I think it is fairly safe to say it was wholly unexpected. The numbers of Russian prisoners taken in 1941 & into 1942 by the armoured thrusts of Guderian & Hoth & others would seem to show the Soviets were wholly unprepared for the sort of conflict the Germans waged upon them. Latvia, Lithuania & Estonia were one thing, Poland too, Finland quite another to fight against, but the Germans were a very different prospect. Only by stretching the German supply lines to beyond the point of their ability to be maintained did the Russians finally stem the advances at the end of 1942 in the snow around Stalingrad. And no, that could never be seen as a deliberate policy.
Soviets first prepared for WW2 by increasing the production and development of tank through out western USSR and then signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact to attack eastern Poland.
The Soviet army is the army of Russia and some territories around Russia. The Soviet army is better known as the Russian army of World War II
It showed the Czar's weakness and how the army wasn't prepared.
The Tzar's Russian military in WWI (1914) was still feeling the negative effects from the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. Russia was on the verge of revolution in 1905...and that revolution came to light in 1917...right in the middle of WWI. Therefore, the German army of WWI was stronger and better organized. The Russian Army was better experienced due to the Russian-Japanese war...but it was disorganized and demoralized due to it's pending revolution.
It simply Translates to Senior Sargeant. In Russian its like this "ста́рший сержа́нт"
The Russian Army occupied the DDR or East Germany after the war and had troops garrisoned there until 1989-90.
world war 1
Russia was one of the few countries that participated in both World War I and World War II. During World War I the Russian army was known as the Cossacks.
Red Army
Yes but they tried to stay away from the war the russian army invaded.
Taking on the Russian army in the winter.
Over 1 million
The Soviet Union was invaded by the German Army.
The Soviet army is the army of Russia and some territories around Russia. The Soviet army is better known as the Russian army of World War II
When World War I broke out in 1914, the Russian Empire had the world's largest standing army, with approximately 1400000 soldiers on active duty
Nicholas II
The Russian Armed Foreces, the distance the German Army had to transport supplies and the Russian Winter.
No. Joseph Stalin was conscripted by the Russian army to fight in World War I, but was deemed unfit for service because of his damaged left arm.