When Stalin was the lesser of two evils

00:00 04:15

Iain MacGregor has narrated this article for you to listen to.

‘We are resolved to destroy Hitler and every vestige of the Nazi regime… Any man or state who fights against Nazism will have our aid.’ These words were spoken by Winston Churchill in a BBC radio broadcast to the nation from Chequers on the evening of 22 June 1941.

That morning, Operation Barbarossa had begun, with Hitler’s armed forces launching the biggest invasion in modern history into the heart of a country whose very existence Churchill detested: the Soviet Union. This cataclysmic invasion by the Nazi regime, however, created an ally the British leader had never envisioned.

For the previous 22 months, Great Britain’s war with Nazi Germany had not gone well. The countries of western Europe had fallen, one by one, to his seemingly unstoppable armies, forcing Britain to stand alone.