Why did Hitler decide to invade the Soviet Union in 1940?
After the successful invasion of Poland on the 1st of September 1939 and the similarly successful invasion of the west, Hitler decided to invade the Soviet Union, the country with whom he had one year earlier invaded Poland together and a country which might could have been described as an ally, at least from Stalin’s point of view. As for Hitler it was clear that “What India was for England, the territories of Russia will be for us.”
The aim of this essay is to explain and analyse the reasons, which drove Hitler into the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1940. Was there one crucial factor that animated Hitler to carry out this invasion or was it a combination of reasons? There are a variety of motives for Hitler’s decision, starting with the expansion of the Lebensraum and ending in the underestimation of the Russian army. Some of those reasons are of higher importance than others. Firstly, I will provide an insight into the situation of 1941. Secondly the different reasons for invasion will be exposed and analysed. Thirdly the importance of this invasion and its consequences will be briefly examined.
In 1941 the Nazis, one could say, were at the peak of their success. After the annexation of Austria, the invasion into the Czech Republic and the invasion into Poland, they even managed to conquer France, Belgium and the Netherlands and were occupying them. As soon as the Nazis invaded Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany. “There is no chance of expecting that this man will ever give up his practice of using force to gain his will. He can only be stopped by force.” These were the words spoken by Chamberlain, coming out of the radios in British homes.
On the 22nd of June 1941 at 3.40 am G.K Zukhov, the Soviet chief of Staff telephoned Stalin at his Villa outside of Moscow and told him that Russia had been invaded. “Stalin sitting pale and silent, an unlit pipe in his hands” , was hit quite badly by this news, hence he would not have expected this move and it took him 11 days until he finally addressed his nation in order to inform them. Stalin for some reason had trusted Hitler and had believed in the Nazi – Soviet pact, which herewith was broken. An evidence for this trust is the fact that Stalin briefly before the invasion still attempted to maintain good relations with Germany and continued to fulfil his treaty obligations to supply Germanys war machine with raw materials. Paradoxically, those raw materials were possibly used to construct war machines, which were later on used to battle Stalin’s nation.
The aim of this essay is to explain and analyse the reasons, which drove Hitler into the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1940. Was there one crucial factor that animated Hitler to carry out this invasion or was it a combination of reasons? There are a variety of motives for Hitler’s decision, starting with the expansion of the Lebensraum and ending in the underestimation of the Russian army. Some of those reasons are of higher importance than others. Firstly, I will provide an insight into the situation of 1941. Secondly the different reasons for invasion will be exposed and analysed. Thirdly the importance of this invasion and its consequences will be briefly examined.
In 1941 the Nazis, one could say, were at the peak of their success. After the annexation of Austria, the invasion into the Czech Republic and the invasion into Poland, they even managed to conquer France, Belgium and the Netherlands and were occupying them. As soon as the Nazis invaded Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany. “There is no chance of expecting that this man will ever give up his practice of using force to gain his will. He can only be stopped by force.” These were the words spoken by Chamberlain, coming out of the radios in British homes.
On the 22nd of June 1941 at 3.40 am G.K Zukhov, the Soviet chief of Staff telephoned Stalin at his Villa outside of Moscow and told him that Russia had been invaded. “Stalin sitting pale and silent, an unlit pipe in his hands” , was hit quite badly by this news, hence he would not have expected this move and it took him 11 days until he finally addressed his nation in order to inform them. Stalin for some reason had trusted Hitler and had believed in the Nazi – Soviet pact, which herewith was broken. An evidence for this trust is the fact that Stalin briefly before the invasion still attempted to maintain good relations with Germany and continued to fulfil his treaty obligations to supply Germanys war machine with raw materials. Paradoxically, those raw materials were possibly used to construct war machines, which were later on used to battle Stalin’s nation.
Operation Barbarossa, named after Friedrich Babarossa the medieval holy Roman Emperor, was the largest operation in history. 5.5 million troops consisting of people from Germany, Finland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Italy and Spain attacked on a front stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. Smolensk, Minsk, Kiev and Karkhov fell, Leningrad was besieged and initially the attack was tremendously successful, pushing hundreds of miles into soviet territory. “Before the end of the year the Germans had taken 3.5 million prisoners an killed or wounded another million” . This success however withered away. In July Hitler was convinced that wars had been won, he slowed down tank production and wanted to switch from army to naval and air force orders, hence he wanted to pull back infantry by August to then concentrate on the invasion into the Middle East and India. Because of economic reasons Hitler decided to immerge into the Ukraine, which delayed the drive towards Moscow. A sheer imbecility considering, that the drive actually only begun in the beginning of October, a time when heavy rains soon developed into snow. The German people had to deal with -20 until -60 degree. They were not used to these temperatures and due to a lack of appropriate clothing, it was impossible for them to move. Tanks stopped 20 miles before Moscow, were the Russians attacked the Germans. The Historian Ian Kershaw remarks very direct “the military setbacks of the first winter in Russia marked the end of the “sunny Hitler weather” “. The Blitzkrieg tactic, which had been successful in Poland and France did not work out in Russia and Hitler’s believe, that he would have conquered Russia within 6 weeks remained a dream.
