Why did Stalin try to appease Hitler even at the eve of Operation Barbarossa?

Answer 1

Stalin knew he was in no position to take on Hitler and the German War machine. Stalin wasn't a fool, he knew it would only be a matter of time before Germany would attempt an invasion against him, but he needed time to build up his forces and mount a better defense.

Answer 2

Operation Barbarossa was launched on June 22, 1941. Almost six weeks later than the OKW had planned due to having to help their Italians allies who had horribly blundered the Albanian/ Greek campaign.

Hitler felt he could not ignore Italy's actions in the south and dispatched valuable resources and units to 'mop up' the mess.

Stalin withdrew nearly 90% of his tank forces in preparation for a planned assault on Poland in the coming six months. When Germany attacked most of the Soviet tank corps was caught without tanks to fight back and were annihilated out right.

The OKW had read their intelligence correctly and knew Russia would invade, but did not know exactly when. The fact of the tank withdrawal was actually a welcome surprise to the Staff planners.

What the OKW could not convince Hitler of however was the timetable for success. Barbarossa needed to seize either Moscow or Stalingrad before the snows began to fall. Those two cities were the main Soviet railhubs and either one would spell the end of the country as an effective opponent.

German losses were light and the advance rapid... ground was gained measured in tens of kilometers everyday. As the first of the heavy snows began to fall, the German Army could actually see the minarets of Moscow with their naked eyes. They were unable to move forward however and with the Soviet winter assaults lost some ground that they were never able to recover from then on.

Stalin was going to attack, both sides had made the treaty dividing Poland knowing full well that they were going to lock in combat eventually..... it was only a matter of time.

Answer 3

Because Stalin thinks that Hitler is just like himself. Germany had just signed a non-agression treaty with Russia in 1939. Stalin intends to abide by the treaty, and he thought that Hitler will do the same. Besides, he's got more something in common with Hitler than with Churchill. Both of them despised the capitalist countries (Great Britain and France). Even when British intelligence informed Stalin of Hitler's plans of attacking Russia, he simply dismissed the information as a British ploy in order to drag Russia into the war. Stalin preferred to watch Great Britain and Germany fight each other out, without Russia getting involved. For it will weaken both Great Britain and Germany, and Russia will then emerge as the strongest country in Europe.

Another reason was that Stalin felt that Russia is not ready for a confrontation with Germany. Stalin is a realist to know the actual state of Russia's military. Just a few years before, in 1937 Stalin purged his military to get rid of officers he didn't trust. In that purge two thirds of Russia's officer corps were executed, including most of Russia's brilliant and ablest generals (for example, out of the Five Marshalls of the Soviet Union, three were executed). Morale is indeed at its lowest in Russia's military at that time.

Note: The USA, although a capitalist country as well, was not yet involved in any war at this point. It was still neutral, and was only indirectly aiding Great Britain with token support of war materiel. USA's entry into war was after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Answer 4

Stalin was distrustful of Churchill and Roosevelt, he didn't believe his spies or reports from the frontier of the German build-up. He turned a blind eye to reports of an impending German invasion, even slowed down the build-up of frontier defences so as not to provoke the Fuhrer. He was mindful that it was the Russian mobilization in WW I that provoked the Kaiser into attacking.

He used to tell his cronies "no matter how inevitable a war with the Nazis was, these present rumors are just a ploy by the English and Americans to get us to fight Germany."

For his blunder, many Soviet divisions were to pay the price.

Answer 5

Because he wanted to help Hitler carve up Europe and he didn't want him invading the USSR.

Answer 6

because the russian army was still poorly equiped and they were trying to buy time to build more tanks and planes.