The ‘Great Patriotic War’ is used in Russia to describe the conflict between Russia, her allies, and Nazi Germany from June 1941 and May 1945.
Hitler’s devastating offensive against Russia threatened to annihilate the Soviet Union so the conflict on the Eastern Front is regarded by Russia as its own independent war.
On June 22, 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union through Kiev, which had already become a part of the USSR and within one week, around 150,000 Soviet soldiers were wounded or dead.
When Kiev fell, 600,000 soldiers were captured and by October of the same year, three million Soviet soldiers were prisoners of war.
As his troops marched on the Russia capital, Hitler believed if the Germans won the Battle of Stalingrad he would defeat the USSR, but after nearly a year of fighting one of the bloodiest battles of the war, the Nazis were defeated.
From this point on the Red Army was able to push back the tide against the Nazi advance. A conservative estimate states around 26 to 30 million, mostly Soviet civilians as well as military personnel, died in the brutal conflict.
Around 1.5 million civilians and soldiers died, most from starvation during the Siege of Leningrad which saw a blockade last 872 days.
Russia commemorates the German surrender every year on May 9.