04-11-2005, 10:46 AM
I am no scholar but base my opinion on a lifetime of interest and informal study of WWII.
Well that is a question to which the answer may never actually be known because Stalin to my knowledge never actually acknowledged receiving the information about the German attack. But it is indeed generally held by most historians that the exact time and date of the attack was in his possesion before Operation Barbarossa began.
Anything about this is speculation of course because if he did have this information you can be pretty much assured he would have had any paper trail about it destroyed to avoid embarrasment or worse accusations and any one who would have been in a position to confirm or deny this information about him is by now long dead and themselves would not have revealed this information which would have revealed their own part in the debacle.
I myself believe that he was in possesion of the information but could not bring himself to believe it, as to him and to most other people at that time including Churchill and Roosevelt for the Germans to fight on two fronts on purpose was unthinkable.
The ideologies of Germany and the Soviet Union were diametricaly opposed and eventual conflict was inevitable (Mein Kampf mentions "Lebensraum" in the East and we all know what was east of Germany at this time). But perhaps Stalin was hoping for "Honor Among Thieves" with Hitler about the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact to delay the inevitable until he Stalin was ready.
And as mentionned by Chuck in Oregon the Great Purge of the Officers of the Soviet Armed Forces left the Red Army woefully lacking in skilled leadership above the batallion and regiment level at this most critical juncture of their history. Granted they fortunately still had arguably the best tactician of the war Zhukov still alive and a handful of others who in the end would stem the tide and march the Germans all the way back to Berlin.
What he was doing at his dacha is anyone's guess. Gathering his wits perhaps?
Well that is a question to which the answer may never actually be known because Stalin to my knowledge never actually acknowledged receiving the information about the German attack. But it is indeed generally held by most historians that the exact time and date of the attack was in his possesion before Operation Barbarossa began.
Anything about this is speculation of course because if he did have this information you can be pretty much assured he would have had any paper trail about it destroyed to avoid embarrasment or worse accusations and any one who would have been in a position to confirm or deny this information about him is by now long dead and themselves would not have revealed this information which would have revealed their own part in the debacle.
I myself believe that he was in possesion of the information but could not bring himself to believe it, as to him and to most other people at that time including Churchill and Roosevelt for the Germans to fight on two fronts on purpose was unthinkable.
The ideologies of Germany and the Soviet Union were diametricaly opposed and eventual conflict was inevitable (Mein Kampf mentions "Lebensraum" in the East and we all know what was east of Germany at this time). But perhaps Stalin was hoping for "Honor Among Thieves" with Hitler about the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact to delay the inevitable until he Stalin was ready.
And as mentionned by Chuck in Oregon the Great Purge of the Officers of the Soviet Armed Forces left the Red Army woefully lacking in skilled leadership above the batallion and regiment level at this most critical juncture of their history. Granted they fortunately still had arguably the best tactician of the war Zhukov still alive and a handful of others who in the end would stem the tide and march the Germans all the way back to Berlin.
What he was doing at his dacha is anyone's guess. Gathering his wits perhaps?
