How far do you agree that Stalin’s war leadership mainly accounts for the USSR’s ability to resist the German Invasion in the years 1941 to 1943?
Some may believe that Stalin’s war leadership during the years 1941 to 1943 was the main factor that accounts for the USSRs ability to resist the German Invasion. Others believe that it was the intervention of the allied forces that helped aid Soviet Russia’s defence against the Nazi’s. However, I believe that Stalin’s War Leadership was important to only a small extent and that it was the weaknesses of Hitler’s Leadership that was the major lead to Germanys defeat during the years 1941 to 1943.
Hitler was a foolish leader. He underestimated his enemies and overestimated his own power so when it came down to Operation Barbarossa that began in January 1941, Germany failed miserably at attempting to take over one of the USSRs most symbolically important Cities. Hitler had failed at this takeover was because it lacked strategic objective as Hitler did not aim to take over land that was resourceful but land that would crush Russian morale if it was seized. More than 75% of Germanys military participated in the invasion of the eastern front yet due to underestimating the Russians fighting power Germany was meet with a great backlash. However some may argue that it wasn’t Hitler’s fault that he lost the siege of Leningrad due to poor timing as it was the unpredictable Russian weather that lead to Germanys defeat. However, it was due to Hitler’s poor choice in Allies that Germany had to delay its invasion of the Soviet Union by almost six weeks. Italy’s failed invasions to North Africa, Yugoslavia, and Greece demanded the intervention of Germany, and so Operation Barossa was delayed. By the times the Germans were on the verge of invading Russia, the autumn rains had already set in. If Germany had been invaded a little earlier then it could of easily taken over Leningrad in the summer. But then one could argue that the Germans would of always had to of faced a winter if they were to invade a country as big as Russia due to the time it takes to travel across the eastern front so fighting during winter was inevitable .Yes, the Russian winter was a great killer in the war. The cold meant that the oil used for munitions froze and many soldiers died of hypothermia. This predicament the German soldiers faced would of been avoided if Hitler hadn’t of believed that Germany would of won the war by winter as Hitler had neglected the fact that he needed to prepare Germany to fight a winter war with the correct uniforms and equipment appropriate for the tundra. Then many young men fit for fighting wouldn’t of died and Germanys munitions wouldn’t of been deemed useless in the bitter cold.
Some may argue that it was Stalin’s leadership that was the main reason for the USSRs ability to resist German invasion as Stalin was leading the Soviet union the wartime reorganisation of the economy via the third 5 year plan with focused on heavy industry, without Stalin’s ingenious plans Russia wouldn’t of possessed over 1500 tanks and 12000 aircraft by 1941 to be on par with the Nazis military. I believe that yes, this is an important factor into why the USSR had not been defeated by Germany by 1943 but many other countries had been switching to a war time economy greater to that of Nazi Germany, for example in 1942, Britain’s annual expenditure in Munitions was £9billion which over took Germanys expenditure of £8billion. That fact further boasts one of Hitler’s mistakes, and that was that he didn’t switch to an efficient enough war time economy like the other powers had done so. This was because Hitler wanted to keep morale in Germany so he still keep focus on consumer goods and not heavy industry as much. Some may argue back that Stalin was such a great and influencal leader that he could neglect consumer goods to focus on heavy industry as he had a great propaganda machine behind him, influencing the
