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Text: Zhang Runchen
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introduction
The turning points of World War II are now recognized as the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Midway, but in fact the turning point of World War II should be strictly speaking from the beginning of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. After all, from the moment Nazi Germany chose to invade the Soviet Union, in fact, the outcome of the war was already predestined.
So, why exactly did Germany invade the USSR, and what exactly did the USSR do before the start of "Barbarossa"?
(Hitler)
1. Diplomatic games before the signing of non-aggression pact
We all know by now that before the outbreak of World War II, all the major countries of Europe adopted a policy of appeasement towards Nazi Germany. Of course, the Soviet Union was naturally among the main countries that appeased Germany. However, before the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact was signed, the Soviet Union was in fact the greatest threat to Nazi Germany in Europe.
The culmination of the Anglo-French appeasement was the signing of the Munich Agreement, after which the Sudetenland was annexed by Germany, the Czech Republic was soon annexed by Nazi Germany, and Slovakia became a puppet state of the Nazis. However, what is less well known is that in the process of Nazi Germany's annexation of the Sudetenland, the Soviet Union actually played a great role in containment.
In fact, ever since Hitler put forward the theory of "living space" and the theory of "Nazism", Stalin has been extremely wary of Hitler. In order to curb the disorderly expansion of Nazi Germany, Stalin signed non-aggression pacts with France, Czechoslovakia, and other countries, and France even hoped to jointly establish a "European collective security system" with the Soviet Union to jointly contain Nazi Germany.
(Germans)
The Sudetenland crisis erupted in March 1938, when the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia had signed a non-aggression pact. In fact, Hitler was already trying to annex the Sudetenland, and Britain and France had already begun a policy of appeasement towards the Nazis. The reason why Hitler's long-cherished wish was not realized in 1938 was mainly because of the containment of the Soviet Union.
In the same month that the Sudetenland crisis broke out, Molotov made it clear to the Czech government that the Soviet Union would faithfully fulfill all the contents of the non-aggression pact. Subsequently, the Soviet Union informed Britain and France of the relevant decision, and the French government, which had already decided to implement the policy of appeasement, hoped that the Soviet Union would make a decision after consulting with France, but did not receive a response from the Soviet side.
Subsequently, the Soviet Union directly suggested that Britain and France enter a state of emergency, trying to nip Nazi Germany in the bud together, and if Britain and France had listened to the advice of the Soviet Union at that time, then World War II would probably not have broken out. At least not in the form of an Axis vs. Allies, but Britain and France were unaware of the Soviet proposals.
(Stalin)
The Sudetenland crisis reached its climax in September 1939, when the Soviet Union was even ready to go it alone. On the border between Czechoslovakia and the USSR, huge Soviet units of 1 tank corps, 30 infantry divisions, and 10 cavalry divisions were already assembled. These Soviet troops waited for Stalin's orders, and then they would storm Czechoslovakia and destroy the Third Reich.
Stalin had been waiting for the Czechs to send a formal request for help, so that the Soviets could enter the Czech Republic in the name of justice. However, because the Czech government was bewitched by Britain and France, it did not invite Soviet troops into the country. The Sudetenland problem was not resolved until September of the following year, and the Sovietland had just completed their convergence a month earlier.
This also means that Hitler will not be able to take the Sudetenland at all until the Soviet Union nods. The attitude of the Soviet Union also made Hitler more and more wary of the Soviet Union. After all, the Soviet Union really planned to use force against Germany at that time, and such a country was too much of a threat to Nazi Germany.
(Hitler and Mussolini)
Moreover, Hitler knew that Stalin's appetite was simply not satisfied.
2. The contemporaneous expansion of the Soviet Union and Germany
In fact, while Nazi Germany was conquering Central Europe, the Soviet Union itself was not idle at all. Starting with Bessarabia in Romania, Stalin also seemed to have tasted the sweetness of territorial expansion. Eastern Poland, the Baltic states, and the eastern territories of Finland were all occupied by the Soviet Union during this period.
It can be said that Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union at that time were expanding almost simultaneously, and this is also the significance of the signing of the "Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact". At that time, Stalin just hoped that Hitler would be able to "block the gun" for him in front of Britain and the United States.
(Military Factory)
In this way, the Soviet Union was able to expand in Eastern Europe with peace of mind, but the most intolerable thing for Hitler was that Stalin continued to annex Romanian territory in violation of the agreement between the two countries.
Hitler hoped that Stalin would be able to make peace with him to some extent, and he hoped that the Soviet Union would expand south, not west. Stalin was noncommittal to Hitler's proposal, but Stalin wanted this "southward to" to include southern Europe as well. But this was intolerable to Hitler, because southern Europe was the "territory" that Hitler had promised Mussolini.
