Stalin had 700,000 top military officials purged around 1935-1938. He was suspicious of them engaging in “Bonapartism,” which meant a counter-revolution to reinstate the monarchy.

Just three years later, he’d be embroiled in WWII, and the generals told Stalin that only he was the man who could lead the Soviets to victory while Stalin was in his depressed stupor locked in his room.

Military officials usually have a lot of loyalty from their troops. People hold them in very high regards. However, Stalin was able to purge 700,000 of them with no repercussions.

I’m amazed that one of his generals, Konstantin Rokossovsky even had his teeth beaten out of him during the purges. He also had to deal with mock-executions. However, he was spared for some reason.

• Why did Stalin’s too military brass not do a military coup on June 22, 1941, like Stalin had originally thought? Keep in mind that Stalin thought that he was about to get purged from leadership, also, on June 22, 1941.

• Why would they trust this man to lead them to victory when he was such an abject failure up until that point from a military point of view? The Soviets couldn’t even decisively beat the Finns, which was entirely Stalin’s fault, and in 1920, the Soviets couldn’t even defeat the Poles, which was partially Stalin’s fault. What goodness did his military see in Stalin?

• Why would Konstantin Rokossovsky even join the Soviet army given their cruel treatment towards him? Was he forced to rejoin them at the threat of death?

• From what I understand, Stalin would have a pre-selected military tribunal to declare the military officials as being guilty. Later in, he’d put those same judges on trial, and they, too, would be found guilty. Why didn’t anyone have the courage to do something, or were they just paralyzed with fear?

• Could they not have assassinated Stalin, or did they not have access to guns?

• Why didn’t people do an uprising to Stalin the same way that did against Mussolini, Nicolae Ceaușescu, or the Shah of Iran? Those three that I had mentioned were much less damaging to their people than was Stalin. None of them did genocides against their own people, organized famines that killed millions, destroyed the military, and failed at two spectacular battles at Vistula and Finland.