Mad for Moscow: How Hitler’s Invasion of Russia Doomed the Third Reich
German weapons were frozen, German soldiers were frozen, and sometimes the soldiers froze to the weapons.
But the Russo-German War was no ordinary conflict fought over territory or resources. For Nazi Germany, it was a war of extermination and subjugation that would have killed the Russian people or reduced them to slavery. For the Soviet Union, it was a war of survival. What kind of peace would have been possible? There could be no escape through a peace treaty with Hitler.
The War in the East was a fight to the death, and neither capturing nor defending Moscow would change that. The Soviet Union would probably have fought on despite the loss of its capital.
Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the National Interest. He can be found on Twitter and Facebook. (This first appeared in 2016.)
Image: Wikimedia Commons.
