When I was reading about Barbarossa campaign, I found some articles about possible evidence that USSR planned to attack Germany in 1941 - probably as part of “permanent communist revolution”… as far I understand there are some points which supports that idea - like a quite big drafting to red army (from almost 2 mil. soldiers in 1939 to 5 mil. in 1941) - but on the other hand, it seems that Stalin was quite careful about doing anything to provoke Hitler. But again - Stalin also had ideas about “conquering” big chunks of Europe. So I am wondering if there is anything, which could be considered as hard evidence for these offensive plans?
From what I’ve read this was German propaganda argument for explaining why they attacked and Stalin was just trying to be ready for a possible attack from Hitler.
I mean come that crazy Stalin exterminated all capable generals and officers and just got humiliated in Finland war how could he possibly think he could win an offensive against nazi (reminder: as we’ve seen both in ww1 and ww2 defending is “easier” than attacking).
On the other side Stalin was not so much logical person on the contrary his most actions cry out paranoia so if anyone have more on the matter it would be interesting.
A lot of the articles have their root in the penmanship of one Victor Suvorov and, from my understanding, he was more interested in sensationalism than in any sort of historical accuracy.