John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY MARKO MARJANOVIC IN RUSSIA INSIDER
“Stalin Gifted Hitler Victory in 1941 and It Cost Millions of Russian Lives
“The Soviet military debacle in Operation Barbarossa had less to do with Wehrmacht brilliance and more to do with self-inflicted Soviet blows”
I don't agree with the analysis.
It is just one more example of many such things that have been around for decades.
One old story had Stalin falling into a drunken stupor for days when Hitler actually invaded with no commander daring to act on his own initiative.
All these stories are less than sound and often based on fragmentary evidence.
The fact is that, at the time of the invasion, Hitler's Germany had built the most remarkable military machine the world had seen in a very long time.
High esprit, top-notch armor and fighter planes, great new training and personal equipment for the troops.
And the results were well demonstrated in a series of lightning victories in Europe.
Russia could not possibly at the time have duplicated these things.
Of course, errors were made on Stalin's side. Aren't they always with the military?
The Germans, for example, missed the clear opportunity to wipe out the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk during their startling victory in France, something which would have inflicted an unbelievable psychological blow.
The Germans also started the Russia campaign considerably later in the year than was originally planned, owing to various little emergency situations that had to be dealt with.
A two-month earlier start would have meant less cold weather and adverse conditions, but the Germans were not able to do it.
Further, many analysts say the whole invasion was a miscalculation by Hitler, someone who always viewed Slavic people as inferior in ability. Hitler's intelligence was faulty. He was unaware of many things, and, in particular, of the massive reserves of Soviet armor Stalin had created in the east.
I'm not at all sure that Stalin did the best possible with all of his resources - after all, the Soviet economy had seen some pretty horrific steps taken over the years - but the only thing that counts in war is success, and in the end, he had that.
