MOSCOW, May 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Russia marks the 60th anniversary of the victory of the Great Patriotic War on Monday. The Battle of Moscow is one of the greatest battles of the war against Nazi Germany.

The German invasion of the Soviet Union began in June 1941. Forthe invasion, the Germans set up three army groups, designated as North, Center and South, with Army Group Center toward Moscow the strongest. By Aug. 5, the army group had reached the key road and rail center at Smolensk, covering more than two-thirds of the distance to Moscow, the hub of the road and railroad networks and the country's main industrial center.

At Smolensk, German dictator Adolf Hitler ordered the Army Group Center to temporarily halt advance toward Moscow and diverted the bulk of its armor to the north and south to help the other two army groups.

After a standstill of six weeks, the final attack on Moscow resumed on Oct. 2. The German forces fought all the way through towithin about 95 km of the city and aimed to achieve its complete encirclement by taking Kalinin (now Tver) to the north and Tula tothe west.

In mid-November, winter set in and the ground froze. Hitler's troops lacked cold-weather clothing, but Hitler ordered them to move ahead. As neither the men nor the machines were outfitted forextreme cold, by early December, the tanks and trucks were freezing up and the troops were losing their will to fight.

As the German advance was mired in the snow, the Russians struck back. Foreseeing the inevitable, Hitler gave orders that the offensive should be abandoned.

The protracted winter campaign to defend Moscow in 1941 and 1942 by the Red Army was a major defeat for Germany in World War II and proved to be the turning point of the struggle on the central Russian front.