Battle of Moscow

Battle of Moscow, protracted winter campaign fought in 1941 and 1942 by the German Wehrmacht against the Red Army of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in World War II (1939-1945). It was a major defeat for the Nazi regime of German dictator Adolf Hitler and proved to be the turning point of the struggle on the central Russian front. See also National Socialism.

The German invasion of the Soviet Union, known as Operation Barbarossa, began in June 1941. Within a month German Field Marshal Fedor von Bock’s force of 60 divisions had reached the key road and rail center at Smolensk, a few hundred miles west of Moscow, the Russian capital. Here, in a momentous decision for the outcome of the war, Hitler called a temporary halt to the advance and ordered Bock’s tank commander, General Heinz Guderian, to reinforce the Wehrmacht’s Army Group South in the fighting around Kyiv in the Ukraine. Consequently, the final attack on Moscow did not resume until October, when the reunited German forces ground forward to within about 95 km (about 60 mi) of the city, aiming to achieve its complete encirclement by taking Kalinin (now Tver’) to the north and Tula to the west. By the end of October, more than 600,000 Soviet troops had been killed or captured. At one point, advance German units reached the outskirts of Moscow, but were driven back in desperate fighting by armed factory workers.

As time went on and the Russian resistance held firm, it became clear that the attack had come too late for success. Winter set in with a vengeance; Hitler, regardless of the fact that his troops lacked cold-weather clothing, refused to allow them to withdraw, thus incurring terrible casualties. By early December, the German advance was mired in the snow, and the Russians were counterattacking with fresh troops.

In December, as German losses from the cold and the fighting became unsustainable, Hitler gave orders that the offensive should be abandoned. Moscow had not fallen, and Hitler’s armies had suffered their first great land defeat of the war. The Wehrmacht managed to cling to the territory it had won on the central front throughout 1942, but its offensive power had been broken and by March 1943 it was forced into retreat before a reinvigorated Red Army.

Some historians now believe that a key factor in the Battle of Moscow was the decision by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin to remain in the city. Much of the Soviet leadership had abandoned the capital, but Stalin’s decision to remain appeared to be a major factor in sustaining the morale of the Soviet troops.