For Stalin the invasion was a surprise even though Hitler had been planning it for month and Britain as well as Japan and the USA had warned him. What were Hitler’s motives behind his invasion?
The Historian P. Johnson argues that there were two main reasons for the invasion to Russia. The first of which was Extermination and the second Expansion. By Extermination the complete elimination of both Bolsheviks and Jews was meant. Hitler’s belief of the one strong pure race, which the Germans were, was one of his primary driving forces, as he also stated in Mein Kampf. That Jews were one of Hitler’s biggest thorn in his sight was not a novelty, as he had already killed thousands of Jews and Concentration camps had been built. Simply, because he considered them to be Untermenschen, as stated in the Nuremberg laws of 1935. “The Nazis refashioned warfare was a means of achieving the racial “purification” and involved killing every single Jewish man, woman and child that they could round up or capture. The Nazi onslaught against the Jews was both the centre element of a broader bio logistic framework and sui generis, in terms of how the Nazis perceived Jews as an existential threat, and the implacable ferocity of the campaigns implementation.”
He wanted to eliminate other impure races and saw them as a poison and threat to the world and especially to his master race.
For Stalin the invasion was a surprise even though Hitler had been planning it for month and Britain as well as Japan and the USA had warned him. What were Hitler’s motives behind his invasion?
The Historian P. Johnson argues that there were two main reasons for the invasion to Russia. The first of which was Extermination and the second Expansion. By Extermination the complete elimination of both Bolsheviks and Jews was meant. Hitler’s belief of the one strong pure race, which the Germans were, was one of his primary driving forces, as he also stated in Mein Kampf. That Jews were one of Hitler’s biggest thorn in his sight was not a novelty, as he had already killed thousands of Jews and Concentration camps had been built. Simply, because he considered them to be Untermenschen, as stated in the Nuremberg laws of 1935. “The Nazis refashioned warfare was a means of achieving the racial “purification” and involved killing every single Jewish man, woman and child that they could round up or capture. The Nazi onslaught against the Jews was both the centre element of a broader bio logistic framework and sui generis, in terms of how the Nazis perceived Jews as an existential threat, and the implacable ferocity of the campaigns implementation.”
He wanted to eliminate other impure races and saw them as a poison and threat to the world and especially to his master race.
Additionally Hitler strongly believed in the Jewish conspiracy, which consisted of a tract named “The protocols of the learned Elders of Zion” purporting to be the manual of a Jewish secret society planning the world domination. Furthermore Hitler blamed communism, capitalism and the economic decline after WW I on the Jews. He continuously used them as a scapegoat.
The hatred for both Jews and Bolsheviks was deeply rooted in the Nazi ideology. Which becomes very clear when listening to Hermann Görings words: “ This war is not the second world war. This is the great racial war. In the final analyses it is about whether the Germans and Aryan prevail here or whether the Jew rule the world and that is what we are fighting out here” Hitler made his hatred for bolshevism clear and saw the coming war with Russia as the great climactic fight of the year.
The second big motive for invasion determined by Johnson, was Expansion. Hitler had this Idea about expanding the Lebensraum. With the idea of Lebensraum, which means nothing else but living space, Hitler wanted to create a big living space for the German Volk.
Actually the idea of Lebensraum was not something new to German history. It was coined by Friedrich Raetzel (1844-1904), who was a German geographer and he developed a theory to which “the development of all species, including human beings, is primarily determined by their adoption to geographic circumstances.” He believed that Species that successfully adopted to one location would spread naturally to others. The idea of Lebensraum fitted to German imperialism, hence in the 1880s and 1890s the way to increase Germanys strength was by encouraging migration to German colonies. The development of Lebensraum experienced a crucial turning point in 1914 when the German army conquered Poland and Russia.
