Skip to main content
The Morning Star Shop
The day the world caught fire
PHIL KATZ charts the run-up to the most formidable and deadly invasion in the history of mankind – Operation Barbarossa – which took place 80 years ago today
The German Wehrmacht nearby Pruzhany, Belarus, in June 1941

TODAY is the 80th anniversary of Operation Barbarossa, when the German army and the full force of Hitler fascism attacked the Soviet Union, without warning, in breach of a non-aggression pact. 

Operation Barbarossa took place at lightning pace on a sunny Sunday morning, June 22 1941, and immediately became the most formidable and deadly invasion in the history of mankind. 

Worse was to follow. Much worse. Hitler referred to the assault as a “Vernichtungskrieg.” It was a war of destruction. The war for territory was a by-product of a war to the death between two world systems.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Daily Worker May 9 1945
WWII / 8 May 2025
8 May 2025

PHIL KATZ looks at how the Daily Worker, the Morning Star's forerunner, covered the breathless last days of World War II 80 years ago

A mural depicting the Battle of Cable Street
VE Day 2025 / 8 May 2025
8 May 2025

PHIL KATZ describes the unity of the home front and the war front in a People’s War

AMONG COMRADES: Roger Sutton (third from right) in Paris cat
Features / 18 January 2025
18 January 2025
From anti-apartheid work to uniting migrant workers, Sutton showed us how to build worker power, keeping socialism’s flame burning bright, and leaving London’s mighty May Day parade as his legacy, writes Phil Katz
Similar stories
DISTINGUISHED: Portrait of Hans Hess c1962 (photographer unk
Features / 20 June 2025
20 June 2025

NICK MATTHEWS previews a landmark book launch taking place in Leicester next weekend

Murphy Stalingrad webpic.jpg
VE Day / 8 May 2025
8 May 2025

The pivotal role of the Red Army and sacrifices of the Russian people in the defeat of Nazi Germany must never be forgotten, writes DR DYLAN MURPHY

RED FLAG FLYING: The Soviet flag is hoisted over the Reichst
Features / 30 January 2025
30 January 2025
NICK WRIGHT examines the British ruling class's complex relationship with fascism before, during and after the second world war
BROTHERS IN ARMS: Soviet and Polish resistance Armia Krajowa
Books / 2 August 2024
2 August 2024
WILL PODMORE welcomes, with reservations, a new history of Operation Bagration and the Red Army’s defeat of Nazi Germany