Was Stalin Preparing to Attack in 1941? + extended commentary (16.10.2024)
A monologue by Vitaliy Dribnytsya examining the thesis of Suvorov-Rezun and Solonin about a “preventive strike” by the USSR. Drawing on the works of Russian historians (Mikhail Meltyukhov, Stalin’s Missed Chance, 2000; Aleksandr Gogun, The Mistake of 1941, Kherson, 2021), the author shows that preparation of a Soviet offensive in the summer of 1941 did indeed take place, but that it was not a preventive strike — German intelligence was unaware of these plans, and the Barbarossa directive had been signed even earlier. A source for the article on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (the context of “who outpaced whom”).
Key moments
- 01:15 Preparation of a Soviet offensive in the summer of 1941 was real, but it was NOT a preventive strike
- 01:20 German intelligence did not know of Soviet plans — the Germans merely 'guessed', justifying their own aggression
- 06:46 V. Suvorov (Rezun), Icebreaker (late 1980s) — the source of the 'preventive war' myth
- 08:33 Gogun (p. 107) cites Meltyukhov: the dispute remained only over the date of the attack (6 or 15 July 1941)
- 09:18 Meltyukhov, Stalin's Missed Chance (2000): the Soviet invasion was planned for the summer of 1941
- 12:39 The Barbarossa plan was written earlier than the Soviet offensive plan