1. Since late 1920s the soviet union believed Germany was preparing for war and concern about war increased once Hitler was appointed German chancellor in 1933 And the agreement between Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and imperial Japan which recognized communism as a common enemy So the Soviet government reformed the military, recruited spies and started diverting economic resources towards rearmament although these measures were not as effective as they should have been due to Stalin's paranoia undermining efforts to prepare Preparing for war The Fuhrer and the Vozhd

2.  1935 during preparation for war, military discipline within the Red Army was tightened as under Trotsky titles such as officer had been abolished and commanders and soldiers were encouraged to treat each other as comrades  Although under Stalin the old tsarist system of strict discipline and clear division between officers were reintroduced  Between 1937-38 the Red Army was purged in order to make sure all the members were loyal to the regime and so a lot of military skill and experience was lost in the process

3.  Russia had a huge advantage over other foreign powers because of its large  network of spies, communist  sympathisers in all levels of the Gov.  in the UK, USA, France and Germany  provided secret information to the  Soviet government However, much of this was never analysed, Stalin refused to trust his intelligence service and through the 30s, Russia's intelligence resources were focused on the hunt for Trotsky and not for monitoring foreign enemies

4.  In theory rearmament was an essential part of the third five year plan, although purges led to chaos in major government departments which meant the plan was never completed or published  Administrators were expected to work from drafts of the plan of which contained little information about how rearmament was going to be achieved  Also there was no agreed budget for military spending and 17 different government departments argued with Gosplan about the amount of money given to war production,  it was estimated that the soviet government spent over 11 times more on defense in the 3 rd five year plan than in the 1st

5.  In spite of the 3 rd five year plans chaotic nature, soviet industry achieved some remarkable things. 1939 6 new aircraft factories were built and 24 new factories for the production of explosives and the number of tanks produced in 1942 was twice that produced in “38  Germany spent more on war prep from 1935-40 but on the eve of war Russia was able to overtake German military spending, because the Russian economy was more powerful than Germanys  The $5 billion Russia spent on military was represented as only 20% of its national income, however the $6 billion Germany spent represented 44% of its national income

6.  Military preparation was not the only strategy the government used for ensuring national security, Stalin was prepared to negotiate with Germany (his sworn enemy) to protect Russia. An alliance between Stalin and Hitler seemed unthinkable in many ways and in Mein Kampf Hitler bitterly attacked soviet communism and proposed invading Russia to acquire space for his ‘master race’ Also the communist party described Nazism as one of the worst regimes of the time Russian and German soldiers had also thought one another during the Spanish civil war of 1936-39

7.  The Nazi-Soviet pact was negotiated in little under 3 hours, 24 th august 1939 and had 2 sections, one was published and one remained secret  Russia and Germany agreed to respect each others territories to settle disagreements through negotiation and to increase trade  Germany was to control western Poland and Czechoslovakia and Russia was free to pursue its policies in Latvia Lithuania and Estonia  A week later German troops entered Poland and had captured the capital within a month- Stalin telegraphed Hitler to congratulate him

8. Stalin alone was responsible for the pact and he had many reasons for dealing with Hitler,  1) there were no visible alternatives, France or UK seemed interested in an alliance  2) it’s been argued by Robert service that Stalin was attempting to buy time before starting a war with Hitler because Stalin was aware the red army would not be ready until 1943  3) Stalin was following Lenin's example, in 1920 Lenin advised German communists to join with German fascists in order to overthrow the democratic Gov.  4) Stalin admired Hitler, he regarded his as a strong and decisive leader and had great support from the people of Germany  5) Stalin was keen to recapture European territory that once belonged to the Tsar, after a month of the treaty he had overthrown the government of Latvia Lithuania and Estonia and in 1940 the red army attacked Finland

9. Stalin thought that Hitler would break the Nazi- Soviet pact and invade Russia however Hitler's military success gave Stalin good reason for honouring the terms The German army had conquered Poland in less than a month and by mid91940 Hitler had also overrun France & Holland and forced British soldiers to flee from continental Europe In contrast the red army performed poorly, the invasion of Finland was a failure and showed the world how Stalin's purges had destroyed Russia's army, therefore Stalin was keen to delay confrontation with Hitler for as long as he could – he believed the pact would mean Russia had nothing to fear until may 1942