The Great Patriotic War, 1941–1945 (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes

Course of the Great Patriotic War

The Great Patriotic War unfolded across three distinct phases between June 1941 and May 1945. Each phase represented a dramatic shift in the military balance between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, transforming what appeared to be certain German victory into a devastating Soviet triumph.

The three phases of the war

The conflict progressed through clearly defined stages. From June 1941 to summer 1942, Soviet forces fought for survival against relentless German attacks, enduring catastrophic losses of personnel and territory. The second phase, lasting from 1942 to summer 1943, saw the USSR stabilise its position, mobilise its industrial capacity, and halt German advances. The final phase, from 1943 to summer 1945, witnessed Soviet armies advancing westward, recapturing occupied territories and ultimately achieving total victory over Germany.

Phase 1: The struggle for survival, June 1941 to October 1942

Operation Barbarossa and the initial German offensive

Operation Barbarossa was the codename for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, launched on 22 June 1941. The speed and scale of the German advance proved devastating. Within days, vast distances had been covered, with German forces encircling and destroying entire Soviet armies. Major cities fell rapidly: Minsk and Smolensk on the central front, and later Kiev, where 665,000 Soviet troops were captured on 19 September. Soviet forces were expelled from the Baltic States within weeks.

The Wehrmacht's advance demonstrated extraordinary tactical superiority. German generals, observing their rapid progress through August, believed Moscow would fall before summer's end and that victory was virtually assured. However, this confidence stemmed partly from underestimating Soviet strength. When Operation Barbarossa began, German commanders believed they faced approximately 200 Soviet divisions; by August 1941, they had identified at least 360.

Catastrophic losses characterised this period. Soviet aircraft were destroyed in massive numbers across all fronts within the first fortnight. The speed of German mechanised forces and the encirclement tactics employed by the Wehrmacht left Soviet defenders struggling to establish coherent defensive lines.

Stalin's response and the defence of Moscow

By October 1941, the loss of territory had reached alarming proportions. German forces were advancing on Moscow itself, and Stalin recognised that if the capital fell, Japan might invade from the east. Faced with this desperate situation, Stalin authorised Molotov and Beria to conduct secret negotiations with Germany through neutral channels. The Soviet leadership proposed a compromise peace, which meant a negotiated settlement rather than fighting to total victory or defeat. Stalin offered territorial concessions, though the possibility of peace remained open only until early 1942. Hitler, convinced of imminent victory, dismissed these overtures and continued pursuing complete triumph. The peace offer remained concealed until after the USSR's collapse in 1991.

Meanwhile, Stalin took practical defensive measures. On 18 October, he ordered the transfer of high-quality troops from Siberia to strengthen Moscow's defences. This decision reflected intelligence from Richard Sorge, a Soviet agent operating in Japan since 1933 (executed in Tokyo in 1944), who confirmed that Japan intended to attack the United States rather than the USSR.

Leningrad (modern-day St Petersburg) was encircled in early September, beginning a siege that would last 872 days. The German advance on Moscow was halted just 20 kilometres from the city on 27 November. When German forces launched their final push on 5 December, the attack was stopped. Soviet counter-attacks, mounted throughout November despite appalling weather conditions and mounting casualties, pushed German forces back from Moscow's outskirts. By December, German victory remained tantalizingly close but unachieved. The advance on the capital had been halted.

Continued fighting and German offensives in 1942

After failing to capture Moscow, the USSR remained locked in desperate combat for survival. Fighting diminished during the harsh winter months of early 1942, but by May, Germany prepared another massive offensive. This attack, however, diverged from expectations. Rather than renewing the assault on Moscow, German forces drove south and east towards the Caucasus oilfields and the industrial city of Stalingrad on the Volga.

Case Blue designated the German offensive towards the Caucasus launched in summer 1942. German forces achieved substantial victories in eastern Ukraine during this period. The fall of Rostov on the Don in July 1942 represented one of the USSR's lowest moments throughout the entire conflict. The Wehrmacht was advancing towards the oil resources that fuelled the Soviet war machine, threatening to cripple the USSR's ability to continue fighting.

Yet Case Blue became sidetracked when Hitler made a fateful decision. Rather than concentrating forces on the Caucasus objective, he diverted substantial forces to capture Stalingrad. Originally considered a secondary target, Stalingrad transformed into a symbolic battle. Stalin committed immense resources to defending the city, whilst Hitler became obsessed with its capture. From August through September 1942, Soviet forces desperately held Stalingrad. By October, the tactical situation shifted: German forces began withdrawing from the Caucasus, and the German Sixth Army attacking Stalingrad found itself cut off and encircled.

The defence of Stalingrad

Throughout late summer 1942, Stalingrad's fall appeared inevitable. Nine-tenths of the city fell under German control. Soviet defenders clung to a single enclave on the Volga's bank, supplied at night by boats crossing the river. Stalin refused to evacuate civilians, declaring 'they will fight harder for a live city than for a dead one'. This brutal calculation meant civilians remained in the battle zone, suffering alongside military personnel.

