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[[File: Stalin and Ribbentrop.jpg|thumbnail|280px|Stalin and Ribbentrop after signing pact 1939.]]
This article will discuss the response of Stalin to the invasion of his country by German forces in 1940. The Soviet leader will be shown to have responded very slowly to the Nazi invasion and indeed that he ignored warnings that the Germans planned to attack his country. Stalin's response to the Nazi invasion has perplexed historians for many years. It seems that the Soviet Leader had placed his trust in Hitler and this almost led to the defeat of the Soviet Union. The article will show that Stalin's response to Hitler's invasion was slow and disorganized especially in the first days of the war. Stalin's response was so slow and ineffective because he had made the fatal mistake of trusting Hitler. However, Stalin was to take charge of the situation and he made changes to his military and diplomatic policy that at first slowed the German advance and then stopped it before Moscow in December 1941.
==Background==
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin ruled over the Soviet Union between 1920 and 1953 acting as the supreme leader of the USSR. Holding the post of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he was effectively the dictator of the state. Stalin introduced his own highly centralized command economy, launching a period of industrialization and collectivization that resulted in the rapid transformation of the USSR from an agrarian society into an industrial global power. Between 1934 and 1939 Stalin mercilessly carried out a series of massive political extra-judicial executions, known as the Great Purge, of major Communist Party and government rival figures as well as many Red Army high commanders without any proper trials - all convicted of alleged treason or considered a threat. These “enemies of the working class” were imprisoned, exiled, sent to forced labor camps or executed, without due process.In the meantime, Germany revitalized under Adolf Hitler’s leadership, worked to revise the post-World War I organizational structure of Europe, imposed by the United States, England, and France. Hitler and Stalin seemed to be natural enemies. Hitler loathed the Communists and Stalin publically denounced the Nazis. The two regimes were ideological enemies and it seemed to many observers that a war between the two was inevitable at some stage. <ref>Boobbyer, Phillip <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415182980/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0415182980&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=be2a9195cf0017e9147f778e95d45fbe The Stalin Era]</i> (Routledge, London, 2000),p. 178</ref>
==The Molotov–Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact==
[[File: Molotov.jpg|thumbnail|300px|Ribbentrop and Molotov in Berlin, 1940]]
After the Nazis rose to power in Germany in 1933, relations between Germany and the Soviet Union, as the two sworn enemy regimes, began to deteriorate rapidly, and trade between the two countries decreased and almost froze. The Soviet Union had generally good relations with the Weimar Republic.<ref> Boobyer, p 198</ref> Following several years of tension and rivalry, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union eventually began to improve relations in 1939. German economy thrived by exporting manufactured goods and industrial equipment around the world in exchange for importing raw materials. On the other hand, the USSR was still an agrarian state. While it was rich in natural resources, it was struggling to transition to an more industrial economy. The Soviets were forced to purchase and import more than half of the necessary factory machinery from the United States. The pact was appealing to both Stalin and Hitler because they were both at odds with the West. Driven by their mutual resentment for the West, USSR and Nazi Germany interests briefly aligned and they moved towards German-Soviet cooperation and an alliance.
In 1939, London and Paris invited Moscow to co-sign an Anglo-French guarantee to protect Poland and Romania from possible German aggression. The Soviets agreed only upon permission from Lithuania, Poland, and Romania to allow the free passage of Soviet troops in the event of war. However, Poland refused to grant its permission because they justifiably feared that Soviets wanted to use these as a pretext to take over its territory. The West prolonged Soviet-Allied negotiations since the Great Powers feared the spread of the communist regime and considered the Soviet Union as an outlaw state for its established social and political structures through internal subversion, armed violence, and terrorism. USSR in its turn advocated the overthrow of all capitalist regimes.<ref>Stalin's Secret War Plans: Why Hitler Invaded the Soviet Union - http://www.wintersonnenwende.com/scriptorium/english/archives/articles/stalwarplans.html</ref>
==Germany' Violation of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact==
[[File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1974-099-19,_Russland,_Angriff_auf_ein_Dorf.jpg|thumbnail|300px|German Troops in the Soviet Union in 1941]]
The two dictators signed secret protocols dividing central Europe between Stalin and Hitler, it effectively let both the USSR and the NAZIS to invade freely countries listed within their “spheres of influence”. However, the agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union was not sustainable and ultimately set the stage for the Eastern Front of the World War II. Still, the initial improving relations with Germany meant that the Soviet Union could expand its territory in Eastern Europe unmolested into places such as the Baltic States. Stalin believed that his understanding with Hitler would last and he became complacent.<ref> Montefiore, Simon Sebag. ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400076781/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1400076781&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=eb9848bd0a98d402c5a3cab783e1108d Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar]''. (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003), p. 117</ref>
On 1 September 1939, within days of signing the pact and the secret protocols, Hitler invaded Poland, now confident that the Soviets would not oppose him. In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany. A couple of weeks later, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east to grab its share. In 1940, the USSR followed up by occupying Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Romanian province of Bessarabia. Britain and France protested but with their forces already at war against Germany, they could not afford to fight Stalin as well. The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact intially worked quite well and showed how similar the two states goals really were. But this peace it did not last for long.
