Article: Books: The surprise of Stalin's life Niall Ferguson on why Hitler's offensive in 1941 caught the Soviet Union totally unprepared

Grand Delusion:

Stalin and the German

Invasion of Russia by Gabriel Gorodetsky Yale, pounds 25, 408 pp WHEN STALIN was woken at his dacha on the morning of June 22, 1941 and told the news that the Germans had launched a massive offensive against the Soviet Union, he was "speechless . . . only his heavy breathing could be heard". When his two commanders met him a couple of hours later, they found him "very pale . . . sitting at the table clutching a loaded unlit pipe in both hands". "Bewildered", Stalin could only suggest that the attack was "a provocation of the German officers"; "Hitler surely does not know about it." Historians have long been puzzled by Stalin's complete failure to grasp ...

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