The Eastern Front of WW2
Even while contemporary history books barely pay it the same attention as, say, the Pacific and western European theaters, the Second World War's eastern front was undoubtedly the biggest military conflict in history. It's fair to say that this was the front where the war was really fought and determined, spanning across a stretch that was, at its broadest, more than 1,000 miles long, with a total of almost 400 Red Army and German divisions.
Even though a large portion of it is only recognized as a number in post-war statistics, the eastern front also witnessed some of the worst crimes in the whole conflict. Nazi atrocities were committed here not only against the Jewish community but also against other groups like the Roma, Russians, Poles, prisoners of war, and others. Massacres carried out by German death squads and local collaborators were prevalent in occupied countries, and they were frequently done in filthy, horrible ways. With little historical precedent for its size or cruelty, the war in the east was fought as a battle of total annihilation in contrast to the west.
Date: 22 June 1941 – 8 May 1945(3 years, 10 months, 2 weeks and 2 days)
Location: Europe east of Germany: Central and Eastern Europe, in late stages: Germany and Austria
Result: Soviet victory as part of the Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II
- Fall of the Third Reich
- Beginning of the Cold War and creation of the Eastern Bloc and the Iron Curtain
- Beginning of anti-Communist insurgencies
Territorial changes: Soviet occupation of Central and Eastern Europe
