The First Battle of Smolensk was a battle during the second phase of Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, in World War II.
 It was fought around the city of Smolensk between 10 July and 10 September 1941, about 400 km west of Moscow.
 The Wehrmacht had advanced 500 km into the USSR in the 18 days after the invasion on 22 June 1941.
 During the battle the German Army encountered unexpected resistance, leading to a severe delay in their advance on Moscow.
The Siege of Sevastopol also known as the Defence of Sevastopol (Russian: Оборона Севастополя , transliteration: "Oborona Sevastopolya") or simply the Battle of Sevastopol (German: Schlacht um Sewastopol) was a military battle and a siege that took place on the Eastern Front of the Second World War.
 The campaign was fought by the Axis powers of Germany, Romania, and Italy against the Soviet Union for control of Sevastopol, a port in the Crimea on the Black Sea.
 On 22 June 1941 the Axis invaded the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa.
 Axis land forces reached the Crimea in the autumn of 1941 and overran most of the area.
 The only objective not in Axis hands was Sevastopol.
 Several attempts were made to secure the city in October and November 1941.
 A major attack was planned for late November, but heavy rains delayed the Axis attack until 17 December 1941.
 Under the command of Erich von Manstein, Axis forces were unable to capture Sevastopol during this first operation.
 Soviet forces launched an amphibious landing on the Crimean peninsula at Kerch in December 1941 to relieve the siege and force the Axis to divert forces to defend their gains.
 The operation saved Sevastopol for the time being, but the bridgehead in the eastern Crimea was eliminated in May 1942.
In October and November 1940, German–Soviet Axis talks occurred concerning the Soviet Union's potential entry as a fourth Axis Power in World War II.
 The negotiations, which occurred during the era of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, included a two-day Berlin conference between Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, Adolf Hitler and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, followed by both countries trading written proposed agreements.
 After two days of negotiations from 12 to 14 November 1940, Germany presented the Soviets with a draft written Axis pact agreement defining the world spheres of influence of the four proposed Axis powers (Japan, Germany, Soviet Union, Italy).
 Hitler, Ribbentrop and Molotov tried to set German and Soviet spheres of influence; Hitler encouraged Molotov to look south to Iran and eventually India while preserving German access to Finland's resources, and to remove Soviet influence in the Balkans.
 Molotov remained firm, seeking to remove German troops from Finland and gain a warm water port in the Balkans.
 Soviet foreign policy calculations were predicated by the idea that the war would be a long - term struggle and therefore German claims that Britain would be defeated swiftly were treated with scepticism.
 In addition Stalin sought to remain influential in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia.
 These factors resulted in Molotov taking a firm line.
 According to a Columbia University academical source, on 25 November 1940, the Soviets presented a Stalin-drafted written counterproposal where they would accept the four power pact, but it included Soviet rights to Bulgaria and a world sphere of influence centered on the area around modern Iraq and Iran.
 Germany did not respond, leaving the negotiations unresolved.
 Regarding the counterproposal, Hitler remarked to his top military chiefs that Stalin "demands more and more", "he's a cold-blooded blackmailer" and that "a German victory has become unbearable for Russia" so that "she must be brought to her knees as soon as possible."
 Germany broke the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in June 1941 by invading the Soviet Union.
The German–Soviet Credit Agreement (also referred to as the German–Soviet Trade and Credit Agreement) was an economic arrangement between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany whereby Soviet Union received an acceptance credit of 200 million Reichsmark.
 over 7 years with an effective interest rate of 4.5 percent.
 The credit line was to be used during the next two years for purchase of capital goods (factory equipment, installations, machinery and machine tools, ships, vehicles, and other means of transport) in Germany and was to be paid off by means of Soviet material shipment from 1946 onwards.
 The economic agreement was the first step toward improvement in relations between the Soviet Union and Germany.
 The next day after the Credit Agreement, the Soviet Union went to war against Japan, in a successful four-week military campaign in the Far East.
 The Nazi-Soviet Pact was signed four days after the Credit Agreement.
 The 1939 German–Soviet Commercial Agreement renewed declined Nazi–Soviet economic relations and was adjusted and expanded with the larger German–Soviet Commercial Agreement in February 1940 and January 1941 German–Soviet Border and Commercial Agreement.
 German shipments to the Soviets became tardy and failed to provide all that was promised the closer the date of Barbarossa came.
 The Soviets fulfilled their obligations to the letter right up until the invasion, wanting to avoid provoking Germany.
 All these agreements were terminated when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, in violation of the treaties between the two countries.
 Soviet trade with Germany in the pre-invasion period ended up providing the Germans with many of the resources they needed for their invasion of the Soviet Union.
The Cruciada împotriva comunismului ("Crusade Against Communism", in reference to Operation Barbarossa) was a Romanian World War II medal, instituted on April 1, 1942 by the Royal Decree No. 1014, of King Michael I of Romania.
 It was commissioned to recognise the distinguished service of Romanian and other Axis Powers military and civilian personnel operating on both the Eastern and Home fronts ("see Romania during World War II").
During World War II, Nazi Germany engaged in a policy of deliberate maltreatment of Soviet prisoners of war (POWs), in contrast to their treatment of British and American POWs.
 This resulted in some 3.3 to 3.5 million deaths, or 57% of all Soviet POWs.
 During Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, and the subsequent German–Soviet War, millions of Red Army prisoners of war were taken.
 Many were executed, arbitrarily in the field by the German forces or handed over to the SS to be shot, under the Commissar Order; most died during the death marches from the front lines or under inhumane conditions in German prisoner-of-war camps and concentration camps.
Operation Barbarossa (German: "Unternehmen Barbarossa") was the code name for the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, starting Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II.
The First Battle of Kiev was the German name for the operation that resulted in a very large encirclement of Soviet troops in the vicinity of Kiev during World War II.
 This encirclement is considered the largest encirclement in the history of warfare (by number of troops).
 The operation ran from 7 August to 26 September 1941 as part of Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union.
 In Soviet military history, it is referred to as the Kiev Strategic Defensive Operation, with somewhat different dating of 7 July – 26 September 1941.
Order No. 270, issued on 16 August 1941, by Joseph Stalin during the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, ordered Red Army personnel to "fight to the last", virtually banned them from surrendering, and set out severe penalties for deserters and senior officers regarded as derelicting their duties.
 Order 270 is widely regarded as the basis of subsequent, often controversial Soviet policies regarding prisoners of war.
Stalin's Missed Chance is a book published in 2000 by Russian military historian Mikhail Ivanovich Meltyukhov, regarding Viktor Suvorov's controversial theories regarding Soviet war plans during 1939–1941.
 Meltyukhov – the author of several other books and articles on Soviet military history – rejects claims that the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union was a preemptive strike.

Question: Cruciada împotriva comunismului was named in reference to which Axis invasion of the Soviet Union?
Answer: Operation Barbarossa