In the 1930s Soviet production of military equipment grew steadily, and in the pre-war years the economy became progressively more oriented toward military production. The Soviet numerical advantage in heavy equipment was also more than offset by the greatly superior training and readiness of German forces. The Soviet officer corps and high command had been massacred in Communist dictator Joseph Stalin's Great Purge (1936–1938). In total, some 30,000 Red Army personnel were executed, while more were deported to Siberia and replaced with officers deemed more politically reliable.
Soviet Red Army occupied eastern Poland in September 1939,
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in October 1939 and the Romanian territories of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina in June 1940. Only
Finland resisted Stalin's program of expansion. On May 5 1941, Stalin gave a speech to graduates of military academies in Moscow declaring: War with Germany is inevitable. If comrade Molotov can manage to postpone the war for two or three years that will be our good fortune.
Immediately after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler put forward a thesis that the Red Army made extensive preparations for an offensive war in Europe, thus justifying the German invasion as a pre-emptive strike. After the war this view was brought forward by Wehrmacht leaders, like Feldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel. This thesis was reiterated in the 1980s based on the analysis of circumstantial evidence. Thus, it has been found that a proposal was drawn up by Marshal Georgy Zhukov and signed by Aleksandr Vasilevsky and Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin suggesting secret mobilization and deploying Red Army troops on the western border.
The proposed operation's objective was to cut Germany off from its allies, especially Romania with its oilfields that Germany needed to conduct the war. According to former Soviet GRU officer Viktor Suvorov, Stalin planned to use Germany as a proxy against the West. With the complete annihilation of the encircled German Army thus made inevitable, a Red Army offensive into the rest of Europe would follow. Suvorov argued that
Barbarossa was actually a pre-emptive strike that capitalized on the Soviet troop concentrations immediately on the 1941 borders.
Some others who support the idea that Stalin prepared to attack, like Russian military historian Mikhail Meltyukhov, reject this part of Suvorov's theory, arguing that both sides prepared for an attack on their own, not in response to the other side's preparations. Credit: Wikipedia inter alia. Top image: the photo shows
Der Führer Adolf Hitler in the Reichstag 1941. It was taken by Hitler's personal colour photographer Hugo Jäger. Credit: Mads Madsen. LIFE photo archive. Fair use. Second image: German infantry move through a burning Soviet village in 1941. Credit: Julius Backman Jääskeläinen. c. Bundesarchiv. Third image: Soviet soldiers surrender to elements of SS-Division Leibstandarte SS in 1941. c. Bundesarchiv. Fourth image: Soviet soldier taken POW in the swamp area near Dnieper River in Ukraine in Sept. 1941. Millions of Soviets taken prisoner by the Germans perished in captivity. Many of those who survived to return were sent straight to the gulags - the Soviet labor camps. c. Bundesarchiv. Bottom image: an SS-Feldgendarmerie operating behind the eastern front line in 1941. The military police units combed the villages looking for partisans and weapons. In the first photo of a series of pictures the alleged partisan is seen handing over a cassette box with disc-shaped magazines to a Soviet Degtyaryov infantry machine gun before he is summarily executed. Credit: Olga Shirnina. c. Bundesarchiv.
I've been a World War Two buff for many years – books, movies, documentaries – and recently found this site via the book The Assault Generation by Gerry Villani. A great website filled with historical facts and without political bias. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteI highly recommend this site to anyone that wants to expand their knowledge base past the political aspect. Once you start reading it is very hard to stop.
DeleteI actually found this site through the book The Breakthrough of Normandy (ฝ่าสมรภูมินอร์มังดี). It is such a great website for the WW2 history buff (Euro theatre). Glad I found such a wealth of info here. Thanks.
DeleteExcellent post. Very informative. A great site indeed!
DeleteThe middle man in the bottom photograph is armed with the very rare German machine pistol Erma EMP.
ReplyDeleteDespite the best efforts of a number of historians and all kinds of internet crackpots, many aspects of the Second World War remain obscure or shrouded in myth. One of the most persistent of these is the notion - largely created by the Allied propaganda in the immediate postwar period - that the Waffen-SS were made up of evil political fanatics looking for world domination dressed in black. This is a very good site indeed, in contrast to most accounts on the subject, this compilation of facts is honest and courageous.
ReplyDeleteStabswache is an historian treasure in all this millennial craziness and internet ballyhoo. Thank you.
DeleteWorld War II losses of the Soviet Union from all related causes were about 27,000,000, both civilian and military, although exact figures are disputed. The 20 million number was considered official during the Soviet era. The post-Soviet government of Russia puts the Soviet war 'losses' at 26.6 million. The figures published by the Russian Ministry of Defense have been accepted by most historians outside Russia. Some Russian politicians and journalists put the total number of losses in the war, both civilian and military, at over 40 million.
ReplyDeleteAdolph Hitler and Henry Ford each kept a framed picture of the other on his desk.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteДостаточно корректно написанная статья, что редко встречается, - прочитал с интересом.
ReplyDeleteVery good summary of the period preceding the German attack on Soviet Russia. This website will help increase your knowledge of not just the Waffen SS, but also the European theater in WW2. Great pictures and chronological articles with references and links.
ReplyDeleteI stumbled across this blog and am glad I did. Best in its field.
ReplyDeleteStalin would have invaded Europe eventually, but the Red Army was not ready to launch an invasion into Europe in 1941, it may however been in a better position in 1942, or more probably 1943.
ReplyDeleteEn bärande del i den ryska historiska lögnen handlar om landets roll i andra världskriget. Det är lögnen om Sovjetunionens samarbete med Hitlertyskland. Det är lögnen om ockupationen av östra Polen och de tre baltiska staterna. Det är lögnen om det finska vinterkriget. Det är lögnen om det ensidigt stolta och tappert kämpande kommunist Ryssland som med stora uppoffringar vinner kriget samt friheten åt sig själva och världen. Dessa lögner är alltjämt i dag bärande för den ryska identiteten och tyvärr sprids de med jämna mellanrum även i den fria världen. Vissa ränder går aldrig ur.
ReplyDeleteThe majority of historians believe that Stalin was seeking to avoid war in 1941, but instead planned to invade the Western Europe after Germany had bled herself with the war with Anglo-French. According to Professor of Military History Alexander Hill, the war against capitalist Europe was seen as potentially inevitable by Soviet leadership.
ReplyDelete