Senate Did Stalin begin the industrialisation of Russia because he foresaw the rise of Hitler?

Supposedly he thought the British would "come to their senses" and sign a peace treaty, after which they could gang up on the Soviet Union or at least allow Germany enough breathing room to do it on their own. Turns out it didn't quite work out that way. The better question is why Hitler thought he could add America to his list of already formidable enemies.

 

Because he was crazy?

 

Do you have sources for this? Especially the secret training thing. I've never heard that one before.

Stalin, famously in contrast to Lenin and especially Trotsky, did not desire world communism. His philosophy was summed up by him as "Socialism in One Country." This was a pragmatic response to the defeat of the Red Army in the Polish-Soviet War and in the Baltics as well as the failure of left-wing uprisings especially in Germany.

Molotov-Ribbentrop was also a pragmatic move. Stalin did not want Hitler to steamroll the West; he just wanted to prevent or delay a war between Germany and the USSR and have free reign to reconquer lost (in 1917-1922) Russian territory in Poland, Finland, and the Baltics. Without German protection those countries were thought to be easy pickings (not so much Finland). The USSR under Stalin in fact desired harmony with the major Western powers-- Germany, France, and Britain all. (The USSR just didn't trust them and for good reason. And the Soviets could not win against a combined Western/perhaps Japanese force.) For example, Germany's need for raw materials fostered close economic ties between Russia/USSR and the German Empire, Weimar Germany, and the Third Reich before 1941.

 

Japan was Germany's ally at the time - so after Pearl Harbour, it was a case of showing solidarity?

 

Germany's peace overture to Britain met with flat defiance (because we had a human bulldog as PM).

Hitler assumed that the only reason Britain would be so defiant is if they had cut a deal with the States and/or the Soviet Union (partly because his intel underestimated the strength of the RAF).

Fearing treachery, he conceived operation Barbarossa.

British intelligence (GCHQ at Bletchley Park) decrypted German comms about the invasion and Churchill warned Russia.

Stalin believed this to be a trick to try to get him to commit his forces against Germany. He wasn't ready to take on ze Germans at that point, so he ignored the warning.

Barbarossa went ahead, fun and games ensued.

In other news, why am I posting in this stupid thread?

 

let's say my cousin @DarthNightRadar would happily talk about this cause he is a WWII enthusiast