Surprise attacks lead to enduring traumas for the country under attack.  This was true for the United States after Pearl Harbor in 1941 and continues to this day following the 9/11 attacks in New York City and Washington.  The same was true for Russia in the wake of Operation Barbarossa, the German codename for Hitler’s surprise attack in June 1941 against the Soviet Union.  The German attack was the worst military disaster in Russian history, far more damaging than the Napoleonic invasion and the setbacks in World War I.   More

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