Introduction: Halting Operation Barbarossa: Transnational aspects of the first six months of the Eastern Front.

Yet the fact that the defeat of Nazi Germany could only be achieved at the expense of millions of anonymous workers from east of the Urals has been all but ignored not only by Western audiences but even in the official Soviet (and later Russian) narrative of the war. Operation I Barbarossa i , Nazi Germany's attack on the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, is without a doubt one of the most momentous events of the 20th century. They considered the war they fought a continuation of the 1939/40 Winter War, rather than a new war that was fully in line with Germany's aims. [Extracted from the article]