Russia in WWII

In August 1939, the Soviet government decided to improve relations with Germany by concluding
the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, pledging non-aggression between the two countries and dividing
Eastern Europe into their respective spheres of influence. While Hitler conquered Poland and France
and other countries acted on a single front at the start of World War II, the USSR was able to build
up its military and occupy the Western Ukraine, Hertza region and Northern Bukovina as a result of
the Soviet invasion of Poland, Winter War, occupation of the Baltic states and Soviet occupation of
Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina.
On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany broke the non-aggression treaty and invaded the Soviet Union
with the largest and most powerful invasion force in human history,[83]opening the largest theater of
World War II. Although the German army had considerable early success, their attack was halted in
the Battle of Moscow. Subsequently, the Germans were dealt major defeats first at the Battle of
Stalingrad in the winter of 1942–43,[84] and then in the Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943. Another
German failure was the Siege of Leningrad, in which the city was fully blockaded on land between
1941 and 1944 by German and Finnish forces, and suffered starvation and more than a million
deaths, but never surrendered.[85] Under Stalin's administration and the leadership of such
commanders as Georgy Zhukov and Konstantin Rokossovsky, Soviet forces took Eastern Europe in
1944–45 and captured Berlin in May 1945. In August 1945 the Soviet Army ousted the
Japanese from China's Manchukuo and North Korea, contributing to the allied victory over Japan.