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7/20/2025, 8:27:30 AM
Stalin’s leadership in WWII is still romanticized in some circles, but in reality, he nearly lost the war before it began.
>Purged his best officers:
1937–38 Great Purge wiped out ~35,000 officers, including Tukhachevsky, the USSR’s most talented strategist. By 1941, the Red Army was leaderless and disorganized.
>Ignored Nazi invasion warnings:
Multiple intel sources (including Richard Sorge) warned of Operation Barbarossa. Stalin called it "provocation" and refused to believe it until it was too late.
Result: Wehrmacht steamrolled to Moscow.
>No strategic flexibility:
Issued strict “no retreat” orders early in the war (Order 270, Order 227 - “Not One Step Back!”), leading to massive encirclements and losses (Kiev pocket: 600,000 Soviet troops lost).
>Micromanagement and paranoia:
Constantly overruled his generals, distrusted anyone with initiative. He wasn’t a strategist, he was a control freak.
>Disastrous Winter War with Finland (1939):
USSR lost 126,000 men trying to beat a tiny country. Revealed how crippled the Red Army was post-purge.
What Actually Saved the USSR:
>Russian Winter:
Wehrmacht was not prepared. Hitler didn’t learn from Napoleon. Frozen tanks, frostbitten troops, stalled offensive at the gates of Moscow.
>Massive geographic depth:
USSR could trade land for time. The Germans outran their supply lines & Stalin’s scorched earth helped slow them down.
>Industrial relocation:
Soviet industry was moved east of the Urals. Stalin did authorize this, and it allowed production to continue away from bombing range.
>Allied Lend-Lease:
FDR's 400,000 trucks, 13,000 tanks, aircraft, food, boots, even entire factories. Without this, Red Army mobility would’ve been garbage.
>Generals who were finally allowed to do their job:
After 1942, Stalin learned to back off. Men like Zhukov, Rokossovsky, Konev led actual strategic counterattacks like Stalingrad and Operation Bagration.
>Purged his best officers:
1937–38 Great Purge wiped out ~35,000 officers, including Tukhachevsky, the USSR’s most talented strategist. By 1941, the Red Army was leaderless and disorganized.
>Ignored Nazi invasion warnings:
Multiple intel sources (including Richard Sorge) warned of Operation Barbarossa. Stalin called it "provocation" and refused to believe it until it was too late.
Result: Wehrmacht steamrolled to Moscow.
>No strategic flexibility:
Issued strict “no retreat” orders early in the war (Order 270, Order 227 - “Not One Step Back!”), leading to massive encirclements and losses (Kiev pocket: 600,000 Soviet troops lost).
>Micromanagement and paranoia:
Constantly overruled his generals, distrusted anyone with initiative. He wasn’t a strategist, he was a control freak.
>Disastrous Winter War with Finland (1939):
USSR lost 126,000 men trying to beat a tiny country. Revealed how crippled the Red Army was post-purge.
What Actually Saved the USSR:
>Russian Winter:
Wehrmacht was not prepared. Hitler didn’t learn from Napoleon. Frozen tanks, frostbitten troops, stalled offensive at the gates of Moscow.
>Massive geographic depth:
USSR could trade land for time. The Germans outran their supply lines & Stalin’s scorched earth helped slow them down.
>Industrial relocation:
Soviet industry was moved east of the Urals. Stalin did authorize this, and it allowed production to continue away from bombing range.
>Allied Lend-Lease:
FDR's 400,000 trucks, 13,000 tanks, aircraft, food, boots, even entire factories. Without this, Red Army mobility would’ve been garbage.
>Generals who were finally allowed to do their job:
After 1942, Stalin learned to back off. Men like Zhukov, Rokossovsky, Konev led actual strategic counterattacks like Stalingrad and Operation Bagration.
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