From July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943 the bloodiest and most influential battle of World War II was fought in and around the Soviet city of Stalingrad. The battle involved the belligerent Nazi Germany Sixth Army led by General Paulus and overseen by Adolf Hitler. It also involved the Soviet Red Army led by Generals Georgy Zhukov and Aleksandr Vasilevskiy and overseen by Joseph Stalin. The battle waged on until the soviet army began a counter-offensive and surrounded the German Sixth Army within Stalingrad and forced them to surrender. This marked a triumphant turning point for the allied forces in the war and forced Nazi Germany into a defensive war against the allies on all fronts later on. However, with triumph comes tragedy. The casualties in this battle alone cemented it as the bloodiest conflict in history. Besides the battle resulting in millions of casualties and signaling the end of the most destructive war in human history, the battle spurred Soviet Russia to become a world superpower and the Cold War between Russia and the United States can be traced back to events transpiring in this battle. Background and Context August 23rd, 1939, mere weeks before World War II officially broke out in Europe, Adolf Hitler Nazi Germany signed the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact with Joseph Stalin and Soviet Russia. This pact, written by German Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet Vyacheslav Molotov, detailed how the two nations would not take military action against one another for ten years and included details on how the two would split up Eastern Europe amongst one another after the certain war in the future. “Russia would not interfere with the German Invasion of Poland. Stalin’s prize for remaining neutral: Eastern Poland.”(add clip of this)Meanwhile, France and Great Britain, realizing the dangerous power this alliance had over the continent, penned a pledge to protect Poland from outside militant entities. As a result of these pacts and treaties World War II officially began September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany initiated their blitzkrieg into Eastern Poland. The years prior to the breaking of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact were tumultuous. “In a wild gamble that France and Great Britain would not meet their treaty obligations to Poland, and knowing he had nothing to fear from the Soviet Army, Hitler ordered his troops to strike east into Poland.” writes History.com. As Europe fell into bloodshed and conflict and Hitler began his invasion of Poland followed by France, Soviet Russia began to build their military power. These assaults on Germany>