was the german assault on russia doomed to failure due to the vast geographics of the land?

The most important fact that Hitler did not get, was that Stalin let him get the Western Europe so Russians could go in and liberate it for themselfs later. Hitler had no choice but to go to war. It is like you know that someone is planning to kill you and you go to their house to confront them, only to find that person took his gun apart to clean it. It took Russians 2 years to put their gun back together.

 

So during the Winter Offensive of 1941, Operation Uranus, and Operation Spark their gun was still being cleaned?

 

Stalin didnt let Germans take Paris, they did on their own agenda. What Stalin hoped was that that Germany would take a long time doing that so that the Red army could finish reorganizing itself especially after the devastating purge.

 

I believe Russians did not achieve parody with Wehrmacht till summer of 1944. They were able only to outfight them by commiting larger quantities of troops and taking huge losses in man power and material.

 

Parody in what way? In terms of weapons? Tactics? Orginization? Manpower? Logistics?

 

In terms of tactics.
Russians were always superior in manpower and quantity of weapons. In many cases their weapons were on par with Germans or better. Logistics and organization were good, considering the losses they sustained in the first few months of the war.
It is like winning a fist fight, because there is only one guy and you have 7 friend helping you. By the way that one guy still knocks out 5 of your friends before you take him.

 

The term does mean majority. It was attributed after a break with the other faction which arose from the same movement and were dubbed the Mencheviks (minority).
And that is correct, they were not the majority. They had the control of the army and that "gave" them the majority. The elected government after the revolution was a colligation between the Social Democratic party and the Mencheviks. When they didn't do what the Bolcheviks wanted, the Bolcheviks abandoned the Parlement and Lenin had all the members of the government arrested. The problem of the Bolcheviks was, they had the majority of the proletariat with them (around 25,000,000 workers more than the rest of Europe combined) however, the 150,000,000 peasents didn't give a crap about Bolcheviks and Mencheviks and revolution. they were more concerned about having food on their plates. So, the Bolcheviks proceeded with the revolution wether the people wanted it or not.
The rise of Stalin was a somewhat funny issue. Bukarin and Zinoviev were the people with the most influence on the Communist party after Lenine died. Highly popular and regarded as heroes, they could change the vote intentions of the rest of the central commite at will. They considered Stalin a person with less inteligence and less charisma than Trotsky and therefore easier to control. Boy were they wrong Both of them died in the subsequent purges...
Anyway, just a quick flash into another reason Stalin got elected^^

ps.: this was all from memory so please forgive any factual incoherences. If someone wants to, I can get off my lazy bum and fetch the books I have on the issue in order to give a more detailed account.



Cheers...

 

That makes sense Miguel B., I understand better now. They were the "majority" in the Socialist set, but a minority of the populace? Anyway, thanks for the details. Also it seems I recall that Lenin himself (in his final will and testement) recommended that Stalin be removed from his posts and replaced upon his (Lenin's) death. Somehow Stalin squelched that letter (will) and with the help of the aforementioned Bukarin and Zinoviev, made his "rise to power".

Anyhooo, thanks for the clarification on "majority"/"minority" for myself.

 

So was the Wehrmacht better in terms of tactics or overall? Also, I would say Operation Uranus succeeded not simply because of numbers but because it was a good tactical move. Similarily, while the Soviets did have the numerical advantage at Kursk, it was won more so because of the brilliant defense set up by Zhukov and poor German strategy. By Kursk the Soviets had been fighting the Germans for two years and had developed into a quite efficient fighting force. Also, sometimes the greater losses can just be attributed to different doctrines taken on by generals.

A quote form Zhukov: "if we come to a minefield we shall proceed as if it wasn't there" (probably not the exact quote as I am saying it from memory but it gets the gist of the statement)

 

That letter was only released after Stalin's death... and the fact that he gave Trotsky the wrong Funeral date so that He, Stalin, would be the only one there to mourn the departure of Lenin, helped with the populace. For fun, try looking for videos of the 14th international congress of the Communist party when trotsky was still there and Stalin was the ruller.




Cheers...

 

Not sure I would rather have Trotsky in power over Stalin.

 

Actually that's a very interesting question. Trotsky wasn't given the command of the Red Army because of his slefless and compassionate character that's for sure. However, I tend to think that Stalin was a sick person. The general conclusion me and my friends seem to have arrived was that not so many people would've died because Trotsky lacked some of the sociopat traits Stalin possessed. Also, he was a wonderfull writer.



Cheers...

 

Not sure about the loss of life being smaller. It was Trotsky and NOT Stalin who wanted to spread Communism around the world by any means necessary including militarily. Had Trotsky been in power and not Stalin, it is very well possible that the Soviet Union might have started a world war. Once thing is for sure, Stalin was a far more cunning politician and much more open minded then Trotsky. Lets not forget that when Lenin announced he is withdrawing from the first war with Germany it was Trotsky who opposed.

 

Examples?

Hate to break it to you but Kursk was in 1943. How the heck does Hitler save Europe from Stalin?

 

You are correct 1943 for Kursk.
German military outfought Allies in the field most of the time. Their tactics even when outnumbered, ensured early success.
Political interference into military matters and lack of strategic planning was German problem.
I say that Stalin allowed Hitler to get power. During German elections, Soviets cut funds for the Communist Party. Stalins plan was for Hitler to capture Europe and then to liberate it.

 

Again examples...

The Germans were not outnumbered in every battle. Name some battles they lost solely because of being outnumbered. To name a couple they had the numerical advantage in, establishing the beachead on D-Day and their 1944 Ardenns offensive.

Early sucesss, like when they invaded nations unprepared for war. Again with the numbers.

By political interference I assume you are talking about Hitler? And by lack of strategic planning I am assuming you mean poor strategic planning?

How about their logistics?

 

Germans were not outnumbered in every battle. But they were outnumbered during the whole war.