HISTORICAL DICTIONARY A–Z - Russia: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 331

1934, Stalin unleashed a campaign of terror that
was initially directed against real and perceived
enemies in the party and state bureaucracy, but
eventually encompassed the army officer corps,
officials at the republican and local levels, and
countless civilians who were denounced on
trumped-up charges. A vast network of labor
camps in remote locations of the Soviet Union
was created in the course of this terror campaign
and integrated into the Soviet economy. The late
1930s were also marked by concern over Nazi
Germany's expansionism and, after years of
denouncing fascism and Nazism, in August 1939
the Soviet Union signed a nonaggression pact
with Germany.
Nevertheless, Germany invaded the Soviet
Union in June 1941, presenting the country and
Stalin with its greatest challenge in decades.
Although Stalin has been faulted for ignoring
signs of the impending invasion, after a mysteri-
ous two-week disappearance in which German
forces made bold inroads along the entire east-
ern front he rallied the country and led it to vic-
tory, albeit at a huge cost. By 1945, Stalin found
himself at the peak of his power, the ruler of a
devastated but undisputed superpower, espe-
cially after the Soviet Union developed atomic
weapons in 1949. He reversed the few conces-
sions he had made in the course of the war and
the years between 1945 and his death in 1953
remain the least known of his long rule, shaped
by increasing paranoia and secretiveness. It is
widely believed that the alleged conspiracy
known as the DOCTORS ' PLOT , uncovered in Jan-
uary 1953, was the prelude to a larger mass
purge, targeting Soviet Jews in particular, but
cut short by Stalin's death from a cerebral hem-
orrhage in March 1953.

Army began to roll back the German conquests,
advancing into western Russia, the Ukraine, and
eastern Europe and finally, Berlin. By summer
1942, with their attack on Moscow halted and
their siege of LENINGRAD still in progress, the Ger-
man armies sought to capture the oil fields of the
Caucasus region and the Caspian Sea. While an
army advanced down the Volga River on its way
to the Caspian Sea and the major oil center of
Baku, the German Sixth Army, led by General
Friedrich von Paulus, advanced on the city of
Stalingrad (known as Tsaritsyn until 1925 and as
Volgograd since 1961). In addition to the sym-
bolic power of carrying STALIN 's name, Stalingrad
was an industrial and communications center
strategically located mostly on the west bank of
the Volga River. On August 20, 1942, after a
period of aerial bombardment, a large German
force, aided by smaller Romanian and Italian
contingents, began its attack on the city. For the
next six months Soviet and German infantry
fought a long, brutal, house-to-house battle.
The Red Army counteroffensive began on
November 19, 1942, with the assistance of
Siberian reinforcements and U.S. materiel pro-
vided through Lend-Lease. Led by General
Georgii ZHUKOV , Soviet troops numbered almost 1
million soldiers. Breaking through Romanian

Stalingrad, Battle of (1942-1943)
One of the decisive battles of World War II, the
Battle of Stalingrad marked the turning point in
the war between Nazi Germany and the Soviet
Union. The German advance into southern Rus-
sia and the Caucasus was halted and the Red

Three German soldiers walk through the ruins of
Stalingrad, September 1942 (Library of Congress)