http://www.amazon.com/Stalins-Other-.../dp/0742521915

Stalin's Other War: Soviet Grand Strategy, 1939-1941
by Albert Weeks

The document, titled "Considerations of the Plan for the Strategic Deployment of the Armed forces of the Soviet Union in Case of War with Germany and its Allies", is dated May 15, 1941. It has been prepared mainly by General, later Marshal, A. Vasilievsky, Deputy Head of the Operations Department of the Soviet General Staff (Stavka). The Memorandum was presented to Stalin by Commissar of Defense S. Timoshenko and Chief of the General Staff G. Zhukov.

The document "Considerations..." (15 handwritten pages long) is explicitly calling for a pre-emptive strike against German forces.
This is fully in line with the offensive military doctrine of the Soviets that called for "Deep Operations" into enemy territory.

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Anybody read the book?

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No, first time I hear about it. I'll put it in my wish list, though.

Everybody makes plans. Spain has plans to invade Portugal and France, the US has a plan to invade Canada, Mexico, everyone else in the globe. That's what staffs do, plan for every eventuality just in case, and then update the plans from time to time.

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Yes, Za,

but now instead of discussing whether the plan existed we can discuss when it was meant to take place...

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Considering the plan was put forward on May 15th '41, I'd reckon on it being aimed for a time whe soviet military build-up is nearing complete, which puts it as sometime around 1943-44. At the very least I doubt it was intended to be enacted before 1942, the Soviets were relying on the pact with Germany lasting that long.

Reminds me of a quote from a former Russian officer, 'of course we were surprised when they attacked, we always thought we were going to be the ones to break the treaty...'

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There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.

Well, we know that the so-called 'proof' that the USSR was going to invade Nazi Germany has been used with a certain ideological and apologetic tone, right?

Now we know it was there, on Stalin's desk. But we don't know if Stalin ever considered carrying it out, nor when, if he was to. Things don't change much in my opinion. German intelligence was so incompetent and Hitler's Lebensraum plan so inflexible, I doubt things could have gone out differently...

Well, things did change remarkably in a couple of years so would not be surprised if both the dictators had to change their plans alot during that time.

Stalin, for example, expected the war in the west for Germany to last awhile and once the allied and Germans had lost most of their men and material the Red Army would attack and take Europe by storm. In June 1940 that plan was outdated already.

Also thinking that how much time it takes to gather the troops etc for the operation if the plan was ready May 1941 it would take 2-3 months at least , I guess, to move the units to their positions. There were strong formations close to the border in June 1941 but as I haven´t read the book cannot tell if they were all that were included in the plans.

One theory to why the Soviet planes were so cramped together was that Stalin had ordered the building of several air fields during early 1941 but the air fields were not ready when the planes were flown to the border area. As well ( Stalin´s folly book ) new units were formed but this was done in such a hurry that in several cases when the soldiers came to the areas they were ordered there were not even barracks for them.

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Excellent point Kai.

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler