Question

Why was Russia able to withstand the German invasion in 1941?

Answer 1

Solution:

From the beginning of operational planning, German military and police authorities intended to wage a war of annihilation against the Communist state as well as the Jews of the Soviet Union, whom they characterized as forming the "racial basis" for the Soviet state. During the winter and spring months of 1941, officials of the Army High Command and the Reich Security Main Office negotiated arrangements for the deployment of Einsatzgruppen behind the front lines to physically annihilate Jews, Communists, and other persons deemed to be dangerous to establishment of long-term German rule on Soviet territory.

For months, the Soviet leadership had refused to heed warnings from the Western Powers of the German troop buildup along its western border. Germany and its Axis partners thus achieved almost complete tactical surprise. Much of the existing Soviet air force was destroyed on the ground. The Soviet armies were initially overwhelmed. German units encircled millions of Soviet soldiers, who, cut off from supplies and reinforcements, had few options other than to surrender.

As the German army advanced deep into Soviet territory, SS and police units followed the troops. The first to arrive were the Einsatzgruppen. The RSHA tasked these units with identifying and eliminating people who might organize and carry out resistance to the German occupation forces, identifying and concentrating groups of people who were "hostile" to German rule in the East, establishing intelligence networks, and securing key documentation and facilities.

Yet after months of campaigning, the German army was exhausted. Having expected a rapid Soviet collapse, German planners had failed to equip their troops for winter warfare. They failed to provide sufficient food and medicines. German planners expected their military personnel to live off the land of a conquered Soviet Union at the expense of the local population, which in German calculations would starve to death in the millions. German troops, advancing rapidly, also outran their supply lines. This made their thinly defended flanks vulnerable to Soviet counterattack along the 1,000 mile stretch from Berlin to Moscow.

On December 6, 1941, the Soviet Union launched a major counterattack against the center of the front, driving the Germans back from Moscow in chaos. Only weeks later were the Germans able to stabilize the front east of Smolensk