during
Operation Typhoon, 1941 The administrative capital was tentatively proposed as Moscow, the historical and political center of the Russian state. As the German armies were approaching the Soviet capital in the
Operation Typhoon in the autumn of 1941, Hitler determined that Moscow, like Leningrad and
Kiev, would be levelled and its 4 million inhabitants killed, to destroy it as a potential center of Bolshevist resistance. For this purpose Moscow was to be covered by a large
artificial lake which would permanently submerge it, by opening the sluices of the
Moscow-Volga Canal. During the advance on Moscow
Otto Skorzeny was tasked with capturing these dam structures. The
Crimean peninsula, together with a large hinterland to its north encompassing much of the southern Ukraine was to be "cleared" of all existing foreigners and exclusively settled by Germans (as with the ''
Schutzstaffel's Wehrbauer'' proposals) becoming Reich territory (part of Germany). The formerly
Austrian part of
Galicia was to be treated in a similar fashion. In addition the
Baltic states, the "
Volga colony" and the Baku district (as a military concession) would also have to be annexed to the Reich. ==Political leadership==