In January 1942, the German Army was exhausted. Despite penetrating over 800 miles into the USSR, the last attempt to take Moscow (Operation Typhoon) had failed. Germany has taken over 1 million casualties, of which over 250,000 are dead. The Russians are now launching counterattacks, and the German army is freezing and starving-frostbite injuries outnumber combat casualties.
The German generals warn Hitler that they lack the resources to deal a knock out blow to the USSR-and while the Germans weaken, the Russians are getting stronger.
Suppose that Hitler had accepted the inevitable, and put out peace feelers-would Stalin have agreed to a cease fire? Suppose the terms included a Nazi withdrawal-would another war have erupted?
No way. By that point, the Russians were about as angry as any nation had ever been. Stalin couldn’t have stopped them if he wanted.
I agree. Especially after the betrayal of the 1939 non-aggression pact between the two countries. There’s no way Stalin would have trusted Hitler a second time.
Mostly this. However in Jan 42 the Sovs saw their offensives in the Rzehev-Vyzma operations shot to bits, and the post Moscow confidence evaporated. They might have been a bit more receptive then.
But suppose that Hitler offered a 400 mile withdrawal, followed by a cease fire, with negotiations to gradually withdraw? That would give Stalin time to plan his riposte.
Granted, this assumes that Hitler wold give up his dream of the Ost Lebensraum…but he could plan future wars in the meantime.
Stalin would also have used a peace to rebuild and regroup.
It would have been interesting…
No way. Wiping out the Commies was Hitler’s equal biggest ambition, along with wiping out the Jews. The entire western European campaign was, for the Nazis, really only intended to keep the west from aiding the USSR when it came time for the big showdown between Fascism and Communism.
Stalin didn’t really “trust” Hitler to start with; the Soviets knew war would probably happen sooner or later.
Peace between the Nazis and Soviets was not possible. Long term peace between the Nazis and ANY neighbour was not possible. The central concept behind Nazism is conflict and war; it’s the purpose of a Nazi state, by definition. Enemies must be identified and fought with. If by some miracle you could have come to a truce, the war would have started again at some point. In any case both countries were, to use the poker term, all in. It was one or the other; Germany was fully committed to conquering the USSR and exterminating its people, and Stalin, had he tried to arrange a truce, would have been shot and replaced with someone committed to fighting it out.
Essentially true. Even worse, beyond Communism, Hitler saw the Slavic peoples as racially degenerate subhumans. Mein Kampf shows that he had planned to kill them and take their land even before he rose to power in Germany.
Well, that would be so out-of-character for Hitler that it’s difficult to imagine him agreeing to it at gunpoint, let alone coming up with it himself. I mean, sure, he could have made peace; he could also have single-handedly parachuted into Moscow with a Luger and challenged Stalin to a duel at high noon.
Neither was very likely.