Stalin's refusal to evacuate the city had devastating consequences. Whilst the USSR constructed new armies and manufactured new weapons behind the lines, Stalingrad's defenders fought for survival. By October 1942, the Germans had shifted to the defensive. Fighting for survival themselves, German troops received direct orders from Hitler forbidding retreat. The symbolic battle that Stalin had made central to Soviet resistance now trapped German forces in a city they could neither fully capture nor safely abandon.

Phase 2: Turning the tide, October 1942 to August 1943

The encirclement and surrender at Stalingrad

Hitler's strategic error in defending Stalingrad to the last produced catastrophic results, both militarily and psychologically. The battle evolved into exactly the prolonged war of attrition that Germany needed to avoid. By 22 December 1942, German forces began retreating from the Caucasus. On 2 February 1943, the German Sixth Army surrendered at Stalingrad. This surrender marked a watershed moment. Soviet morale soared, whilst German confidence suffered irreparable damage.

Vast new Soviet armies exerted decisive influence on Stalingrad's outcome. Three weeks after Stalingrad fell, the Red Army liberated Rostov on 24 February. The military balance had fundamentally shifted, with Soviet forces regaining enormous territories from German occupation. The route towards Berlin lay open.

Soviet industrial mobilisation and the T-34 tank

By 1943, the USSR had achieved complete mobilisation of its economy, meaning the entire productive capacity of the nation had been organised for military purposes. A surge in production of weapons, tanks, and aircraft emerged, primarily from vast armaments factories constructed east of the Ural Mountains. This industrial mobilisation equipped the Red Army with a decisive military asset: the T-34 tank.

The Battle of Kursk and Operation Citadel

By early 1943, Hitler faced diminishing resources, manpower, and time. He launched Operation Citadel, a massive offensive near Kursk in July 1943. This attack represented Germany's last attempt to seize the initiative on the Eastern Front. However, the offensive was halted by overwhelming Soviet firepower at the Battle of Prokhorovka, the largest tank battle in history. The Red Army decisively defeated German forces with its massed formations of T-34 tanks.

Hitler called off the Kursk offensive on 13 July, but the battle evolved into a springboard for Soviet counter-attacks. Soviet forces regained vast territories from German control. The route to Berlin was now genuinely open. After Kursk, Germany never again mounted a successful offensive on the Eastern Front.

Phase 3: The road to Berlin, August 1943 to December 1944

Soviet offensives and liberation of occupied territories

Following Kursk, Soviet victory became increasingly certain. The war's nature transformed from desperate defence of Soviet territory into a powerful offensive driving German forces westward towards Berlin. Between August 1943 and December 1944, a continuous chain of Soviet victories stretched across Eastern Europe.

The USSR liberated Kiev on 6 November 1943, symbolically reclaiming Ukraine from occupation. The siege of Leningrad, which had lasted 872 days, finally ended on 27 January 1944 after causing more than 1.3 million deaths from hunger and cold across three successive winters. Soviet forces entered Poland on 4 January 1944, then advanced through Lithuania (capturing Vilnius on 13 July), Romania, and Hungary. The Crimea was liberated on 13 May 1944. By 29 December, Soviet forces began besieging Budapest.

The Tehran summit and Allied cooperation

In November 1943, Stalin met Roosevelt and Churchill at Tehran for the first summit conference of the 'Big Three'. This meeting addressed coordination for the Allied victory that now appeared inevitable. However, achieving victory proved neither swift nor straightforward. German forces, though retreating, demonstrated resilient defensive capabilities.

Even after the assassination attempt that nearly killed Hitler in July 1944, Germany continued fighting. Millions more lives were lost during this final phase. When Stalin met Churchill in Moscow in October 1944, victory remained distant. The Red Army did not reach Berlin until April 1945, demonstrating the extraordinary tenacity of German resistance despite inevitable defeat.

The Grand Alliance and the Soviet war effort

The USSR participated in the Grand Alliance alongside Britain (from June 1941, following Germany's invasion of Russia) and the United States (from December 1941, after Japan's attack on Hawaii). The Western Allies performed an essential role in Germany and Japan's ultimate defeat. They supplied material assistance to support the USSR's war effort.

However, the Soviet Union endured the war's greatest suffering. The USSR sustained enormous human and material losses and faced years of brutal occupation in its western territories. The Great Patriotic War became the defining experience for Soviet people under Stalin's rule, shaping Soviet identity and collective memory for generations.

Despite the Alliance's importance, it was Soviet forces that bore the heaviest burden of defeating Nazi Germany on the Eastern Front. The scale of combat, the magnitude of casualties, and the extent of destruction in the East dwarfed fighting on other fronts. The course of the Great Patriotic War demonstrated both the catastrophic consequences of the initial German invasion and the extraordinary capacity of the Soviet Union to recover, mobilise, and ultimately triumph.