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The Soviets were able to send the “Siberian” army which faced the Japanese army in China because they had a guarantee from their spy Sorge that the Japanese would not attack. If the Japanese had attacked the Soviets in the East the war would have been lost for the Soviets. This was probably the most momentus decision in WW2. Hitler’s 2 month delay on the drive for Moscow while Kiev was taken was also just as momentus. Without the Siberian army the Soviets only had the remnants of already shattered armies/divisions to face the Wermacht at it’s pinnacle of strength.

I'll say this though: the original plan for Operation Barbarossa was to start on April 22, 1941. If they had gone with that plan, Moscow would have been taken because the German armies would be within artillery range of Moscow by August, not October. And it would likely have changed the history of the world, because if Moscow fell, who knows long long the Soviet government would last.

The Soviets were able to send the “Siberian” army which faced the Japanese army in China because they had a guarantee from their spy Sorge that the Japanese would not attack. If the Japanese had attacked the Soviets in the East the war would have been lost for the Soviets. This was probably the most momentus decision in WW2.

True. And also one of the least explained decisions. After the defeat the Kwantung Army received at the Battle of Lake Khasan in 1938 followed by their humiliation courtesy of Georgy Zhukov at the Battles of Khalkhyn Gol in 1939, the Japanese decided to no longer seek their raw materials in Mongolia and Siberia and to instead look south to Indonesia and beyond for their raw materials.

By late 1941, Japanese war planning and production had long since shifted from the army to the navy's needs for the southern campaigns. Japan was on the verge of starting a war against America and Britain and was simply in no position to attack Russia.

Furthermore, the Soviet victory at Khalkhyn Gol probably saved Zhukov from Stalin's purge of the officer corps and Russian tank experience at Khalkhyn Gol proved invaluable in terms of applying combat lessons into the design of the T-34 tank.