Who invaded the Soviet Union in 1941?
Executive summary
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union launched by Nazi Germany on 22 June 1941, a surprise offensive that terminated the German–Soviet nonaggression pact and opened the Eastern Front of World War II [1] [2]. The assault was led by Germany but involved large contingents of allied Axis states—Romania, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and others—making it the largest invasion in military history up to that point [3] [4] [5].
1. Who pulled the trigger: Nazi Germany and Operation Barbarossa
Adolf Hitler ordered and Germany executed the invasion, issuing Führer Directive 21 and launching Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941 as the German military campaign against the Soviet Union [6] [7]. The Wehrmacht committed the vast majority of its forces—roughly 80 percent of the German Army—into the offensive, intending a rapid Blitzkrieg collapse of Soviet resistance [1] [7].
2. Axis partners and the multinational assault
Although Germany was the principal aggressor, Axis allies played substantial roles: Romanian, Finnish, Hungarian, Italian, Slovak and other units accompanied or supported the German advance, swelling the invasion force to several million soldiers and extending the front to roughly 1,800 miles [3] [5] [4]. Contemporary and later scholarship emphasizes that the campaign was a multinational Axis enterprise on the Eastern Front rather than a purely German solo operation [3] [4].
3. Scale, timing and strategic aims
The invasion began with more than three million Axis troops attacking along a broad front on 22 June 1941, with panzer groups and Luftwaffe air power spearheading rapid advances deep into Soviet territory; German commanders expected a victory in weeks to months [7] [5] [8]. Hitler’s strategic aims combined military conquest with ideological goals—acquiring “Lebensraum” in the east and destroying Bolshevism—plans spelled out in planning documents and directives prepared in late 1940 and early 1941 [6] [2].
4. Brutality and ideological war of annihilation
From the planning stages, German military and security authorities prepared for a war of annihilation against the Soviet state and populations, including coordinating Einsatzgruppen mobile killing units to operate behind the front; the invasion thus precipitated mass murder, starvation and atrocities across occupied Soviet territories [9] [10] [11]. Historians and institutional sources underscore that the invasion intensified genocidal policies on the Eastern Front and that treatment of prisoners and civilians reflected Nazi racial and ideological objectives [2] [9].
5. Immediate consequences and historical turning point
The invasion’s initial months inflicted staggering Soviet losses and penetrations toward major cities—by December 1941 German forces were at the gates of Moscow—yet Germany ultimately failed to force a Soviet collapse, making Barbarossa a decisive turning point in World War II [11] [1]. Scholarly accounts and museum histories describe Barbarossa as among the largest and costliest military operations in history, whose failure reshaped the war and ensured a prolonged, brutal Eastern Front struggle [3] [12].