The Eastern Front during World War II was the conflict between the Axis countries and the Soviet Union. It began in 1941 with Operation Barbarossa, and ended in 1945 when the Soviet soldiers captured Berlin. Both the Axis countries and the Soviet Union had a lot of soldiers, and the fighting was very brutal. It is also called "The Great Patriotic War" in the Soviet Union, and it is sometimes called "The Soviet-German War" in Europe and America.