We learned in school that the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 (Operation Barbarossa) was a surprise attack on Russia, which ultimately broke the Nazi Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. We were told things such as western leaders like Churchill warning him that an invasion was coming, yet he remained complacent. We were even told that during the initial invasion, many Russians simply thought the Germans, who they thought to be their allies, were just there to lend aid to them, and because of Stalin’s complete credulity towards the dangers of Nazi Germany and utter lack of preparation, the beginning stages of the campaign were devastating for the Russians. (I know this part is true - the beginning of the invasion was extremely successful for the Germans).
However, is the notion surrounding Stalin as a gullible man towards Hitler true? I just don’t understand how it could be. Surely Stalin wasn’t that naive? We also studied the Soviet Union under Stalin and learned that while he donned an intelligent and somewhat Machiavellian sort of persona, by the late 1930s, he had become completely paranoid as demonstrated by his infamous purges. So surely he would have suspected that Hitler, an obviously manipulative and evil person, would eventually betray him.
Also, regarding the Allies, once Operation Barbarossa began, and the German/Russian neutrality was destroyed, how long did it take for Russia to side with the allies? Was it ever an official alliance it was it just sort of agreed that Russia was now on the Allies side? And did the Allies ever do anything particularly significant to aid the Russians? I don’t remember learning anything about any Allied aid in resources or men on the Eastern Front, which I guess could be due to the fragility of Britain following the Blitz and the Battle of Britain, but surely the Americans were well resourced enough to aid in some shape or form. Considering such an enormous percentage of the Wehrmacht was occupied on the Eastern Front, wouldn’t a few armies of men have been a logical idea from the Allies in an attempt to destroy the majority of the German fighting force?
Thanks for anyone who can quell my curiosity!
So I can answer part of this question! Mainly the Latter in reference to Supplies and such, as I cannot speak on the character of Stalin.
The Allies sent vast supplies to Russia during WW2, the US government notes it as
"Even before the United States entered World War II in December 1941, America sent arms and equipment to the Soviet Union to help it defeat the Nazi invasion. Totaling $11.3 billion, or $180 billion in today’s currency, the Lend-Lease Act of the United States supplied needed goods to the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1945 in support of what Stalin described to Roosevelt as the “enormous and difficult fight against the common enemy — bloodthirsty Hitlerism.”
While the effect of the Lend-Lease on the War in Russia is debated, Heavily i may add, depending where you go.
A major thing the Allies / The United States provided was Trucks and Cars. Motorizing the Soviet Army much more than their counterpart in the German one. It should also be noted that it was more than just these materials, as the US provided Industrial equipment, goods like Aluminum and Steel and more. And in both journals im using there are references to how President Roosevelt put the Soviets lend-lease as maximum priority.
I hope this answers a little of your question!
The Journal of American History Vol. 56, No. 1 (Jun., 1969), pp. 93-114 (22 pages)
Journal of Contemporary History Vol. 19, No. 3 (Jul., 1984), pp. 495-510 (16 pages)
Edit: Forgot to add in British Lend Lease, but u/panick21 talked about it!
There is a lot of myth making surrounding all of this, and lots of nationalist and otherwise inspired histories make claims about it. Having a bad on Stalin and was very common after he died in Russia. Having a disparaging opinion about the Soviet war effort and Stalin was very popular in the West.
So let me start with this, Stalin was a quite clever geo-strategic thinker. However he was clever, but he saw the world threw Marxist-Leninist tinted glasses and lead him to a number of very bad miscalculations. They however are not necessarily what many people claim.
Stalin fundamental strategy was that the global communist revolution would happen when capitalist powers were exhausted in modern wars. He had learned from Russia own revolution and how there were almost revolutions in other places after WW1. His believe was that the global communist revolution would happen when the capitalist powers would fight each other to exhaustion. Then Soviets could swoop in, support the revolution and then you have a soviet dominate world a communist world.
He believed that capitalists would eventually fight each other simply because of materialist drivers, as explained in Lenin imperialism. Meaning, the search for new markets will lead them into military conflict with each other.
Stalin saw it as his most important strategic goal, to prevent the capitalist to gang up on him. His positive position towards Germany was very much based on the idea, that preventing German from joining the British/French alliance would allow him to stay out of the next war. In some sense, Britain was doing the same thing and their policies can be seen as the same, they were lenient with Germany to prevent them from joining Soviets in an alliance.
Thanks to the British/French choice to support Poland, Stalin achieved his strategic goal. The what he considered capitalists were fighting and he could stay on the outside and continue his massive buildup of army. He supported Germany as he considered it the weaker power and he believed that as long as he would supply Germany, Germany would put priority on finishing the war with Britain/France first. Without Soviet supplies, the German war effort was hopeless.
