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Winston Churchill talks about how the Brits sent info to Stalin at the very highest diplomatic levels that he was going to be invaded. And later when Winston m

Winston Churchill talks about how the Brits sent info to Stalin at the very highest diplomatic levels that he was going to be invaded. And later when Winston met Stalin, Stalin said that he thought he had to do everything to avoid provoking the Germans as they had started their previous war by pretending to have been attacked by the Poles. Stalin said that he hoped he had more time. So its easy to read into this account that Stalin knew well that he was probably going to be attacked, and rather than 'not wanting to believe it' in a wishful way, rather balanced doing nothing to provoke Germany with taking defensive steps and decided on the former course rationally.

philwelch 13y ago
Something I've read a lot of places but is hard to track down--apparently there was one incident where a German communist actually defected to the USSR, warned them that Germany was preparing to invade, and was literally executed for spreading disinformation. He also disappeared to his dacha and reportedly seemed to have an emotional breakdown when the invasion did happen. The fact that Stalin tried to play this off to Churchill doesn't really refute anything. You don't become a legendary dictator and erect statues and portraits of yourself everywhere without being a little prideful.