[Cyrus]

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If Hitler didn't have a man-crush on obliterating Stalingrad and Leningrad, the German army would've been in Moscow before the first winter and the invasion would have undoubtedly been a success.

[/ QUOTE ] The Germans found themselves at the nearest point to Moscow only in December 1941. Winter had already set in, and harshly. Perhaps if the Germans had concetrated in taking Moscow, they'd have succeeded. That's a maybe. But would this spell the end of the Soviet Union as a worthy military power? It is highly doubtful, seeing that a significant part of the industrial infrastructure of the USSR was beyond the Urals.

One thing that might have happened is that Stalin might have sued for peace. (There is evidence that Stalin was becoming desperate at the pace and extent of German successes.) But would his ideological mortal enemy have agreed to a peace? Very doubt ful, since Hitler had started a war against military logic and on ideological grounds.

Therefore, the strength of the USSR, combined with the strength of the western powers, being superior to the strength of Germany, would almost certainly decide the war, irrespective of the initial (and impressive) German successes. A simple matter of power (im)balance.

As Winston Churchill put it, as soon as the USA entered the war the same month that the Germans were outside Moscow : "The war is won. All we need to do is properly apply our strength".

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Fighting the Soviet Union was inevitable.

[/ QUOTE ]No, it wasn't. Or, at least, it shouldn't have been. Why re-stage the Napoleonic catastrophy?

"Those that the gods want to punish, they render stupid first". --Ancient Greek proverb. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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The fact that Barbarossa had a huge surprise effect even shows that it was a well-timed decision.

[/ QUOTE ]It was a coup that nearly succeeded, on account of the weaknesses of the Soviet system. However, the Germans never included those weaknesses in their plans, on account of ideology. For instance, it has been documented that large parts of the Ukraine welcomed the Germans initially as liberators from the hardhips they were enduring under communist rule. But the Germans had plans and orders to treat the Slavs as sub-humans. Very soon, the Ukraine turned wholeheartedly against the German invader and, by default, pro-Soviet.

But the initial successes of Barbarossa should not lead us to "Short-Term Results Oriented Thinking".