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Since the death
of Lenin in 1924,

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Joseph Stalin has maintained
an iron grip

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on all aspects of life
in the Soviet Union.

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As a Soviet Premier,

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Stalin agrees
to the 1939 non-aggression pact

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with the Nazis,
extending his western border

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and precluding any chance
of going to war

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with Hitler's Germany.

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Stalin could not have been
more mistaken.

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All wars change the world,

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but none of them changed the world
like the Second World War did.

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Japan's on the march.
Germany's on the march.

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No-one can imagine the nightmare
they're about to unleash.

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The most destructive war
in human history.

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Suddenly the world
is turned upside down,

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and all hell is let loose.

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The West is stunned
by the speed of the advance.

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You get the Allies,
led by the big three:

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Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin.

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Men who are dealing with
immensely complicated questions.

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It's the biggest
military operation of human history.

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The Allies have to come together
not just militarily,

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but industrial scale
it's a global perspective.

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They have to fight in every
climate from the Arctic

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to the jungles of the Pacific

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to the deserts of Africa
and the depths of the ocean.

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But there was
no certainty of victory.

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It was going to be
a horrific bloodbath.

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We see humans
at their absolute worst,

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how they treat other human beings.

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And we see them
at their absolute best,

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willing to give their lives
that others might live.

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World War II was a struggle
in which there could be

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one victor and one vanquished.

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As war between Great Britain
and Germany continues,

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from his offices deep
within the Kremlin,

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Soviet leader Joseph Stalin

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is confident the non-aggression pact
he made with the Germans will hold

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and that he will soon have

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even more influence
around the world.

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Stalin's ideal plan was that
the British and French

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would fight off the Germans,

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and that those two sides
could fight it out

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as much as they liked
while Stalin watched

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from the sidelines
as they exhausted themselves.

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Since he was
a young revolutionary,

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Stalin hoped that conflict
in the West

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would ultimately
provide an opportunity

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for communism to spread
throughout Europe.

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Vissarionovich Jughashvili,

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the man that we know as Stalin,

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is Georgian by birth and origin.

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He comes from a particular milieu

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marked by, among other things,
feuding and banditry

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and a certain code of honour,

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a code of vengeance and vendetta.

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In the 1920s,
Stalin became the leader

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of the Soviet Union...

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and quickly suppressed
any opposition to his rule.

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In 1936, he launched a purge

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that became known
as the Great Terror,

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targeting political opponents,

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then expanding it
to high-level army officers.

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Stalin supervised, through
the NKVD secret police,

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the killing of millions of people,
the destroying of families.

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Millions were deported

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and sent to concentration camps
known as the gulags.

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He turned the country
into a totalitarian police state.

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A few years later in 1939,

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Stalin makes a deal
with Adolf Hitler.

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Even though Germany
and the Soviet Union are hostile,

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Stalin signs an agreement known as
the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact

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with the Nazis.

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As a result of the pact,

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Hitler and Stalin not only
carve up Eastern Europe

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and together invade Poland,

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Stalin also commits
to supplying vast quantities

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of raw materials
to the German Reich.

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The Soviet Union
is providing Adolf Hitler

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massive amounts
of natural resources,

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which is funding
the economic engine

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to build the military machine

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that Adolf Hitler is using
around the rest of the world.

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By 1940, it looks as if
the pact has paid off,

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certainly for Stalin.

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He's got this agreement
with the Nazis

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that he doesn't have
to worry about a war

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on their western front.

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Then in late September,

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Germany, Italy, and Japan
signed a military alliance

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called the Tripartite Pact.

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In Berlin, Hitler
welcomed Japan to his gang,

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the three-power treaty,
Germany, Italy, Japan.

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dictator nations falling in step
for world domination.

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It was not clear what
the role of the Soviet Union

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might be in this new pact.

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Would it become
a quadruple pact

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instead of simply
a Tripartite Pact?

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Would the Soviet Union
become a full partner?

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These were all still open
questions in the fall of 1940.

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In November,

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Stalin sends one of the few
people he trusts to Berlin.

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His foreign minister,
Vyacheslav Molotov.

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Molotov means "hammer" in Russian.

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His nickname was Iron Arse

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because he could sit
for so long doing work.

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He was intelligent,
he was ruthless,

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and Stalin trusted him.

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Hitler receives Molotov
in the chancellery.

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There's an amazing scene
as he enters,

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huge, blond, giant SS men
in their gleaming black,

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death head's uniform salute.

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In walks
this little Russian diplomat,

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and Hitler greets him warmly.

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And they have
two big sessions of chats.

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Hitler is at an impasse
in this war,

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he has conquered
everything within reach.

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He's trying to talk to the Soviets

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about some tighter level
of cooperation.

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Hitler wants to get
the Soviets on board

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for some kind of global war
against the British Empire.

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The Germans propose
that the Soviets join

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the Tripartite Pact
and offer India as a prize

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for when the British are defeated.

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Molotov doesn't
take this seriously.

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Iron Arse is not impressed
with Hitler.

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And the conversations
become increasingly awkward.

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German Foreign Minister
von Ribbentrop

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is hosting a reception for Molotov

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when the Royal Air Force
begins a raid on Berlin.

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In the middle of the banquet...

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...the air raid sirens
start to sound

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and they have to go down into
Ribbentrop's air raid shelter.

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And during the air raid,

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Ribbentrop starts to boast
that Britain is defeated

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and it's only a matter of time

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before Britain surrenders
and the war is won.

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Ribbentrop,
trying to make the best

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of an obviously
embarrassing situation,

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jokes that
the British are complaining

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that they have not been
invited to the party.

