I have never quite understood why Hitler felt it necessary to attack Russia at the onset of WWII.?

Question

Without the "eastern front" he would likely have been able to control all of Western Europe and to get a peace treaty with England. So., why attack Russia?

I've seen some of the answers -- so, if he was mainly interested in lebensraum, why did he attack to the west at all? Did he think that France, etc. would rush to the defense of Russia? I don't see why he thought a two front war was preferable to just one at a time.

Answer 1

Germany started WWII in 1939 and attacked the USSR in 1941. Hardly the onset of the war. Expansion into the agricultural areas of the USSR was always the National Socialist plan. The war in the west was to secure their back while occupied in the USSR. Lacking the ability to invade the UK, Germany felt is rear was secure enough to attack the main objective. The thought was the USSR would fall before the UK could recover enough to pose a threat to Germany. If Hitler hadn't declared war on the US it might have worked.

Answer 2

Because "Drang nach Osten" was the primary goal of Germany in WW2. All the other countries (with the exception of Poland) were attacked to secure the flanks or the rear for the attack on the Soviet Union. Hitler saw the Lebensraum - living space for the Germans in the east, and was planning a massive relocation of German population to the territories of the European part of Russia. For example, the Germans from South Tirol, which belonged to Italy, were to settle on the Crimean peninsula.

Answer 3

He didn't .
At the start in September 1939 Germany and Russia jointly invaded Poland and divided it between them.
It wasn't until the summer of 1941 that Hitler attacked Russia. This had been his intention for many years and was indicated in his book Mein Kampf.
By then he had control of most of Western Europe and thought that Britain would be unable to mount an attack from the west.
He did seek a peace treaty with Britain early in 1941 when the Deputy Fuhrer , Rudolf Hess, made a lone secret flight to Britain to discuss this with Nazi sympathisers in the British Aristocracy and ruling classes.
He was supposed to land on an airstrip at the Duke of Hamilton's estate in Scotland but he lost his way and ran out of fuel.
He baled out and was arrested by a policeman and spent the rest of his life in prison ,dying in Spandau Prison in Berlin in old age.
The attack on Russia was Hitler's biggest single mistake of the war especially as it was six weeks behind schedule because of diverting troops to help the Italians in their invasion of Greece where they were getting beaten.
This meant that winter came before he reached Moscow and the winter weather gave the Russians time to regroup and stiffen their defences.

Answer 4

Hitler didn't attack at the onset of the war; he waited until he thought he could win cheaply. He almost did: when German troops entered some areas they were greeted with cheers, their tanks garlanded with flowers etc. The locals knew nothing about Nazism, but a great deal about the Soviets, and they were glad to see the invaders.

The Nazis blew it by behaving - well, by behaving like Nazis. The locals wised up quickly, resistance sprang up, and the Russian winter finished the job. Stalin might have won with less loss of life if he hadn't had all the Red Army's best commanders shot in the purges. Hitler might have won if he had been any ordinary dictator, not the total sadistic crackpot he was.

The whole thing reads like a cautionary tale - dictators, beware!