Why did Adolf Hitler invade the Soviet Union in 1941?

Adolf Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, known as Operation Barbarossa, was driven by a combination of long-standing ideological goals and immediate strategic suspicions.

• Ideological Conviction: Hitler’s primary motivation was his pursuit of Lebensraum (living space). He sought to expand German territory into Eastern Europe to secure resources, particularly agricultural land in Ukraine and raw materials in the Urals and Siberia. This expansion was rooted in his racist ideology, which viewed Slavic and Jewish populations as Untermenschen (subhumans) to be displaced or exterminated.12
• Anti-Bolshevism: Hitler held a profound, emotional hatred for the Marxist Bolsheviks of the Soviet Union, whom he believed were in league with the Jews. Overthrowing the Soviet regime was a core objective he had contemplated since the 1920s.123
• Strategic Suspicion: While the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact of 1939 was a tactical convenience, Hitler became increasingly suspicious of Joseph Stalin following Soviet territorial gains in the Baltic states, Bessarabia, and Bukovina in 1940. These moves placed Soviet forces uncomfortably close to the Ploiești oil fields, which were vital to the German war effort.134