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Molotov, however, is not charmed

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by the Germans' attempt
at humour.

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And he says, well,
if the war is over,

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then why are we
in this bomb shelter

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and whose bombs
are falling on us?

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The next morning,
Foreign Minister Molotov

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returns to Moscow...

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Unaware that Hitler
and his military leaders

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are planning a secret operation.

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Hitler is capable of,
you know, shaking your hand

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and looking you in the eye
and saying everything is OK

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while planning to stab you
in the back.

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And that is clearly what's going on
between Molotov and Hitler.

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One month
after Molotov's Berlin visit,

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on December 18th...

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...Hitler signs off on
Fuehrer Directive Number 21.

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A plan for a massive invasion
of the Soviet Union

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the following year.

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The invasion is given a code name

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after a red-bearded
medieval German emperor.

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The stage is now set

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for the biggest military invasion
in history,

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Operation Barbarossa.

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In the last weeks of 1940,

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Adolf Hitler tours
German weapons factories

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as preparations progress
for Operation Barbarossa.

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His plan is to attack
and conquer the Soviet Union,

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to establish more lebensraum,
living space,

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for the new German empire
in the East.

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The operation is top-secret.

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But within days,
sources have fed the information

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to the Soviet intelligence services.

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Stalin is receiving information
from nearly every quarter

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right from the belly
of the beast in Berlin,

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from the American
military attaché,

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from the British,
and from his spy in Tokyo.

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But Stalin doesn't believe
what he's hearing.

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Stalin is paranoid

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that what is happening here
is a very high-level game

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on the part
of the Western powers.

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They're trying to manoeuvre him
into a one-on-one war

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with the previously
undefeated Wehrmacht,

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that he does not believe
he's ready for at the moment,

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and he is bound and determined
to avoid being manoeuvred.

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You can get all
the intelligence in the world,

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but if you are predisposed
not to believe it,

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it doesn't really make
that much difference.

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And when he receives
a report from his master agent

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in the German air force
that Hitler is planning

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an imminent invasion of Russia...

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he says,
Hitler would not be so stupid

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because he doesn't even realise

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what he's dealing with,
the scale of the Soviet Union.

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Both Stalin and Hitler have
read deeply into history.

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Stalin has studied

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the great German Prussian
statesman Bismarck.

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Bismarck thought that

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a war on two fronts was
an extremely bad idea.

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Germany remains at war
with Great Britain,

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and Stalin doesn't believe
Hitler would open a second front.

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Stalin thinks it very unlikely
that Hitler will invade

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because he thinks Hitler
is a sort of rational,

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Bismarckian player.

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And in that sense,
he misread Hitler.

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But Hitler believes
that he is destined

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to lead Germany to greatness.

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Hitler is nothing if not arrogant.

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He believes
he's better than Bismarck,

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better than just about anybody else
who's ever lived before him.

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Hitler finalizes the details
of Operation Barbarossa,

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proposed date of invasion,
May 1941.

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The plan is to overwhelm
the Red Army

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and topple the regime
within two months,

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well before
the Russian winter sets in.

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A lightning blow
against the Russians

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that will prove once and for all

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that he, Hitler, and Germany,
are unconquerable.

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The offensive is divided
into three giant army groups,

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each with a specific objective.

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Going from north to south,

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the first army group
is Army Group North,

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which moves along the Baltic,

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and its final operational goal
is Leningrad.

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The centre of the invasion
is Army Group Centre.

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It's the largest force by far
and it is going toward Moscow.

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Army Group South
is moving through

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what we would now call Ukraine

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to secure resources and eventually,

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the historic Ukrainian capital
of Kiev.

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But in the spring of 1941,

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the Nazis face a challenge
in the Balkans

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in Southeastern Europe.

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Hitler is forced to send
an army into Yugoslavia

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to crush an anti-Nazi coup.

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His infantry then marches
into neighbouring Greece

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to help his Italian ally,
Benito Mussolini.

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00:14:50,220 --> 00:14:53,140
Hitler has been cleaning up
this mess in the Balkans.

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And so it's now a five-week delay

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in the start
of Operation Barbarossa.

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The Kremlin receives
more intelligence

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that the Germans are preparing
an invasion.

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Stalin dismisses it all.

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00:15:13,580 --> 00:15:16,220
And he doesn't stop sending
Soviet grain,

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oil, and steel into Germany.

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June 22nd, 1941.

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As dawn breaks,
over 3 million German soldiers

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00:15:35,420 --> 00:15:38,780
poured across the border
into Soviet territory.

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Operation Barbarossa
is launched.

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It's the biggest invasion force

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00:16:04,420 --> 00:16:06,260
in the history of human warfare.

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It's just so vast,

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it's difficult
to get one's mind around it.

254
00:16:15,260 --> 00:16:17,460
If you just take
the Eastern Front,

255
00:16:17,620 --> 00:16:21,220
it's like trying to invade the
US from San Diego to Seattle.

256
00:16:21,380 --> 00:16:24,660
It is by itself the largest war
that's ever happened.

257
00:16:24,820 --> 00:16:26,820
That's crazy.

258
00:16:29,700 --> 00:16:32,140
It's 3,000 tanks,

259
00:16:32,300 --> 00:16:34,140
2,700 aircraft,

260
00:16:34,300 --> 00:16:36,380
another 7,000 artillery pieces,

261
00:16:36,540 --> 00:16:38,660
600,000 vehicles.

262
00:16:40,660 --> 00:16:44,340
It is massive on a scale no-one
else has ever seen before.

263
00:16:48,860 --> 00:16:51,740
This is the largest army
that's ever been organized

264
00:16:51,900 --> 00:16:53,660
in modern European terms.