This idea could therefore be seen as something that had been unfinished by the Germans, due to the loss in World War I, nonetheless there was still considered to be huge potential in the idea as stated in Mein Kampf, where Hitler concluded that Russia would become the target for Germanys way to acquire Lebensraum. Hitler wanted to invade Russia so that he then could break through the Ural to then arrive in India. “He envisaged settling Germans as a master race in western Russia, while deporting most of the Russians to Siberia and using the remainder as slave labour.” Another nice side effect of the expansion into the east would be the conquest of the Oil sources in the Caucasus, which Hitler was very eager on. His desire for acquisition of territory for colonial settlement was a big one. Hitler’s ultimate aim was “to create a German Volk of 250 million.” Once the Nazis had conquered all these territories, a population transfer should happen, which was already accurately planed most detailed. Since the number of the Volksdeutsche from south and east Europe was only as high as 5 million, Alfred Rosenberg developed the marvellous idea of “drafting” Scandinavians, Dutch and English settlers being “racially approximate to Germans” Hitler was very much influenced by Rosenberg, especially in questions concerning the Jews and Bolshevism. Rosenberg was a Baltic German studying in Moscow, which implied that he witnessed the Revolution in Russia. He was convinced that the Bolshevik revolution was the work of the Jews. A fact, which strengthened Hitler’s hatred towards Jews and Bolshevism.
So it can be said that on the one hand there was the idea of extermination, which could be seen as a an ideological motive, given that anti-Semitisms and anti-Bolshevism were deeply rooted in the Nazi Ideology. And there was the desire of expansion on the other hand. One could debate that Hitler used the Lebensraum theory to justify the Nazi ideology, hence after Rosenbergs theory “in order to remain healthy, species must continuously expand the same amount of space they own.” If his people did not have enough space, more Jewish people and other poisoned cultures needed to be eliminated. The German Volk should grow to a strong healthy master race, if one condition of the health is expansionism, it is quite evident that a clear out had to occur. Expansionism and Extermination one could consequently argue even went hand in hand. As Hitler said after the Invasion of Poland “ “Even the Jewish question was really a space question”, since he “did not even have sufficient space for his own people” “
Hitler wanted the Crimea after being “cleansed” of the Jewish and Slavs to become a gigantic German spa receiving its old Greek name Tauria. In a monolog in the Führerhauptquartier Hitler gave an example of how he imagined the Lebensraum to be, using the example of the Crim: ”The area must lose the character of the Asiatic step, it must be Europeanized. The Reich peasant is to live in outstandingly beautiful settlements. The German authorities are to have wonderful buildings, the governor palaces.“
While Karl Dietrich Bracher believes that reasons for Hitler’s invasion into Russia were both a “forward push and the consequence of ideological obsession” , I believe that there were a few other motives for his invasion. Even though they might be considered as minor reasons.
One of them was the need for a way to make Britain drop out of war after Germany had lost the Battle of Britain. Britain’s hopes were lying in the USSR and the USA, if one of them would have dropped out the picture, in this case Russia, Britain could not hope for America any longer. Hence Japan would have used the shining hour and would have expanded into defeated Russia, which would have converted her into a strong power, which the USA would have to concentrate on.
Another point, which should not be seen as a motive for invasion but definitely as a comforting fact leading to invasion was the fact that Hitler, as the British, completely underestimated the Russian army, which was due to the fact, that Russia failed its invasion into Finland in 1940.
Additionally one could even argue that after the invasion of France and Poland went so smoothly, Hitler even had developed a kind of Megalomania, which animated him to conquer even more territory.
A further theory, which, however was never fully developed is, that Hitler feared Russia to become too strong and consequently would interfere into Hitler’s expansionism. Therefore Hitler decided to strike first. This theory however would contradict the fact that Hitler underestimated the Russian army. Unless one would argue, that Hitler feared the strength of Russia on a long-term basis.
Either way the invasion into Russia marked a turning point in Nazi Germanys history. Many historians remarked the invasion to have been Hitler’s biggest mistake and believed that the third Reich surrendered because of this invasion. Even though some historians believe that the invasion would might have been saved, if Hitler would not have done the stupidity of declaring war on the USA after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour. This is considered to have been a shot in his own foot, since the USA now did have a reason to bring in front of Congress and was legally allowed to join in the World War. Which left Hitler with the “big three” (Russia, Britain and USA) to fight against.
So it can be said that on the one hand there was the idea of extermination, which could be seen as a an ideological motive, given that anti-Semitisms and anti-Bolshevism were deeply rooted in the Nazi Ideology. And there was the desire of expansion on the other hand. One could debate that Hitler used the Lebensraum theory to justify the Nazi ideology, hence after Rosenbergs theory “in order to remain healthy, species must continuously expand the same amount of space they own.” If his people did not have enough space, more Jewish people and other poisoned cultures needed to be eliminated. The German Volk should grow to a strong healthy master race, if one condition of the health is expansionism, it is quite evident that a clear out had to occur. Expansionism and Extermination one could consequently argue even went hand in hand. As Hitler said after the Invasion of Poland “ “Even the Jewish question was really a space question”, since he “did not even have sufficient space for his own people” “
Hitler wanted the Crimea after being “cleansed” of the Jewish and Slavs to become a gigantic German spa receiving its old Greek name Tauria. In a monolog in the Führerhauptquartier Hitler gave an example of how he imagined the Lebensraum to be, using the example of the Crim: ”The area must lose the character of the Asiatic step, it must be Europeanized. The Reich peasant is to live in outstandingly beautiful settlements. The German authorities are to have wonderful buildings, the governor palaces.“
While Karl Dietrich Bracher believes that reasons for Hitler’s invasion into Russia were both a “forward push and the consequence of ideological obsession” , I believe that there were a few other motives for his invasion. Even though they might be considered as minor reasons.
