Editing Great Patriotic War (section)

== Course of the War ==
Stalin expected Germany to invade.<ref name=":1">Saed Teymuri, Soviets expected Nazi war. https://sovinform.net/Soviet-leaders-expected-Nazi-war.htm</ref><ref>Grover Furr, Khrushchev Lied, chapter 5.https://archive.org/details/khrushchev-lied</ref> However, he publicly claimed that the Nazis would not invade, and would honor the Non-Aggression Pact. By appearing to trust Nazi Germany, he emphasized their aggressive nature in the eyes of the public of both sides. <ref name=":1" /> 

The Red Army initially retreated, but slowly wore down the Germans. The Nazis found out they had severely underestimated Soviet industry.

Workers took up arms directly from factories to fight the Nazis. The Nazis saw that the most politically advanced communists were their greatest threat, and executed them. They took in traitorous "communists" as spies, so the Soviet Union looked with suspicion on those "prisoners" of war.

=== Nazi atrocities ===
The Nazis wiped out entire villages and raped countless women and children. Communism was so deeply rooted among the Soviet people that they would not accept Nazi rule, and so the Nazis chose to murder civilians. In their place, they sent German settlers, who would be sent back after the war ended.

The Nazis planned several famines on Soviet territory, to clear the way for German settlers. They also starved out Leningrad while besieging it. Millions of civilians died in these famines.

In total, the Nazis murdered 10-12 million civilians, especially communists, Jews, Poles, and other antifascists. Many were dumped in mass graves in forests. Some were taken to concentration camps. This is known as the Holocaust.

They also killed over 20 million Soviet soldiers.

=== Nazi collaborators ===
In the Ukraine, the Nazis worked with Stepan Bandera and his the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which committed atrocities against civilians and targeted Jews and Poles.

In Poland, the Home Army sometimes fought with the Soviets against the Nazis, but more often with the Nazis against the Soviets. After the war, it committed terrorist attacks against the Polish People's Republic, and was very unpopular.<ref name=":2">Saed Teymuri, CIA admits PPR was popular.https://sovinform.net/CIA-Poland-Communist-led-PPR-popular.htm</ref>

In the Baltics, the Forest Brothers collaborated with the Nazis. <ref name=":3">The Grayzone, NATO film praises Baltic Nazis. https://thegrayzone.com/2017/07/20/nato-film-baltic-nazi-collaborators-forest-brothers/</ref>

==== Central Asia and deportations ====
Several small Central Asian nations rose up against the USSR during WWII, committing mass collaboration with Nazi Germany. As punishment, they were deported away from the border in 1943-44. Namely, the Chechen, Ingush, Karachai, Kalmyks, Kabarda-Balkars, and Crimean Tatars.<ref name=":6" />

Why? All of them were Muslims, and probably under the influence of reactionary Muslim mullahs who maintained sharia courts and sought to exploit their Muslim followers. <ref name=":6">Bill Bland, Soviet Resettlements. https://espressostalinist.com/2011/07/20/bill-bland-on-the-enforced-resettlements-in-the-soviet-union/</ref> (Unlike the Orthodox Church, Stalin hadn't reconciled Islam to communism.) These reactionary forces had remained so strong because the development of productive forces was retarded by the mountainous geography of the Caucasus.<ref name=":7">SovinformMedia on X, "The CIA admits Truth about Stalin-era Deportations." https://x.com/SovinformMedia/status/1674605330129641473</ref> Nazi intelligence also gave credit to Britain for supporting reactionary jihadists in Central Asia via Afghanistan.<ref name=":5" />

As a punishment for mass Nazi collaboration, and for border security, most people in these nationalities were deported to Siberia, away from the border, and placed under NKVD surveillance. Some exceptions were given to Red Army heroes.<ref name=":6" /> <ref name=":7" /> The importance of the Caucasus to Soviet security would be vindicated after WWII by the US Pentagon's Operation Pincher, which planned to take the Caucasus via Turkey and Iran.<ref>SovinformMedia on X, Operation Pincher. https://x.com/SovinformMedia/status/1697337937372074436</ref> 

Some more nations also deported for border security because of their foreign ethnic ties. These were not punishments, but preventative security measures. Meskhetian Turks, who were sympathetic to Turkey, were deported in 1947 as the US was making Cold War threats involving Turkey.<ref name=":6" /> All Germans, including the Volga German nation, were deported in 1941 as the war started, not as punishment but to prevent their collaboration.<ref>Grey, Ian (1979). ''Stalin: Man of History''. p. 504.</ref> Koreans were also deported away from the border with Korea in 1937.

