[Nateman]

As amazing as it may sound today Stalin practically was bending himself over in appeasing Hitler. Invading the Soviet Union was Hitler's biggest strategic blunder

[Leaning Right]

> Stalin practically was bending himself over in appeasing Hitler <

I once read a book that presented those days from Stalin’s point of view. (The book was written by an anti-communist, by the way. So it wasn’t a hero worship kind of thing.)

Anyway, Stalin watched as Hitler gobbled up the Rhineland, then Austria, then the Sudetenland, and then Czechoslovakia itself. All the while France and Britain did absolutely nothing to stop him.

So maybe Stalin thought: The West will not oppose Hitler. And I could be next. Better to ally with Hitler than be his next victim.

Stalin was wrong about that, of course. But the reasoning makes sense.

[rbg81]

As amazing as it may sound today Stalin practically was bending himself over in appeasing Hitler. Invading the Soviet Union was Hitler’s biggest strategic blunder

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Fun fact: Stalin offered Hitler an ALLIANCE in early 1941. Basically all the oil and raw materials Germany could want with no invasion. Instead Hitler turned him down and green lit Barbarossa.

From what I’ve read on the subject, many of Hitler’s generals were gung-ho about invading the USSR. They viewed it as a quick victory. Only the German logisticians were pessimistic. This is one of the main reasons why Hitler would often rant about his generals stabbing him in the back. He felt misled about the supposed “easy” victory he was promised.

So, yeah, if a German-USSR alliance had gone through, then things would have been very, very different. Hitler and a lot of his generals also thought that (alliance or not), the USSR would eventually go to war with Germany and they wanted to knock them out first.