That was the surprise attack by Hitler. Stalin estimated that Hitler was bogged down in the war in the west. He had studied Hitler through and through and knew that Hitler was very afraid of a 2-front war, based on Hitler's experiences in WW1. Stalin was busy preparing his army for the offensive. Hitler striked will the Soviet troops were in the train so to speak.
But there had been no mobilization of Soviet troops. As in none whatsoever. If there had been, it would have been far more difficult going for the Nazis in the first stage of Barbarossa. If you can demonstrate otherwise, then please do.
If the contention is that the Red Army had prepared a battle plan against Germany, then of course they had. They also had one for war against Britain, I'm quite sure, even though they ended up on the same side.
Furthermore, Stalin did not estimate Hitler as bogged down. Far from it. While there were many negative assessments to be made of Stalin, that he was stupid was not one of them. Everyone know that the only way Hitler could lose was by bringing either the USSR or the USA against him. He chose the former. Stalin had nothing to gain by entering a war against Hitler and everything to lose.
This is the usual orthodox argument. But then you have to explain why Stalin won the war in the end any way.
Now the argument is that Stalin won the war and that means that he was planning an attack on Germany all along?
Stalin won because of several factors:
(1) Partisans
(2) Poorly prepared German troops without winter gear
(3) Eventual mass production of tanks
(4) Lend-lease
(5) Collapse of Italy in '43 and subsequent need of Germany to occupy southern Europe
(6) Second front opened at D-Day
None of those require their having prepared an attack before Barbarossa.
That was true until 1939 until he maneuvered Hitler into this pact. Stalin revealed in a speech in 1939 (see this thread).
Stalin maneuvered Hitler? Really?
That was a nice to have indeed, but it also allowed Stalin to move into Europe and closer to Berlin.
Stalin had no designs on Berlin until it became clear that the US intended to prevent his free hand in Europe. So then he fought for (and won) parity.
Wrong. Britain and France prepared for an invasion of Norway and as a matter of fact did. There were some 25,000 (out the top of my head, was discussed earlier in this thread) alllied soldiers captured in Norway by the Germans. That move triggered the Germasn actions in May 1940. Although I have to admit that Hitler confided to Mannerheim that he already wanted to attack Western Europe after Britain and France had declared war in September 1939, but that bad weather conditions had kept him from doing so.
All the Brits did was mine the harbors. Furthermore, even when they re-took Narvik, Churchill eventually evacuated it just to pull France's fat from the fire.
The invasions launched on May 10, 1940, were designed for one purpose, i.e., to invade France from the north and not have to penetrate the Maginot Line.*A minor consideration would have been Göring's desire for air bases to bomb England, but once he had Scandinavia and France, he scarcely needed the Low Countries.
Not even traditional historians will deny that Stalin was very surprosed by Hitler. They just keep up the lie that Stalin was a peace loving sheep, happy with bolshevism in one country where in reaity he had prepared for war and nothing else since the twenties and incredible cost for the Russian population.[/QUOTE]