Was the USSR preparing to attack Germany, or was Stalin making any such plans, shortly before Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa?

by Malarazz
[deleted]

Absolutely not. This idea that Stalin was planning to attack Germany before Barbarossa comes from the book: "Icebreaker who started the Second World War" by Viktor Suvorov, an ex- Soviet intelligence officer. He argued essentially that Stalin was secretly transferring troops to the Western parts of the Soviet Union and thus Barbarossa was a preemptive invasion.

There are two main problems with this idea. Yes Stalin was transferring troops to the Western areas of the Soviet Union, over 28 rifle divisions and four armies (the 16th, 19th, 21st, and 22nd) to be transferred to the west. They also instituted a partial mobilization which called up just under a million reservists. But this wasn't an indication of a planned offensive. Rather it was Stalin's plan to prevent the USSR from getting caught unprepared. Soviet-German relations had been deteriorating rapidly in the months leading up to Barbarossa and the Soviets (who had identified the Germans as a threat in as early as 1935) saw that war was in a sense inevitable. Now Stalin Stavka (Soviet High Command) did draw up plans for offensives but they were contingency plans and weren't going to be used in 1941. The plan wasn't recent either. It had been developed in 1938 by Boris M. Shaposhnikov and had called for offensive operations against the "Fascist bloc" of Germany and Japan.

Furthermore, Stalin knew the Red Army was not fit to launch an offensive against anyone, let alone the most powerful country in Europe. It was still being reformed after the Finnish debacle. Stalin went to great pains to not antagonize Germany. He scrupulously adhered to the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact in the hopes that he could "bribe" Hitler not to attack. The Soviet Union even went as far as using special NKVD divisions to guard the border, so as to avoid antagonizing Germany; and even then these divisions weren't kept at full strength. Stalin knew war with Germany was inevitable but he hoped to delay it until 1942 at the earliest, when the Soviet Union would be better prepared.

Sources:

When Titans Clashed by David Glantz

Barbarossa: The Axis and The Allies by John Erickson

Fandorin

This idea was popularized by Vladimir Suvorov (Victor Rezun) in his book Icebreaker (Ledokol). His main thesis was that Stalin was planning to attack in the summer/autumn of 1941 and Barbarossa spoiled his plans. There are many historians, both Russian and American, that have published numerous papers refuting Suvorov's thesis, David Glantz probably being the most famous example.

Do you have specific points that you want to discuss?

Luakey

AC_7 already answered you, so the only thing I'll do is recommend Stumbling Colossus by David Glantz and Stalin's Reluctant Soldiers by Roger Reese as very good works on the Red Army's state as Barbarossa began.