Was the USSR ready for war by June 1941?

Question 1

Was the USSR ready for war by June 1941?

Answer 1

the Germans invaded on June 1941 which caught Stalin by surprise
Although he increased defence spending to over 30% by 1940 he had ignored intelligence reports and miscalculated when the Germans would turn East

Question 2

Was the military ready for war?

Answer 2

by 1941 the military was not ready for war due to the purges of 1936-38 that removed the most senior military officers and weakened the army
fighting capacity was affected by inadequate training

Stalin reestablished the Dual command of military units bringing back the political commissars which had been abandoned in the 1920s
this helped increase party control

Question 3

Was the economy ready for war?

Answer 3

thanks to the five-year plan the Russian economy had moved towards rearmament
by 1941 it was producing over 200 tanks, 700 aircraft and 10,000 rifles per month
Stalin’s industrial Drive made the Soviet Union stronger than it was 10 years ago

however, because of the increased expenditure on the military there was insufficient investment in collective farms which didn’t produce enough grain to feed the population

Question 4

Was the country ready psychologically for war?

Answer 4

Stalin had been praising the Soviet-German friendship since 1939
Troops were now expected to fight their former allies

Stalin was criticised for failing to prepare his country adequately for attack
this was seen by the way German forces overran Soviet territory so easily in the first months of War