(Hitler)
Stalin even hoped to be able to take Bulgaria, or rather puppet it, and thus gain further control of the Dardanelles. This means that after Bulgaria, the next object threatened by the Soviet Union must be Turkey, Hitler's "expected ally". Obviously, this was not what Hitler wanted to see.
Moreover, once the Soviet Red Navy can freely enter and exit the Black Sea, it means that the Mediterranean Sea is no longer safe for Germany, and the Soviet army can land on the coastline of France and Italy at any time and stab Germany from the rear. Hitler was sure that Stalin would definitely do this, and that for these two behemoths, an adequate buffer zone was the greatest source of security.
However, the Soviet Union was not willing to give Germany a sufficient sense of security. During the negotiations, Molotov even suggested that even the Persian Gulf region, that is, the Middle East, the Soviet Union wanted to be able to take it. This also means that there are very few "turf under the sun" that can be left to Germany.
(Army)
Hitler had already seen through Stalin's "sincerity", and he had no intention of "being friends" with Germany at all, he just planned to clean up Germany after squeezing out the "last vestiges of value" of Germany. So, Hitler chose to go on the offensive, and a war proved to Hitler the weakness of the Soviet Union.
3. Stealing chickens is not a recipe for rice
The Winter War was a "work of sincerity" by the Soviet Union to further provoke Germany's bottom line. In the end, however, the war did not achieve the desired results that the Soviet Union wanted, but instead led Germany to see through the weakness of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union's troops, numbered of millions, were trapped in a tiny Finland for months.
There is no doubt that the USSR was the absolute winner in the Winter War, but Finland did not lose either. The Mannerheim Line, composed of a pile of "broken wood", actually led to the loss of hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the Soviet army. And the number of soldiers lost by the Soviet army was comparable to the total number of Finnish troops.
(Mannerheim)
Not only that, but the combat effectiveness of the Finnish army amazed Hitler. Hitler saw an ally who was absolutely qualified, and these Finns were even able to help the Germans take Leningrad from the north, so that the Germans would be able to complete the last direction of a full-scale attack on the Soviet Union.
Moreover, after the Winter War, Finland completely abandoned the policy of neutrality and completely fell into a hostile position to the Soviet Union, which also gave Hitler great room to make use of it. Beginning in 1939, Hitler continued to woo Finland and try to tie it to his chariot. At the same time, Hitler also completely despised the seemingly powerful Soviet Union, Hitler once famously said before the war: "The Soviet Union is a broken house, if I kick it lightly, it will collapse with a bang." ”
Moreover, the Soviet Union at that time had just ended the appalling "Great Purge", and more than half of the senior officers of the Soviet Union were all shot by Stalin himself. Almost all of the stalwarts in the Soviet army were "hairy boys" who had just graduated from military academies. Although it was rumored that the Soviet army was very weak at this time, Hitler could not easily believe unfounded rumors.
(Winter War)
But the Winter War proved to Hitler that all this was true. The Great Purge has really hollowed out the soul of the Soviet army and turned it into a bulky and stupid beast. Beasts, on the other hand, cannot fight against humans. Indeed, almost all of the foundations of the powerful Soviet army in the second half of the twentieth century were accumulated during the Soviet-German war, which means that before the Soviet-German war, the Soviet army was indeed a weak chicken.
However, Stalin, the owner of this dilapidated house, did not believe that Hitler would attack the Soviet Union before the war in Britain was fully handled. Stalin even went so far as to keep Britain's Churchill in love with Hitler while constantly supplying Hitler with war materials. This further stimulated the sensitive Hitler, after all, Hitler was always vigilant against the simultaneous attack of the Soviet Union and Britain on him.
It was at this time that the Soviet Union, taking the opportunity of the Second Vienna Arbitration, formally made its own territorial claims to Romania. As a result, large swathes of Transylvania fell into the hands of the Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany, in order to avoid fighting on two fronts, had no choice but to swallow Coptis dumb and endure the incident.
(Sood)
However, the Soviet Union saw the "weakness" of the Nazis and even further made territorial claims to Hitler against Turkey. How could Hitler have endured it, the Soviet Union and Germany finally went completely to the abyss of war. In fact, in 1940, Hitler wanted to carry out the "Barbarossa" operation, but Mussolini's operation in the Balkans was forced to postpone.
In 1941, the "Barbarossa Plan" was officially launched, and the Great Patriotic War began. However, Hitler was at least right about one thing, and that was that the Soviet Union was indeed preparing to take action against the Nazis. By its very nature, the war was a game in which whoever made the first move would have the upper hand, and the Nazis won at least the first round.
(War)
Resources
Du Hui,Wang Runbin,Yuan Ye.Analysis of the Soviet-Finnish War and its Historical Impact[J].Journal of Hulunbuir University, 2007, 15(1):4.
Yuan Rui.A brief analysis of the diplomatic game between Germany and the Soviet Union before the Soviet-German war[J].Journal of Heilongjiang Institute of Education, 2012(1):2.)