Barbarossa 1941: Reframing Hitler's Invasion of Stalin's Soviet Empire

by Frank Ellis

Overview

Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's plan for invading the Soviet Union, has by now become a familiar tale of overreach, with the Germans blinded to their coming defeat by their initial victory, and the Soviet Union pushing back from the brink of destruction with courageous exploits both reckless and relentless. And while much of this version of the story is true, Frank Ellis tells us in Barbarossa 1941, it also obscures several important historical truths that alter our understanding of the campaign. In this new and intensive investigation of Operation Barbarossa, Ellis draws on a wealth of documents declassified over the past twenty years to challenge the conventional treatment of a critical chapter in the history of World War II.

Ellis's close reading of an exceptionally wide range of German and Russian sources leads to a reevaluation of Soviet intelligence assessments of Hitler's intentions; Stalin's complicity in his nation's slippage into existential slaughter; and the influence of the Stalinist regime's reputation for brutality—and a fear of Stalin's expansionist inclinations—on the launching and execution of Operation Barbarossa. Ellis revisits two major controversies relating to Barbarossa—the Soviet pre-emptive strike thesis put forward in Viktor Suvorov's book Icebreaker; and the view of the infamous Commissar Order, dictating the execution of a large group of Soviet POWs, as a unique piece of Nazi malevolence. Ellis also analyzes the treatment of Barbarossa in the work of three Soviet-Russian writers—Vasilii Grossman, Alexander Bek, and Konstantin Simonov—and in the first-ever translation of the diary kept by a German soldier in 20th Panzer Division, brings the campaign back to the daily realities of dangers and frustrations encountered by German troops.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780700626649
Publisher:	University Press of Kansas
Publication date:	03/15/2018
Series:	Modern War Studies
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	600
Sales rank:	805,848
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Frank Ellis is the author of many books including The Damned and the Dead: The Eastern Front through the Eyes of Soviet and Russian Novelists and The Stalingrad Cauldron: Inside the Encirclement and Destruction of the 6th Army, which are also published by Kansas.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Unternehmen Barbarossa: Conception, Planning, and Execution

Introduction

Heinz Guderian and the Development of German Armored Warfare Doctrine

Soviet Military Thought, 1918-1941

Mikhail Frunze

Vladimir Triandafillov

Georgii Isserson

Weisung Nr. 21 and Planning for Barbarossa

Terrain and Weather in the Barbarossa Zone of Operations

Planning for Occupation, Control, Exploitation, and Extermination

Agricultural Exploitation

Security and Punitive Measures

Conclusion

2. The Commissar Order: Reflections on an Enduring Controversy

Introduction

The German View of the Commissar Order

Statistical Assessment of the Number of Military Commissars Executed under the Commissar Order

The Commissar Order and the Katyn Memorandum

Conclusion

3. Dance of the Snakes: Soviet and German Diplomacy, August 1939–June 1941

Introduction

The Non-Aggression Pact

The Secret Supplementary Protocol

The Friendship and Border Treaty

Soviet Moves against Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bessarabia, and Northern Bukovina

Ongoing German-Soviet Discord

The Endgame

Conclusion

4. The Soviet Intelligence Assessment of German Military Intentions, 1939–1941

Introduction

June 1940

July 1949

August 1940

September 1940

October 1940

November 1940

December 1940

January 1941

February 1941

March 1941

April 1941

May 1941

June 1941

Conclusion

5. NKVD Operations during Barbarossa, 1941–1942

Introduction

Internal Security

The Arrest, Interrogation, and Execution of General Dmitrii Pavlov

Partisans: The People’s Avengers

Combating Enemy Parachutists

Railway Security

Deportation of National Minorities

Conclusion

6. 20th Panzer Division and the Diary of Gefreiter H. C. von Wiedebach-Nostitz

Introduction: 20th Panzer Division, October 1940–April 1942

Overview: The Diary of Gefreiter von Wiedebach-Nostitz

Von Wiedebach-Nostitz’s Diary Concerning the Campaign in Russia: Arnstadt, 17 June 1941, to Reinerz, 17 February 1942

Conclusion

7. TheGerman Invasion in Soviet-Russian War Literature

Introduction

Vasilii Grossman, The People Are Immortal (1942)

Vasilii Grossman’s War Diaries (August 1941–Winter 1941–1942)

Alexander Bek, The Volokolamsk Highway (1943–1944)

Konstantin Simonov, The Living and the Dead (1959)

Conclusion

8. Viktor Suvorov, the Stalin Attack Thesis, and the Start of World War II

Introduction

Military Indicators

Dismantling Fortifications

Suvorov’s Interpretation of Stalin’s 5 May 1941 Speech

The Published Version of Stalin’s Speech and the Stalin Attack Thesis

Dismantling of the Soviet Partisan Network

Warnings from Winston Churchill and Richard Sorge

The Soviet Defensive Plan

Soviet Airpower and Planning

Overall Assessment of Suvorov’s Thesis

Conclusion

9. The Legacy of Unternehmen Barbarossa

Introduction

Barbarossa and Stalin

Reasons for the Failure of Barbarossa

Conclusion

Appendix A: Translation of Lavrentii Beria’s Memorandum to Stalin, 5 March 1940

Appendix B: Translation of Stalin’s Speech in the Kremlin to Graduates of the Academies of the RKKA, 5 May 1941

Appendix C: Translation of TASS Communiqué:, 13 June 1941

Appendix D: Translation of the Formal Interrogation Record of General Dmitrii Grigor’evich Pavlov, 7 July 1941

Appendix E: Translation of Polozhenie o voennykh komissarakh Raboche-Krest’ianskoi Krasnoi Armii (Statute Concerning Military Commissars of the Worker-Peasant Red Army), 16 July 1941

Appendix F; Translation of Erlass uber die Ausubung der Kriegsgerichtsbarkeit im Gebeit “Barbarossa” und uber besondere Massnahmen der Truppe (Decree Concerning the Implementation of Military Jurisdiction in the Barbarossa Zone and Concerning Special Measures for the Troops), 13 May 1941

Appendix G: Translation of Richtlinien fur die Behandlung politischer Kommissare (Guidelines for the Treatment of Political Commissars), 6 June 1941

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

A photo section appears following pages 232

Editorial Reviews

"An impressive and highly informative read . . . provides a fresh, realistic, and objective look at the war and adds significantly to the topic's growing historiography."—Army History

"This volume is much more than a mere history of the Barbarossa operation, and among other perspectives includes a detailed account of NKVD operations during the battle, a never-before published diary account of a German soldier fighting on the Eastern front, how the German invasion has been portrayed post war literature, and a thorough examination of Suvarov’s thesis regarding Stalin’s alleged plan to attack Nazi Germany. All in all, these many angles give the reader a much fuller understanding of this momentous battle."—Russian Review

"Ellis’s Barbarossa 1941 addresses and answers many vital questions associated with Operation Barbarossa. Skillfully researched and well written, it is a ‘must buy’ for those interested in the Soviet-German War specifically, and World War II and military history in general."—David Glantz, author of Endgame at Stalingrad

“As he did in Stalingrad Cauldron, Ellis uncovers a mass of fresh new material here: recently declassified Russian documentation; literary works; and best of all, the diary of a Gefreiter from the 20th Panzer Division, an invaluable account of the first eight months of the German invasion.”—Robert M. Citino, author of The Wehrmacht Retreats: Fighting a Lost War, 1943

From the Publisher