The Soviet state orders the mass deportation of ethnic Germans

The USSR’s Supreme Soviet accepted Lithuania as a union republic after occupation and controlled elections. Soviet rule brought land nationalization, arrests, deportations, and the dismantling of...

An agent linked to Soviet security killed Trotsky, who died the next day. The assassination removed Stalin’s most prominent revolutionary rival abroad and extended Soviet political violence beyond its...

The invasion opened a war of annihilation across Soviet territory. Stalin’s government had failed to prepare effectively despite warnings; civilians and soldiers endured occupation, mass killing,...

The emergency body concentrated wartime authority and coordinated the state, economy, and military. Soviet survival depended on the labor and sacrifice of diverse peoples, including workers, women,...

A State Defense Committee decision formalized the evacuation apparatus as German forces advanced. Hundreds of factories and millions of people were moved eastward under extraordinary pressure. This...

The siege cut the city’s main land connections and subjected civilians to starvation, bombardment, cold, and disease. Stalin’s wartime leadership did not remove the immense human cost; Leningraders’...

As German forces approached, the State Defense Committee ordered the evacuation of government bodies and diplomatic missions to Kuibyshev. The decision triggered panic and exposed the fragility of the...

Stalin’s order imposed a state of siege from 20 October, restricting movement and authorizing severe penalties as German forces neared the capital. The measure attempted to restore order after panic...

Soviet forces began a major counteroffensive that pushed German troops away from the capital. The victory depended on mass mobilization, strategic reserves, industrial evacuation, and the labor and...

The treaty committed the two states to cooperation against Nazi Germany and to postwar collaboration. It formalized an alliance between political systems with sharply different aims; Stalin sought...