How ready for war was the Soviet Union?

As the 1930s drew to a close, a new challenge faced the Soviet Union, an expansionist Nazi Germany. However, when the invasion came, on the 22nd June, Stalin was caught by surprise. Although he could not have been entirely unaware of the impending attack, and defence spending had increased from 16.5% in 1937 to 32.6% in 1940, he had ignored intelligence reports and seems to have miscalculated as to when the Germans would turn east.

The Soviet Union was not ready for war in 1941. The purges of the Red Army between 1936 and 1938 had removed most senior officials and sapped the strength of the army. Soviet fighting capacity had also beena ffected by inadequate training and those who had pormoted more advanced miliatry operations, had all been removed. A lack of miliatry inititaive had already been seen in the Winter War with Finland in 1939 to 1940, when no commander dared try anything new. Furthermore, Stalin had reestablished the 'dual command' of miliatry units bringing back the political commissars which had been abadoned in the late 1920s. This move had increased Party control yet hindered actual combat capabilities.

Phsychologically, the SU was unprepared for the fight. Having withdrawn anti-fascist propaganda and prasied Soviet-German friendship since 1939, Soviet troops were suddenly expected to fight their former allies.

Stalin may therefore be criticised for failing to prepare his country adequatly for attack, and the results of this were seen in the ease with which the German forces overran Soviet territory in the first months of war.

The establishment of Nazism in Germany in 1933 had worried the Soviet Union. Hitler wanted living space (Lebensraum) in the east and the Soviet Union tried to reach an agreement with the Western powers to restrain Nazi expanionism. However, British and French appeasement of Germany confirmed Soviet suspicions that they were very happy to see an attack on the communist USSR. Consequently, the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Hitler was agreed in August 1939, by which Hitler advanced into Poland (so beginning the Second World War) while Soviet troops seized eastern Poland, the three Baltic provinces and the Romanian province of Bessarabia (now Moldova). They also took Finland after the Winter War of 1939 to 1940. Stalin knew, however, the pact would only buy time.