265
00:16:53,820 --> 00:16:55,660
This is 3 million men

266
00:16:55,820 --> 00:16:58,300
spread across a couple
thousand miles of front.

267
00:16:58,460 --> 00:17:03,020
300 divisions, including
19 Panzer divisions.

268
00:17:03,180 --> 00:17:05,500
This is a big force.

269
00:17:09,380 --> 00:17:12,460
This is German manpower
moving east.

270
00:17:13,940 --> 00:17:17,620
This is the culmination
of all of the dreams,

271
00:17:17,780 --> 00:17:21,820
the hopes that Hitler has put
into his leadership.

272
00:17:21,980 --> 00:17:26,060
This is going to be the future
of Germany in the East.

273
00:17:27,580 --> 00:17:31,180
Hitler thinks that
the Soviet system is so rotten

274
00:17:31,340 --> 00:17:33,100
that he just has to kick in
the barn door

275
00:17:33,260 --> 00:17:36,460
and the whole structure
is going to collapse.

276
00:17:36,620 --> 00:17:39,940
The Wehrmacht moves fast.

277
00:17:40,100 --> 00:17:42,220
In just a few hours,

278
00:17:42,380 --> 00:17:46,860
miles of Soviet territory
is overrun.

279
00:17:49,460 --> 00:17:52,980
The invasion seems
to be going according to plan.

280
00:18:01,420 --> 00:18:03,940
On the morning of the invasion,

281
00:18:04,100 --> 00:18:07,100
Stalin is awoken
by his chief of staff.

282
00:18:10,180 --> 00:18:12,540
The phone rings
in Stalin's bedroom

283
00:18:12,700 --> 00:18:14,220
and Stalin answers it.

284
00:18:14,380 --> 00:18:17,220
And he just says,
the war has started.

285
00:18:17,380 --> 00:18:18,940
And then silence

286
00:18:19,100 --> 00:18:21,300
and he can just
hear Stalin breathing

287
00:18:21,460 --> 00:18:24,540
as he kind of wakes up
and absorbs this information.

288
00:18:32,740 --> 00:18:37,260
The German advance
is fast, it's furious,

289
00:18:37,420 --> 00:18:39,500
it's efficient, it's brutal.

290
00:18:45,420 --> 00:18:47,780
Adolf Hitler today
launched his fast,

291
00:18:47,940 --> 00:18:50,260
mobile Panzer divisions
against what may be

292
00:18:50,420 --> 00:18:52,620
the largest mass army
of the world,

293
00:18:52,780 --> 00:18:55,260
the Red Army
of communist Russia.

294
00:18:59,420 --> 00:19:01,980
The Red Army
and the Soviet Air Force

295
00:19:02,140 --> 00:19:03,860
are caught unprepared.

296
00:19:12,700 --> 00:19:15,340
On the very first day...

297
00:19:17,220 --> 00:19:19,140
...the German Luftwaffe report that

298
00:19:19,300 --> 00:19:22,020
they've destroyed nearly
the 2,000 Soviet aircraft

299
00:19:22,180 --> 00:19:25,420
both in the air and on the ground.

300
00:19:25,580 --> 00:19:28,820
Russian airfields
were bombed.

301
00:19:28,980 --> 00:19:30,940
Russian cities were bombed.

302
00:19:32,700 --> 00:19:34,660
All hell was let loose.

303
00:19:44,620 --> 00:19:46,900
The Soviets do resist bravely.

304
00:19:48,140 --> 00:19:50,860
But they are
constantly outmanoeuvred,

305
00:19:51,020 --> 00:19:54,580
captured almost immediately.

306
00:19:54,740 --> 00:19:58,420
The vast Soviet army
is already in freefall.

307
00:20:04,260 --> 00:20:06,860
The opening days of
Barbarossa are Hitler's dream.

308
00:20:07,020 --> 00:20:09,180
It goes incredibly well.

309
00:20:09,340 --> 00:20:12,660
The forces are racing through
former Poland,

310
00:20:12,820 --> 00:20:14,700
they go across Byelorussia,

311
00:20:14,860 --> 00:20:17,780
they get through the Baltic states.

312
00:20:17,940 --> 00:20:20,700
It's just amazing. It's like a hot
knife cutting through butter.

313
00:20:23,380 --> 00:20:27,100
In just the first week,
the Wehrmacht pushed 300 miles

314
00:20:27,260 --> 00:20:31,900
into Soviet territory,
capturing over 400,000 troops.

315
00:20:33,780 --> 00:20:36,220
The Russians are simply
being stampeded

316
00:20:36,380 --> 00:20:38,820
by a much more savvy
German force.

317
00:20:41,940 --> 00:20:43,580
During the Great Terror,

318
00:20:43,740 --> 00:20:46,380
Stalin dismantled
the leadership of the army,

319
00:20:46,540 --> 00:20:50,780
executing thousands of
experienced military officers.

320
00:20:56,060 --> 00:20:57,940
It is on a colossal scale.

321
00:20:58,100 --> 00:21:00,180
Three of five field marshals,

322
00:21:00,340 --> 00:21:03,260
Thirteen of fifteen army commanders,

323
00:21:03,420 --> 00:21:05,820
50 of 57 corps commanders,

324
00:21:05,980 --> 00:21:07,980
45% of all brigadier generals,

325
00:21:08,140 --> 00:21:11,860
50% of all colonels
have been executed.

326
00:21:12,020 --> 00:21:16,780
The leadership of the Soviet
armed forces is not in place.

