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→Operation Barbarossa
[[File:Roosevelt Stalin Churchill on portico of Russian Embassy in Teheran.jpg|thumb|280px|[[Roosevelt]], [[Stalin]], and [[Churchill]] on portico of Russian Embassy in Teheran, during conference — Nov. 28 - Dec. 1, 1943.]]
[[File:Roosevelt Stalin Churchill on portico of Russian Embassy in Teheran.jpg|thumb|280px|[[Roosevelt]], [[Stalin]], and [[Churchill]] on portico of Russian Embassy in Teheran, during conference — Nov. 28 - Dec. 1, 1943.]]
In June—behind schedule because of diversions in the Balkans—the Germans launched their massive war against the Soviet Union (known as the "Great Patriotic War" in Russia). It was by far the largest, bloodiest, and most decisive phase of World War II. Outside observers in the first few months figured that Germany would win easily. But the Nazi armies were split three ways, logistics became worse and worse as distances grew, and none met their objective by the time the extreme Russian winter of 1941-42 set in. Blitzkrieg had failed against the Soviets, and the Germans lacked the resources to fight a long war against a country with such vast areas and so many more people. The Luftwaffe, which promised to overcome the slowness of ground travel, failed to provide adequate support and was soon matched and outnumbered by the Soviet air force.<ref>The best studies of this theater are by [https://books.google.com/books?as_q=&num=30&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES&lr=&as_vt=&as_auth=glantz+david&as_pub=&as_sub=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_isbn=&as_issn= David Glantz]</ref>
In June—behind schedule because of diversions in the Balkans—the Germans launched their massive war against the Soviet Union (known as the "Great Patriotic War" in Russia). It was by far the largest, bloodiest, and most decisive phase of World War II. Outside observers in the first few months figured that Germany would win easily. But the Nazi armies were split three ways, logistics became worse and worse as distances grew, and none met their objective by the time the extreme Russian winter of 1941-42 set in. Blitzkrieg had failed against the Soviets, and the Germans lacked the resources to fight a long war against a country with such vast areas and so many more people. The Luftwaffe, which promised to overcome the slowness of ground travel, failed to provide adequate support and was soon matched and outnumbered by the Soviet air force.<ref>The best studies of this theater are by [https://books.google.com/books?as_q=&num=30&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES&lr=&as_vt=&as_auth=glantz+david&as_pub=&as_sub=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_isbn=&as_issn= David Glantz]</ref>
The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division (1st Galician)<ref>German: 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (galizische Nr. 1)) Ukrainian: 14а Гренадерська Дивізія СС (1а галицька)), prior to 1944 titled the 14th SS-Volunteer Division "Galicia" Ukrainian: 14а Добровільна Дивізія "Галичина"</ref> was a German military formation made up predominantly of military volunteers with a Ukrainian ethnic background from the area of [[Galicia]], later also with some [[Slovak]]s and [[Czech]]s. Formed in 1943, it was largely destroyed in the battle of Brody, reformed, and saw action in [[Slovakia]], [[Yugoslavia]] and [[Austria]] before being renamed the first division of the Ukrainian National Army and surrendering to the Western Allies by 10 May 1945.
Volodymyr Kubiyovych (Ukrainian Father Jewish Mother) founded this Division in order for Ukrainians to aid the Ukrainian Insurgent Army with weapons.
The Nachtigall Battalion, also known as the Ukrainian Nightingale Battalion Group, or officially as Special Group Nachtigall,<ref name="Abbott">Abbot, Peter. ''Ukrainian Armies 1914-55'', p.47. Osprey Publishing, 2004. ISBN|1-84176-668-2</ref> was the subunit under command of the German Abwehr (Military Intelligence) special operations unit "Brandenburg". Along with the Roland Battalion it was one of two military units formed February 25, 1941 by head of the Abwehr Adm. Wilhelm Canaris, which sanctioned the creation of the "Ukrainian Legion" under German command. It was composed of volunteer "Ukrainian nationalists," Ukrainians operating under [[Stephan Bandera]]'s OUN orders.<ref>[http://history.org.ua/LiberUA/Book/Patr/%D0%9F%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8F%D0%BA.pdf І.К. Патриляк. Військова діяльність ОУН(Б) у 1940—1942 роках.]<br>[https://web.archive.org/web/20161104141147/http://history.org.ua/LiberUA/Book/Patr/%D0%9F%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8F%D0%BA.pdf Університет імені Шевченко \Ін-т історії України НАН України Київ], 2004 (No ISBN) p.271-278</ref>
At three villages of the Vinnytsia region "all [[Jew]]s which were met" were shot.<ref>"... скрепив нашу ненависть нашу до жидів, що в двох селах ми постріляли всіх стрічних жидів. Під час нашого перемаршу перед одним селом... ми постріляли всіх стрічних там жидів" from Nachtigal third company activity report Центральний державний архів вищих органів влади та управління України (ЦДАВО). — Ф. 3833 . — Оп. 1. — Спр. 157- Л.7</ref>
The [[Simon Wiesenthal|Simon Wiesenthal Center]] contends that between June 30 and July 3, 1941, in the days that the Battalion was in [[Lviv]] the Nachtigall soldiers together with the German army and the local Ukrainians participated in the killings of Jews in the city. The pretext for the [[pogrom]] was a rumor that the Jews were responsible for the execution of prisoners by the Soviets before the 1941 Soviet withdrawal from Lviv. The ''Encyclopedia of the Holocaust'' states that some 4,000 Jews were kidnapped and killed at that time.<ref>Gutman, Israel. "[http://motlc.learningcenter.wiesenthal.org/text/x16/xm1688.html Nachtigall Battalion]". ''Encyclopedia of the Holocaust''. Macmillan Publishing Company: New York, 1990.</ref> It further states that the unit was removed from Lviv on July 7 and sent to the Eastern Front.
The [[Ukrainian Insurgent Army]] (UPA) arose out of separate militant formations of the OUN-Bandera faction (the OUNb).<ref>Vedeneyev, D. ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20150307183958/http://warhistory.ukrlife.org/5_6_02_4.htm Military Field Gendarmerie – special body of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army]''. "Voyenna Istoriya" magazine. 2002.</ref> The political leadership belonged to the OUNb. It was the primary perpetrator of the massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.<ref>[http://www.volhyniamassacre.eu/__data/assets/pdf The July 1943 genocidal operations of OUN-UPA in Volhynia], pp=2-3; https://web.archive.org/web/20160401045104/http://www.volhyniamassacre.eu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/5199/The-July-1943-genocidal-operations-of-the-OUN-UPA-in-Volhynia.pdf</ref>
Its official date of creation is 14 October 1942,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20111014202829/https://www.kyivpost.com/news/ukraine/detail/114845/ Demotix: 69th anniversary of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army]. 2011.</ref> The Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army at the period from December 1941 till July 1943 has the same name (Ukrainian Insurgent Army or UPA).<ref>Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army Chapter 3 pp.104-154</ref>
The OUN's stated immediate goal was the re-establishment of a united, quasi-independent [[Nazi]]-aligned, mono-ethnic [[nation state]] on the territory that would include parts of modern day Russia, [[Poland]], and [[Belarus]]. Violence was accepted as a political tool against foreign as well as domestic enemies of their cause, which was to be achieved by a national revolution led by a [[dictatorship]] that would drive out what they considered to be occupying powers and set up a government representing all regions and social classes.<ref>Myroslav Yurkevich, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (Orhanizatsiia ukrainskykh natsionalistiv) ''This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).''</ref>
===Siege of Leningrad===
===Siege of Leningrad===