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In contrast to France, where the Germans had surprised everyone by being relatively "correct," the conquest of Russia was to be even more ruthless than that of Poland. "This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences," Hitler told his generals, "and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. All officers will have to rid themselves of obsolete ideologies." More specifically, Hitler announced that he was assigning Heinrich Himmler, head of the dreaded SS, to carry out "special tasks" in the "liquidation" of all "commissars," meaning anyone in a leadership position. Beyond that, Hitler planned to plunder the conquered land of its resources and food. "This year, between 20 and 30 million persons will die of hunger in Russia," Goring casually observed. "Perhaps it is well that it should be so, for certain nations must be decimated."
Hitler's impulsive attack on Yugoslavia had delayed his invasion of Russia by a month -- which was to become critically important when the first snows began to fall. But the Germans expected little trouble when they rescheduled Operation Barbarossa for June 22.
Despite all the German troop movements, despite sharp words between the two regimes, the supposedly crafty and suspicious Stalin foresaw nothing. The very night before the attack, Foreign Minister V.M. Molotov called in the German ambassador, Count Friedrich von der Schulenberg, and said the Soviets were "unable to understand the reasons for Germany's dissatisfaction." Schulenberg said he would try to find out. A few hours later, at dawn, he returned to the Kremlin with a message from Berlin. It accused the Soviets of violating the Nazi-Soviet pact, massing their troops and planning a surprise attack on Germany. "The Fuhrer," it concluded, "has therefore ordered the German armed forces to oppose this threat with all the means at their disposal." When Schulenberg finished reading, the amazed Molotov said, "It is war. Do you believe that we deserved that?"
Even as he spoke, German artillery had already started firing, and tanks were rolling eastward. For a time, everything went as Hitler planned. The Red Army was caught by surprise, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers fell prisoner. Within three weeks the German line had moved forward some 400 miles, to Smolensk and almost to Leningrad. But with the central army group in striking distance of Moscow, Hitler delayed its advance to concentrate on capturing the industrial and agricultural resources of the Ukraine, and it was not until October that he began a new drive on the capital. And the Soviets proved tougher than expected. The Germans originally estimated Soviet strength at about 200 divisions; Moscow eventually fielded nearly 400 on the Western front -- roughly 6 million men.
And cold rain began falling. "The infantryman slithers in the mud, while many teams of horses are needed to drag each gun forward," one German general recounted. "All wheeled vehicles sink up to their axles in slime." The first snow fell on Oct. 6. A month later, the temperatures fell below zero. Tank engines began to freeze. The troops, who had been issued no winter clothing, suffered frostbite.