ABSTRACT
The first period of Second World war, by Soviet definition, encompassed the 17-month period from 22 June 1941, the day Operation Barbarossa began, to 19 November 1942, the day the Soviet Stalingrad counteroffensive began. Marked weaknesses in the force structure and combat technique of the Red Army, so apparent in Soviet military operations in Poland and Finland in 1939 and 1940, were also strikingly evident during the initial period of war. Soviet military policy during this critical first period of war sought to achieve the dual aims of forging an international alliance against Nazi Germany, while mobilizing the full power of the state to repel the German onslaught. Soviet offensive operations in the third period of war remain the most massive in recent history and have provided much of the base of experience for postwar Soviet military theorists.
