While most mainstream historians claim that Barbarossa was not a preemptive strike and that that account is merely propaganda used to justify it after the fact, my own reading has led me to believe that it was indeed a preemptive strike.
First of all, since its founding, the overarching geopolitical goal of the Soviet Union had been the aggressive spread of communism through military conquest, particularly toward the rest of Europe. This manifested itself in a series of invasions of several breakaway states that had declared their independence from Russia during the civil war and were finally stopped in 1921 by the Polish victory over the Red Army. From then on, especially after Stalin's rise to power, the Soviet Union began a massive military buildup under the guise of defensive isolationism. The entire country became virtually a weapons factory, and Stalin waited eagerly for the right moment to strike again against the West and sweep the red tide across Europe. This moment came in the late 1930s with the expansion of the Third Reich and the resulting international crises. At first, Stalin hoped to ally himself with the Western Allies and Czechoslovakia in order to encircle Germany and destroy the greatest threat to international communism. However, after this failed, he decided to cooperate with Germany in order to eliminate Poland and obtain the Germans' green light for expansion into Romania and Finland. Of course, this was temporary opportunism on both sides, as both Hitler and Stalin knew that war between their two states was inevitable. As the war between Germany and Great Britain dragged on, Hitler realized that Great Britain would not surrender so quickly, and at that point they were counting on the Soviet Union to enter the war. Although the Red Army was still quite weak due to the officer purge and had proven itself as such through its disastrous performance in the Winter War, Hitler knew that it would only be a matter of time before the Red Army reformed and posed a real threat to Germany. Therefore, it was imperative for him to destroy the Soviets while they were still weak, before they could become too strong. What particularly distressed Hitler was that the Soviets were threatening the Romanian oil fields. If the Red Army attacked Romania and captured the oil fields, Germany would be deprived of its most important oil supply and would ultimately be fucked in a long-term defensive war against the Soviets, which is why it could not afford to have the Soviets threaten Romania, let alone share a border with it. While the Soviet Union definitely had not been planning to go to war in 1941, it was most likely preparing for war by 1943 or 44 once its reforms had been completed. Assuming these reforms had been completed first, Stalin planned to invade Germany as soon as their war with the British had reached its conclusion. He did not believe Germany would repeat the mistake of opening a second front and would respect the non-aggression pact and instead focus on fighting Britain. Of course he was wrong and Hitler invaded anyway, part of the reason being to neutralize the Red threat on his eastern flank while it was still manageable.
Anyways, this is just my interpretation of what happened, so feel free to offer your own thoughts on the whole subject.
First of all, since its founding, the overarching geopolitical goal of the Soviet Union had been the aggressive spread of communism through military conquest, particularly toward the rest of Europe. This manifested itself in a series of invasions of several breakaway states that had declared their independence from Russia during the civil war and were finally stopped in 1921 by the Polish victory over the Red Army. From then on, especially after Stalin's rise to power, the Soviet Union began a massive military buildup under the guise of defensive isolationism. The entire country became virtually a weapons factory, and Stalin waited eagerly for the right moment to strike again against the West and sweep the red tide across Europe. This moment came in the late 1930s with the expansion of the Third Reich and the resulting international crises. At first, Stalin hoped to ally himself with the Western Allies and Czechoslovakia in order to encircle Germany and destroy the greatest threat to international communism. However, after this failed, he decided to cooperate with Germany in order to eliminate Poland and obtain the Germans' green light for expansion into Romania and Finland. Of course, this was temporary opportunism on both sides, as both Hitler and Stalin knew that war between their two states was inevitable. As the war between Germany and Great Britain dragged on, Hitler realized that Great Britain would not surrender so quickly, and at that point they were counting on the Soviet Union to enter the war. Although the Red Army was still quite weak due to the officer purge and had proven itself as such through its disastrous performance in the Winter War, Hitler knew that it would only be a matter of time before the Red Army reformed and posed a real threat to Germany. Therefore, it was imperative for him to destroy the Soviets while they were still weak, before they could become too strong. What particularly distressed Hitler was that the Soviets were threatening the Romanian oil fields. If the Red Army attacked Romania and captured the oil fields, Germany would be deprived of its most important oil supply and would ultimately be fucked in a long-term defensive war against the Soviets, which is why it could not afford to have the Soviets threaten Romania, let alone share a border with it. While the Soviet Union definitely had not been planning to go to war in 1941, it was most likely preparing for war by 1943 or 44 once its reforms had been completed. Assuming these reforms had been completed first, Stalin planned to invade Germany as soon as their war with the British had reached its conclusion. He did not believe Germany would repeat the mistake of opening a second front and would respect the non-aggression pact and instead focus on fighting Britain. Of course he was wrong and Hitler invaded anyway, part of the reason being to neutralize the Red threat on his eastern flank while it was still manageable.
Anyways, this is just my interpretation of what happened, so feel free to offer your own thoughts on the whole subject.
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