[henkster]

I like how you pointed out the expansionist nature of Tsarist Russia, and Stalin was an extension of that long-standing policy.

Hitler and Stalin had to fight each other eventually. They were not compatible in the long term. So it was a matter of which one was going to be ready for the fight first. That was Hitler. Maybe the point of whether Stalin would have attacked Hitler was moot in the sense that Stalin was never going to be ready before Hitler was.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

So it was a matter of which one was going to be ready for the fight first. That was Hitler.

Do you mean psychologically ready or logistically ready? Two years after Barbarossa the Germans are still looking for the wherewithal to finish off the Red Army.