IN HIS BOOK, MEIN KAMPF, ADOLF HITLER MADE IT CLEAR THAT HE SAW RUSSIA AS THE PERFECT PLACE FOR EXPANDING LIVING SPACE (LEBENSRAUM) FOR THE GERMANS, WITH THE RUSSIANS ACTING AS their slaves. Although the two-volume book was published in 1925 and 1926, well before Hitler came to power, this was a consistent theme in later speeches he gave. Because of this, World War II, or what the Russians call The Great Patriotic War, meant something different to them. If the Russians lost, it would mean not only devastation, but enslavement.
And yet, less than two weeks before Hitler started the war by invading Poland in 1939, he and Joseph Stalin signed the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, promising not to attack each other. Germany waited only twenty-two months before breaking that promise; they invaded Russia on June 22, 1941. Which is how Russia began the war on the side of Germany but ultimately ended up fighting alongside the United States and the rest of the Allies.
Knowing Stalin had killed 80 percent of his military leadership as part of the Great Purge a few years earlier, Hitler assumed the Soviets were weak and that victory would be easy. And at first, it was. Within two weeks of the initial attack, Russia had lost as many men as America lost in the entire war. In another month, the Germans were halfway to Moscow. Three million Russians died in the first three months. The British were pressured to help, but they were under a German siege of their own. The Americans were reluctant to enter the war — until they were bombed at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on December 7, 1941. But the Americans didn’t fight in a full-scale ground invasion of Europe until D-Day, June 6, 1944, and their troops never made it as far as Russia.
After entering Russia, the Germans had to fight on two fronts simultaneously: in Europe and in Russia. And the deeper they went into Russia, the harder it was to supply their troops with food, ammunition, and medical treatment. One of the biggest problems for the Germans was the weather. The heat and dust of summer caused their tanks to use twice as much oil. Only 3 percent of the Russian roads near its borders with Europe were paved, and those were soon destroyed by tanks and other heavy vehicles. The unpaved roads turned into deep trenches of mud and water after the autumn and spring rains, making them nearly impossible to use. That first winter of 1941, the temperature fell as much as fifty degrees below zero at night. It was so cold that guns wouldn’t fire and engines froze while running — even anti-freeze was found frozen solid. Because the Russians had cold weather lubricants, they were able to take the discarded German weapons and vehicles and use them on their enemy. Though the German forces were spread thin and faced many obstacles, they still managed to leave a path of destruction across Russia and occupy many towns, such as happens in the fictional village of Vilnov in Finding Zasha.
In between the German invasion in 1941 and D-Day in 1944, two important events stand out in Russia’s struggle: the Siege of Leningrad and the Battle of Stalingrad. During the Siege of Leningrad, called the 900-day siege, although it actually lasted 872 days, a million and a half people starved, froze to death, or were killed by German bombs. A young girl named Tanya Savicheva kept a diary during the first winter and spring of the siege. In it she lists the names and dates of death of her family members. In her last entry she wrote, “Only Tanya is left.” She was evacuated to a children’s home in 1942, but her body had been so weakened by what she’d suffered that she died two years later. In honor of her, Ivan shares her last name.
The city of Tikhvin was a critical rail supply line between Moscow and the eastern shore of Lake Ladoga. If the Russians controlled it, supplies could be sent to Leningrad. Unfortunately, the Germans captured it on November 8, 1941. The battle for Tikhvin referred to in Finding Zasha is the one in which the Russians won the city back on December 9, 1941. This was an important victory for the Russians — both morally and strategically.
The Battle of Stalingrad took place from August 1942 to February 1943. The Russians fought relentlessly for every street, building, floor, and room. The very word Stalingrad has come to stand for courage, tenacity, a ferocious refusal to give up. Then–British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called the battle the “hinge of fate.” Most historians consider Russia’s win at Stalingrad to be the turning point of the war.
The partisans, who play a big role in Finding Zasha, were a key part of the war effort. The first year, they were disorganized and poorly armed, but by the end of the war there were ninety thousand partisans working behind enemy lines. They disrupted supply lines, destroyed communications, blew up railroads, provided reconnaissance, and generally made the work of the German army much more difficult. With the German army split between two fronts, it could be hard for them to fight back against these attacks. One effective method they often used was to burn the surrounding forests in order to smoke out the partisans. However, if even one Russian citizen committed an act of arson against the Germans, they would shoot eight hundred civilians in retaliation. That action, and others like it, outraged the population, who then joined or assisted the partisans.
The Partisan’s Companion, after which The Deadly Partisan in Finding Zasha is modeled, was published by the Russian government late in 1941. For the purposes of this story, the publication happens a few weeks earlier. The Partisan’s Companion illustrates combat techniques and survival tips, such as telling a soldier he can live on thinly sliced frozen fish, claiming it melts in the mouth like ice cream. Amazingly, as of the publication of Finding Zasha, an edition of the original The Partisan’s Companion is still in print.
