Changes

After some weeks of inactivity, the Supreme Soviet leader personally took control of the situation. Stalin dominated the army and he had placed men in key positions not based upon their ability but based on their personal allegiance to him. The supreme Soviet leader was very afraid that if he gave too much independence to the army, that the Generals would remove him from power. After the invasion of the Soviet and the poor leadership shown by many Generals, he adopted a new policy he promoted men of ability to positions of authority in the armed forces, such as Zhukov. This greatly improved the leadership of the Red Army and allowed it to be more effective against the Nazi armies. Stalin also reorganized the Soviet Army's High Command. He established the Stavka, this provided the Red Army with the leadership it needed in the life or death struggle with the Germans. Stalin supervised Stavka closely, but he also gave his Generals more authority. <ref>"Stalin's Role in WWII " - http://yesterday.uktv.co.uk/warzone/article/stalins-role-wwii/</ref>.

Stalin also sought to raise the fighting morale of the troops. He well knew that many ordinary Soviet citizens were still Russian nationalists at heart and venerated the Orthodox Church. In order to improve the morale of the army and their loyalty, he promoted Russian nationalism, even though as a Communist he was ideologically opposed to nationalism. Furthermore, he stopped persecuting the Orthodox Church. These measures made Stalin popular with the army and raised the morale of the troops. This stiffened their resistance to the invasion of the Russian 'Motherland.'<ref> Zhukov, Georgiĭ Konstantinovich & Harrison E., Salisbury, <i>Marshal Zhukov's Greatest Battles </i> (New York: Harper & Row, 1969), p. 116</ref>.