One of them was the need for a way to make Britain drop out of war after Germany had lost the Battle of Britain. Britain’s hopes were lying in the USSR and the USA, if one of them would have dropped out the picture, in this case Russia, Britain could not hope for America any longer. Hence Japan would have used the shining hour and would have expanded into defeated Russia, which would have converted her into a strong power, which the USA would have to concentrate on.
Another point, which should not be seen as a motive for invasion but definitely as a comforting fact leading to invasion was the fact that Hitler, as the British, completely underestimated the Russian army, which was due to the fact, that Russia failed its invasion into Finland in 1940.
Additionally one could even argue that after the invasion of France and Poland went so smoothly, Hitler even had developed a kind of Megalomania, which animated him to conquer even more territory.
A further theory, which, however was never fully developed is, that Hitler feared Russia to become too strong and consequently would interfere into Hitler’s expansionism. Therefore Hitler decided to strike first. This theory however would contradict the fact that Hitler underestimated the Russian army. Unless one would argue, that Hitler feared the strength of Russia on a long-term basis.
Either way the invasion into Russia marked a turning point in Nazi Germanys history. Many historians remarked the invasion to have been Hitler’s biggest mistake and believed that the third Reich surrendered because of this invasion. Even though some historians believe that the invasion would might have been saved, if Hitler would not have done the stupidity of declaring war on the USA after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour. This is considered to have been a shot in his own foot, since the USA now did have a reason to bring in front of Congress and was legally allowed to join in the World War. Which left Hitler with the “big three” (Russia, Britain and USA) to fight against.
The invasion into Russia, which was supported by so many patriots, even inside Russia and was seen by them at first as a war of liberation, might would have been a success, if Hitler would have gone along with him them. As there were “many Russians themselves, at home and abroad, who saw the occasion of Hitler’s assault as an opportunity to seize their own freedom and destroy the regime which had brought more than twenty years of misery and cost over15 million lives.” Hitler could have established himself to be the head of this crusade, in order to conquer Russia. At least he would have had the opportunity to turn many Russians on his side, since the dislike of Stalin in his own country, especially after the Purges was immense. Stalin was seen as a complete Tyrant, whilst Hitler could have wisely chosen the opportunity to be the liberator. Even if only for ostensible reasons. That might would have made it possible to win over the USSR. Nonetheless “Hitler was not in the business of Liberation. Like Stalin, he was in the business of Slavery.” Which led to the fact that the Red army inspired by nationalism, which Stalin very cleverly arranged, comparing Hitler with Napoleon and calling for “guerrilla warfare and a vast “scorched earth” policy” transformed the red army into a barbarian, highly determined army which additionally did have an warfare material advantage (T 34 ) and consequently took down the Germans. So at the end the boot was on the other food, hence in 1945 it were the Russian tanks triumphantly rolling into Berlin instead of the Germans marching into Moscow.
In conclusion the invasion into Russia had already been planed when Hitler was imprisoned in Landsberg in the 1920s. The main motives for this invasion were Expansionism and Extermination. Additionally there were a few other minor reasons, such as the need to convince Britain to drop out of war and the megalomania, which Hitler might have developed after the successful Blitzkriege in Poland and France. The underestimation of the power of the red army might also have played a role in the decision-making.
Overall one can say that whilst Hitler was trying to achieve the main goals of the Nazi ideology, which were the complete execution of Jews and Bolshevists and an immense expansion to enlarge the Lebensraum were the master race could then live in health, he actually slowly but surely destroyed the whole Third Reich.
In conclusion the invasion into Russia had already been planed when Hitler was imprisoned in Landsberg in the 1920s. The main motives for this invasion were Expansionism and Extermination. Additionally there were a few other minor reasons, such as the need to convince Britain to drop out of war and the megalomania, which Hitler might have developed after the successful Blitzkriege in Poland and France. The underestimation of the power of the red army might also have played a role in the decision-making.
Overall one can say that whilst Hitler was trying to achieve the main goals of the Nazi ideology, which were the complete execution of Jews and Bolshevists and an immense expansion to enlarge the Lebensraum were the master race could then live in health, he actually slowly but surely destroyed the whole Third Reich.
