Question by Tim: Would the eastern front be very different if Stalin the Iron man never existed?
Much had been said about the invincible General Winter and the sheer amount of Russian manpower and their strong will to fight the enemies for their motherland. Not to mentioned about many capable generals which Zhukov stood out in the forefront.
But could Russia really stop the determined Germans without Stalin who put the huge Russia together in time of such crisis?
Esp. from the point of view of the then China reigning government which came under strong attack from the Japanese.
Answers and Views:
Answer by Bryce
Soviet history would have been so different without Stalin that your question is unanswerable. If Trotsky had followed Lenin, there might not have been the purges of the general staff, the famine of the early 30’s, the nonaggression pact with the Nazis… god only knows what other differences there would have been!
Hitler might not have even risen to power…
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rohak1212 says
You seriously misunderstood Stalin's impact on the war. Because of Stalin's purges of the military before the war most of the skilled general officers had been killed and replaced with loyal party members. Stalin tried to lead command the troops early on and realized fairly quickly he had to led his generals do that. Also, Stalin seized half of Poland and relocated his forward defenses into Poland, abandoning the prepared defenses they had in Russia.
By the time Stalin finally let the generals do their thing without constant approval from Moscow the Germans had broken through and were advancing quickly.
bill s says
Without Stalin there would have not been the murderous military and political Military Purges of 1936. The upper level officers would still have been alive when the war broke out in 1939.
Without Stalin, Russia would not have signed the Non-aggression Pact of 1940.
So, without Stalin, Hitler would not have been tempted to invade. Without Stalin, Russia would not have been weakened by the Ukrainian famine.
In short, without Stalin, Russia would have been too strong to attack in the first place.
Your question implies a measured sympathy for Comrade Stalin. He slaughtered at least 20 million Soviet citizens through purges, famine, imprisonment and murder.
Many consider Stalin a bigger mass murderer than Hitler.
Personally, I remember the five days Stalin was in hiding after the Germans invaded. For all those days, the Soviet Military didn't know whether to resist or not because no orders came from the top. Thousands of Soviet citizens died, Germany gained a huge foothold, the army was crushed, military equipment was lost … because your Iron Man Stalin was changing his panties.
Yes, the Eastern front would have been very different. It would have been at the Elbe.