boris116 said:
Dean,
how would you explain then, why so many Soviet troops have been concentrated on the Soviet-German border? And it was there they were obliterated in the first days of the war.
They were close to the border for two reasons. First of all, Stalin did know that Hitler had started wars, and for that reason, many units were quite close to the border. On the other hand, all of those units had very strict order not to do
anything that could be remotely considered an aggressive move, right up to building defensive bunkers. The second reason was that at the time in Europe, this was standard practice. The idea of defence in depth was well known, but almost never practiced, and this meant that forces were generally stationed close to the borders that they would protect. If you look at Belgium and France, they had the same policy, and even today, parts of Verdun in France and Eben Emael in Belgium are military bases. Both are right up against the German border. I guess old memories die hard.
Stalin did indeed move some units close to the border, the bulk of his forces were farther back, and because those that were close to the border were unable to propare in any way for the invasion, (in spite of the thousands of warnings), they were slaughtered, surrounded, outmanuvered and taken prisoner in absolutely staggering numbers. IIRC, only one division was able to mount an effective defensive battle, and it was because the divisional commander had disobeyed the pre-war orders.
boris116 said:
If Stalin has trusted Hitler so much, why he kept these troops there and didn't move them farther East?
It served no purpose to do so. If you look at the population map of the USSR, you will see that the vast majority of people lived in the cities in European Russia and the Ukraine. He stationed his troops to defend the borders and to support civil authorities in the case of other "troubles."
The really strange dichotomy that you have to keep in mind is that Stalin was probably the most paranoid person in the world, more so than Hitler. The fact that he put so much weight on the piece of paper called the non-aggression pact remains one of the strangest mysteries about the man.
boris116 said:
One of the units in Odessa Military district was a Mountain division. Where are the mountains Southern Ukraine?
I can't comment on this, as I really have no idea. I never heard about this.
boris116 said:
Why did the Soviet Army had several Airborne divisions?
I think they had them for the same reason that they had maritime infantry (marines) They had them because others had them. However, you may hae alluded to the answer to one of your own questions: None of the units we have mentioned were ever used effectively during the entire war. I cannot think of one example when a Soviet Airborne Division dropped into combat, and I can only think of one time when their marines were used in anything resembling an amphibious role. (Sebastopol and the Crimea) Shock, guards, tank and infantry divisions and armies were often intermixed and they were all used in the same role. So that mountain division may not have actually been trained in the mountain fighting role, and they may have been there because it was convenient.
boris116 said:
There are so many unanswered questions about Soviet plans and intentions that everybody can make a guess.
Very very true. In addition, many of the plans and orders that have been clearly shown to be blindingly stupid were destroyed so as not to impugn the reputation of the great leader....
boris116 said:
These plans are still classified. I am not sure that Suvorov is wrong. Or right. I just believe that with Stalin everything was possible.
Yes it was, but I believe that Stalin made the major decisions about the deployments of the Soviet army at the time. Afterwards, in order to deflect possible criticism, history was re-written, (try to find out details of Operation Mars) and Suvorov then went on to try to justify that re-writing. Remember what happened to "the hero of Stalingrad" who was rewarded with internal deportation for his loyalty. (sorry, the name escapes me... memory cramp. I'll edit when I remember) Suvorov also knew that when the war was over, his own position was less than assured. So let me re-state that: Suvorov was wrong. But he knew it.
Dean.