Stalin declares a state of siege in Moscow

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...

A decree collectively accused Soviet Germans of collaboration and ordered their deportation to Siberia and Central Asia. Families were uprooted and subjected to forced settlement and labor; collective...

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...

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...

The order forbade unauthorized retreat and created penal units and blocking detachments. It reflected the desperate conditions of the war while subjecting Soviet soldiers to severe coercion...

Soviet forces struck the flanks of German armies around Stalingrad, beginning the encirclement that led to the surrender of the Sixth Army. The battle became a turning point, achieved through the...

The Comintern announced its dissolution during the war, formally recognizing the distinct conditions facing communist parties in different countries. The move also reassured the Allied powers that...