Introduction: The launch of Operation Barbarossa in June of 1941 marked the start of what Hitler had expected to be a quick and easy win over the Soviet Union. However, despite early advances, the USSR ultimately survived and went on to play a major role in the German defeat. This survival can be attributed to a combination of structural and strategic factors: the vast geography of the Soviet Union, which stretched smaller German forces and undermined their ability to upkeep long supply lines, harsh environmental conditions such as the difficult winters and mudslides which crippled mobility and troop morale, significant German strategic blunders such as the diversion of important army groups and selection of targets, and finally the more superior Soviet industry being left basically intact because of previous moving to beyond the Ural mountains. Together, these factors worked to transform what was meant to be a short and decisive campaign into a prolonged war of attrition that a smaller industrial power like Nazi Germany was destined to lose.