The decision to deport in 1943 was initiated by Stalin, but Khrushchev apparently made no protest.<ref name=":6" /> In 1956, Khrushchev blamed Stalin and lied that there were "no military considerations" in the deportations.<ref>Khrushchev, Speech to the 20th Congress of the CPSU. https://www.marxists.org/archive/khrushchev/1956/02/24.htm</ref>

=== Soviets turn the tide ===
The Battle of Stalingrad from late 1942 to early 1943 was the turning point in the war.

The Battle of Kursk in summer 1943 was the nail in the coffin for Nazi Germany.<ref>Rina Lu on X.https://x.com/rinalu_/status/1898599201514095032</ref> The Nazis attempted a counter-attack at Kursk, which failed.

After Kursk, the US Joint Chief of Staffs secretly admitted that the USSR "occupies a dominant position and is the decisive factor in the defeat of the Axis in Europe." <ref>US Joint Chief of Staffs.https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1943/d317</ref> 

=== The Impact of Lend-Lease: Helpful, But In No Way Decisive ===
Stalingrad was the decisive point of the Great Patriotic War. 85% of Lend-Lease supplies arrived when the victory of Stalingrad was already secured.<ref name=":4">Charters Wynn, Not Even Past. https://notevenpast.org/lend-lease/</ref><blockquote>Lend-Lease aid was slow to arrive.  During the most crucial period of the war on the Eastern Front it remained little more than a trickle.  Only following the Battle of Stalingrad (August 19, 1942-February 2, 1943), when the Soviet Union’s eventual victory seemed assured, did American aid began to arrive on a significant scale – 85% of the supplies arrived after the beginning of 1943.  Although the vast majority of the Red Army’s best aircraft, tanks, guns and ammunition continued to be manufactured in the Soviet Union, its mobility and communications, in particular, came to rely on Lend-Lease.<ref name=":4" /></blockquote>American military historian David Glantz says that without Lend-Lease, the USSR still would have won, it just would've taken more time, lives and materials.<blockquote>Lend-Lease aid did not arrive in sufficient quantities to make the difference between defeat and victory in 1941–1942; that achievement must be attributed solely to the Soviet people and to the iron nerve of Stalin, Zhukov, Shaposhnikov, Vasilevsky, and their subordinates. As the war continued, however, the United States and Great Britain provided many of the implements of war and strategic raw materials necessary for Soviet victory. Without Lend-Lease food, clothing, and raw materials (especially metals), the Soviet economy would have been even more heavily burdened by the war effort. Perhaps most directly, without Lend-Lease trucks, rail engines, and railroad cars, every Soviet offensive would have stalled at an earlier stage, outrunning its logistical tail in a matter of days. In turn, this would have allowed the German commanders to escape at least some encirclements, while forcing the Red Army to prepare and conduct many more deliberate penetration attacks in order to advance the same distance. Left to their own devices, Stalin and his commanders might have taken 12 to 18 months longer to finish off the Wehrmacht; the ultimate result would probably have been the same, except that Soviet soldiers could have waded at France's Atlantic beaches.<ref>Glantz, David M. (1995). ''When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler''. House, Jonathan M. (Jonathan Mallory). Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. p. 285. ISBN <bdi>978-0700607174</bdi>. OCLC 32859811.</ref></blockquote>Stalin likewise told FDR that without Lend-Lease, Soviet victory would have been delayed. <ref name=":4" />