This is all very clever from Stalin but he, like everybody else was surprised that the war in the West, only took 8 weeks. Germany defeated France and Western Europe was in German control, years ahead of what Stalin believed. Despite this, Germany was still fighting Britain and defeating Britain if it was possible at all would still take years, so he did not adjust his strategy. He continued to supply Germany and basically gave them all the support. And just so people don't misunderstand, Germany paid a high price for this support, its not like it was free (ask if you want more information).
He knew that German army were setting up on the borders, but he believed that with some political maneuver and promises of giving Germany what they needed he could avoid the war for another year. It is true that he had much evidence that German was going to invade, however what is not often talked about, is that he also had massive amounts of evidence that the were not going to.
Non of the invasion evidence was conclusive no German war plan or anything like that was ever provided. He didn't trust the British, or even his own spies in Britain. The British of course were trying to get him into a war with Germany, so of course they would claim Germany was gone attack them, Stalin was big on believing British basically laying always. Germany had launched a massive campaign of deception and misinformation that was of course all picked up by the Soviet intelligence and was read by Stalin as well.
The claims that Stalin trusted Hitler are totally false, and Stalin was not really 'gullible'. In fact, the German Army had crossed their 'halt' lines in Poland and had tried to take over Oil fields that were on the Soviet side of the line in Poland. Stalin order the Red Army to attack and they had fired on each other, with causalities on both sides. The German of course claimed it was all a big misunderstanding, they 'accidentally' crossed the line to follow Polish soldiers, it had nothing to do with the oil that was there. There was no trust at all between these two leaders or governments, Stalin new perfectly well what Germany wanted and what they thought of them.
So, this basically explains the situation. Stalin simply believed he could use his diplomatic skill, promises and negotiation to hold of the Germans for another year (basically stalling for time for a couple month until the 'muddy' season). One year later the Soviet Army would be much more powerful, now with the best and newest new tanks and plains in great numbers and they could of course cut of German supplies if needed. Germany cut of from trade, from East and West would collapse quickly.
The problem is just that Britain was on a island. Germany had no practical way of attacking Britain with most of their army, North Africa could simply not support many. Stalin never quite seem to understand or appropriate the problem of attacking over water.
Hitler knew that they would totally depend on the Soviets materials. There was simply no way of defeating Britain quickly. So Hitler thought to himself, I can either have my million strong army sit around do nothing while their position gets worse and worse by the month and the Soviet and Brits get stronger every month, or we can just use it, invade the Soviet Union and capture all the materials we needed defeat Britain and ultimately marshal all resources from Europe and Asia to destroy the United States (see Hitlers Second Book).
Stalin plan could have worked, but he failed to reconsider his strategy after France was out of the fight, and Britain secure on their island. This lead him to give the orders to not provoke the Germans and not put the army on readiness level.
This is a long text, but I hope this explains the situation from the positions of the leaders.
u/MinimumThreshold gave a answer already about war materials. However some parts are missing. Even before even the US was sending war materials, Britain was already doing so as well. Some estimate that around 20% of tanks in the defense of Moscow were British.The British also sent vitally important (for them) fighter planes that were meant for the defense of Singapore to Russia, literally their most advanced planes (dumb move in hindsight). The US of course send far more in the long term, but British supplies were arriving very early on.
Was it ever an official alliance it was it just sort of agreed that Russia was now on the Allies side?
Somebody else can get into this maybe, I have written to much already. But essentially yes, they were nowhere near as close as Britain and the US. There was little direct military cooperation. However there still was much political cooperation.
Churchill and Alanbrooke famously flew to Moscow to meet with Stalin and hash out agreements. After a couple more times the leaders of the different powers met. At Teheran Conference, 1943 and Yalta Conference, 1945 and of course at Potsdam Conference (also 1945). By the end there were huge tensions between them but insofar as Germany was concerned the could mostly agree (for a while).
See for example: https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/main_images/yalta-large-56a61b273df78cf7728b5db3.jpg
wouldn’t a few armies of men have been a logical idea from the Allies in an attempt to destroy the majority of the German fighting force?
The Soviets were happy with materials, but they absolutely did not want Western troupes in their areas. Both because their troops talking to those men would be compromised ideologically. And because Soviets wanted control of all of these areas after the war.
Source:
For the details of Stalin strategy and intelligence access see, "Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941", much of the book is focused on these questions you asked. There are of course many more source that I touched on, ask if you have more specific questions.
