Reply to post: Re: Or the Russians haven't updated their website yet

Re: Or the Russians haven't updated their website yet

re "1. USSR did not build a single defensive fortification in the 2 years in the occupied ex-Poland, now western Ukraine and Baltic republics. The line of fortifications (it was quite extensive in the area facing Poland) left behind at the old border was left untended too."

The above is incorrect, the Soviets did build defensive fortifications in the occupied ex-Poland and elsewhere. Read on the Molotov line; the work in south-eastern Poland (what is now south-east), i.e. Lubelszczyzna (zamojskie) and further down (przemyskie) began either very late in 1939, or in the spring of 1940. Anecdotally, I remember my granny telling me about "sabotage" in place, something about the artillery pieces not fitting into the bunkers once they were built. More likely too much haste too little attention to detail. You'll also find a German publication dated around 1942-ish, on Soviet fortifications, that included a map of (detected) fortifications (prior to Barbarossa), one copy bangs around Russian websites, another can be found on germandocsinrussia.org (Befestigungen von UdSSR, or something similar)

btw, something from wikipedia too:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov_Line

I can't argue for the broader issue, i.e. whether Hitler executed a pre-emptive strike, i.e. was "forced" to invade, although I'd agree that Stalin was his match as far as visions of world superiority go. There are publications supporting this view (Suvorow and somebody else, more credible), but likewise, I've seen a few respectable historians dismiss such speculation as just that - speculation, based on circumstantial evidence, not a single piece of solid evidence to be found among German documents, and presumably, something pointing directly to intelligence about Soviet intentions to invade. There's _nothing solid_ to support this. While I don't dismiss an idea that Stalin had an intention to invade III Reich and ultimately "liberate" western Europe, I very much doubt Barbarossa caught him in the middle of the preparations. More likely with his pants down as he didn't believe Hitler would be so stupid to wage wars on two fronts again. He might have assumed Germany being German would have learnt from past mistakes and deal with the West first, better still, get stuck there, giving him time to prepare for the swift stab in the back.