Stalin's Other War: Soviet Grand Strategy, 1939-1941

APPENDIX 2 May 15, 1941, Memorandum

The following is an excerpt from the memorandum of the people’s commissar of defense and chief of the General Staff of the Red Army to the chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, J. V. Stalin, “Considerations of the Plan for the Strategic Deployment of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union in Case of War with Germany and Its Allies,” May 15, 1941:

“At the present time, according to data from the Intelligence Administration of the Red Army, Germany has deployed nearly 230 infantry divisions, 22 tank divisions, 20 motorized infantry divisions, 8 air divisions, and 4 cavalry divisions all totaling 284 divisions....

“It is estimated that given the present political situation in today’s Germany, in the event of an attack on the USSR, Germany is able to deploy against us 137 infantry divisions, 19 tank divisions, 15 motorized infantry divisions, 4 cavalry divisions, and 5 paratroop divisions all totaling 180 divisions....

“Taking into account the fact that at the present time Germany can maintain its army in mobilized readiness together with its deployed forces in the rear, it has the capability of preempting us in deploying and mounting a surprise strike.

“In order to prevent this from happening while destroying the German army, I consider it necessary that in no way should we yield the initiative to the German command.

“We should preempt [upredit’] the enemy by deploying and attacking the German Army at the very moment when it has reached the stage of deploying [in order to wage an attack] but has not yet organized itself into a front or concentrated all units of its armed forces along the front....

“In order that the above may be carried out in the way indicated, it is necessary in timely fashion to take the following measures without which it will not be possible to deliver a surprise strike against the enemy both from the air as well as on the ground. [There follows a list of measures relating to the locations along the Western Front for deploying Red Army infantry, tank, etc., divisions and the number of days or weeks the various measures will take to execute the Red Army’s ”surprise strike.“]

[signed] “USSR People’s Commissar of Defense, S. Timoshenko Chief of the General Staff of the RKKA, G. Zhukov”

NOTE

This is from A. N. Yakovlev, ed., 1941 god. Dokumenty (Moscow: Mezhdunarodnyi Fond “Demokratiya,” 1998), pp. 215–20, my translation.