sentences:  But precisely because of the Soviet Union's vast resources, "[v]ictory would have to be swift".Between early fall 1941 and late spring 1942, according to Matthäus, 2 million of the 3.5 million Soviet soldiers captured by the Wehrmacht (Germany's armed forces) had been executed or had died of neglect and abuse.By 1944 the Soviet death toll was at least 20 million.