ABSTRACT
Stalin called the Politburo into session on the night of 21 June. Timoshenko and Zhukov were present to report that a deserter, a German Feldwebel (sergeant major) who had crossed the border several hours earlier, had told Southwest Front’s interrogators a German attack was set to begin the next morning. The generals brought with them a draft directive ordering the first operational echelon to man its designated positions at the border. Contending that the sergeant might have been sent to provoke just such a Soviet reaction, Stalin substituted a warning to the frontier commands to be on the alert for ‘provocative actions’ and ready to meet ‘possible sudden blows’ but to take ‘no other measures … without special orders’.1 While waiting for the transmission to be completed, Stalin authorized Timoshenko to establish the southern third of Southwest Front’s sector immediately as South Front with Ninth and Eighteenth Armies and Army General I.V. Tiulenev in command. Since Tiulenev owed his rank mostly to membership in the First Cavalry Army, Stalin told Zhukov to go to Odessa the next morning and introduce him to the requirements of front command. Noticing that the North Front commander, M. M. Popov, as a lieutenant general, had a considerable deficiency in rank, Stalin decided also to send Meretskov to give him tutelage.2