327
00:21:18,900 --> 00:21:21,500
Stalin had decapitated
his own army.

328
00:21:21,660 --> 00:21:23,420
He put younger men
in their place,

329
00:21:23,580 --> 00:21:25,500
but they weren't experienced
and sometimes,

330
00:21:25,660 --> 00:21:29,220
they were little more than Stalin
loyalists or party hacks.

331
00:21:29,380 --> 00:21:32,460
They're rookies. This is an army
that has suddenly been reduced

332
00:21:32,620 --> 00:21:34,420
to kind of the teething level.

333
00:21:38,940 --> 00:21:41,500
Some Soviets initially
welcome the Germans.

334
00:21:45,300 --> 00:21:47,220
They even tear down
Communist statues

335
00:21:47,380 --> 00:21:49,620
raised in Stalin's honour.

336
00:21:57,380 --> 00:21:59,180
On June 28th...

337
00:22:01,220 --> 00:22:03,620
...Hitler's Army Group Centre
reaches Minsk,

338
00:22:03,780 --> 00:22:05,860
the capital of Belorussia,

339
00:22:06,020 --> 00:22:09,140
just over 400 miles from Moscow.

340
00:22:12,100 --> 00:22:13,740
The Germans keep coming.

341
00:22:13,900 --> 00:22:17,940
Those three million Nazi troops
keep advancing ruthlessly.

342
00:22:18,100 --> 00:22:20,420
And Stalin is ordering
counterattacks

343
00:22:20,580 --> 00:22:22,100
that never happen.

344
00:22:22,260 --> 00:22:24,900
It's just chaos out there.

345
00:22:25,060 --> 00:22:27,980
There was now
a very palpable sense

346
00:22:28,140 --> 00:22:31,820
of paranoia and fear
that the Germans

347
00:22:31,980 --> 00:22:36,300
now might be able to advance
as far as Moscow.

348
00:22:39,460 --> 00:22:43,140
At the Kremlin,
the news reaches Stalin.

349
00:22:45,980 --> 00:22:47,820
Stalin suddenly realizes

350
00:22:47,980 --> 00:22:50,380
that he's lost control
of the Soviet Union.

351
00:22:50,540 --> 00:22:52,980
He's lost control of the invasion.

352
00:22:53,140 --> 00:22:55,060
He turns to Molotov
and he just says,

353
00:22:55,220 --> 00:22:56,740
everything's lost.

354
00:22:56,900 --> 00:22:58,980
So many lands have been lost.

355
00:23:01,180 --> 00:23:02,980
He's not simply
talking about the army.

356
00:23:03,140 --> 00:23:04,700
He's talking about
the revolution.

357
00:23:04,860 --> 00:23:06,900
He's talking about the first
proletarian dictatorship,

358
00:23:07,060 --> 00:23:08,460
the birthplace of communism.

359
00:23:08,620 --> 00:23:11,860
All this, he says, has been
flushed down the toilet.

360
00:23:12,020 --> 00:23:14,020
...he says.

361
00:23:16,020 --> 00:23:18,380
Stalin retreats to his dacha,

362
00:23:18,540 --> 00:23:20,740
his country home outside Moscow...

363
00:23:22,060 --> 00:23:24,140
...and shuts himself off completely.

364
00:23:25,780 --> 00:23:27,500
At this crucial moment,

365
00:23:27,660 --> 00:23:30,340
the Soviet Union has no leader.

366
00:23:44,940 --> 00:23:48,140
As the Wehrmacht tears
through Soviet territory...

367
00:23:49,860 --> 00:23:52,260
...Stalin has not left
his country house.

368
00:23:54,500 --> 00:23:58,540
Some of his closest aides fear
he's suffering a nervous breakdown.

369
00:23:59,860 --> 00:24:02,780
Back in the Kremlin,
there's total panic.

370
00:24:02,940 --> 00:24:04,500
So finally, Molotov says,

371
00:24:04,660 --> 00:24:06,660
we've all got to go out
to see Stalin

372
00:24:06,820 --> 00:24:09,140
and to tell him to come back.

373
00:24:09,300 --> 00:24:12,700
So they drive out,
and Stalin is sitting in a chair,

374
00:24:12,860 --> 00:24:15,420
pale, thinner, exhausted.

375
00:24:16,700 --> 00:24:18,500
He says, what have you come for?

376
00:24:18,660 --> 00:24:20,700
They say, come back. Lead us.

377
00:24:20,860 --> 00:24:22,180
We can't do this without you.

378
00:24:24,740 --> 00:24:27,660
Molotov persuades Stalin
to return to the Kremlin...

379
00:24:29,300 --> 00:24:31,700
...where he speaks directly
to the Soviet people.

380
00:24:35,260 --> 00:24:37,300
But instead of
talking about communism,

381
00:24:37,460 --> 00:24:40,660
he evokes their sense
of history, honour,

382
00:24:40,820 --> 00:24:42,540
and national pride.

383
00:24:52,060 --> 00:24:54,180
Stalin appeals to Mother Russia.

384
00:24:54,340 --> 00:24:57,980
He appeals to the sorts
of attitudes

385
00:24:58,140 --> 00:25:00,060
and spirit of the people.

386
00:25:00,220 --> 00:25:01,620
He could have been the tsar

387
00:25:01,780 --> 00:25:05,020
in the way that the tsar might have
appealed to the people.

388
00:25:23,300 --> 00:25:25,380
This is a really smart,
canny move.

389
00:25:26,060 --> 00:25:28,220
This is a wonderful way
to unite the society

390
00:25:28,380 --> 00:25:31,340
in a way
that brings people together.

