h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"All we have to do is kick in the door & the whole rotten structure will come crashing down" - Adolf Hitler upon assessing the invasion of the Soviet Union. A tactical miscalculation & no mistake!

Well Done & thanks for a very informative entry! You made the biggest military confrontation by land in history very readable & interesting Clear, concise & non-rambling!

Just a few footnotes/scribbles in the margin (just couldn't help making the observations while reading). Ignore if you like!
(1.) Whilst the Soviet Union eventually did defeat Finland, it has to be said it was a bit of an embarrassment for them given how much they outnumbered their opponents & took soooooo long to do it. The Red Army had been severely blighted by Stalin's purges in the 1930s & it showed. Stalin's paranoia creeping in perhaps? Afterall, these forays beyond the border would act as a nice extra buffer against Germany & the West (continued after WWII).
(2.) Both Churchill & Roosevelt warned about the impending invasion of Russia in 1941, but did Uncle Joe listen. Did he heck! He subsequently disappeared for about a week to his country retreat outside Moscow after the launch. Mind you, Chamberlain's appeasement had done little to thaw East/West diplomacy. I reckon the Nazi-Soviet Pact was one brilliant piece of diplomacy.
(3.) God Bless the Siberian Division (there's wonderful footage of them riding the plains in white snowsuits on skis as they go into battle)!! I think it was Stalin's man in Tokyo, Richard Serge (if I recall rightly), who told him that the Japanese had no interest in invading Russia from the East, so was able to use those winter troops. By contrast, the diesel froze in German tanks. A winter war wasn't even considered by the German High Command (see above).
(4.) Hitler stated in his dull poorly-written unforgiveable excuse for a book, "Mein Kampf", that opening a war on two fronts was tactical stupidity! See above & the fact that he felt Britain was nigh capitulation anyway.
(5.) I reckon that Adolf Hitler (not only responsible in large part for the recklessness & destruction of a Second World War), but also by invading the Soviet Union laid the foundation stones of the Cold War too by affirming Soviet fears. Meantime it also justified in some way the whole of Stalin's brutal regime. Afterall, most of what he had done in Russia was largely borne out of a fear of foreign invasion. Consequently, he was deemed a heroic war leader with foresight (at least as the Soviet propaganda machine would have it ).

First Sign of Insanity - Deciding to Invade Russia & even more so if you think it's gonna be a

Thanks for your ideas!