The Great Purge of 1930s lead to the annihilation of the Soviet military leadership at most levels. “Although all sectors of Soviet society were crippled by the unprecedented terror unleashed by Stalin after the death of Sergio Kirov in 1934, the officer corps of the Red Army was virtually decimated (Stoessinger, pg44)”. It’s during this time that the loses started to effect the moral, and outright fear of what a single misstep might bring and officer. “What compelled Stalin to conduct these purges, which almost broke …show more content…
There is a question one could think of did the allying with Hitler in 1939 help Stalin and his country or did it lead the leader in some type of false security? It is clear to me that Hitler never intended to honor any of his comments to anyone he signed a pact with, so Stalin had to know this. Further, Stalin was very complacent think Hitler would give an ultimatum be war broke was foolish thinking. In July 3rd he said” We secured peace for our country for one and half years, as well as an opportunity of preparing for our forces for defense if fascist Germany risked attacking our country in defiance of the pact(Stoessinger, pg 47)”. Finally, its clear Stalin received more information and intelligence on the Germany army and its where about but never acted on this information any manner. This inaction because of his bigotry of the west cost him hundreds of thousands of troops at the beginning of the war. “Without a doubt, Stalin received more and better information on the approaching danger, even on specific details of dates and hour of invasion, than did any other leadership of an attack country