Nazi Germany policy towards the Soviet Union
Who spoke of an inescapable battle against "pan-Slav ideals"?
Operation Barbarossa
German intentions. Nazi Germany policy towards the Soviet Union. As early as 1925, Hitler suggested in "Mein Kampf" that he would invade the Soviet Union, asserting that the German people needed "Lebensraum" ("living space", i.e., land and raw materials) and that these should be sought in the East. Nazism viewed the Soviet Union (and all of Eastern Europe) as populated by ""Untermensch"" Slavs, ruled by "Jewish Bolshevik" masters. "Mein Kampf" said Germany's destiny was to turn "to the East" as it did "six hundred years ago" and "the end of the Jewish domination in Russia will also be the end of Russia as a State." Thereafter, Hitler spoke of an inescapable battle against "pan-Slav ideals", in which victory would lead to "permanent mastery of the world", although he also said they would "walk part of the road with the Russians, if that will help us". Accordingly, it was stated Nazi policy to kill, deport, or enslave the majority of Russian and other Slavic populations and repopulate the land with Germanic peoples (see Generalplan Ost). Before World War II, observers believed that in a war with the Soviet Union, Germany would attack through the Baltic states while the "Kriegsmarine" would seize Leningrad from the sea. They assumed that possessing the entire Baltic basin would satisfy Hitler, who would not repeat Napoleon's mistake of attacking Moscow.