The Tory conference was a pseudo-sacred affair, with devotees paying homage in front of Thatcher’s old shrouds — and your reporter, initially barred, only need mention he’d once met her to gain access. But would she consider what was on offer a worthy legacy, asks ANDREW MURRAY

ON THIS day 80 years ago, over three-and-a-half million German and other Axis troops attacked the Soviet Union along a 1,800-mile front.
Some 148 divisions, representing 80 per cent of the German army, were supported by Romanian, Italian, Hungarian, Slovak and Finnish forces.
For the Nazis, in particular, this was the highest point yet of their project for fascist expansion and it was underpinned by a racist ideology toward the Jews, but also toward the Slavs living in the Soviet territories.



