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On August 23 1939 Hitler and Stalin signed a joint non-aggression pact. This guaranteed that Germany would not attack Russia, nor Russia Germany.

The advantages to Russia included that in 1939 the Russian Army was too weak to resist a Nazi assault (Stalin had executed most of Russia's best generals in the preceding decade); being free of the Nazi threat left Russia able to invade Finland (they did, the Finns gave them a beating); and Russia was able to gain the foreign currency it desperately needed by selling oil to the Nazi war-machine.

Many Americans began to back Germany in its war against England at this point (among the most famous were Charles Lindbergh, Woody Guthrie, and Walt Disney - though Disney havered about his pro-Nazi sympathies).

By the middle of 1941 Hitler's war against England had ground to a stalemate in North Africa. Hitler needed a winnable war, and also hoped to ingratiate himself with anti-Communist elements in America (and even England), so he launched an attack into Russia (Operation Barbarossa) on June 22nd 1941.

Hitler had miscalculated. The Russian army was now strong enough to resist the German invasion. After an initial scorched-earth retreat the Russian line held at Stalingrad and St. Petersburg, and then the Russian army began a slow rollback which eventually destroyed Germany's Panzer capability at Kursk.

Japan had entered the war on December 7th 1941 with its attack on Pearl Harbour, when even the Americans deserted Hitler.

Attacking Russia was Hitler's most costly mistake (among very very many).

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16y ago

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