I am reading a book now by Viktor Suvorov which claims that Hitler attacked Russia in June 1941 to disrupt an attack by Stalin on Germany that was set to take place in July 1941. I am not sure what to make of it but it is interesting.
Hard to believe considering the nervous breakdown Stalin suffered during the week after the German invasion. In spite of warnings from Churchill and his own intelligence services, Stalin and the Russians were completely unprepared for a couple million Germans massed on the border. Stalin was actually very intelligent and probably believed in his native Georgian Caucasus guile and refused to believe he could be fooled by a slobbering Austrian corporal. If so, he wasn’t the only one to fall prey to that assumption.
Operation Thunderstorm, the planned Soviet invasion of a weakened western Europe. Hitler learned about it 3 weeks in advance and struck first.
It is nonsense. USSR was supplying Germany with critical war materials right up to the attack (which Stalin had been repeatedly warned about.)
Leadership in the Red Army had been decimated during the Great Purge three or four years prior. Executions and imprisonment included all officers above Major or Colonel.
The Red Army could not have invaded anyone, probably not even Finland. One of the major reasons for the initial German successes was this lack of leadership,it had to be re-created on the hoof.