Russia at war 1941-1945

On May Day, there was a particularly impressive military parade in Red Square,

complete with motorised units, many new KV and T-34 tanks, and hundreds of planes. It was rumoured in Moscow that all these troops were on their way to Minsk, Leningrad

and the Polish border. Ambassador Count Schulenburg noted on May 2 that the tension in Moscow was growing, and that the rumours of a Soviet-German war were becoming

increasingly persistent. On that day Hitler made his speech on the Balkan campaign; as in his two previous speeches, there was again no mention of the Soviet Union.

On May 5 a reception was given in the Kremlin to hundreds of young officers, new

graduates of the military academies. Stalin spoke at this meeting. Officially, nothing was disclosed beyond what Pravda was to write on the following day. The article was entitled: "We must be prepared to deal with any surprises." "In his speech, Comrade Stalin noted the profound changes that had taken place in the Red Army in the last few years, and emphasised that, on the strength of the experience of modern war, its

organisation had undergone important changes, and it had been substantially re-equipped.

Comrade Stalin welcomed the officers who had graduated from the military academies

and wished them all success in their work. He spoke for forty minutes and was listened to with exceptionally great attention."

Obviously he had said much more than that in forty minutes.

After the outbreak of the war, I was given a fairly detailed account of this meeting, to which great importance was attached in Moscow at the time. I gathered that the main

points that Stalin had then made were these:

1) The situation is extremely serious, and a German attack in the near future is not to be ruled out. Therefore, "be prepared to deal with any surprises".

2) The Red Army is not, however, sufficiently strong to smash the Germans easily; its equipment is still far from satisfactory; it is still suffering from a serious shortage of modern tanks, modern planes and much else. The training of large masses of

soldiers is still far from having been completed. The frontier defences in the new territories are far from good.

3) The Soviet Government will try, by all the diplomatic means at its disposal, to put off a German attack on the Soviet Union at least till the autumn, by which time it will be too late for the Germans to attack. It may, or may not, succeed.

4) If it succeeds, then, almost inevitably, the war with Nazi Germany will be fought in 1942—in much more favourable conditions, since the Red Army will have been

better trained, and will have far more up-to-date equipment. Depending on the

international situation, the Red Army will either wait for a German attack, or it may have to take the initiative, since the perpetuation of Nazi Germany as the

dominant power in Europe is "not normal".

5) England is not finished, and the weight of the American war potential is likely to count more and more. There is a very good chance that, after the signing of the Non-Aggression Pact with Japan, that country will stay quiet as far as the Soviet Union is concerned.

Stalin reiterated that the period "from now till August" was the most dangerous of all.

[I have compiled this from several Russian verbal sources; all of them agreed in the main, and particularly on one of the most important points: Stalin's conviction that the war would "almost inevitably" be fought in 1942, with the Russians possibly having to take the initiative.]