Scott here with another episode of the History and Plug podcast.

Operation Barbarossa was launched by Nazi Germany on June 2nd, 1941, with the goal of swiftly

conquering the Soviet Union, targeting key cities like Moscow, Leningrad, and Kiev.

Hitler reportedly said in a meeting with his generals before the campaign that we only have to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down.

At the beginning of the campaign, it looked like they were going to do it.

German forces advance up to 200 miles a week in the first two months, nearly reaching Moscow by August.

The operations rapid pace saw the Varmacht had circle and captured millions of Soviet troops, bringing Germany

close to victory. But fierce resistance and logistical challenges stalled their progress. Although they

didn't achieve victory, and years later they would turn back, the opening months of the campaign

devastated civilian populations. Millions were killed through bombings, mass executions, and starvation

policies, particularly in occupied regions like Ukraine and Belarus.

The Nazis had death squads, systematically murdered Jews, contributing to an estimated

10 to 14 million civilian casualties across the Soviet Union by the war's end.

Today's episode, I'm speaking to Richard Hargraves, author of Opening the Gates of Hell.

This is a deep dive in Operation Barbarossa that looks at this unprecedented rapid

military victory, coupled with state-sponsored and spontaneous atrocities, which makes this,

along with the Red Army's march back through Eastern Europe, some of the worst moments in the war.

We see how ideological and racial murders were built into Barbarossa from the outset,

how the German army was initially received warmly,

but then later it became apparent they were trading one dictatorship for another,

and the dark legacy that the first few months of this campaign

still leave in Eastern Europe today.

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