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I think you're being rather generous here. By all accounts, Stalin did not wake up to the seriousness of the German threat and the unpreparedness of the Soviet
by jpatokal 8y ago
I think you're being rather generous here. By all accounts, Stalin did not wake up to the seriousness of the German threat and the unpreparedness of the Soviet Army until the Winter War against Finland in late 1939, and even this didn't stop him from purging the Red Army to the tune of executing 30,000 officers until the Germans finally invaded.
The one foresighted move that really saved their bacon was moving most military production including tanks deep into the Russian heartland, safe from the German advance.
- dsfyu404ed 8y agoYeah, the start of the war was totally botched but all the management types knew what the plan was. This stuff was basically settled in the 1930s. The problem was that half the people who knew how to actually execute on it were in the gulag and the other half were dead. Once they got over that problem and actually followed the plan that they had laid out for themselves they steamrolled the Germans.