The two most evil empires in Europe, by mid-1941, Stalin’s Russia and Nazi Germany, had divied up between themselves all the spoils. They had been able to share out Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, parts of Finland, and Russia had grabbed parts of Hungary.

Germany, without any help from Russia, had grabbed Denmark, Norway, France, Holland, Belgium, Yugoslavia and Greece. And now all that was left was to devour was each other.

The myth that has grown up, because it was the only story being told by the Russians, that they were the hapless victims of Adolf Hitler’s unprovoked invasion in 1941. But now we know that that wasn’t true. Stalin had been building up his armaments since 1929 ready to take over Europe.

Here’s a little illustration of how strong Russia was by 1939. Russians deployed 3,885 aircraft against tiny Finland during the Winter War of 1939-1940. That was more than the combined number of aircraft used by both Germany and Britain in the Battle of Britain.

By mid-1941 Stalin was ready to move against Germany, which would mean that he would then be in control of all of Germany’s conquests too.

In this programme I’m going to tell you about Russia’s incredible preparations for war. It was ironic that a man who was at least as evil as Hitler, and who was ready to launch his war of aggression against Europe became the heroic and much-admired ally of England and the United States. But the warning that the recalled, and astute, US ambassador to Moscow, William Bullitt, had given to President Roosevelt in July 1935, proved to be right on the money:

As for the prospect of a new European war, I don’t doubt that current Soviet policy is "peaceful, but this is only because Stalin has not yet completed his armament drive. It is the primary object of the Soviet Foreign Office to maintain peace. . . until the strength of the Soviet Union has been built up to such a point that it is entirely impregnable to attack and ready, should Stalin so desire, to intervene abroad."

By May 1941 Stalin believed that that build-up had been accomplished and he was ready to strike.

Tag words: Stalin; Molotov; Marshal Tukhachevsky; NKVD; Kahlkin Gol; General Pavlov; Georgi Zhukov;