Second World War · 1941-1943

Barbarossa to Stalingrad: the war in the east

On 22 June 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union along a front from the Baltic to the Black Sea. It reached Leningrad and the edge of Moscow, but at Stalingrad the tide turned. Students follow the largest land war in history and its enormous human cost.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
13–16
On the map
3 steps, AD 1938
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

On 22 June 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union along a front from the Baltic to the Black Sea. It reached Leningrad and the edge of Moscow, but at Stalingrad the tide turned. Students follow the largest land war in history and its enormous human cost.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain why Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941.
  • Locate Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad and describe what happened at each.
  • Explain why the Battle of Stalingrad is seen as a turning point of the war.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1938

A huge front

Open the map in 1938 and zoom out over eastern Europe and the USSR. In June 1941 the German front ran from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. Estimate how long that line was.

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1938

Leningrad

Zoom in on Leningrad and Lake Ladoga. The city was cut off by land for almost 900 days. Ask the atlas: "What was the Road of Life?"

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1938

Stalingrad

Travel south-east to Stalingrad on the Volga. Why would Hitler want a city on this river, on the way to the oil fields of the Caucasus?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Why did Hitler break his pact with Stalin and invade the Soviet Union in 1941?
  2. German soldiers were not equipped for the Russian winter of 1941. Why had their leaders not planned for it?
  3. The siege of Leningrad lasted almost 900 days. How did people survive, and what kept them going?
  4. Why do many historians call Stalingrad the turning point of the war in Europe?
  5. By most estimates the Soviet Union lost about 27 million people in the war. Why is this often missing from Western stories of the war?
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Napoleon Bonaparte, who also invaded Russia, in 1812, and was beaten by distance and winter. Then compare: why did Hitler take the same risk in 1941, and what was different?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.