80: Impact

80 Years Ago today (June 22, 1941) The Germans invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa (Russian: Операция «Барбаросса») (German: Unternehmen Barbarossa.)

From August 23, 1939 until June 22, 1941 Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were officially Allies solidified by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (which the USSR officially recognized in December 1989 by declaring the Pact and the Soviet invasion, occupation and annexation of the Baltics as “illegal” and in August 2009 Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin condemned the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact as "immoral".)

Under the Friendship Pact the Germans were allowed  - by the Soviets – to invade western Poland (which they did on September 1, 1939) and the Soviets were allowed – by the Germans – to invade eastern Poland (which they did on September 17, 1939),  part of Romania - Present-Day Moldova (which they did on June 28, 1940) and the Baltic States of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia (which they did on June 15, 1940.)

The Soviets used the same Pact to reoccupy and re-annex the Baltic States into the USSR from 1945-1991. The Pact also saw the Soviets send raw materials and other goods to the Germans with the last shipment received on June 21, 1941 – the day before the invasion.

On June 22, 1941: 3 million Germans invaded the Soviet Union and Soviet-Occupied Territories catching the Soviets completely off-guard and unprepared.

Joseph Stalin had thought of Adolf Hitler as a true friend so much so that when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 Stalin was so hurt by his “friend’s betrayal” that he was unable to address the Soviet People or be seen publicly until July 3, 1941 forcing the Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov to address the Soviet People about the Invasion on June 22, 1941.

In the 5 Months of Operation Barbarossa:

186,452 German Soldiers were killed, 40,157 German Soldiers went missing and 655,179 German Soldiers were wounded in action.

566,852 Soviet Soldiers were killed in action, 235,339 Soviet Soldiers died from non-combat causes, 1,336,147 Soviet Soldiers became sick or wounded via combat and non-combat causes, 2,335,482 Soviet Soldiers were captured and 500,000 Soviet Reservists were captured while still mobilizing.

In the 4 years of the Eastern Front of World War 2 (1941-1945):

26 Million Soviet Civilians were killed.

From June 1941-December 1941 the German Einsatzgruppen murdered 1.3 Million Jews on Soviet Territory by shooting the Men, Women and Children naked over open pits. 33,771 Jews in Kyiv, Ukraine were killed at Babi Yar from September 29-30, 1941. In 1942, the Germans opened their first Gas Chamber – testing them out on captured Soviet Soldiers.

8.6 Million Soviet Soldiers were killed (on the battlefields and in the Gas Chambers of the Death Camps and through experiments and starvation in the Concentration Camps - the Germans did not recognize the Soviet Soldiers as Prisoners of War since the USSR hadn’t signed the Geneva Convention.)

1,710 Soviet towns and 70,000 villages were razed to the ground by the Germans.