Russia - Russland - РОССИЯ

Adolph Hitler and the Nazis had a deap-seated hatred for Russian communists. War between Germany and the USSR was probably inevitable. Nevertheless, Stalin used the early years of the war to make territorial gains for himself. On August 23, 1939, Germany and the USSR signed a secret non-agression pact dividing up Poland. In September, the Soviets invaded eastern Poland. On November 30, 1939, the Russo-Finnish War began when the USSR invaded Finland. On March 12, 1940, Finland surrendered. On June 18, 1940, the USSR invaded the Baltic states. On April 13, 1941, the USSR and Japan signed a neutrality pact. But Stalin could not avoid war with the Axis powers. On June 22, 1941, Germany invaded Russia, thereby beginning Operation Barbarossa. Italy and Romania then declared war on the USSR. Shortly thereafter, Hungary, Slovakia, and Finland declared war. On September 15, 1941, Germany began the Siege of Leningrad. It would not end until January 1944. In October 1941 the U.S. began supplying the USSR under the Lend-Lease Act. That same month, Germany began its drive toward Moscow. The USSR was forced to evacuate its seat of government to Kuibyshev. But in December, Germany gave up its attack on Moscow, and the Soviets counterattacked. On January 31, 1943, over 90,000 German troops at Stalingrad surrendered to the Soviets. This was a significant turning point in the war against Germany. Late in 1943, Stalin met with Roosevelt and Churchill for the first time -- The Teheran Conference. They agreed that the Western Allies would invade France in June 1944 and that when the invasion began the USSR would launch a new offensive from the east.

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Daily Motion | March 19, 2009

Tags:. .stalingrad. .russland. .teheran. .leningrad. .adolph