The Red Army begins Operation Uranus at Stalingrad

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...

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...

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...

At Prokhorovka, Soviet and German forces fought one of the largest tank engagements of the war. The wider Kursk campaign ended in a strategic Soviet victory, shifting initiative on the Eastern...

A decree accused the Karachays collectively of collaboration and ordered their removal from the North Caucasus. Families were forced into exile in Central Asia and Siberia; the Karachay autonomous...

The mass operation uprooted tens of thousands from their homes and sent them to special settlements. Many died during transport and exile. Deportation became a tool of territorial control and...

Stalin met with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill to coordinate Allied strategy, including the opening of a western front. The alliance was essential to defeating Nazi Germany but also...