Eastern Front (World War II)

"Great Patriotic War" redirects here. For a discussion of the term itself, see Great Patriotic War (term).

The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War^{[lower-alpha 14]} in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War^{[lower-alpha 15]} in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a theatre of World War II fought between the European Axis powers and Allies, including the Soviet Union (USSR) and Poland. It encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Southeast Europe (Balkans), and lasted from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945. Of the estimated 70–85 million deaths attributed to World War II, around 30 million occurred on the Eastern Front, including 9 million children.^[2][3] The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome in the European theatre of operations in World War II, eventually serving as the main reason for the defeat of Nazi Germany and the Axis nations.^[4] It is noted by historian Geoffrey Roberts that "More than 80 percent of all combat during the Second World War took place on the Eastern Front".^[5]

Eastern Front
Part of the European theatre of World War II
Clockwise from top left: Soviet T-34 tanks storming Poznań, 1945; German Tiger I tanks during the Battle of Kursk, 1943; German Stuka dive bombers on the Eastern Front, 1943; German Einsatzgruppen death squad murdering Jews in Ukraine, 1942; Wilhelm Keitel signing the German Instrument of Surrender, 1945; Soviet troops at the Battle of Stalingrad, 1943
Date 22 June 1941 (1941-06-22) – 8 May 1945 (1945-05-08) (3 years, 10 months, 2 weeks and 2 days) Location Europe, east of Germany: Central and Eastern Europe, in later stages: Germany and Austria Result Soviet victory[lower-alpha 1] Fall of Nazi Germany (concurrently with the Western Front) Beginning of the Cold War and creation of the Eastern Bloc and the Iron Curtain Beginning of anti-communist insurgencies Territorial changes Soviet occupation of Central and Eastern Europe Allied occupation of Germany, Austria and Partition of Germany Polish puppet state and change of borders Soviet occupation of Romania Soviet occupation of Hungary Bulgarian communist coup and Soviet occupation Soviet re-occupation of the Baltics Czechoslovakia cedes Carpathian Ruthenia East Prussia split between the Soviet Union (Kaliningrad Oblast) and Poland (Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship)
Belligerents
Axis:  Germany  Romania (until 1944)  Hungary[lower-alpha 2]  Finland (until 1944)  Italy (until 1943)  Slovakia[lower-alpha 3]  Croatia[lower-alpha 4] Support:  Spain[lower-alpha 5]	Allies:  Soviet Union Poland[lower-alpha 6]  Czechoslovakia[lower-alpha 7] (from 1942)  Yugoslavia[lower-alpha 8] (from 1944) Former Axis powers: