which de jure allowed it to peacefully occupy Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania de facto, and to return the Ukrainian, Belorussian, and Moldavian territories in the North and North-Eastern regions of Romania (Northern Bucovina and Basarabia).

Related Topics:
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - Finland - Estonia - Latvia - Lithuania - Poland - Romania - Polish September Campaign - Baltic states - De jure - Occupy Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - De facto - Bucovina - Basarabia

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

For nearly two years the border was quiet while Germany conquered Denmark, Norway, France, and the Balkans.

Related Topics:
Denmark, Norway - France

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Adolf Hitler had always intended to renege on the pact with the Soviet Union and invade. He had argued in Mein Kampf of the necessity of acquiring new territory for German settlement in Eastern Europe. He envisaged settling Germans as a master race in western Russia, while deporting most of the Russians to Siberia and using the remainder as slave labour. After the purges of 1930s he saw the Soviet Union as militarily weak and ripe for conquest: "We have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down."

Related Topics:
Adolf Hitler - Mein Kampf - Acquiring new territory for German settlement

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Joseph Stalin was fearful of war with Germany, thereby being reluctant to do anything to provoke Hitler. Even though Germany had been assembling very large numbers of troops in eastern Poland and making clandestine reconnaissance flights over the border, Stalin ignored the warnings of his own as well as foreign intelligence. Moreover, on the very night of the invasion, Soviet troops received a directive undersigned by Marshal Semyon Timoshenko and General of the Army Georgy Zhukov that commanded (as it was demanded by Stalin): "do not answer to any provocations" and "do not undertake any actions without specific orders". The German invasion therefore caught the Soviet military and leadership largely by surprise.

Related Topics:
Joseph Stalin - Reconnaissance - Marshal - Semyon Timoshenko - General of the Army - Georgy Zhukov - Stalin

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~