391
00:25:31,500 --> 00:25:33,620
We have the same enemy

392
00:25:33,780 --> 00:25:36,900
and Mother Russia is at stake here,
so rally to the cause.

393
00:25:40,820 --> 00:25:43,140
Tens of millions
of Soviet peoples

394
00:25:43,300 --> 00:25:44,740
are moved by Stalin's words.

395
00:25:45,780 --> 00:25:48,380
He appoints himself
supreme commander-in-chief,

396
00:25:48,540 --> 00:25:52,100
and he takes complete control
of the war effort.

397
00:25:54,180 --> 00:25:57,340
The Soviets also begin
to receive unexpected support

398
00:25:57,500 --> 00:25:58,940
from the West.

399
00:26:00,060 --> 00:26:03,100
The Soviet Union
is now acquiring sympathy

400
00:26:03,260 --> 00:26:05,340
from Winston Churchill
in London,

401
00:26:05,500 --> 00:26:07,860
from President Roosevelt
in Washington.

402
00:26:08,020 --> 00:26:10,700
These countries
will offer Stalin aid.

403
00:26:12,820 --> 00:26:16,420
Roosevelt sends to Moscow
his closest advisor,

404
00:26:16,580 --> 00:26:18,580
Harry Hopkins, to find out

405
00:26:18,740 --> 00:26:21,780
how America can support
the Soviet Union.

406
00:26:21,940 --> 00:26:24,220
At the airport,
our camera filmed the arrival

407
00:26:24,380 --> 00:26:26,500
of Mr. Harry Hopkins,
who conferred with Stalin

408
00:26:26,660 --> 00:26:28,660
on Russia's immediate need.

409
00:26:28,820 --> 00:26:30,340
But it will be some time

410
00:26:30,500 --> 00:26:32,500
before Western aid will arrive.

411
00:26:45,820 --> 00:26:50,140
By mid-July, the Red Army
has lost nearly 4,000 tanks

412
00:26:50,300 --> 00:26:52,860
and over 6,000 aircraft.

413
00:26:55,660 --> 00:26:58,260
Two million soldiers
have been captured or killed.

414
00:27:01,900 --> 00:27:05,100
Troops taken prisoner are sent
to German work camps...

415
00:27:06,380 --> 00:27:08,140
...or left to starve.

416
00:27:12,380 --> 00:27:16,180
It becomes the most pitiless
campaign ever launched,

417
00:27:16,340 --> 00:27:18,140
I think, in modern history.

418
00:27:19,820 --> 00:27:21,580
They were rounded up
in their thousands

419
00:27:21,740 --> 00:27:23,180
and hardly given any food.

420
00:27:23,340 --> 00:27:25,940
In fact, they would just throw
loaves over the barbed wire

421
00:27:26,100 --> 00:27:28,780
and laugh when the prisoners
fought amongst themselves

422
00:27:28,940 --> 00:27:30,780
because they were starving.

423
00:27:36,140 --> 00:27:38,300
The Nazis also target civilians.

424
00:27:40,820 --> 00:27:43,340
Both the army and the SS
are ordered to eradicate

425
00:27:43,500 --> 00:27:44,900
all resistance.

426
00:27:45,780 --> 00:27:48,420
Hitler's guidelines
for the conduct of his troops

427
00:27:48,580 --> 00:27:50,540
issued ahead of Barbarossa

428
00:27:50,700 --> 00:27:52,900
demand ruthless
and energetic measures

429
00:27:53,060 --> 00:27:56,620
against political agitators,
saboteurs, and Jews.

430
00:27:59,780 --> 00:28:02,580
They give the army
carte blanche

431
00:28:02,740 --> 00:28:05,620
to do exactly what they want
to the populations

432
00:28:05,780 --> 00:28:09,060
as they swarm over
the borderlands.

433
00:28:10,700 --> 00:28:13,220
This is where we start to talk
about the idea of total war.

434
00:28:13,380 --> 00:28:16,620
We are now gonna literally
target civilians on purpose.

435
00:28:26,580 --> 00:28:29,060
But the Soviets
begin to fight back.

436
00:28:30,740 --> 00:28:33,100
Partisans raid German outposts

437
00:28:33,260 --> 00:28:35,940
and Stalin demands
a scorched earth policy.

438
00:28:37,820 --> 00:28:41,700
People are told to burn everything
as they flee,

439
00:28:41,860 --> 00:28:45,260
depriving the Nazis
of food and shelter

440
00:28:45,420 --> 00:28:47,220
as the German army marches

441
00:28:47,380 --> 00:28:50,140
into the immensity
of the Soviet Union.

442
00:28:52,380 --> 00:28:54,860
The terrain in this part of Russia

443
00:28:55,020 --> 00:28:57,060
is like the Great Plains
of the United States.

444
00:28:57,220 --> 00:29:01,460
I mean, it's like being
in Nebraska or Iowa,

445
00:29:01,620 --> 00:29:03,860
flat seas of grass.

446
00:29:06,020 --> 00:29:08,460
When you start with a front
of a thousand miles long,

447
00:29:08,620 --> 00:29:11,900
and as they advance,
it gets to 2,000 miles,

448
00:29:12,060 --> 00:29:13,500
they don't know how
to deal with an area

449
00:29:13,660 --> 00:29:15,940
where the armies are operating
like ships at sea.

450
00:29:18,140 --> 00:29:21,180
There is no running out of territory
when you're fighting the Soviets.

451
00:29:21,340 --> 00:29:24,540
There's always more territory
to retreat to.

452
00:29:26,820 --> 00:29:28,300
By the end of July,

453
00:29:28,460 --> 00:29:31,220
the German army has progressed
over 400 miles.