The story of Russia’s part in the war is also one of devastating statistics: Twenty-five million Russians died, twenty-five million more became homeless, and thirty million were wounded. The Battle of Kursk between the Germans and the Russians lasted from July to August in 1943 and was the biggest tank battle in history, with about six thousand tanks, two million troops, and four thousand aircraft. Eighty percent of Germany’s losses happened on the Russian front. Russians made up 40 percent of the deaths in the war. Fifty million people died worldwide as a result of the war. Without Russia’s contributions and sacrifices, it is not at all certain the Germans would have been defeated. Along with the other Allies, the world owes them a great debt of gratitude and honor.
August 23 — The Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact is signed by Hitler and Stalin.
September 1 — Germany invades Poland.
September 3 — Britain and France declare war on Germany.
September 17 — Russia invades Poland.
November 30 — Russia invades Finland.
March 12 — Russia’s war with Finland ends.
May and June — Germany invades and occupies France and the Low Countries.
May 10 — Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Britain.
May 26 — Germans defeat the Allied forces at Dunkirk, France. However, 338,000 trapped Allied troops are rescued from the beach by hundreds of civilian boats sent from Great Britain.
June 10 — Italy enters the war on the side of the Axis powers and declares war on France and Great Britain.
June 22 — France signs an armistice with Germany. A collaborationist government is set up in Vichy, France.
Mid-July to mid-November — The Battle of Britain.
September 27 — Germany, Japan, and Italy sign the Tripartite Pact, an economic and military alliance.
February 12 — German Afrika Korps deployed to Northern Africa to help the Italians fighting against Great Britain.
Early 1941 — Yugoslavia, Greece, and Crete attacked by Germans.
June 22 — Hitler attacks Russia in Operation Barbarossa.
September 8 — The Siege of Leningrad begins.
December 6 — Russia counterattacks at Moscow. This is the first major German defeat.
December 7 — The Japanese attack the Americans at Pearl Harbor.
December 8 — America declares war on Germany and Japan.
December 9 — Russians recapture Tikhvin from Germans.
December 11 — Germany and other Axis countries declare war on America.
Early 1942 — Japan invades the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma, and others.
January 20 — Details for the “final solution” are drawn up by the Nazis at the Wannsee Conference.
February 15 — Singapore is captured from the British by the Japanese.
June 3 to 6 — The Battle of Midway. America defeats the Japanese navy.
August 23 — The Battle of Stalingrad begins.
October to November — British Allies win at El Alamein.
February 2 — Russians win the Battle of Stalingrad.
May 12 — Axis forces surrender to British and Americans in North Africa.
July 5 — The Battle of Kursk begins.
July 10 — The Allies invade Sicily.
July 25 — Benito Mussolini is forced to step down as dictator of Italy and is hidden away to keep him out of German reach.
August 17 — The Battle of Sicily is won by Allies.
September 3 — Italy surrenders, joins the Allies.
September 12 — Germans rescue Mussolini and set him up in Northern Italy.
November 28 to December 1 — Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill meet in Tehrān, Iran.
November 6 — Russians liberate Kiev.
January 27 — The Siege of Leningrad is broken.
June 4 — Rome is liberated from the Germans.
June 6 — D-Day. The Allies attack Germany in Northern France.
July 20 — Hitler survives “Valkyrie” assassination attempt.
August 25 — Paris is liberated.
October 20 — Americans land in the Philippines.
October 20 — Japanese navy pilots begin kamikaze attacks.
December 16 — The Battle of the Bulge in Belgium’s Ardennes forest. Allies win.
January 27 — Russians liberate Auschwitz.
February 19 — The battle for Iwo Jima begins.
March — Americans closing in on Berlin from the west and Russians from the east.
April 12 — U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt dies. Harry S Truman becomes president.
April 16 — The Russians reach Berlin; it is fully surrounded by the 25th. They meet with American forces on the 27th and cut the German army in two.
April 28 — Mussolini is captured and killed.
April 30 — Hitler commits suicide.
Early May — Germany surrenders in various countries.
May 8 — Victory in Europe declared (V-E Day). Allies formally accept unconditional surrender.
May 9 — Germans surrender to Soviets. Russia and Europe marked this event on different days due to the difference in time zones. It was the 8th in Europe when this happened, but the 9th in Russia.
July 26 — The Potsdam Declaration is issued, calling for the immediate surrender of Japan. Japan refuses.
August 6 — The first atomic bomb in history is dropped on Hiroshima.
August 8 — Russia declares war on Japan, invades Manchuria.
August 9 — A second atomic bomb is dropped, on Nagasaki.
August 14 — Japan agrees to surrender.
September 2 — Japan’s formal surrender. Official end of World War II.