June 22, 1941 — The German Invasion of Russia

Few on this continent remembered the seventieth anniversary of the day when Hitler broke his pact with Stalin and invaded Russia – an event for which Stalin was completely unprepared.

The American-Hungarian historian John Lukacs, the author of June 1941: Hitler and Stalin, gives us the background, taken from a book review by Lynwood Abram.

“Hitler and Stalin admired each other, though from afar. They never met. Hitler, who disliked and distrusted many of his ablest generals, approved of Stalin’s purge of his officers.

“In 1939, Hitler joined Stalin in a non-aggression pact, an agreement that Hitler hoped would prevent Germany’s foes from starving her out as in World War I. Instead, Hitler reasoned, Stalin could be counted on to supply Germany with food, oil, raw materials and other necessities to keep the German war machine running smoothly and the German people fat and happy. Stalin was enthusiastically doing just that when Hitler attacked.

“The invasion, when it came, dumbfounded Stalin, who for days seemed in a state of shock, unable even to rouse himself to broadcast news of the attack to the Soviet people. He had foolishly believed that by making common cause with Hitler the Soviet Union could not only avoid war but, also, after Germany defeated Britain, dominate the weak states of Eastern Europe.

“The usually wary Stalin was sure Hitler would never betray him. One story, the authenticity of which Lukacs doubts, is that Zhukov was among those who warned Stalin of the impending invasion. Stalin, so the story goes, replied: “Have you come to scare us with war, or do you want a war because you don’t have enough medals?”

“To Lukacs, the key to Stalin’s blindness was his ‘consistent distrust of the English, whom he viewed as prototypical imperialists and capitalists, worse than the Germans whom he respected. He also believed (and of course there was reason to believe this) that it was a British interest that war should come between the Third Reich and the Soviet Union; that it was indeed in their interest to provoke it. As late as June 18, Stalin attributed most, if not all, reports of an imminent German attack to English (or American) provocations.’”