454
00:29:31,380 --> 00:29:33,220
But their advance is slowing

455
00:29:33,380 --> 00:29:35,740
and supply lines
are being stretched.

456
00:29:36,860 --> 00:29:40,900
Every army has to understand
that if it advances rapidly,

457
00:29:41,060 --> 00:29:43,180
it can outrun its supplies.

458
00:29:43,340 --> 00:29:46,060
They always say, you know,
amateurs talk tactics,

459
00:29:46,220 --> 00:29:48,740
professionals talk logistics.

460
00:29:48,900 --> 00:29:53,700
Tank repair, replenishment
of ammunition, food, uniforms,

461
00:29:53,860 --> 00:29:56,300
it just consumed
the German armed forces.

462
00:29:57,620 --> 00:30:00,180
Eventually, every force
will reach what's called

463
00:30:00,340 --> 00:30:02,060
a culminating point

464
00:30:02,220 --> 00:30:04,380
where you've simply
exhausted the men,

465
00:30:04,540 --> 00:30:05,780
outrun the supplies,

466
00:30:05,940 --> 00:30:07,700
hit something you can't overcome.

467
00:30:07,860 --> 00:30:10,420
Your combat power
has been expended.

468
00:30:12,780 --> 00:30:14,460
As German commanders
and their men

469
00:30:14,620 --> 00:30:17,380
confront the magnitude
of their task...

470
00:30:18,820 --> 00:30:22,220
...Hitler faces perhaps
the greatest test of his leadership.

471
00:30:41,420 --> 00:30:43,820
It's been six weeks
since German troops

472
00:30:43,980 --> 00:30:45,900
stormed into Soviet territory.

473
00:30:47,540 --> 00:30:49,620
Hitler visits his men on the front.

474
00:30:52,740 --> 00:30:55,540
He meets with his commanders
to discuss strategy.

475
00:30:57,300 --> 00:31:00,300
The army groups are no longer moving
at the same pace.

476
00:31:02,900 --> 00:31:06,100
Army Group Centre
has pushed too far ahead.

477
00:31:07,260 --> 00:31:09,900
It is only about 200 miles
outside Moscow.

478
00:31:11,700 --> 00:31:14,740
But its supply lines
are perilously thin.

479
00:31:17,260 --> 00:31:19,260
That's a real problem if
you're a operational planner.

480
00:31:19,420 --> 00:31:23,380
You have one thrust that's
hanging out there on a limb.

481
00:31:25,140 --> 00:31:28,340
The German high command
is divided about what to do next.

482
00:31:29,820 --> 00:31:32,500
Some of Hitler's generals
want to continue pushing

483
00:31:32,660 --> 00:31:36,980
towards Moscow and capture
the capital before winter sets in.

484
00:31:38,340 --> 00:31:40,820
Hitler believes
if he and the German armies

485
00:31:40,980 --> 00:31:44,860
can overrun Ukraine,
it'll undercut the economic basis

486
00:31:45,020 --> 00:31:48,180
of Stalin's dictatorship
and undercut the economic basis

487
00:31:48,340 --> 00:31:50,660
of the Soviets continuing the war.

488
00:31:52,420 --> 00:31:54,100
And so the decision is made

489
00:31:54,260 --> 00:31:57,020
to hold the tanks from
their thrust against Moscow,

490
00:31:57,180 --> 00:32:00,020
then send a vast force
into the Ukraine.

491
00:32:09,780 --> 00:32:11,500
On September 18th,

492
00:32:11,660 --> 00:32:14,100
the city of Kiev is encircled
by the Nazis.

493
00:32:15,580 --> 00:32:17,260
Kiev is enormously
important

494
00:32:17,420 --> 00:32:19,740
because Kiev in and of itself
is the control of Ukraine.

495
00:32:19,900 --> 00:32:20,980
And what's Ukraine?

496
00:32:21,140 --> 00:32:23,300
Ukraine is the breadbasket
of Europe.

497
00:32:25,660 --> 00:32:28,180
So there's a huge
encirclement battle at Kiev,

498
00:32:28,340 --> 00:32:30,700
one of the biggest battles
thus far in the war.

499
00:32:32,220 --> 00:32:33,660
Feuer!

500
00:32:48,260 --> 00:32:52,060
With the Panzer groups
coming from the north,

501
00:32:52,220 --> 00:32:53,780
from the central axis

502
00:32:55,140 --> 00:32:56,540
...and also in the south.

503
00:32:58,300 --> 00:33:02,660
They capture 600,000 troops.
It's staggering.

504
00:33:02,820 --> 00:33:05,940
One's never imagined a battle
like that in the past.

505
00:33:07,060 --> 00:33:10,020
Hitler keeps on saying
they can't go on providing

506
00:33:10,180 --> 00:33:12,540
more troops for us to surround
in this particular way.

507
00:33:12,700 --> 00:33:14,500
They're gonna collapse
at any moment.

508
00:33:20,420 --> 00:33:23,140
With over half
his forces resupplied...

509
00:33:28,180 --> 00:33:29,460
...Hitler turns to Moscow.

510
00:33:38,220 --> 00:33:41,380
The Wehrmacht forces
progress very, very rapidly.

511
00:33:41,540 --> 00:33:44,300
They get so close
to the city of Moscow,

512
00:33:44,460 --> 00:33:47,180
you can actually see the towers
of the city centre.

513
00:33:48,060 --> 00:33:50,940
People were, obviously,
scared at the prospect

514
00:33:51,100 --> 00:33:53,780
of what was likely to happen.
But at the same time, by now,

515
00:33:53,940 --> 00:33:55,700
there was a determination
to fight back.

516
00:33:58,660 --> 00:34:01,540
They are preparing
the defences of the city.

517
00:34:01,700 --> 00:34:04,380
Men and women
are out digging ditches.

518
00:34:05,660 --> 00:34:09,220
Everything is ready for a
last-ditch defence of Moscow.

519
00:34:09,380 --> 00:34:12,060
That is,
Moscow will be defended

520
00:34:12,220 --> 00:34:13,820
to the last drop of blood.

521
00:34:16,020 --> 00:34:18,780
Stalin considers evacuating
the Soviet government

522
00:34:18,940 --> 00:34:23,180
to a city on the River Volga,
over 500 miles away.

523
00:34:24,180 --> 00:34:29,020
Stalin's staff begin
to prepare his own library,

524
00:34:29,180 --> 00:34:34,740
his own houses, to be evacuated
and to abandon Moscow.

525
00:34:34,900 --> 00:34:38,500
But Stalin is very aware
of appearance.

526
00:34:38,660 --> 00:34:41,100
He's always thinking
about history.

527
00:34:41,260 --> 00:34:44,900
He knows if Stalin leaves Moscow,
Moscow will fall.

528
00:34:48,380 --> 00:34:51,620
Many people think that
the regime is about to collapse.

529
00:34:51,780 --> 00:34:54,580
For the first time,
it looks like the Communist Party

530
00:34:54,740 --> 00:34:56,740
is actually about to be toppled.

531
00:34:59,300 --> 00:35:03,140
At the last moment,
Stalin decides to stay.

532
00:35:07,620 --> 00:35:10,660
The German army is poised
to capture Moscow.

533
00:35:13,420 --> 00:35:14,860
But Stalin has an ally.

534
00:35:20,700 --> 00:35:22,460
General Winter.

535
00:35:31,220 --> 00:35:34,500
Four months into the invasion
of the Soviet Union,

536
00:35:34,660 --> 00:35:36,940
the German army faces
a new enemy.

537
00:35:38,580 --> 00:35:40,660
It was always said
that Russia's greatest general

538
00:35:40,820 --> 00:35:42,580
was General Winter.

539
00:35:42,740 --> 00:35:44,940
So the Russians were
much better prepared

540
00:35:45,100 --> 00:35:48,180
for winter than the Germans.

541
00:35:51,900 --> 00:35:53,260
So what happens
in the Soviet Union,

542
00:35:53,420 --> 00:35:55,180
if you're on the path
toward Moscow,

543
00:35:55,340 --> 00:35:57,060
as invaders have found
over the centuries,

544
00:35:57,220 --> 00:35:59,260
the weather turns bad,
it rains,

545
00:35:59,420 --> 00:36:01,140
and a very inadequate
road network

546
00:36:01,300 --> 00:36:02,660
now gets turned into mud.

547
00:36:02,820 --> 00:36:06,660
The Russians call it rasputitsa,
the roadless time.

548
00:36:10,020 --> 00:36:11,420
This is not like normal mud.

549
00:36:11,580 --> 00:36:15,340
You can't move and
you can't bring supplies forward.

550
00:36:15,500 --> 00:36:18,660
General Mud slows
the German advance

551
00:36:18,820 --> 00:36:21,380
at a time when they're trying
to beat the clock here.

552
00:36:21,540 --> 00:36:23,700
Then when it gets really cold,

553
00:36:23,860 --> 00:36:26,980
you see an entirely different
situation.

554
00:36:27,140 --> 00:36:28,860
The soldiers start freezing.

555
00:36:30,540 --> 00:36:32,980
By November,
temperatures are plummeting

556
00:36:33,140 --> 00:36:36,660
to as low as -40 degrees
Fahrenheit,

557
00:36:36,820 --> 00:36:39,900
devastating the Wehrmacht's
men and supply lines.

558
00:36:41,700 --> 00:36:43,820
These German soldiers
were fighting

559
00:36:43,980 --> 00:36:46,980
with frozen steel
with their bare hands,

560
00:36:47,140 --> 00:36:49,820
unable to service their weapons,

561
00:36:49,980 --> 00:36:51,620
so the weapons jam,

562
00:36:51,780 --> 00:36:55,220
the lubricants freeze
on the tanks,

563
00:36:55,380 --> 00:36:58,260
they have to build fires
under the tanks at night

564
00:36:58,420 --> 00:37:00,860
to keep the oil loose enough.

565
00:37:01,020 --> 00:37:03,940
Everything degrades
their combat performance.

566
00:37:05,340 --> 00:37:08,260
Hitler told them they were going
to be the all-conquering

567
00:37:08,420 --> 00:37:10,580
master race of Europe.

568
00:37:10,740 --> 00:37:12,060
They're cold, and they're tired,

569
00:37:12,220 --> 00:37:15,140
and they probably haven't had
a square meal in two weeks.

570
00:37:16,900 --> 00:37:19,700
An invading army
has been here before.

571
00:37:19,860 --> 00:37:24,460
Napoleon Bonaparte had tried
to seize Russia in 1812.

572
00:37:24,620 --> 00:37:27,340
Napoleon invades Russia,
takes Moscow,

573
00:37:27,500 --> 00:37:30,220
but as winter comes, is defeated

574
00:37:30,380 --> 00:37:34,020
by the unconquerable vastness
of Russia and the cold.

575
00:37:35,020 --> 00:37:37,500
And in the end,
the retreat from Moscow

576
00:37:37,660 --> 00:37:40,100
really destroys Napoleon's empire.

