[C19fan]

I think the most intriguing theory is the reason the Ruskies got hammered in the beginning was they were on an offensive footing preparing for their own strike on Hitler.

[Vaquero]

ping

[exhaustguy]

I always liked the idea of fighting the Germans to the last man (er I mean Russian).

[caver]

The Russkies got hammered early on becuase of Stalin’s purges of the military leadership and his refusal to believe that the Soviet Union was going to be attacked.

[YankeeReb]

Why all this should be so little remembered in the West is a mystery. I suspect it has something to do with an understandable preference for wanting to study and memorialize “our” war.

I think part of the reason it isn't remembered is that up until this invasion Hitler and Stalin were allies and the progressive left in this country supported Hitler. The progressives don't like to be reminded of this fact.

[central_va]

Panzer MK IV MBT

[central_va]

T-34 Model 1941 MBT

[BroJoeK]

"I think the most intriguing theory is the reason the Ruskies got hammered in the beginning was they were on an offensive footing preparing for their own strike on Hitler."

It's true that Stalin redeployed -- forward deployed -- his troops after his 1939 pact with Hitler brought eastern Poland under Soviet control.

But in 1941 Stalin's forces were even less prepared for an offensive against Hitler than they were to defend their new territories.

One reason (among many) Soviets were unprepared was that Stalin refused to allow them to take any actions which might remotely be seen as "provocative".

[Larry381]

The following is part of the epilogue of a popular book written many years ago about the Russo-German conflict:

The scale of losses on the Eastern Front worried deeply the leaders of Nazi Germany, but there were many men in more humble circumstances who were also deeply concerned at the loss of so many future fathers, future leaders of their country. One of these was a humble padre serving in a German mountain unit who had fought alongside his men throughout the long years of the war. Let his words of worry and concern be the epitaph to this war on the Eastern Front. He wrote these words in the autumn of 1941, shortly after the battle of Uman and only 4 months after the start of the war.

“Today I buried some more of my former parishioners who have died in this frightful land. Three more letters to write to add to the total of those which I have written already in this war. The deleted names of the fallen are now more numerous in my pocket diary than the names of the living. My parish is bleeding to death on the plains of this country. We shall all die out here.”

[dfwgator]

The Russians plan was to attack in 1943, after the German and British armies were exhausted in the West.

It’s hard for me to feel much pity for the Russians, after they agreed to carve up Poland with the Nazis, invaded the Baltic countries, and invaded Finland.