577
00:37:43,620 --> 00:37:46,620
But Hitler ignores
the lessons of history.

578
00:37:46,780 --> 00:37:50,220
He orders his troops forward
to take Moscow.

579
00:37:53,660 --> 00:37:56,540
Stalin still has a fear
that there'll be some breakthroughs

580
00:37:56,700 --> 00:37:58,420
into the heart of Moscow itself.

581
00:37:58,580 --> 00:38:00,700
But, you know, something
happens in this period.

582
00:38:00,860 --> 00:38:03,620
A piece of intelligence
comes across his desk

583
00:38:03,780 --> 00:38:06,780
that for once,
he's willing to listen to.

584
00:38:06,940 --> 00:38:09,380
And it comes from his agent
in Japan.

585
00:38:16,220 --> 00:38:19,300
The intelligence
from Stalin's agent in Tokyo

586
00:38:19,460 --> 00:38:21,780
suggests that Japan
will not attack

587
00:38:21,940 --> 00:38:23,380
the Soviets' eastern border.

588
00:38:24,500 --> 00:38:27,740
Instead, Japan is planning
to move south

589
00:38:27,900 --> 00:38:32,060
against British, French,
and Dutch colonies in Asia.

590
00:38:33,100 --> 00:38:36,540
And perhaps against the
United States in the Philippines.

591
00:38:38,540 --> 00:38:41,940
So Stalin transfers 400,000 troops

592
00:38:42,100 --> 00:38:45,740
that were stationed in
the Soviet Far East to Moscow.

593
00:38:48,540 --> 00:38:51,180
A whole new army.

594
00:38:51,340 --> 00:38:55,420
Fresh, untouched, fully manned,
tanks, howitzers, planes.

595
00:38:57,940 --> 00:38:59,820
This is the Siberian reserve.

596
00:38:59,980 --> 00:39:04,220
These are troops dressed
in heavy white parkas, ski troops.

597
00:39:04,380 --> 00:39:06,340
They're used to operating
in the cold.

598
00:39:10,700 --> 00:39:11,820
In November,

599
00:39:11,980 --> 00:39:15,060
with some German units
just 21 miles from Moscow...

600
00:39:18,660 --> 00:39:20,780
...Stalin celebrates the anniversary

601
00:39:20,940 --> 00:39:23,300
of the Russian Revolution
in Red Square.

602
00:39:44,700 --> 00:39:48,820
Marching in the parade
are Stalin's Siberian divisions.

603
00:39:52,420 --> 00:39:55,020
They were not raw recruits
being sent to the front,

604
00:39:55,180 --> 00:39:58,740
they were trained and
experienced hard-line soldiers.

605
00:40:01,140 --> 00:40:04,620
The defence of Moscow
is largely in their hands.

606
00:40:30,780 --> 00:40:33,980
On December 5th, Stalin
launches his counteroffensive.

607
00:40:50,060 --> 00:40:53,660
It catches the Germans at
their worst possible moment.

608
00:40:54,940 --> 00:40:56,740
They're tired, they're hungry,
they're sick,

609
00:40:56,900 --> 00:41:00,060
they're freezing to death,
they're out of supplies.

610
00:41:04,300 --> 00:41:07,460
And the Soviet offensive
sweeps all before it.

611
00:41:21,940 --> 00:41:23,500
The Germans are
completely stunned

612
00:41:23,660 --> 00:41:26,220
and they are thrown back
over 100 miles.

613
00:41:27,500 --> 00:41:29,900
It's an astonishingly
successful counteroffensive

614
00:41:30,060 --> 00:41:31,540
and Moscow is safe.

615
00:41:35,100 --> 00:41:36,740
Over the next weeks,

616
00:41:36,900 --> 00:41:39,620
Soviet troops halt the Wehrmacht

617
00:41:39,780 --> 00:41:42,380
and begin to push
the Germans back.

618
00:41:46,580 --> 00:41:49,060
Stalin has stemmed the tide.

619
00:41:51,940 --> 00:41:54,060
The defeat of the German
drive on Moscow

620
00:41:54,220 --> 00:41:55,900
and the near-destruction
of the Germans

621
00:41:56,060 --> 00:41:58,540
is a sea change
for both Hitler and Stalin.

622
00:41:59,500 --> 00:42:02,020
Hitler now has to look
at a scene of desperation

623
00:42:02,180 --> 00:42:04,860
and trying to rebuild his army
in the Soviet Union.

624
00:42:07,340 --> 00:42:10,580
Stalin now not only knows
that he's going to survive,

625
00:42:10,740 --> 00:42:13,180
he also knows that he's going
to be able to launch

626
00:42:13,340 --> 00:42:16,460
one hammer blow after
the other against the Germans.

627
00:42:20,100 --> 00:42:22,860
Designed to be another
victorious blitzkrieg,

628
00:42:23,020 --> 00:42:26,420
Operation Barbarossa descends
into a deadly stalemate

629
00:42:26,580 --> 00:42:28,100
for the Germans.

630
00:42:28,260 --> 00:42:29,700
In the free West,
President Roosevelt

631
00:42:29,860 --> 00:42:31,420
and Prime Minister Churchill

632
00:42:31,580 --> 00:42:35,980
provide support to the Red Army
to wear down the Nazi invaders.

633
00:42:36,140 --> 00:42:37,980
Across the Pacific,

634
00:42:38,140 --> 00:42:41,580
a new power has been building
its own empire,

635
00:42:41,740 --> 00:42:45,100
one that will attempt
to destroy American forces

636
00:42:45,260 --> 00:42:47,820
in a single day of infamy.

637
00:42:47,980 --> 00:42:49,580
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